Unisys Study Indicates Surge in IT Support Services

Compared to five years ago, technology usage - including daily use of desktop computers, laptops, cell phones and PDAs - has increased 50 percent among professionals in nearly two-thirds of large organizations surveyed by Unisys. In half of the organizations polled, at least one-third of employees use more than one digital device that requires regular support. Additionally, in nearly one-third of the organizations surveyed, employees are using digital devices at least twice as long each day as they did in the past.

Along with increased dependence on technology comes the need for increased IT support, and averages indicate that supporting a PC and other digital devices costs four times more than the device itself. As a result, in nearly half of these large organizations, spending on end-user services has grown at least 50 percent since 2001.

"The end-user community in many organizations is diverse, geographically dispersed and increasingly mobile, severely challenging IT staff to provide appropriate levels of support to ensure that technology is always working and employee productivity never suffers," said Joe Hogan, vice president, Strategic Outsourcing Programs, Unisys. "Some employees are extremely proficient with new technology, while others are complete novices requiring different levels of support. Plus, workers' increasing use of consumer technology for work and 'life-related' business adds new levels of complexity to support requirements."

Raising the White Flag - and Flagging Myths
The IT staffs of large enterprises need help in supporting those changing requirements. The need to provide more intensive levels of support for various types of employees - for example, prioritizing on those who drive revenue, those who support it administratively, and those who deliver results - makes the picture even more complicated. Outsourcing has become an urgent consideration for organizations to meet the increased demand for end-user support, increase productivity and control costs.

However, it can be difficult for enterprises to forge an outsourcing relationship furthering a strategy that produces results yielding real business value, including cost savings, increased productivity and innovation over the length of the relationship.

That difficulty can be complicated by the need to overcome the negative perceptions and myths associated with using outside partners to provide IT support services. According to the Unisys Trusted Enterprise Index, more than 60 percent of business and IT professionals in the US and UK believe that outsourcing business functions, such as IT support, can erode trust in an organization among its key audiences.

Further, negative feelings about outsourcing abound because many executives struggle to measure the true business value of outsourcing or its intangible benefits beyond the basic metric of cost-savings. According to a recent IDG Research Services study commissioned by Unisys, the majority (53 percent) of respondents rated as "fair" or "poor" their ability to measure the business value of outsourcing relationships. Measuring innovation was the category most frequently cited as important but difficult to achieve consistently.

"Because of the need to consider outsourcing as a strategy to adapt to change, innovate and sustain performance, executives can and must embrace the facts about outsourcing and remain ahead of the negative perceptions and myths that currently exist," added Hogan. "Otherwise they run the risk of failing to deliver IT services in the optimal way to help high-productivity employees maximize their contribution and keep the business growing" -