Page 67 - DCAP307_PLANNING_AND_MANAGING_IT_INFRASTRUCTURE

Unit 4: Business Process and IT Outsourcing

Notes

Task How would you distinguish a global service outsourcing provider from a staff
augmentation outsourcing firm?

4.1.1 Types of IT Outsourcing

There are a number of different IT areas that can be outsourced depending on an organisation’s
requirements and size. IT outsourcing agreements may include all of an IT department, or just
particular areas.

Helpdesk or First-line Support

The IT helpdesk acts as the first-line or support function of a company. Employees who are
having technical problems can phone the helpdesk and expect support in order to resolve their
issues.
The helpdesk can either be a support desk in-house (if the size of the company warrants this) or
off-site at a suppliers’ premises.
Any employee within the company can phone the support desk at which point the call will be
logged or registered. The purpose is to find out whether the problem is a hardware, software or
network problem and whether it can be resolved over the phone or whether an engineer will be
required to go on site and fix it. This is to make sure that the right resources are allocated to fix
a particular problem or if the problem is simple then the helpdesk can often resolve this over the
phone

Installation

A part of the agreement may be to install new equipment or IT functionality as and when
required and to ensure that users are trained and confident with the new systems.

Software Support

The role of software support is to allow end users to contact a support line to solve a problem,
generally over the phone. If not, then an engineer may go to the user to fix the issue, or access the
faulty system remotely and solve it.

Hardware Support

Hardware support enables end users to have any hardware problems fixed, such as a faulty PC
or printer. This will generally mean that an engineer needs to come out to visit the user to fix the
problem.
Some agreements specify that a certain amount of ‘hot-swaps’ must be available. A hot-swap is
a spare piece of hardware, whether a PC, server, printer or even a network card that is swapped
with the user’s hardware in order that they are able continue working quickly, rather than
waiting for the engineer to fix the problem or order the relevant part.

Software Development

Software development is increasingly being outsourced or ‘off-shored’, with teams (the people
who write and design software) based in areas such as Central or Eastern Europe and Asia where

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 61