Having read the recent
article on how the downturn could help IT get banks off legacy
systems, it came as a surprise to learn that these financial
institutions are not interested in the hosted model, writes Doug
Remington, head of document solutions,
Premiere Global
Services. I have to agree with Ian Benn of
Fidelity
Information Services that this will change.
The current economic climate calls for a different approach to
the way IT departments deliver their services to the user and we
are seeing that the introduction of cost-effective, externally
hosted applications have a big part to play. Understandably, the
hosted model does raise the old arguments around the relative
merits of in-house versus
outsourced services. However, what is needed now is not an
all-or-nothing approach, but for both models to be tactically
applied to the mix of services that IT is required to deliver.
By considering variables such as manageability, capacity and
cost-efficiency, those in charge can decide which services are
better handled in-house and which are more appropriate for a third
party to manage. This is true of areas where provision of the
service is not considered a core competency of the business, for
example the fax server. It is in such situations, where the
technical expertise may not be found in-house or the cost of
implementing the service too high, that the hosted approach is most
relevant.
The benefits of the
hosted model are that implementation can be achieved with great
speed and with very low costs. Integration at the client end is
minimal and because, in many cases, the company pays only for what
it uses, there are no additional expenses associated with equipment
and software.
For instance, we were able to take charge of the document
delivery services of one of our banking clients within a month.
Capacity issues disappeared and worries about meeting regulations
were quashed as the time taken to transfer documents was cut in
half. Also, the complexity of managing and delivering the service
has been greatly reduced, as has the cost. The result is that
service levels have risen and pressure on the IT department has
lessened.
So it comes as no surprise that more of our clients are coming
to us to increase their effectiveness and the breadth of services
they supply by increasing the number of externally hosted
services.