Technology Outsourcing in the Post-COVID-19 World

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly elevated the adoption of digitalization and accelerated cloud migration in practically all industries. According to the Gartner 2020 Digital Workplace Survey, 68% of respondents said that CXOs across verticals have shown increased involvement in adopting digital workplaces since the pandemic outbreak.

Another fundamental shift driven by this pandemic is the demand for technology outsourcing. According to the 2020 Global Managed Services Report, 45% of organizations will outsource more than in-source in the next one and a half years. Organizations have realized during the pandemic that implementing technology, managing it consistently, running it efficiently, and simultaneously chasing business goals is a complex and challenging task – especially in the face of adversity.

Therefore, as businesses try to move forward and create more robust and resilient ecosystems, technology outsourcing is going to be an essential strategy for companies worldwide.

One of the key benefits of outsourcing technology is the potential to tap into an already skilled workforce, which could be leveraged quickly as a competitive advantage.

In a world where technology has become the catalyst for any kind of transformation and all evolving business models rely on technology, outsourcing is swiftly moving beyond the realms of cost optimization and becoming a core part of an organization’s business and technology strategy.

Before the pandemic and now

A lot has changed in the post-pandemic world, from the way customers shop to how the supply chain works and how organizations drive great customer experiences. Breakthroughs in digital technology continue to help enterprises transform to meet the evolving necessities of the world. This sudden and dramatic shift has made several organizations seek immediate assistance from technology partners that are ready with the advanced technology toolkit and workforce instead of trying to figure out the giant new-normal puzzle on their own.

As consistent growth is vital in the new normal world, enterprises understand that managing technology is not enough. Proactively managing technology to be functional, healthy, and continuously bringing better results has become more critical than ever.

To leverage technology and drive growth, organizations must rely on experienced technology partners who can effectively address the issues of a modern remote workforce and continuously support ongoing needs.

Before the pandemic, many companies were also reluctant to work with a remote workforce due to time differences and collaboration issues. COVID-19 has broken these barriers.

Through 2020, companies have explored and learned new ways of being productive in different work setups. Companies have learned that it’s possible to hire and work with a team remotely.

This realization has opened their minds to exploring the idea of working with teams other than their in-house IT teams.

Cost continues to be a crucial factor for organizations to consider technology outsourcing. Because of the worldwide deficit of tech-skilled workers, in-house hiring is not only time consuming and expensive, it also does not provide businesses with the flexibility to scale their teams depending on the requirements with the right skilled resources.

In such cases, outsourced resources will not only bring in the requisite expertise but also help save the additional expenses of managing full-time employees and extra infrastructure.

Changing expectations

As organizations have taken a few quick steps towards digitizing their resources in the last few months, it is imperative that they partner with a technology firm that can help them sustain and accelerate this growth. Most companies looking to outsource their technology tasks seek a single, trusted technology advisor to help them develop successful digital strategies and come out stronger from a somber 2020.

An effective technology partner, apart from providing a global talent pool, must also be able to help companies:

1. Manage volatility and stay competitive: Technology outsourcing partners have long enabled organizations to have experts manage, maintain, upgrade, and support complex IT systems. But in the post-COVID-19 world, they will also have to help businesses manage volatility. As supply and demand change more rapidly than usual, a strong outsourcing partner can enable businesses to be more agile – so they can easily cope with changes in demand, customer expectations, market trends, and stay competitive.

2. Optimize technology costs over time: An experienced technology partner can help move critical workloads to the cloud, assisting the business in minimizing CapEx and optimize OpEx for long-term benefits. A great technology partner can also help their clients move away from systems that are no longer beneficial, rationalize and standardize application usage, consolidate and integrate their enterprise ecosystem, and leverage new-age technology platforms in a timely manner.

3. Leverage latest technologies: A technology outsourcing firm has a vested interest in learning and researching technology and keeping up with trends. Most firms train their resources-on-bench in the upcoming technologies that their clients can leverage to their advantage. These firms help their clients with solutions and resources that have been tried and tested in multiple organizations – without the high upfront costs or challenges in finding the right talent.

4. Become secure: Of the many challenges that COVID-19 brought to the technology ecosystem, security was the biggest one. Therefore, organizations are now very particular about the security standards a technology outsourcing firm brings to the table. Organizations also need technology partners that help them re-assess and define the governance and control structures suitable for the current scenario. In the new normal world, security must also be complemented with agility, particularly across supply chains and infrastructure, as businesses have realized that the readiness to deal with unpredictable threats is vital.

5. Weather huge-scale crisis: When COVID-19 disruptions began, companies struggled to coordinate with multiple service providers – especially the smaller ones that failed to deliver. Therefore, mid-size and enterprise-level businesses with a global presence are now looking for technology partners that can withstand pressure and have the size and scale to support global teams on multiple fronts simultaneously.

Unlock the real value of technology outsourcing

The pandemic has created a unique global business scenario, with businesses shifting to digital workspaces at an unprecedented speed – and this made technology outsourcing a necessary strategic decision.

In the current situation, organizations need technology partners that can help them improve their business functions’ efficiency and effectiveness by helping them adopt new processes and technologies, making data intelligence and technology integration easy, and securing their enterprise ecosystem.

As the post-Covid-19 scenario is unique for each business, companies must find a strategic technology partner who is willing to invest time to help their clients excel in a fast-changing future in new, under-explored ways.