IT Management & Support: Outsourced IT Services
Hobsons
Brief
Direct and manage the whole IT operation at all levels, including definition of strategy, implementation of changes and management of staff.
Business Case
Hobsons helps students all over the world to make career and educational choices by providing a range of services and publications, including the GO! graduate employment directory. They are part of the Daily Mail and General Trust plc.
They recognised that for an effective IT service to be available to the business, they needed access to a wide range of skills, knowledge and resources. At the same time, they wanted to be sure that their IT operation offered best value.
We provided them with an IT co-sourcing solution where we took on the role of IT Director and responsibility for the whole IT operation.
Implementation
After an initial familiarisation period we provided a full range of IT services such as management and development of the infrastructure, implementation of changes and new developments, preventative maintenance and defining and testing a disaster recovery plan.
Support is carried out by a mixture of Hobsons’ employees and ours, under our management. We are responsible for day-to-day direction of the staff.
Several of our staff at different levels are involved in the project - we bring in the appropriate skills and expertise as it is required.
We use our internal systems to manage the support service and Hobsons’ users have access to these systems through our secure client extranet.
Benefits
Hobsons can call on the IT skills they need from experienced and knowledgeable staff, as and when they need it. They get a predictable and reliable service and they do not have to worry about dealing with peaks and troughs. They get best advice on strategy from senior consultants with many years’ experience of IT in the publishing industry. Because they do not need to employ many full-time staff their costs are minimised. In summary, they get a better service at lower cost. |