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In the past, most companies ran their own computer facilities and developed their own software. Today, more and more companies are obtaining their hardware and software technology from external service vendors.
Outsourcing: The most important benefit of outsourcing technology management is that it allows a business to concentrate on its core competencies rather than focusing on technology issues. Instead of purchasing all the necessary hardware and software for hosting a Web site, a business can use a Web hosting service that maintains a large Web server, or a series of servers, and provides fee-paying subsribers with space to maintain their Web sites.
Outsourcing custom software development or maintenance to outside firms benefits a company because it won’t have to hire programmers, analysts, and managers with the necessary skills. An outsourcer often has the technical and management skills to do the job better, faster, and more efficiently. Even though it’s often cheaper to outsource the maintenance of an IT infrastructure and the development of new systems to external vendors, a business must weight the pros and cons carefully. Service level agreements are formal contracts between customers and service providers that define the specific responsibilities of the service provider and the level of service expected by the customer.
Cloud computing services: refers to services that deliver and provide access to hardware and software remotely as a Web-based service. A business can rent software from another firm and avoid the expense and difficulty of installing, operating, and maintaining the hardware and software on its own. A business must carefully assess the costs and benefits of the service, weighing all people, organizational, and technology issues. It must ensure it can integrate the software with its existing systems and deliver a level of service and performance that is acceptable for the business.
Small- and medium-size businesses may find it more advantageous to use cloud computing services because of the minimal overhead and upfront costs. Large businesses will have to factor in whether cloud computing capabilities are sufficiently secure or reliable for their most critical systems. These firms may choose to handle their average processing loads in-house and pay for only as much additional computing power as the market demands. This arrangement enables firms to have a more flexible infrastructure, some of it owned by the firm, and some of it rented from giant computer centers run by technology specialists.
Mobile platforms: Integrating mobile platforms with the firm’s existing IT infrastructure and applications may be quite a challenge for many organizations. Central coordination and oversight are essential. Firms must inventory the mobile devices and develop policies and tools for tracking, updating, and securing them and for controlling the data and applications that run on them. Gains in employees’ productivity and efficiency must be balanced against increased costs of integrating the devices into the firm’s IT infrastructure and from providing technical support. The total cost of ownership for each device is much higher than typical IT hardware.
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