Not all IT projects were created equal, and neither were all IT consultancies. For this reason, it is vital that you find the right partner when you’re looking to successfully source an IT partner.

Many organisations in today’s world understand that in order to innovate they must leverage technology to create better business models and bring forward an enhanced experience for their customers. To enable technology to bring businesses forward, enterprise-technology teams are usually instructed to help the business create strategic partnerships around the whole digital and technology stack, which might include, professional services, software builds, hardware sourcing, automation and cloud.

If you’re a forward-thinking organisation your requirements are no doubt complicated and you will likely have a desire to reduce costs in some capacity. That’s why the search for an IT partner typically begins long before the expiration of an existing contract. It is vitally important that your needs and requirements are properly communicated and that your prospective partner has a clear understanding of what you want before you embark on any work.

IT sourcing teams are there to help organisations balance the technology running costs and risks whilst sourcing strategic technology partnerships. They are expected to create a hugely beneficial and strategic partnership so the organisation can have the latest software and solutions, like cloud, machine learning, advanced analytics, all the while acquire global talent, enable agile processes and procure innovation. This ultimately will need a huge shift in the way sourcing is approached, how executives look at it and the capabilities of IT sourcing teams.

Digital Dom works with organisations to fully unravel the potential of digital sourcing and deliver services in a scalable and cost-effective manner.

We work closely with organisations to help them with the following areas:

Creating a IT sourcing strategy

If your business wants to become future-proof, we will work with you on a digital and IT sourcing strategy to meet your long term and short-term business goals. We will begin by outlining your digital and technology priorities which includes understanding your current technology landscape and finding the gaps for digital competencies so we know where we need to source. You will get an optimal supplier strategy without location or supplier dependency.

We implement the sourcing

Digital Dom work with businesses to ensure agile and unified execution is achieved via sourcing. We integrate the implementation planning which will transform the capabilities of your organisations digital builds as well as aid strategy execution.

We will help you foster agility by using innovative ways to achieve your business goals, complete supplier evaluation and drive tangible outcomes. This all helps to increase the speed of contracting and creates a hugely beneficial commercial arrangement between your business, and the suppliers we work with.

Partnership-based governance with suppliers

We will work on your sourcing needs, which include building a practical and partnership-based governance with suppliers. We create your innovation agenda, engage your senior executives at all levels and commit to long-term and sustainable outcomes.

Digital Dom works with organisations to design the organisation structure and skills, capabilities, and processes that are needed in the new IT and digital organisation.

Why should your business define an IT sourcing strategy?

In the past, IT sourcing was a way of organisations reducing costs. However, nowadays it is seen to be a huge investment to enable agility, profitability, enhance capabilities and give your business a competitive edge.

Some other benefits for undergoing a successful and strategic IT sourcing strategy are:

• Helps organisations lower costs
• Increases team and business efficiency
• Capacity and scalability enabaler
• Better strategy and core competency focus
• Access to top global talent i
• Improved flexibility to pivot quickly due to changing business and commercial demands
• Innovation, thought leadership and intellectual property attainable

Even if IT sourcing was merely seen as a cost-reducing exercise in the past, it has quickly changed in recent times to become known as a tool for attaining top talent, improve business dynamics, find your business USPs and innovate rapidly.

When you are ready for successful strategic IT sourcing, companies should have clarity on business goals and needs for sourcing, plus, analyse the benefits and disadvantages of sourcing onshore, offshore and nearshore outsourcing for cost, maturity and required costs.

Increasing number of companies are opting in to build a near shore team as their primary delivery model. Distributed Agile is widely practiced due to seamless collaboration among collocated teams working within the same time zone, as well as cost efficiencies resulting from reduced overhead and lower service fees. While we are headquartered in London, we have fast growing near shore talent pools in Poland and Romania.

Considerations for successful and strategic IT Sourcing

This can all feel very overwhelming. Here are our top tips for successful and strategic IT sourcing.

• Define your business objectives

How can you possibly communicate your objectives to a potential IT partner if you have no idea what it is you want? How can you work with an IT partner to stay ahead of the competition if you have no real idea of where you are going? It is really important that you define your business objectives before you approach potential IT partners.

You should spend significant time considering your technologies, geographies, commercial objectives, and approach before you look to outsource. You can only do this when you know all there is to know about the organisation’s current environment and desired direction.

You should also consider the commercial viability of your objectives. How is the marketplace changing? Where is it headed and how will you need to react to it?

You should not consider an IT partnership the answer to these questions. It is important that you invest time and effort into determining your business objectives before you look for an IT partner. This will help you find the right partner and mean that they have a clear road map to follow to a defined objective.

Create and utilise a project team

IT is an integral part of your organisation and therefore it is imperative that you put together a project team and that they are representative of your organisation and its objectives. This is the only way you can determine stage one; your business objectives. Your IT project team will help you to determine exactly what you need from your IT partner. They’ll highlight any issues with the current system and – because they’re working towards your organisational objectives all day every day – they’ll know where you need to go and have an idea of how you get there.

Within your project team, you’ll need the following critical roles:

• Programme managers (to give you a practical idea of what is needed and how it should operate)
• Human resources (responsible for contractual agreements and paperwork)
• Compliance/risk specialists (there to make sure there is no risk to the business and its operations)
• Technical experts (who know what is required on a technical level)
• Due diligence leads (who make sure you’re hiring the right person and that everyone knows what to do).

Not everyone will be busy with this at every stage of the procurement.

Shortlisting for IT Sourcing

Perhaps you have been working with the same company for years. Maybe you have two or three companies you always return to for quotes. We would urge you to compile a more comprehensive shortlist. This is likely a huge contract and companies will present the most incredible pitches for your work if given the opportunity. If you’re returning to your old favourites time and time again, you might be missing out on an epic agreement with a different company, so make sure you give plenty of people the opportunity to show you what they can do.

It is really important when you are shortlisting that you keep your key objectives in mind, or else it can be tempting to go for the cheapest company or the friendliest organisation. You need to save money and of course we understand that you also need to find your new consultants easy to work with, but it is also really important that you make sure your potential new partners can actually do the work. That is the most important point.

You’ll want to look for:

• their ability to execute your work
• their reviews and success in the market
• their geographic alignment
• an existing relationship (not the most important, but helps!)
• their strategic focus on meeting your objectives.

Digital DOM can help with IT Sourcing

We deliver complex and high performing systems and help businesses increase their speed of innovation. We’d love to help you with your next IT project, including successful and strategic IT Sourcing.

Our specialists provide full stack mobile and web development services to empower organisations with the tools and processes they need for enterprise-wide transformation.

If you’re looking for the perfect IT partner, we’d love to help.

To speak to a specialist member of our team, please fill in the contact form on our website.