Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Why support centres need to generate profit?

I don't quite understand why nowadays, companies think that every single department including support units, must generate a profit. Seriously, it doesn't make sense.

IT departments have always been in general support units because they support the other business units to further optimise their process, thus improving time to market and therefore generate revenue. It is actually an important unit within any organisation because if they are not being funded, you will end up in a situation your competitors get out to the market faster, and this gaining a competitive advantage.

The trend now seems to be that we're outsourcing departments that do not generate a profit. Many companies I heard do not even have a IT department, or they nominate a poor fellow who may not have any IT background, to be the IT department just because the poor fellow likes gadgets for example.

Seriously, knowing about gadgets and latest news on new technology does not equate to a functional IT department. Even IT vendor management is not something that anyone can do because you can only manage things that you understand. Straight and simple. The vendor does not know your business and what are the technology tools required to enhance your processes. They may know their technology tools well, or they might be trying to pull a fast one on you.

The least they could do is ask you to buy something you do not need. The worst that they can do is that your whole IT environment gets burned down and they advise you that this is just how it goes.

I still do not quite understand the logic of outsourcing the entire IT department to a completely unrelated third-party. Doesn't make sense to me as your main objective is to support other units and you do not have control over how the system is being used.

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