Peter Walker, CEO ofCyntergy, a
UK-based, 24/7 service desk for the retail and hospitality markets,
outlines the advantages of outsourcing IT support in the retail
sector.
Assumptions: You are a retailer or a software vendor providing
retail software. You have an internal first level IT support
department, keeping the tills and networks operational for your
retail operations or your retail clients.
How many people do you have? Nine people perhaps, costing, what,
around £200,000 all up? Not that many? How about five people
costing around £100,000, but not perhaps operational at weekends or
covering all the hours that stores are open. Over and above that is
the cost of the support environment, which includes office space,
call logging systems, reporting software and telephony.
No one wants to risk the support given to the front line - the
operators are only too quick to point the finger at IT if a till
can't take money or staff are too busy with IT issues to focus on
customers (and rightly so). But, if there could be an opportunity
to cut costs, improve quality and consistency of IT support and
thereby keep investment going into programmes that enhance customer
experience and business efficiencies, would it not be worth
considering the pros and cons?
Consider outsourcing your support because:
• It costs less then you are currently paying your internal
dedicated staff.
• The economies of scale allow an outsourced service desk to
provide a more comprehensive service, in terms of hours of support,
skills, consistent manning, and languages.
• You have a resource and a cost model which can be scaled up or
scaled down, according to the needs of the business.
• You can have an objective reporting process that has no other
remit, or bias, other than to help solve your IT problems, however
they may have been caused and whoever is at fault.
Is it risk free?
No, of course it is not. There is, as with most business change,
no gain without pain. There is a cultural shock to a business where
existing support people know store managers well and have developed
a mental library of instant fixes. (Incidentally, do you have those
recorded anywhere?) All these have to be relearned by an outsource
provider during the transition of skills from in-house to external.
There is the possible negative impact of losing staff, even if the
current economic climate has led everyone to feel vulnerable.
So is it all worth it?
Almost without exception the answer is, yes. The pain is
short-term and the positives outweigh the negatives. You can
immediately benefit from the outsourcer's investment in
sophisticated call logging and reporting software as well as
state-of-the-art telephone systems. Apart from cost savings, you
can learn more about the recurring faults in your store systems.
The new analysts quickly build the same level of relationship as
the previous support team and you have the potential to extend
hours of service to, say, 6am until 11pm, seven days a week,
providing essential coverage on Saturdays - now the busiest day of
the week for support calls.
So how can a service provider offer improved support for less
cost? Back to the economies of scale. Your service desk is not
running at full capacity all the time - it has its peak demands and
low demands. In an outsourced service desk, they will be providing
services for several clients similar to your company, so they can
operate a shared service, hence better utilised staff and the lower
cost. And no, that does not mean a loss of personalised service to
your end users. Each call (or e-mail) that goes into a service desk
is identified by client, so providing a seamless service to the
business.