The recent past has revealed a range of challenges and constraints IT organizations worldwide face, from growing security threats like ransomware costing millions to supply chain issues slowing product development.
But it’s not just issues that these enterprises face, as many things, in general, are changing. For instance, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a remote work environment some companies are still embracing.
For any IT business to grow, it’s incredibly important to extend the infrastructure to support that growth. A data center experiencing unprecedented data transfer volumes requires the right size of infrastructure to handle it. However, growing your IT footprint to support growth or complete specific projects isn’t always easy.
Choosing the right vendor is mind-boggling, let alone finding the equipment you need. And in many cases, there’s an urgency which, unfortunately, the inefficient supply chains from vendors and suppliers aren’t designed for.
To get ahead in the game, provide the best service, and sustain growth, you must ensure your IT infrastructure is growing similarly. This is where professional services like PivIT come in to take care of your IT procurement woes.
In this article, we’ll discuss the following:
- The various challenges that IT enterprises face with procuring resources, implementing projects, and maintaining infrastructure.
- How professional services can be useful in addressing these problems.
- PivIT’s wide range of solutions.
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The Challenges of Procurement, Scale Up, Implementation, and Maintenance
A plethora of challenges can restrain IT organizations like data centers, telecommunication enterprises, internet service providers, or cloud providers. Some may be inevitable, but most of these problems can be resolved with the right approach.
Shortage of Equipment
It’s a frequent problem faced by IT enterprises that has a ripple effect over other industries.
A case in point is the recent chip shortage. According to Deloitte, the chip shortage crisis has increased the lead time to 20 weeks. This shortage has resulted in a supply chain crisis, impacting many industries and products, from automobiles to healthcare devices.
While this is just an example of what equipment shortage can do, the tech industry is also rampant with gear shortages. Finding the necessary equipment for IT enterprises to run their operations can become a nightmare.
Supply Chain Risks
Even if devices or equipment are readily available from a manufacturer or supplier, there isn’t any guarantee they will be delivered on time. For critical operations, organizations simply cannot take that kind of risk. They often have to keep spares on location, which only adds to their inventory and overall operational costs.
Then there are the factors beyond one’s control, such as sociopolitical conflicts or climate disasters that can quickly impact shipping.
Shortage of Tech Expertise
Another common cause for delays in project implementations and the eventual slowdown of company growth is an acute shortage of tech talent. But it’s not the talent shortage that’s troublesome — it’s the shortage of expertise and skills.
According to Gartner, IT executives consider the shortage of tech talent as a barrier to adopting emerging technologies. The shortage of engineers is even more acute, as the US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the shortage will swell to 1.2 million engineers by 2026.
This means that IT companies simply don’t have the talent to deploy equipment and finish projects, should they procure resources in the first place.
Poor or Limited Support From OEMs
Support and maintenance are key to reliability in IT infrastructure. Whether a data center or a local internet service provider, the infrastructure is made of devices from many manufacturers.
Managing support and maintenance from different OEMs is a challenge in its own right, and it gets even more complicated when it’s not good or long enough.
After a certain period, the OEM covered support and maintenance ends, even if the devices are in working condition.
Quick Changing Technology
Technology is changing at an unprecedentedly quick speed. With the advent of technologies like artificial intelligence, edge computing, serverless framework, microservices, and the Internet of Things, companies must quickly adapt to the latest tech to keep up.
But to adapt quickly, you need the right infrastructure. Constantly adding new devices to the technology stack only complicates the situation, not to mention increasing operating costs.
Budget Overspend
On average, 45 percent of large IT projects run over budget, as per a McKinsey report. There are various factors at play when it comes to controlling the costs of a project or operational expenses for overall infrastructure. However, it can become an even bigger problem in the long run.
How Professional Services Can Help
One of the biggest mistakes any company can make — particularly an IT enterprise — is taking everything into its hands. Rather than focusing on the main business goals, companies often embroil themselves in issues, taking on things that a third party could do.
For many of the risks and challenges listed above, there’s probably a professional service that can handle things. For example, IT companies can hire tech talent agencies rather than searching for talent alone. Similarly, a maintenance company can take care of all the maintenance requirements for IT infrastructure.
Utilizing specialists for a specific problem or challenge can allow you to focus on the bigger picture, which is growing your business. It ensures that those low-level issues like supply chain delays or lack of hardware engineers don’t hold you back.
Identifying challenging areas in your operations that can be outsourced to professionals is important to save time and money.
It costs money to hire those professional services, but the revenue you’ll make by completing projects on time and growing your business will more than make up for it in the long run.
Use PivIT for Your IT Organization
PivIT is a one-stop solution for many of the needs of today’s growing IT organizations. Whether procuring parts of your infrastructure or deploying new projects, the many professional services of PivIT are designed to enable IT enterprises to do what they do best.
For starters, PivIT has an extensive network of stockists and suppliers, ensuring your equipment is at your premises when needed. Telecommunication, data center, and service providers can procure critical and secondary equipment through PivIT from leading manufacturers.
For IT projects, PivIT’s EXTEND program brings a slew of technical services in one place. The SmartHands service can cater to the staffing needs of IT companies. This staffing service can fill the gaps in the tech expertise necessary for implementing complex, big projects by providing project-based or general support. PivIT maintains a global network of engineering talent that’s at your disposal.
Disposing of older infrastructure is a tall order for those upgrading to newer infrastructure. PivIT’s IT asset disposition (ITAD) services can decommission and dispose of older infrastructure safely and responsibly.
Additionally, ambitious IT companies can take advantage of PivIT’s one-of-a-kind Remote Staging Environment that can help with timely and easy project deployments even if you don’t have the expertise on-premise. The proprietary out-of-band (OOB) management platform allows for remote collaboration on projects, handling logistics, and remote deployment with labeled infrastructure, from devices to cables to ports.
PivIT’s professional services can help you mitigate supply chain risks, extend hands onboard projects, maintain your infrastructure to a tee, and deploy projects on time and within budget. With those services out of mind, you can focus on what matters — growing your business.