IT Maintenance Outsourcing various approaches

IT maintenance Maintenance management system consists of six stages. Identification of work, Planning required to carry out the work, scheduling to be done for the same, Execution of it, recording the response, analyzing the response. All these stages form a cyle for any maintenance system. The analyzed result is again considered whenever new work is identified. Hence all these stages are linked. Generally lots of effort is put in the planning, scheduling and execution of work, as it is very important for the benefit of the organization. Sometimes, in this process the response analysis takes a back seat. Many a company, have had to face the rough weather for not considering the response for a particular product launched by them. Outsourcing comes in handy for such work. Deciding on which part of the maintenance to be outsourced is the crucial part of it.

How to plan outsourcing for maintenance?

There are various types of approach to decide on the work to be outsourced. In case of a shutdown of work because of workers, execution of the work can be outsourced. One can outsource even the planning, scheduling, execution, result recording to other organizations. In short the contractor or the organization has the freedom to plan and schedule the work at his or its own pace.

The common trend now is to outsource the two stages where in, the product reviews are recorded and then the reviews are analyzed for submission to identify new work. This is called Customer support. All the complaints or suggestions made about the product are recorded and analyzed to give shape to better products.

One can outsource all the stages of maintenance to other organization thus giving total control over the job identification and techniques for development of the product as well.

The job to be outsourced must be decided considering the pros and cons and hence the outcomes of giving control to the contractor or the other organization.

Process in outsourcing Once the job to be outsourced is identified, next comes inviting tenders. Any outsourcing done must have proper tendering. Meaning tenders must be invited first, citing the specifications of the product, type of work, the minimum amount payable, other factors related to the work. Specifying the requirements is the key to achieving proper response to the tender.

Once an organization's tender is selected, proper payment mode must be decided upon by both the parties. Pricing plan must be selected after considering the sequences of each plan, agreeable to both the organizations.

The responsibilities and limitations of the organization taking the contract must be clearly mentioned and agreed upon. i.e if the organization taking up contract work has to follow a set of guidelines, then this must be provided at the tendering stage itself. The guidelines help in decision making of the organization taking up contract work.

Finally the organizations must work towards the common final goal, by co operating with each other on various issues, thereby avoiding dissatisfaction in any of the organization.