* Determining the best way to manage your branch location
There are many ways to manage a branch location. Some companies buy some central management tools and take care of everything centrally. Others adopt a distributed approach, making sure there is an IT staff at every location or within a short distance from each location. And still others use a third-party service provider to manage their branch locations.
The obvious question is: Which one is best? And the obvious answer is: It depends. Company size, culture, reliance on IT, and budget are some of the key factors in coming up with the correct answer.
Overall, though, a combined approach tends to be the most successful, according to a study Nemertes conducted on Service Delivery and Management. We asked IT executives how they managed their branch locations, and then we asked them how successful their branch-management strategy was. They rated their approach on a 1- to 5-scale where 1 is unsuccessful and 5 is extremely successful.
The IT executives rated the combination of central IT and service providers as the most successful (4.5), followed by a combination of central and distributed IT (4.1). The most unsuccessful approach was turning over branch management entirely to service providers (3.0).
The movement toward using service providers or other third parties (systems integrators, outsourcers, VARs, etc.) is growing considerably. Between 2005 and 2006, 27% of organizations hired service providers or others to manage their branch offices. The next year, that jumped to 46%.
It’s imperative, however, not to turn everything over to the carriers without substantial internal involvement from the IT staff—whether that involvement is managing the carrier relationship or actually doing some of the branch-office management in-house. One of the most successful scenarios I’ve seen is this:
The IT staff handles strategic planning and purchasing for the branch offices, along with high-level desktop and application troubleshooting. The service provider manages network equipment, circuits, and does truck rolls. A desktop-support company provides level 1 support and training for new desktop equipment and applications.
But every company is different, and although that approach tends to work well for several companies I’ve worked with, there are other combinations that can be equally as successful. The key point is to determine what your company needs—and any time a third party is involved, make sure you designate a person to manage that relationship. Without that management oversight, the relationship is doomed to fail.
