Any service is a double-edged sword. Outsourcing is no exception. Its advantage is that IT can instill technology and talents into enterprises, help enterprises get rid of tedious IT business, and effective outsourcing can make companies better focus on their core business. But if it is not handled well, it will become a nightmare and a fatal disaster.
To become a commodity, IT outsourcing service must form a set of norms and standards to bind buyers and sellers. At present, there is neither a unified standard nor a recognized standard in the field of IT outsourcing services in China, which is a potential risk for how to evaluate, sign contracts and control quality and price. In addition, IT outsourcing also faces risks such as the complexity of IT management, lack of software, intellectual property rights and the healthy growth of IT outsourcing service providers.
In the process of IT outsourcing service, small and medium-sized enterprises, as the undertaker of this service, have defined the service content and service standards through contracts, but they are still uncertain whether the outsourcing service providers can finally provide the services agreed in the contracts. From the perspective of outsourcing service providers, it will mainly bring the following risks.
Risks brought by internal instability of IT outsourcing service providers.
Under the outsourcing mode, the IT application of small and medium-sized enterprises depends on the outsourcing service provider technically, and the instability within the service provider becomes an important source of risk. Internal stability mainly includes the stability of organizational structure, the stability of key personnel and the stability of technical ability. At present, the rapid development of IT industry has greatly threatened the internal stability of outsourcing service providers. During the execution of the contract, any change in the organizational structure, key personnel and technical capabilities of the service provider may lead to the plight of IT outsourcing services, which will eventually lead to the service provider's inability to provide the services stipulated in the outsourcing contract.
Risks caused by IT outsourcing service providers' incomplete understanding of the business needs of SMEs.
The technical level of outsourcing service providers is generally relatively high, and their understanding of it is relatively thorough. But because they don't know the industry, they sometimes can't fully understand the business requirements of the internal processes of the enterprise. If the outsourcing service provider does not fully communicate with the enterprise, it will easily lead to the failure of high-quality demand analysis in the demand analysis stage, and make the subsequent stage pay a high price for correcting the mistakes in the demand analysis stage.
Potential risks of increasing hidden costs of small and medium-sized enterprises.
An important goal of choosing IT outsourcing is to reduce IT operation and investment costs. With the increasing dependence on outsourcing service providers, the hidden costs paid by small and medium-sized enterprises will increase unconsciously, such as transaction costs when choosing service providers and switching costs when handing IT services to service providers. What's more, if service providers continue to pursue advanced IT technology, but they can't make IT equipment run effectively or the quality of operation is difficult to reach a reasonable level, small and medium-sized enterprises will suffer huge losses due to business suspension. In the actual outsourcing process, many small and medium-sized enterprises often ignore the accounting of hidden costs.
Information leakage and intellectual property risk
In the process of IT outsourcing service, small and medium-sized enterprises provide part or all of their information systems to outsourcing service providers for operation and management, so that service providers and their employees have access to the confidential information of the company, so that the business secrets of small and medium-sized enterprises and their related information are likely to be leaked to competitors. In addition, in the process of outsourcing some core projects, outsourcing service providers are often more aware of intellectual property rights than small and medium-sized enterprises, and may seize the projects designed and developed by * * *, thus causing intellectual property disputes.
Small and medium-sized enterprises must be soberly aware that information leakage and intellectual property risks in the process of IT outsourcing may lead to serious consequences and make them suffer huge losses.
So how to avoid or reduce these risks and weigh the pros and cons?
At present, the informatization construction of small and medium-sized enterprises is not very mature, and the foundation is still relatively weak, so they do not have the conditions to implement application system outsourcing or business process outsourcing. However, the conditions for outsourcing the most basic IT services at all levels of the industry are ripe and the demand is very urgent.
According to the above situation, when making the strategic planning of IT outsourcing services, small and medium-sized enterprises should first make clear the distinction between primary and secondary information services, divide the priority level and distinguish between core business and non-core business.
Small and medium-sized enterprises should choose IT knowledge training, desktop terminal maintenance, communication network maintenance and other peripheral projects for outsourcing step by step, and then consider outsourcing antivirus system maintenance, data center operation management, data backup and disaster recovery after achieving the expected results.
The outsourcing of core application systems that affect the key business of small and medium-sized enterprises should be treated with caution and fully investigated and evaluated.
1, comprehensive risk assessment of IT outsourcing
2. Choose outsourcing service providers scientifically.
3. Manage outsourcing contracts.
4. Strictly monitor IT outsourcing services.
5. Do a good job in process management of IT outsourcing services.
—————— Beijing Yu Hai Yong Chuang Technology