* Success strategies for outsourcing branch management to third parties
So you’ve decided to take the big step and bring in a third-party managed service provider to take over or help with managing your branch offices. Does this give you a sigh of relief, or cause you to reach for the Rolaids? Maybe a little of both?
Working with an MSP, ideally, should bring you a sigh of relief – no more remote monitoring or management, no more getting on planes or driving long distances to install a new appliance, and/or no more training and troubleshooting with users.
But, now you must manage the MSP – and if not done correctly, that can consume more time than doing it yourself. Based on interviews with nearly 400 IT executives in the past four years, we have developed best-practices guidelines on how to most effectively work with MSPs. Here are some of the key points you should consider:
* Take an inventory of your branch office locations. How many are there, what size are they, what IT equipment is in each size tier, and what IT services are needed at each type of location?
* Segment each tier of branch locations according to the above data and their business criticality to the organization.
* Determine whether you want to completely or partially outsource branch office management. Consider which functions you want to offload, including network services/circuits, WAN infrastructure, LAN infrastructure, servers, telephony, implementations, ongoing management, training, etc.
* Consider a staff position that owns responsibility for branch office IT. This person would manage the relationship with the MSP and possibly set company standards for products implemented in the branch offices.
* Set expectations up front with realistic service-level agreements regarding installation times, mean time to repair, maintenance schedules for upgrades, proactive network management, and specific metrics for high-priority applications the MSP will be overseeing.
* Make sure you have a monitoring portal so you can review the MSP’s performance, as well as the overall historical and current views of how your network, applications, and systems are performing at the branch.
* Benchmark performance regularly to assess how well the MSP is doing. Set minimum expectations and goals to measure success (or failure). Be sure to set metrics to measure, and take a baseline before they start so you have a basis for comparison.
* Determine whether you want the MSP to help with strategic decisions at the branch. Some IT staffs want their input; others don’t. We recommend tapping into their expertise. They are managing branch offices for multiple companies, so why not leverage their experience to learn how to best architect a new infrastructure or application to the branch?
* Develop a standard policy regarding the IT setup of new locations – and then keep an open mind about new products, services, or processes that can improve performance or time managing the sites.
Start with these best practices, and hopefully you won’t be reaching for that antacid anytime soon!
