TechTalk Why Business Agility Needs the Right IT Partner
Meaningful IT partnerships are vital for fostering a flexible workforce.
By Insight Editor / 9 Jun 2020 / Topics: As a service
By Insight Editor / 9 Jun 2020 / Topics: As a service
Businesses deserve an IT partner who understands their unique needs. Insight Connected Workforce teammates Dan Schneider and David Downs explain how a purposeful relationship with an IT service provider can have a high business impact.
To experience this week’s episode, listen on the player above, watch the conversation below, or scroll down to read a complete transcript. You can also subscribe to Insight TechTalk on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Spotify.
Audio transcript:
Published June 9, 2020
[Music]
DAN
Hello I'm Dan Schneider
DAVID
And I'm David Downs
DAN
And welcome to this edition of TechTalk. Today we're gonna talk about Hybrid IT delivery David and I both work for Insight connected workforce division and we're gonna talk about the value of choosing the right kind of partnerships for service delivery and solution delivery. But first David could you tell us a little bit about what you do for Insight.
DAVID
Thanks Dan, great to be here with you and as product manager of your team I really help craft workplace services offerings, and what we look at are current market trends, talk to our customers and ultimately try to find ways for our clients to really provide that great employee experience to the users and how they get support the technology they use and we certainly keep in mind factors like is this cost-effective, are we meeting business outcomes and are we ultimately transforming the organization.
DAN
Yeah, to make sure we do have a positive impact on our customers we do pay attention to the voice of the customer with some other research and survey data that you are saying in the market, what's relevant and where are the conversations accelerating right now David?
DAVID
Yeah I think I had mentioned we recently sold an article on Forbes and they surveyed a large group of C-level executives and in that they asked them kinda what's the most impactful part to business today and agility is the word that came up 81% of the executives said agility. And that makes me take a good question to you around agility, as we talk to companies now what are they saying specifically about how they see agility today?
DAN
Well the situation that we've come through has put a lot of things in context, especially around business continuity and workforce flexibility. Many companies realized that they weren't as agile as they needed to be and there is definitely room for improvement. And so savvy executives are using their situation as a leverage to accelerate certain things like modernization, digital transformation and automation initiatives. And also to rip the bandaid off, so to speak, some very long-standing organizational issues that have held their company back. So from an IT perspective right now all conversations are on the table.
DAVID
Yeah I know that Everest Report I shot over a your way last week, but a take away I had from that highlighting just outsourcing relationships, and a lot of them I feel like they are lacking in value they are not innovating anymore they are not doing continuous improvements. So that report really kinda brought some of that out.
DAN
Yeah I noticed it highlighted that many have inadequate or obsolete technology, inadequate technology can impact really the way you need to do business or service customers differently right now. Obsolete technology often means we are dealing with lot of legacy systems, inefficient processes, things that are highly manual that make it difficult for companies to respond right now. So the customers that I have talked to More so now than ever don't need just another vendor, but they really need a true partner that can jump in and be shovel ready to help them do some of that heavy-lifting they need around innovation right now.
DAVID
Yeah, shovel ready is interesting I'd say coz the traditional outsourcing model is gonna change it has changed for a lot of companies already. But you gotta bring value to the table. You have to create intellectual property and process and scale and all those things that aren't just one piece of a technology solution but it's really about providing value and driving agility.
DAN
Yeah and the ability for you to scale and be more agile is directly related now to external partnerships that you build because they are becoming an integrated part of your IT team. The concept of bi-modal IT delivery or hybrid IT delivery has been out there for a long time but it's really accelerating because if you think about it, the difference between a hybrid partner and just a vendor is this partnership, this person is who literally this organization is becoming a vital organ of the body. They have a discrete function, they are bringing a center of excellence to your organization that you may not have or you're not going to build. And it's different than just a traditional vendor which is really almost like swallowing a tablet. It has a temporary benefit but it doesn't have a lasting benefit. And that's what customers need, they need lasting benefits from partnerships and true business impact.
DAVID
Yeah and I'd say from the customer this type of a relationship, certainly provides that higher value and higher business impact because now you're leveraging somebody outside your company who’s, an expert and has access to lot more resources, that have experience in this, they've done it for other customers and they bring that higher success rate that comes along with that and so you are applying all of these things that you've learned… instead of having to in source it and train you can bring in a hybrid IT provider that is ready to go.
DAN
They are all excellent ideas David because really you're obtaining more value than you could create or purchase on your own. There's a compounding scenario that happens here. There’s an expression that you're not alive long enough to learn everything so you better be a good listener and learn how to leverage relationships. And that's true on how you partner today because you wanna bring partnerships that allows you to scale beyond your own ability and so that's where the concept of an SSI or a Super Solution Integrator comes into play because traditionally in IT, when I was in IT leadership, companies function in silos. You may have the enterprise application stack enterprise systems, you may have digital transformation efforts DI, the analytics, business process. But they may not all come together in the right way. And so that's the value of a partner that can help you break those silos down.
DAVID
Now that's exactly right coz that that approach well that doesn't fit now where you have this next gen providers and the integration across multiple domains and a single team that does have expertise to handle all aspects of modern IT. They can architect, they can manage and then they can ultimately execute the initiatives from end to end. I mean that's what gets you there.
DAN
Yeah and that is really what needs to happen because if you look at all industries right now they are facing the same thing. They need to leverage new ways of doing business. New technologies and platforms maybe just to remain competitive and relevant in their market place. But they also wanna be disruptive, gain market share and do that by reducing the friction and improving the experience of their customer and how they engage with them. And so they need vision right now from a partner that can help them do that scale, and also know that that partnership provides long-term innovation so that they continue to be relevant in the marketplace.
DAVID
Yeah and that's exactly why I'm just really excited to be on this Insight team. Because we bring that solution design and its not just users and devices but the apps that they use, the platforms that these run on everything integrated together and we really are a next gen SSI solution provider that can handle everything end-to-end.
DAN
Yeah and if you think about that, if you just try to become that kind of partner right now, you would not have the working capital or time to do that to demand the market over-all is down. Its high in certain areas like we've been talking about. So, there truly gonna be a struggle right now of people that are trying to become that kind of partner. But fortunately, this has been on Insight's long-term strategic plan to really become a Super Solution Integrator because we had a customers' future needs in mind and so as a result right now we are able to pivot quickly to help them design prototypes and scale the types of things that are needed today and that's the real differentiator I think for players like us.
DAVID
Yeah I was just saying that I think about that saying I think its attributed to Darwin that "It's not the strong that survive, it’s the ability to adapt" and what we are seeing in the industry right now are the certain companies that aren't able to adapt and they are starting to lose market share and just not be successful. So ultimately as we talk through improving the business continuity and risk-management––being able to help our customers look at their sourcing strategies and cost structures, and even how they are performing and the policies contracts they have in place today and just looking at everything and really saying okay, how can we optimize you, that's part of the full solution.
DAN
Very well said David, and all very top-of-mind conversations that we're ready to have as an organization. So we wanna thank everyone for joining this edition of TechTalk and if you'd like to know more about the conversation we discussed or how we can help your company scale and do things that are relevant now, please reach out to us we're here to help. And also thank you David for joining, have a great afternoon.
DAVID
You too Dan. Take care.
DAN
Take care.
[Music]
Director for Connected Workforce, Insight
Dan is a results-driven business leader with more than 28 years’ experience in the IT and consulting industries. As a professional change agent, he has held CIO, CTO and SVP titles in customer-facing, service provider and consulting organizations. In working with Fortune 500 and mid-market companies, he has learned the importance of creating positive business impact and successful outcomes for companies in a variety of industries. Dan understands that traditional IT strategies fall short in the face of today’s specialized demands. True success requires new ways of working to bridge current gaps and address future needs.
Product Manager of Services for Connected Workforce, Insight
A proven and dynamic IT leader, David joined Insight in 2010. He's currently dedicated to envisioning, designing and building service offerings that improve the employee experience with technology and support. If you’re looking for transformational workplace services that will drive your company’s productivity, achieve business outcomes and optimize costs — David can help you craft that solution.
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