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The importance of IT, just like that of public transport, seems only to be truly appreciated when it stops working properly and stranded users are left to reflect on the value of a more efficient system. The IT quality issue can become particularly important when inefficiencies and disruptions not only slow down the system and create delays, but get in the way of business operations or, even worse, cause losses. As many organisations might have unfortunately already experienced, an extra minute of downtime might lead to money loss, system malfunction can cause loss of data and lack of proper data protection measures can bring information security breaches, causing not only costly fines, but damage to the organisation's reputation that might not be repairable.

The problem is that high-quality IT support is not always seen as affordable, especially when an organisation needs a bespoke, hyper-efficient, extremely secure service that can understand and meet the needs typical of their particular industry. In reality, however, there are ways to access an excellent service at a cost well within that of most IT budgets. Sharing an IT Service Desk with other organisations within your sector is an easy way to gain access to high levels of IT skills and expertise which are at the same time tailored to your organisation. Staff working for two or more organisations with similar needs, structure and business culture can acquire deeper knowledge of the environment, and the organisations taking part in the share can benefit from shared experience, avoiding the dangers incurred by others.

There are obvious concerns regarding this solution. Organisations might think their data and intellectual property are not secure or that sharing with someone that might well be a competitor could damage them or negate any competitive advantage their IT might bring. Furthermore they could argue that sharing support personnel might mean that there will be less attention towards their business or worse, that resources will be stretched thin due to dealing with the increase in incidents.

In fact the structure of a shared service desk should, if managed by the right provider, guarantee an improvement in service levels when compared to an in-house desk. Service Level Agreements and Key Performance Indicators will ensure the provider is always hitting the levels your organisation requires while having access to a central pool of staff trained to follow best practices and experienced in your specific industry can only improve performance. Take into account the fact that the shared aspect of the service means all of this will be delivered for a reduced cost, and the benefits in terms of efficiency also become apparent.

Despite its obvious benefits, a shared service is not for every organisation. The primary benefits are seen when the sharers are similar organisations and as such there are valid concerns when it comes to how a shared service might compromise any advantage IT might bring over competitors. Due to this there are industries and business sectors where a shared service may not be appropriate - retail or banking for example - but for organisations in the public sector or industries where collaboration is commonplace, such as Law firms, the likelihood of competitive advantage being affected is slim.

Organisations which realise that the kind of service they need to provide might be out of reach when the cost is shouldered alone are likely to turn to this innovative solution more and more in the future, identifying it as a valid alternative to full-scale outsourcing or off-shoring, where the cost advantage is often to the detriment of performance levels. While clearly not applicable to every organisation, as a model, shared services can be used as a route to bypass the dangers typical of services that achieve cost-reductions by cutting down on quality.

Pete Canavan, Head of Support Services

This article is featured on Director of Finance: http://www.dofonline.co.uk/management/cutting-costs-on-it-service-support-051004.html

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