Co-managed IT Services from Smartdesc
Smart-sourcing – the flexible resourcing model for hybrid IT teams
The resource structure of IT departments traditionally falls under in-house or non-profit IT outsourcing. Both these models come with many advantages and some significant downsides.
At Smartdesc, one of our core values is our relentless commitment to solutions that deliver the very best outcomes for our customers. This belief has led us to develop an approach to resourcing which, year upon year, has helped us become extremely successful in building a pipeline of skilled, experienced team members delivering high quality IT services for our clients.
We call this flexible resourcing model ‘Smart Sourcing’; it combines the organisational knowledge, trust and commitment of our customer’s own internal staff members with the depth of experience, skills and expertise of our own highly skilled IT professionals.
We manage this hybrid team as one integrated unit, working towards the same goals and supported by the same manager day to day. Smartdesc staff will often be on site with you for all or part of the week, working alongside their in-house colleagues sharing ideas and best practices. The model is often so successful that business staff see Smartdesc team members as part of their own organisation, building trust and rapport where “old school” outsourcing can so often be treated with scepticism.
Key benefits of Non-profit IT Outsourcing using Smartdesc Smart Sourcing include:
- A collaborative, supportive relationship between the in-house IT team and external staff, sharing knowledge, skills and experience and building team spirit.
- A better blend of skills and deeper cross-platform knowledge, to foster innovation and better align IT with the organisation’s strategy.
- Internal IT engineers get exposure from peers with access to different systems and customers, which enhances their own skill set and motivates them to keep learning and progressing.
- Cost savings through having a blend of in-house local IT staff required on site 5 days a week, combined with outsourced colleagues typically required for more specialist – therefore expensive – tasks, but all managed as one IT service seamlessly.
- Tactical and agile resourcing enables skills on demand and specialist knowledge at a fraction of the cost, plus gaps in day to day service delivery – due to absence, annual leave or spikes in demand – can be scaled up or down with minimal interruption and zero onboarding time.
- Smartdesc IT Managers and IT Directors (vCIO) manage the whole IT team in an open, inclusive and transparent way, saving cost and overhead versus hiring Manager or Director level staff internally.
- Smartdesc Recruitment Services can oversee searches, selection, interview and onboarding of in-house IT staff ensuring full integration with the hybrid, Smart Sourced IT team.
- A collaborative, supportive relationship between the in-house IT team and external staff, sharing knowledge, skills and experience and building team spirit.
- A better blend of skills and deeper cross-platform knowledge, to foster innovation and better align IT with the organisation’s strategy.
- Internal IT engineers get exposure from peers with access to different systems and customers, which enhances their own skill set and motivates them to keep learning and progressing.
- Cost savings through having a blend of in-house local IT staff required on site 5 days a week, combined with outsourced colleagues typically required for more specialist – therefore expensive – tasks, but all managed as one IT service seamlessly.
- Tactical and agile resourcing enables skills on demand and specialist knowledge at a fraction of the cost, plus gaps in day to day service delivery – due to absence, annual leave or spikes in demand – can be scaled up or down with minimal interruption and zero onboarding time.
- Smartdesc IT Managers and IT Directors (vCIO) manage the whole IT team in an open, inclusive and transparent way, saving cost and overhead versus hiring Manager or Director level staff internally
- Smartdesc Recruitment Services can oversee searches, selection, interview and onboarding of in-house IT staff ensuring full integration with the hybrid, Smart Sourced IT team.
Smartdesc provides flexible on-site and remote IT engineers, IT Managers, 3rd Line & Project Engineers, Information Governance Officers, CSOs and Heads of IT to charities including WaterAid, Mind, Terrence Higgins Trust, Teenage Cancer Trust, Refugee Action, Mental Health Matters and more.