Let's say you're trying to decide whether and how to outsource some of your business processes--a decision that typically involves large, contractual outlays of cash and complex organizational interactions and consequences. If this is the first time your organization is considering this kind of arrangement, it makes sense to consult an expert who knows the pitfalls of outsourcing before you sign on the dotted line. "You may well want to slow down, take a day and really understand what's up with this initiative," Kopeck says. "If something is wrong with the process, you'll want to fix it first, then outsource."
Decision Dissection
Identifying your exact needs is just the first step. At some point, you'll be challenged to justify your decision to bring in outside help. Here, a comparison is in order: What would the project cost in time, money and quality if you rely on in-house expertise as opposed to hiring a consultant? What if you chose some combination of the two? It's tricky to gain insight on quality apart from references and other soft measures, but time and money are quantifiable and easy to key into your spreadsheet package.
As you can see by glancing at the graphic "Sample Cost Worksheets for Active Directory Rollout" scenarios, projects that need to get done quickly--without staff having to come up to speed--are a natural for using consulting extensively, at a penalty of cost. After all, not only will you have to pay the consultant, but you will also have to do some margin of formal training, knowledge transfer and integration work with your staff.
Projects with a tighter budget but a large time window can work well if you train your own staff: It's less expensive to use staff, but training and execution require much more time. Naturally, projects that fall somewhere in the middle are a good fit for a combination of pay-as-you-go consulting and in-house expertise, where the ultimate responsibility for pulling off the project is in-house, though you can draw on outside expertise to validate designs or answer questions.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
