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How IT Outsourcing Has Changed the Role of the CFOs

 

Alexandria, VA— March 30 2016 — The Washington Network, a leading provider of unified communications, announced today that the company is launching an educational campaign for CFOs at rapid-growth organizations. The industry of IT management has shifted dramatically, due in large to the huge influx of sophisticated managed IT service providers. As a result, a very high percentage of SMBs (small to mid-sized businesses) have chosen to outsource the day-to-day management of their IT networks, which has brought a number of unique challenges along with it.


When a company makes this decision, the CFO is the most common person to be asked to manage the transition, and many CFOs become overwhelmed because they don’t understand every single facet of the underlying technology that supports the operations of the business. Moreover, they feel concerned because they think that they need to become technology experts. The Washington Network argues that CFOs don’t need to understand all the intricacies of how each piece of technology works, but instead, they need to learn best practices on how to keep an outsourced managed IT services provider accountable for high-performing networks.


 

Essentially, CFOs enter this situation and are pulled into multiple directions. They are told that they need to invest in this technology or that competitors are using that technology and they scramble in order to make the right decision. However, the most important factor to address is to step back from the minutia and to ascertain the corporate level growth strategy. In other words, strategic initiatives dictate which tools an organization needs, not the other way around. 


CFOs do need to become educated on best practices to ensure that their servers are always running, the necessary upgrades are made on-time, what to expect when managing multiple outsourced vendors and how to keep them accountable. Furthermore, as more companies transition to cloud and hybrid-cloud environments, CFOs need to be able to pick the best providers that have experience facilitating this type of enterprise-level shift. Here are a couple key distinctions CFOs need to look for in order to confirm that they are working with well-equipped providers.

           

They Better Have Detailed Reporting

The more detailed the better. CFOs should expect monthly meetings where their managed IT services provider dives into the details of the reports in order to give decision-makers absolute clarity on which steps they need to take in order to keep the organization running at peak performance. For example, one key item to look for is a running timetable of technology that tells decision-makers, which pieces of technology need to be upgraded, which are fine “as is” and when these upgrades need to be made. This allows CFOs to properly budget so they get a full understanding of the true costof their IT network.

They Better Manage All Aspects of the Network “Under One Roof”

One of the most common problems in malfunctioning technology is the “finger pointing” that happens when it takes multiple vendors to make something work properly. For example, if one company manages the cloud-phones and another company is responsible for the IT network, what happens when the cloud-phones aren’t working properly? Oftentimes, the telecommunications provider will blame the IT company, and the IT company will blame the telecom provider. Stalemates like these cause huge drop-offs in productivity and the solution is to only work with a single unified communications provider who is fully capable of servicing all aspects of the network. That way, when something goes down, there is one party responsible for making sure that it gets up as quickly as possible.

They Better Not Require Long-Term Agreements

One of the quickest ways to ascertain as to whether or not the managed IT services provider is trustworthy or not, is by making sure that they don’t ask CFOs to sign rigid, long-term contracts. This is the most surefire way to experience a lack of network performance, because it misaligns financial incentives. Elite managed service providers are eager to back-up their bold claims with month-to-month agreements that let customers decide as to whether or not they’re getting the value they were promised. The most prestigious and experienced providers focus on the result they generate for the SMB. When an organization is bold enough to offer month-to-month agreements, a customer can rest assured that their network will be high-performing.