Sourcing strategies for IT services

Outsource, bring in-house or retire? Using the double SWOT method, CorInnoHiveSOURCE classifies every IT service by its strategic value. Competitive advantages stay in-house, and standard services no longer tie up valuable resources.

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History

IT follows its history, not the strategy.

Services stay in-house because they have always been in-house. Others were outsourced and never questioned again.

Know-how

The competitive advantage moves out.

Strategically important services leave the company, while standard services tie up valuable internal resources.

Skilled staff

Sourcing turns into a staffing strategy.

Services are often outsourced not because it’s the best decision, but because the necessary know-how is missing.

Where you stand

Not every IT service belongs outside, and not every one belongs inside.

In many companies, the IT landscape follows its own history more than a strategy. Services stay in-house because they have always been in-house. Others were outsourced, and by now nobody questions whether they are in good hands there.

The consequence: strategically important IT services leave the company, while standard services tie up valuable internal resources. The competitive advantage moves out, the costs stay at home. The shortage of skilled staff makes the situation worse. Services are often outsourced not because it’s the best decision, but because the necessary know-how is missing. A sourcing strategy quickly turns into a staffing strategy.

The true yardstick is: which IT services create real business value, and which are interchangeable standard services? This is exactly where many companies lack the necessary transparency. Decisions are often made on the basis of historical structures, availability or habit rather than strategic relevance. The consequence: ability to innovate moves out, know-how is lost and resources are tied up in the wrong place.

Many companies are unintentionally outsourcing their competitive advantage along with their IT.

What is it costing you?

Without CorInnoHiveSOURCE

What it costs you: Strategic know-how leaves the company: critical skills such as SAP customisation, identity and access management or network expertise move to service providers and are only available on call for innovation.
What it costs you: The costs stay. Agility is lost, because you keep paying the bill but lose speed, flexibility and room for manoeuvre.
What it costs you: The ability to innovate is lost, because outsourcing value-creating services often means outsourcing ideas, expertise and further development too.
What it costs you: Competitive advantages are given away unnoticed. What looks like an IT service today can be the basis for differentiation and a USP tomorrow.
What it costs you: Dependencies grow faster than innovation, and service providers gradually become a strategic bottleneck.
What it costs you: Make-or-buy becomes a gamble, because without transparency about the business value of a service, sourcing decisions are read from tea leaves.

If you don’t know the value of your IT services, you may be handing your biggest competitive advantage to your service provider.

With CorInnoHiveSOURCE

What you gain: Real transparency at last instead of IT guesswork — You get a complete overview of your entire IT service landscape.
What you gain: Recognise strengths. Eliminate weaknesses — Every service is assessed for business value, strategic relevance and future readiness.
What you gain: Core process or commodity? — You can see at a glance which services drive your business and which merely keep operations running.
What you gain: Competitive advantage or standard service? — What you gain clarity about which services create real differentiation and which can easily be sourced from the market.
What you gain: Every service in the right place — Strategic services stay where they belong. Standard services are sourced in an economically sensible way.
What you gain: Cut costs without outsourcing future potential — The right sourcing strategy reduces spending on standard services while protecting your competitive advantages.
What you gain: Less firefighting, more shaping the future — Instead of constant firefighting, your IT gains valuable time for innovation, transformation and strategic initiatives.
What you gain: Well-founded sourcing decisions instead of crystal-ball gazing — Make-or-buy becomes fact-based, traceable and dependable.
What you gain: Competitive advantages stay in the company — You identify the services that secure innovation, know-how and market success before you accidentally outsource them.

How we solve it

Create transparency

All existing IT services are recorded and catalogued in a structured way.
A proven service catalogue with more than 120 predefined IT services ensures a quick start.
Hidden redundancies, duplicate structures and legacy burdens become visible.

Make business value visible

Every IT service is assessed against clearly defined criteria.
Strategic value drivers are separated from interchangeable standard services.
The contribution of every service to innovation, business success and competitiveness becomes transparent.
It becomes clear which services are strategic assets and which have merely grown over time.

Make the right sourcing decision

The optimal make-or-buy strategy is determined for every service.
Business value, risks, costs and dependencies are assessed systematically.
It becomes clear which services stay in-house, which are outsourced and which should be eliminated. The result is a dependable sourcing strategy.

Two strips of film side by side against a light background — The method behind it: double SWOT

The most dangerous service is the one that’s been wrongly assessed. Before you outsource your next competitive advantage, we should talk.

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