Staff salaries are one of the biggest overheads for enterprises, prompting them to now even more critically examine headcount budgets as the world of work evolves.
The key question they are asking is whether additional single or multiple full-time employee (FTE) headcounts can provide the breadth of capability they need for essential projects. Is the traditional and sometimes cumbersome approach of hiring more permanent people in today's dynamic environment becoming less appropriate?
Employing extra FTEs as a sole strategy to address sometimes short-term peaks and troughs in business demand, particularly relating to IT, can sometimes lead to inefficiencies and over-investment. And there's a double-edged sword; on top of the commitment and expense, finding and retaining skilled, experienced and well-trained professionals, is a growing challenge.
Skills Deficiency
Research house Gartner says there is a deficiency in the required skills of expert IT executives, so the employment market is tight and getting tighter. For example, Gartner says "capacity planning and performance management skills within IT infrastructure and operations (I&O) teams are no longer sufficient to meet business needs in the digital economy era".
They have this dire forecast: "By 2016, the availability of capacity and performance management skills for horizontally scaled architectures will be a major constraint or risk to growth for 80% of major businesses".
Gartner research director Ian Head, puts it this way: "While major organisations continue to maintain and sustain their conventional capacity-planning skills and tools, they need to regularly re-evaluate the tools available and develop the capacity and performance management skills present in the Web-scale IT community."
Blended staffing
So, the employment environment, particularly relating to ICT, is being transformed and companies are increasingly looking to 'work smarter' by adopting a blended supply of FTE and contract resourcing.
In a budget environment demanding 'more for less', enterprises are seeking external services and outsourcing models that can provide specific resources, for a specific period, to achieve efficiency and cost control.
A new model is needed that enables organisations to add the appropriate resources when needed with the least amount of administration and overhead.
Valuable Logicalis service extension
Logicalis People (Flexible Resources) enables this model, extending Logicalis' current service offerings by providing 'on tap' experts for specific projects, or to meet short-term demand.
In contrast to the traditional co-sourcing service approaches, Logicalis People provides experts that do not replace an organisation's existing workforce. Instead it provides an extra strategic business unit to assist the organisation to achieve business goals.
Adopting the Logicalis People package brings many benefits beyond what any recruitment companies can offer. It removes the traditional burden associated with recruitment, saves funds by turning fixed costs into variable costs and removes liabilities associated with employing temporary workers.
A wider talent pool
Clients gain access to a wider talent pool and obtain the ability to choose from Technical, Distributed Support, Service Delivery and Project Management Skills, plus many more.
Adopting the new package can also generate fresh insights, and independent thinking leading to innovative ideas and approaches, without disrupting an organisation's permanent head count.
A key goal is to adopt better strategies for maximising a client's productivity. Logicalis can leverage it’s existing relationships and partner eco system to provide resourcing strategies that combine project, T&M (test and measurement) and Logicalis People resources to provide the best possible fit for an IT Manager's business and technical requirements.
The Logicalis understanding of clients' IT infrastructure and business culture enables the new package to dove-tail with individual organisation's specific requirements.
Complete supporting services
Under this package the Logicalis People consultants are supplied with complete supporting services, meaning they can access valuable facilities such as the Logicalis Lab, or the collective expertise of the Logicalis professional services team.
This new Logicalis service provides consultants for a range of requirements, from short-term work efforts to big project teams, including short and longer-term consulting exercises.
A strategic answer
Going down a "flexible resourcing" path an be a strategic solution for many current enterprise pain points. It can enable quick and successful completion of one-off, large, short-term, or urgent projects. This approach is in line with the forecast future for shared services and outsourcing.
To find out more, read our whitepaper on the Logicalis People offering.
