* Best practices for business growth
A few years ago, I ran a $3 million IT consulting practice that grew 50% to 100% per year for the first several years of its existence. After the first couple of years it became immediately apparent that, without best practices in place, there was no way that the business was going to scale, as we had to be able to guarantee that our people were delivering quality services, the same way every time.
I believe that a number of outsourcers today, onshore and offshore, are facing the same issue. Based on personal experience with a number of service providers, I can definitively say that there is a real shortage of best practices being employed by these firms today, particularly by small and midsize service providers. I can understand why this is the case – after all, companies have a laser focus on growing their businesses, and investing in best practices often doesn’t rate highly on the list of budget items. This is a huge mistake – one that could potentially cost a service provider its business.
One of the key reasons why an enterprise considers outsourcing beyond simple cost savings is that, so the theory goes, outsourcers actually provide better service than the enterprise was capable of providing itself. “Stay true to your core competencies and outsource the rest” is the mantra for many businesses today, but it only makes sense if outsourcers really *can* do the job better! As a service provider, one way that you can ensure this is the case is through best practices. By building your own best practices based on work already done by others you can build your own without having to reinvent the wheel.
Consider some of the work done by the IT Infrastructure Library organization, also known as ITIL. Originally created in the 1980s by the U.K. government’s Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), ITIL helps ensure that the services provided by IT are delivered in the most efficient way possible. (Note that CCTA is now known as OGC, or Office of Government Commerce.) Over the years, ITIL has been continuously improved and today hundreds (perhaps thousands) of companies around the world use ITIL methodologies as the foundation of their IT best practices.
ITIL has enjoyed wide acceptance outside of the U.S. (particularly so in Europe), but U.S. companies have been somewhat resistant to the idea. This is possibly because ITIL has been perceived as just another set of bureaucratic processes (and also possibly because U.S. IT organizations tend to think that no entity of any government could define IT best practices that could be any better than their own!). What has taken root in the U.S. is the notion that enterprises can take the best parts of ITIL and adapt them for their own uses where it makes sense – providing the best of both worlds. This idea applies not only to large enterprises as small and midsize companies can benefit as much from ITIL (and perhaps more) as large companies.
Another somewhat easier to digest alternative to ITIL is Microsoft’s Operations Framework, or MOF. MOF, which is ITIL-based, provides operational guidance in the form of white papers, operations guides, assessment tools, best practices, case studies, templates, support tools, and services (note that is was taken directly from Microsoft’s Web site). As you might guess, MOF is heavily Microsoft-centric, but its concepts are also applicable to heterogeneous systems.
I encourage service providers of all sizes (but particularly small and midsize service providers) to take a hard look at ITIL; the investment in best practices could very well make the difference between being able to scale your business effectively – or not – and that translates into greater competitive advantage and shareholder value.
You can find more about ITIL at https://www.ogc.gov.uk/index.asp?id=2261 (note that this is the “official” ITIL home page).
Information on MOF may be obtained at https://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/techguide/mof/default.mspx .
I welcome your ideas, suggestions and comments on the subject of outsourcing; my e-mail address is below. Thanks for reading.
