TED Magazine - May 2017

THERE’S SOFTWARE AS A SERVICE (SAAS), DATA RECOVERY AS A SER- vice (DRaaS), compliance as a service (CaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), networking as a service (NaaS)…in short, if there is a need for other people to handle tech tasks, they’re out there. But these relation- ships require ongoing management for distributors to get the most out of their providers. Here are some things to consider: 1. Why go out of house? “It’s important that the customer understands why it’s going out to look for a
46 the ELECTRICAL DIS TRIBUTOR • May 17 www.tEDmag.com
BUSINESS / TECH WATCH
TALKING TECH
“AS A SERVICE”
What a company should consider when contemplating
letting someone else handle its tech tasks. by Carolyn Heinze
service provider,” advised Archie Seale, vice president of marketing for IT services at mindSHIFT Technologies. While his organiza- tion provides IT services to small to mid-sized businesses, he noted that farming out technical services to a third party isn’t always the best solution for some companies. “Oftentimes there is a feeling that there’s a specific technology prob- lem that it’s trying to fix and so it tries to find an outsourcer, but if outsourcing doesn’t ultimately fit with what it’s trying to do as an organization, there can be prob- lems,” Seale said. In other words, before going on a quest for the right provider, com- panies should look inward. For example, is the organization trying to place the technical grunt work on a third party’s shoulders so that its internal IT staff is free to work on more strategic initiatives? Or does the company require the third party’s expertise to help it develop strategies that apply to how technol- ogy is integrated into the business now and in the future? “I’m a big believer in starting with what you’re trying to do and why,” said Dave Litzenberg, vice president of sales and marketing at Tour de Force. Electrical distrib- utors should examine where they are trying to go with their business and why, and then ask, “what are the opportunities and/or challenges they’re trying to address from a business perspective?” This applies to integrating not only new software solutions, but also basically any new initiative. 2. Can the provider be on- site? These days we conduct so much business remotely, but sometimes it’s still necessary to have a real per- son on-site to walk internal tech staff through deployments, updates, troubleshooting, and just everyday maintenance. For far-flung or grow- © W A V E B R E A K M E D I A / I S T O C K