AN iCORPS TECHNOLOGIES WHITE PAPER REPORT

9 BENEFITS OF USING HYBRID IT MODELS

Combining your Internal IT Staff with Outsourced IT Consulting
Firms Creates a Powerful Synergy
AN iCORPS TECHNOLOGIES WHITE PAPER REPORT
9 BENEFITS OF USING HYBRID IT MODELS
Combining your Internal IT Staff with Outsourced IT Consulting Firms Creates a Powerful Synergy
Although businesses vary in
their IT requirements and needs,
a balance of IT that works for many
is to dedicate 20% of the total
IT budget to outside consultants.
p.2
Most businesses understand that strategic partnerships with IT consulting firms
can produce an excellent return on investment, but some companies vary in
their approaches to working with these firms. Some businesses use an excessive
amount of IT consulting, resulting in becoming fully dependent on the advice
of outside experts. Not only does this mean that they fail to help their in-house
IT departments grow in the breadth and depth of their knowledge, but it also
represents a significant ongoing expense.
However, a lack of IT consultants can also cause a business and its computing
environment to have fundamental weaknesses. Without an influx of new ‘out
of the box’ thinking, it is very easy for even the most diligent in-house staff to
become “stuck in a rut.” Businesses can send in-house staff to conferences
to help them stay current with new technological developments, but without
adequate IT consulting services, it can be difficult for the staff to understand
how to leverage those technologies for the benefit of their business. External
IT consultants can also offer companies key insights into best practices for both
new and existing technologies, often helping them to do more with less.
The Hybrid IT Model
In the hybrid model, businesses retain their in-house IT departments for ongoing
maintenance and other daily activities, but at the same time, they make use
of IT consulting services in two important ways. One of these ways is to contract
with IT consulting firms for personnel to head up large strategic projects; the
other is to leverage consultants to augment existing staff as needed. A hybrid
IT model can give a number of companies the best of both worlds.
Although businesses vary in their IT requirements and needs, a balance that
works for many is to dedicate 20% of the total IT budget to outside consultants.
There are at least nine ways in which this hybrid approach can work to benefit
businesses that adopt the hybrid IT model.
AN iCORPS TECHNOLOGIES WHITE PAPER REPORT

1. Avoiding Over-Dependence On Internal Advice

It is human nature to think highly of our own capabilities and strengths. IT
Leveraging the personnel
personnel aren’t the exception to the rule; even the most highly competent and
resources of an IT company for
trained IT expert can sometimes have difficulties seeing that there may be new
staff augmentation or leading
and better ways to complete old tasks. IT staff may feel that since they have
large-scale projects can help an
a thorough and deep understanding of how their business operates, they are
organization avoid becoming
qualified to determine how to best meet those needs.
too insular.
This viewpoint fails to take into account the benefits diverse opinions can bring
to the planning and implementation of IT solutions for the business. External
consultants may not be experts in all the core competencies of a given business,
but due to their experience, they are better positioned to “think outside the box”
and to offer solutions that may have not occurred to in-house staff.

2. Avoiding Insularity
Even successful businesses must guard against the tendency to become too
inward focused. Listening only to internal IT staff is an obvious danger sign of
narrow-mindedness by the organization. Many companies do not realize that
working with a single IT consultant has its drawbacks. In a hybrid IT model,
businesses contract with an entire IT company rather than a specific individual.
This model gives them access to a variety of skilled professionals who will
have differing perspectives, strengths, certifications, and areas of expertise.
Leveraging the personnel resources of an IT company for staff augmentation
or leading large-scale projects can help an organization avoid becoming
too insular.

3. Reversing In-House Staff Turnover

This benefit of a hybrid IT model is not discussed often, but it is crucial to an
organization. Most in-house staff members enjoy being challenged, but those
who have chosen to specialize in technology may need ongoing challenges
even more than other employees would. IT professionals have a natural
interest in innovation and change. Most businesses find that the turnover in IT
departments may be much higher than in other departments throughout the
organization. More often than not, the root of the problem is that the IT staff
members are finding their work repetitive, dull, and unrewarding.

p.3
AN iCORPS TECHNOLOGIES WHITE PAPER REPORT
Learning about new IT solutions
and to putting them into practice
should keep IT staff energy level
high on a consistent basis.
p.4
This situation can result from a business becoming too inflexible and dependent
on internal advice—two issues that a hybrid IT model is tailor-made to address.
Having outside consultants contribute to IT related decisions would provide
internal IT staff valuable connections to the evolving world of information
technology. This fosters improved communication and creates an environment
where IT staff would have higher interest in daily tasks and discussing new
projects or responsibilities.
Learning about new IT solutions and to putting them into practice should keep
IT staff energy level high on a consistent basis. The result of this synergy would be
helping IT department staff to perceive their working hours as fun and engaging.
Employees that are emotionally satisfied with their professional lives are less likely
to leave than those who are bored with their jobs.
4. Utilizing Internal Staff More Efficiently
An ancillary benefit for internal IT staff is the presence of IT consultants, ensuring
internal IT staff is utilized much more efficiently. Consider an internal IT staff
member who is instructed by his department head to design a new database
that reflects revised procedures that were adopted by another department.
Unless the employee is already a database expert, he/she may not know how or
where to start. That staff member will have to devote a lot of time to researching
the project before the actual work can begin.
The same employee working as part of a team that includes an IT consultant
can be utilized more efficiently. The consultant—a database expert—can design
the overall database structure needed and delegate smaller tasks to others.
Hybrid IT models therefore allow businesses to allocate man-hours to those
employees who are best suited to efficiently complete particular elements of
large projects.
5. Keeping Up With The Technology Curve
Technology moves at a startling pace, but few internal IT staff members have
the luxury of being able to devote themselves to keeping up. Instead, they are
faced with ‘putting out fires,’ using techniques such as ‘just-in-time learning’
to educate themselves about topics as needed to complete their duties.
Unfortunately, this type of hit or miss approach causes workers to miss a great
deal of professional development, which then results in an IT staff characterized
as being scattered and lacking vision.
AN iCORPS TECHNOLOGIES WHITE PAPER REPORT
When a hybrid IT approach is used
on an ongoing basis, it can also
serve as continuous on-the-job
training for in-house employees.
This benefit of IT consulting also
results in IT departments avoiding
stagnation.
p.5
Pairing IT support services so that internal employees work with external IT
consultants can significantly improve this scenario. External consultants may
have a better overall vision of how a newer technology such as virtualization
can function and make a workplace more efficient. As the consultants form
teams with internal IT staff as part of an augmented strategy, there develops
a natural flow of information from the integrated teams. Therefore creating
a far more coherent and organized information infrastructure throughout the
company and an internal IT department with fewer gaps in their collective
knowledge base.
When a hybrid IT model is used on an ongoing basis, it can also serve as
continuous on-the-job training for internal IT staff. This benefit of IT consulting
also results in IT departments avoiding stagnation. Instead, they can improve
on a continuous basis due to the constant emphasis on skills transfer.
6. Creating And Maintaining Momentum
One challenge of internal IT departments is the juggling of daily activities while
working on large-scale projects. Daily activities do not go away because of the
inception of a new project. This situation actually makes it more difficult for
IT departments to build enthusiasm because of the additional workload.
In this situation, using staff from an external IT company makes perfect sense.
A team of consultants can be brought in to plan, implement, and manage the
change from start to finish. This “project work” approach allows internal staff
to continue their daily tasks without interruption. One option in this scenario is
to bring one or two consultants to add their team knowledge and expertise
regarding the large-scale project.
7. Reducing Fixed Costs
Rather than hiring and retaining IT personnel with highly specialized knowledge,
a company using a hybrid IT model can contract with an IT consulting firm
for trained specialists on an as-needed basis. This can reduce costs in two
ways, since salary is not the only expense associated with maintaining a more
extensive internal IT staff. Internal IT staff also create fixed costs regarding
employee benefits that range from health care to pensions. These costs are not
a factor when working with a consultant employed by an outside IT company.
AN iCORPS TECHNOLOGIES WHITE PAPER REPORT
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Boston, MA 02129
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8. Leveraging Relevant Experience
Few things are more frustrating for a business than investing significant amounts
of time into solving a technical problem, only to find that the solution has
already been discovered by other companies that have already faced the
issue. IT consultants possess vast experience with other companies and can
translate that to the contracted client. If another company has already
developed an adequate solution for a given situation, they can suggest the
solution to the problem they have already dealt with. Without that external
knowledge and experience, companies may go to great lengths to solve
problems that could have been solved at a far less cost.
9. Flexibility
Having a hybrid of both internal IT staff and external consultants on hand usually
means that businesses are better positioned to react to changes as they occur.
A sudden shift in marketplace conditions usually means IT services are needed
and the business will not have to waste time finding the right IT company, because
they will have the competitive advantage of having chosen one in advance.
Conclusion
Maintaining a hybrid IT model offers companies many benefits. While internal
staff members can provide continuity and an essential knowledge base about
company operations, external IT consultants bring recent, relevant expertise as
well as creativity to the business. Together, these forces can combine to provide
firms with the reliable and timely IT support they need to stay ahead in today’s
competitive business environment.
About iCorps Technologies, Inc.
A pioneer in comprehensive IT outsourcing since 1994, iCorps Technologies (www.icorps.com)
provides IT consulting services for small, medium, and large businesses nationwide with offices
in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia. Our comprehensive services and certified expertise in
every aspect of technology immediately broaden your IT capabilities and resources to handle
all of your technology needs and put technology to work for you. After all, technology that fits
your business drives your business to be more profitable, productive, and competitive.