Managed Solutions

Selective Outsourcing

Drivers for IT outsourcing are many and various, though generally the underlying reasons may be summarized as cost, consistency and control. Large corporations have successfully pursued partial and in some cases full IT outsourcing with vigor. In many cases this has led to significant cost savings and operational efficiency improvements which have in turn validated the outsourcing decisions made.

Generally smaller organizations have struggled to utilize the same approach. Size is sometimes seen as a barrier to IT outsourcing and there is a perception that an organization has to be large to gain the benefits and flexible options available. Blackwell's IT outsource service for businesses now challenges that situation.

Blackwell provides IT services in a variety of diverse markets and this has given Blackwell the insight into how to apply the benefits of corporate IT outsourcing on a smaller scale.

When outsourcing IT an business needs to ensure five key services are available, namely: Management, Support, Monitoring, Recovery and Scalability. The capacity required of each service will be dependent on the use of IT within the business. As such Blackwell has created a capacity to implement on an individual basis the full range of services.

In practical terms what does this mean for a business whose IT is outsourced to Blackwell?

  • Collaborative - IT plans and implementation is aligned to the business plans and needs
  • Consistency - service delivery levels (stated, measurable and monitored) for the users and the business
  • Completeness - range of skills and experiences available from a pool of technical resources
  • Correctness - IT solutions offered are best practice based on budget, timescales and resources, particularly skills, culture and capacity within clients user base
  • Control - budgets (capacity and financial are set and used to measure and guide performance)

Support Packages - each client has their own service package, which may include:

  • IT Management
  • IT Management and planning support for budget setting, business requirements and planning
  • Monthly IT performance reports that outline the services, activities and budget expenditure
  • Quarterly reviews to assess the outsource services, budgets and delivery and prepare for business activities.
  • Helpdesk facilities
  • Incident logging, tracking and reporting
  • Client review of incident statuses via the web
  • Liaison during service delivery, including trigger for escalation manager where necessary
  • Response and Resolution Targets (SLA's)
  • Multiple levels of support levels encompassing third party specialist application support providers
  • Range of service hours to cover ad-hoc extensions or 24x7 operations where required
  • Standard and tailored support procedures for seamless integration to existing support teams
  • Infrastructure and Application Support
  • Servers, networks and workstations
  • Mobile and remote users
  • Thin, fat and hybrid environments
  • Packaged and customized applications
  • Technical Labs
  • Offsite investigations and analysis
  • Enhancement and Project working environments
  • Hosting of client hardware (servers and workstations) as part of service integration
  • Other services
  • Backup and recovery
  • Planned maintenance / support / enhancement services
  • Application and system testing and assurance
  • 3rd party software support and maintenance management.

Key Benefits

  • Balance - matching risk, investment and business benefit for IT infrastructure, systems and applications
  • Flexibility - create the support package to suit the business needs that increases or decreases as the business demands
  • Communications - Help desk facilities: all services are one call / email away . One stop shop for support needs - can cover multiple requirements, concurrently and with agreed response and resolution timescales
  • Integration - services can be delivered onsite or remotely with project undertaken at Blackwell's labs where appropriate
  • Best Practice - wide range of skilled resources at your fingertips ensure services are continually evolving and moving with industry best practice.