Global retail

Feb 16, 2018 2:22:15 PM | Telecom IT 5 Reasons Why You Should Outsource Your Global Telecommunications Project

Going global in telecom may require a skilled outsourcing partner.

We could write a book outlining the reasons why outsourcing your global telecommunications project is a good idea. Instead, we’ll stick to the basics, because we know you’re busy. Trying to rank the items in order of importance is also difficult because different projects have different variables, but we’ll unpack some of the global outsourcing deployment basics:

1. Cost

What company isn’t concerned about cost? The reality is that sending in your own people to, say, install a payment processing system at a chain of western-style supermarkets in Qatar is probably going to be a lot more expensive than finding local specialists. Deploying your own people entails expensive transportation and housing, both of which are negated by using someone local. You’re going to have to deal with expensive insurance and training issues for your own staff that probably wouldn’t be an issue with a local workforce.

Then there’s the issue of simple familiarity on the ground. A technician in Qatar will know the local laws, ordinances, regulations, and best supply sourcing repositories better than someone who you bring it who will have to learn all of that on the job.

Learning these ins and outs from scratch gobbles up a lot of time, which, on a global job, is virtually indistinguishable from money. We recognize, though, that sometimes when dealing with proprietary technology, you may have to supply your own technicians. But on more garden-variety technical projects, outsourcing is the way to go when it comes to putting a lid on costs.

2. Flexibility and Scalability

If you send your own team to, say, Bulgaria, or anywhere for that matter, you’ll need enough work to keep them busy to justify the cost. In other words, there’s no flexibility. For example, let’s say a business’s campus-wide communications network may have failed due to a relatively simple hardware issue. You don’t want to spend thousands to fly in your top technical expert to change a circuit board when a skilled local could do the same at a fraction of the time and cost. Outsourcing gives you the flexibility to tackle large and small jobs and pay only for the time you need to complete the work.

3. Cultural and Governmental Fluency

We’re putting this in a separate category from cost, although there is some overlap. Cultural or legal unfamiliarity will cost you precious time, but will also render some projects impossible. Sending your best IT professionals to Sri Lanka isn’t going to go smoothly unless they have a working knowledge of the Sri Lankan Telecommunications Act and are familiar with the Information and Communications Technology Agency that governs it.

Each country is governed by a patchwork of local, regional, and national rules and regulations. Expecting a single IT unit to know thousands of local laws and regulations isn’t realistic. But a skilled technician trained and schooled in the local cauldron of culture and government will know all of that going in, and that can make all the difference in completing a project on time and on budget versus not at all.

4. Focus On Your Strengths

Not every telecom company specializes in everything. By “offloading the grunt work,” as CHR Solutions calls it, you can focus on what your company does best. CHR Solutions describes the advantages of a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) model:

“Carrier may also use a BPO model to handle mundane tasks. With BPO, a carrier can offload from a highly skilled workforce such chores as AutoCAD updates, database maintenance, materials tracking, project management and order writing. By moving this type of work to a BPO provider, the carrier can capture more bandwidth from its highly skilled workforce and increase output without having to recruit, hire and train additional high-cost employees.”

5. 24/7 Availability

Your full-time employees may well be constrained by contracts, salary agreements, union rules, or simple costs. But using a remote help desk outsourcing template can allow you to access the right technical help for the right reasons 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long.

By using an outsourcing process for the more “mundane” jobs, your business can focus on its core strengths, whether that’s the best payment processing system, carrier quality, or download speed.

There are many other reasons why outsourcing is a great idea for businesses, and we like the ones outlined by Project Management Mentor, from escaping the push and pull of office politics to the more intriguing “fresh eye” reasons. Sometimes it can benefit a company to have an objective, fresh set of eyes working on a project, especially a global one where staff becomes so bogged down in the final goal that it may be easy to miss important steps to take to make that goal happen.

Before tackling a global project, make sure you consider working with an outsourcing partner that can deliver 24/7 field-level service to help you complete your project. The opportunities for global growth in telecom have never been greater, you want an outsourcing partner that can deliver tomorrow today.

New Call-to-action

Bob Supinger

Written By: Bob Supinger

With over 16 years of management experience in business and Information Technology, Bob has helped Kinettix build the infrastructure required to establish itself as a true leader in global IT field services, and in particular rapid response on-site troubleshooting and repair. At Kinettix, Bob leads field services, project management and vendor development organizations. His responsibilities also include operational P&L and expense control; operational strategy and overseeing plan execution; recruiting, employee engagement and development; ongoing process improvement; and customer experience. Before joining Kinettix, Bob worked for Comcast Business, Enterprise Solutions, and Contingent Network Services. He attended Edison State and Wright State University and attained a Degree in Business in 1999. He participated in and coached collegiate athletics and is currently the president of a non-profit organization supporting youth athletic programs in the community.