Corporate Kenya has scaled up the outsourcing of part or entire IT departments to cut costs associated with hiring and buying expensive equipment in a difficult business environment.
Services on the outsourcing list include data creation, storage, leasing of IT equipment, software and security management.
A number of providers have launched the managed services departments or start offering these services, which observers say can save corporate and small and medium enterprises SME up to 30 per cent of IT related costs.
In the last one month, firms that have unveiled their offerings include, Kenya Data Networks, through a sister company called eSecurity, UUNET, and Comtec.
The pressure of hiring and maintaining high skilled human resource, an ever-evolving threat landscape, the need for trimming capital expenditure, and concentrating on their core businesses have motivated the trend.
This comes on the background of improved telecommunications infrastructure that has resulted into faster Internet connection and more bandwidth, thus providing opportunity for big firms and SMEs to embrace online transactions.
Nonetheless, security risks remain a major concern for data and network.
A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers shows the cost of employing eight high skilled professionals from the head of IT to support technicians, a company needs a minimum of Sh1.4 million monthly for salaries.
The head takes home an average Sh417,357 while the technician pockets Sh99,032.
The costs of buying hardware, maintenance or upgrades, and security threats are beyond the reach of most companies, says Mr John Gatharia, managing director Comtec.
“By outsourcing their IT services to managed service providers (MSPs), companies eliminate the entry barriers such as investing in hardware or skilled IT staff,” said Mr Gatharia.
“The MSPs are not just managing devices; they also provide insightful analysis to help with business decisions.”
Safaricom and Telkom Kenya started offering managed services last year but were mainly centred on voice telephony.
The new entrants, however, will have their line of specialties.
Ms Friedelien Brockerhoff, the head of eSecurity says the offerings will be backed up with a Service Level Agreement quality service.
“Our purpose is to ensure that businesses are protected from the global threats of hackers and malicious code that could lead to massive financial losses for businesses,” said Ms Brockerhoff.
“This will allow both small and large organisations to focus on their core business with the knowledge that their network is protected from a wide range of threats.”
Secure locations
Comtec will be providing managed data hosting centre, a facility where organisations can store records remotely.
Comtec chairman, Laurent Delifer, says their investment into this line of business is supported by the fact that Kenya is increasingly being seen as an attractive IT hub in East African and “desirable point of presence” in Africa.
Zain Kenya outsources the management of its network to Nokia Siemens.
Michael Okwiri, the company’s corporate communication director says outsourcing such services helps organisations to cut down costs on salaries and staff training.
“As a company we don’t have shoulder costs related to training staff to keep at par with the technological changes” said Mr Okwiri. “When you have permanent staff on payroll it is sometimes difficult to manage those who are not performing.”
Source:http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Company%20Industry/More%20firms%20outsource%20IT%20functions%20to%20cut%20costs%20/-/539550/883974/-/item/1/-/ahqgul/-/index.html
