SMEs and large businesses outsourcing IT operations

Businesses of all sizes are now choosing to outsource their IT operations, with different firms requiring different approaches from service providers.

According to Jason Boyle, professional services manager in the PFH Technology Group, smaller firms are "reliant on IT infrastructure" and may lose valuable man hours trying to manage it, while corporate clients often have IT departments that "can't perform certain functions because they have too much work, not enough people or they lack the expertise".

Mr Boyle told the Irish Sunday Business Post that service providers need to be "versatile and of sufficient scale" to meet different company's requirements.

"Servicing both large firms and SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) allows us to cross-skill ourselves," he explained. "There is no doubt that experience in one sector benefits the other, particularly for SMEs. We are able to deliver solutions to them that were once only available to larger business."

Figures from IDC show that more than 80 per cent of businesses in Ireland now use one or more outsourced or managed services, while the country's outsourcing industry is now worth over €600 million, with analysts forecasting growth to €700 million by 2010.

The IT outsourcing market is starting to evolved, although 'bread-and-butter tasks' are still driving the market for managed services and SMEs in Europe are continuing to invest in security and VoIP technology, despite the global credit crunch.

A new €435 million next-generation network plan has been unveiled by the Irish government to create a nationwide fibre-optic network and make broadband services universal by 2010.

http://www.ihotdesk.com/article/18671879/SMEs and large

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SMEs and large businesses outsourcing IT operations