The IT budget is usually the first one to start receiving cuts when times are lean. Within IT also, projects don't get funded and sometimes there are reductions in force. Some organizations decide that the best way to save money is to outsource all or parts of IT. All the Helpdesk does is answer the phone, reset passwords or accounts, and create tickets, right?. That can be done from anywhere, correct? Management sees the hard cost savings and little of the hidden costs.
If you look at it from a pure financial standpoint, it is cheaper and saves money....sort of. Every time I see an outsourced Helpdesk, or other part of IT, I also see a decrease in service. Some of the issues I have seen are:
-Decreased customer satisfaction from the user population
-Increased time to resolution and decreased user productivity
-Increase in poor communication between groups in IT
-Lack of ownership
-Lack of maintenance
I can recall a situation where I went out of the country to install a Cisco phone system for a client. When I arrived on site the voice VLAN was created, but option 150 (this tells the phones where to get their configuration) was not configured on the DHCP server. I had to call the Helpdesk and open a ticket. About the fourth person I spoke to was able to make DHCP changes. English was not his first language and it took a while for me to get him to understand what I needed. This was not the first site we had converted for this client, but this was apparently the first time he had to configure option 150. He told me that he would have to call me back. I waited for a while and eventually left for lunch expecting it to be complete when I got back. It eventually took about 6 hours and not only sending him step by step instructions, but walking him through those instructions. This task was something that should take about 2 minutes. I got very little done that day and I was extremely frustrated.
Was it cheaper to outsource that function? On paper yes, but those hidden costs were huge. Here the client was paying my company for my time, paying for my international travel, and I am sitting around all day waiting.
I have seen one benefit of outsourcing a specific function. That is when a new technology, like a Cisco phone system, is installed and no one has that skill set. The daily administration and troubleshooting can be outsourced until the current staff is brought up to speed on the new system or someone is hired to fill that position.
Does your company outsource the Helpdesk? Have you seen many successful outsourced functions improve productivity or customer satisfaction? What else does outsourcing impact?