Customer satisfaction 'must be central' to outsourcing decisions
Although outsourcing help desk services can reduce costs by as much as 30 to 40 per cent, customer satisfaction must remain a key factor of consideration, Gartner has claimed.
Based on interviews with its clients, the analyst found that outsourced help desk voice support services have experienced problems, particularly those deployed offshore. It warned that poor quality
services could lead to significant customer dissatisfaction.
Richard Matlus, research vice-president at Gartner, said: "Although offshoring an IT help desk may produce significant cost savings, IT management needs to determine whether that decision is
right for the enterprise.
"For most IT organisations, the help desk is the primary end-user-facing organisation, so if end users are not satisfied with it, then it will have a negative effect on the IT organisation," he added.
Gartner suggested that enterprises assess whether outsourcing providers can meet their requirements before entering into any agreement, and review the provider's offshore service for cultural
understanding and language proficiency.
According to IDC, the growth of outsourcing is providing the western European IT services market with a timely boost and it will continue to flourish
despite the credit crunch. In 2008, the analyst predicts that outsourcing will overtake project services as the largest IT service sub-sector.
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