It is a proven reality: If you have invested in SAP and want to customize the suite to get the most out of it, SAP outsourcing is your answer! It helps your company to reduce the total cost of operation on IT processes.
SAP outsourcing is the process of taking help from third-party vendors in the business vertical to let them manage your SAP jobs. It helps your organization increase its performance by reducing time, effort, and capital.
Outsourcing SAP doesn't mean outsourcing your infrastructure. It can mean that you keep your infrastructure in-house and only outsource the support services.
The SAP providers have one voice when it comes to their mission- they help organizations become the best in their businesses. Their core competency involves leveraging cutting-edge technologies to help companies outsmart their competition. They design effective device agnostic solutions that can delight consumers. This forms the core of their product development framework.
According to LinkedIn, there are currently 89,000 plus SAP jobs available in the US, proving the corporate interest in the hiring process.
There are various reasons why organizations in the US have decided to outsource their SAP positions. These include the service levels provided to the business, infrastructure considerations, headcount, and various accounting dilemmas.
Things to Consider While Outsourcing SAP
There are ten things you have to keep in mind when you decide on outsourcing SAP:
1. Take Care Of The Infrastructure
Most companies do not operate their own data centers. Only huge corporates can afford a data center. A small company will never have the space to own a data center. Hence the outsourcing model has great advantages for most companies.
The SAP infrastructure is expensive for you when you try to do it by yourself. Whereas it is affordable for the outsourcing provider, and the provider, in turn, is affordable for you.
2. Lower Headcount
Some companies often ask their managers to lower their headcount. In such cases, you can get an outsourcing model. Here, all the SAP experts are not part of your headcount. You also don't need database administrators.
3. Reduce Security Threat
Normally, there will be internal security risks in any company. A disgruntled employee can play with passwords. Once you have an SAP partner that you can trust, the security risk will be automatically lowered.
An outsourced environment will have more solutions and more security measures in place compared to your in-house systems. Though the majority of your people can be trusted, an internal threat will still linger. An external attacker who needs your data can be part of your workforce.
4. Take Responsibility
Outsourcing doesn't mean that you, or the IT expert who leads SAP in the organization, no longer have any responsibility. You need that expert to manage your relationship with your outsourcing partner. You need an IT expert who works for you to be the link between the internal IT resources and the SAP provider.
5. Reduce The Number Of Partners
Suppose you have several outsourcing partners. You need to take into account that all processes will take a longer time to complete. The more partners you include in the process, the slower everything will be. The other party needs to be aware of the issue. They have to run tests by themselves, validate something on their side. Then you can order the necessary parts to solve the infrastructure issues.
6. Opt For A Special Partner
There are two options:
Outsource your entire infrastructure and all applications to one general outsourcing partner
Use specialized outsourcing partners to handle specific applications
The specialized outsourcing model is definitely the better option here. You can get a specialized partner for specific applications. That will be a better choice than having several partners who handle various tasks related to the same application. Here, we're talking about a specific, specialized partner for SAP. Hence, the result will be better and faster.
7. Avoid Generalists
Usually, companies tend to hire a general outsourcing partner. Sometimes, you may hire an SAP partner who will handle all of your applications. Such outsourcing partners may even be the biggest names in the industry. Hence, you can easily entrust your entire IT to them. This will be simpler to execute since you will have to manage only a few partners. Real-life experience shows that such "generalist" outsourcing often comes at the expense of expertise.
Understand The Benefits And Opt For A Smart Solution
A full-time employee who meets all the business requirements may not always be cost-effective for you. A passive, conventional employee, who has only soft skills, may not always be required. The cost-of-hiring can be lofty. Here comes the role of an outsourcing partner. They can offer you a pool of consultants and solve all these dilemmas you might face.
Faster and Cheaper
An average IT unit in a company is usually not equipped to meet the business objectives of an organization. It is because of the skill gap between the internal expert and the requirement. Hence outsourcing will be required to provide services to your clients and help reduce transactional delays in everyday business.
In SAP Outsourcing, you have control over the quality of service. You can get a consultant as per your requirement. You can gain leverage to reach your IT goals at a faster pace and at a cheaper price.
Improved Business Processes
SAP outsourcing partners tend to improve your business process. They leverage their experience and domain expertise to get the best out of your SAP environment. A comprehensive audit and analysis of your business processes and workflow in SAP is the first step. The outsourcing partner manages IT effectively by managing the budget of developing and controlling your business expenditure. They understand the expenditure report of your company accurately and try to minimize it. They help to achieve maximum Return on Investment (ROI) too.
© Ramachandran
