The biggest problem that IT departments have nowadays is, lack of resources to deliver on their requirements. A simple solution is to hire more people, but with extremely thin and restrictive IT budgets that might not be an option. Even when you have that budget to hire someone you will need them to have experience with the technology that is part of the project. Even when you outsource, project requirements and familiarity with the right departments, groups, and process will not be easily assimilated by your partner.
Enterprise environments have virtually limitless documentation on how things are done and others, as well as small businesses, have none or it is outdated. How do you bring someone up to speed quickly so they are effective? Some people might point to training, but true training that is effective needs to be done by your staff and to have them now train someone along with their regular duties is a stretch. Re-allocate resources, take someone doing something less critical and move them over to do the more critical project.
Find things in your environment that you can automate, I see a lot of this being attempted, but again you need to get buy-in from everyone and then sandbox the solution before implementing it. You might need to push the project out, which is the de-facto move of almost all departments and it is to abandon projects or move them out by years. Some things can’t be moved out like a site move, or a merger and acquisition. Are there highly experienced resources out there familiar with your environment that can navigate through your policies and procedures and won’t cost an arm and a leg? You can find a project that has the least amount of touchpoints in your organization and break it off and outsource it, that way you will have one point of contact that can manage it in your organization and not overwhelm that person with too much to do.
You need to have a professional services group as part of your arsenal of resources. You don’t need to throw them huge projects but you can incorporate them enough so that they are able to learn your environment and your team. You will find that they can come in under or within budget if you define their responsibilities enough, or you give them a budget, they might innovate their way to being profitable on the job if the amount of your budget is low. Have an outsourcing group that attached to your organization, this will be crucial to success.
