IT Shared Services - Does it bring gains after braving the pains?
In very simple terms, IT Shared services are consolidated IT functions that are delivered over a shared infrastructure. Some of the key benefits that are achieved through shared services are:
- Lower TCO for customer and provider
- Higher levels of productivity and increased efficiency
- Wider service coverage in terms of domain, technology and service availability hours
- Higher probability of meeting SLA targets
- Capability to structure the Ticket Based Pricing or Pay Per Use pricing options
- Lower setup time required to integrate a new customer
- Higher agility to ramp up and rampdown the team size based on customer needs
- Better alignment for catering to small size outsourcing opportunities
Needless to say that none of these benefits accrue without facing the challenges head on. I recall the ones that I had faced while consolidating the IT services of a large program in my previous organization. Broadly I would divide them in 5 categories
- Service Provider people
- Service Provider Infrastructure
- Customer People
- Customer Infrastructure
- Service Governance and Reporting
