24/7 UK-based IT outsourcing
Is your IT platform holding you back? Is IT struggling to keep up with business growth? Is your IT team spending too much time managing day-to-day IT and not enough time delivering strategic value back to the business?
It is a difficult juggling act but one of the ways to overcome these challenges is through outsourcing.
Outsourcing your IT will allow you to run a more flexible, agile and scalable IT operation than you are able to provide in house. It can re-energise your IT team, freeing up more of their time to spend on strategic projects rather than BAU IT.
How Acora can help
Our IT outsourcing solution enables you to hand over full responsibility for your end users and your infrastructure to us.
Our 24/7/365 service desk will deliver 1st, 2nd and 3rd line support to your end users and look after your infrastructure, to your defined hours and standard SLAs, whilst making sure the outcomes are fully aligned to your business objectives.
With Acora’s outsourcing solution you can also tap in to an experienced team of IT consultants, software engineers, cloud architects and project managers for IT consultancy or additional support to implement significant IT infrastructure and application transformation projects faster.
Infrastructure Management
Core components
- Change management
- Patch management
- Asset management
- Supplier management
- Capacity management
- Security management
End User Support
Core components
- 1st line support
- Problem resolution
- Incident management
- Third party escalation
- Service request fulfilment
- User device support
Our simple onboarding process
We recognise that making the decision to hand over all or part of your IT operations to a third party is a significant one and a smooth transition is key to the success of the ongoing partnership. With Acora, you’re in safe hands. Our tried and tested methodology is built on years of experience.
Following the five simple steps outlined below, we will transition all or part of your IT service from you or your current supplier to us, smoothly, efficiently and on time.
Step 1
Project Inititiation
We appoint a dedicated transition manager, establish the transition plan and agree the transition success criteria and implementation approach.
Step 2
Knowledge Transfer
We capture, and share knowledge held by existing suppliers and internal teams. We outline the roles and responsibilities of each party in the process.
Step 3
Toolsets
We capture information relating to the agreement, deployment and configuration of the toolsets to support the managed service.
Step 4
Interim Support
We take responsibility from the current supplier or client for services in a phased approach to mitigate any potential impact on business as usual.
Step 5
Handover
Following the “service commencement date” we contractually take responsibility for the delivery of all in-scope services.
Are you looking to switch to a new IT outsourcing provider?
If so, we’d love to speak to you! Some of our most successful long-term partnerships are with second time outsourcers. These are organisations who have outgrown the capabilities of their existing partner and have moved to Acora for a more mature service.
If your provider is not delivering on your SLAs or can no longer meet your requirements in terms of 24/7 capability, innovation and ability to scale, then perhaps it’s time for a change.
Switching provider is not as daunting as you think. Follow our simple process and find out if you are ready to outsource your IT to Acora.
Key benefits of Acora’s IT outsourcing solution
- Keep your systems running whilst you focus on core business functions
- Increase business efficiency by aligning IT to your business requirements
- Expertise, resource and technology without the investment
- Resolve recruitment and retention problems
- Deliver the flexibility you need to manage current and desired IT state
- Financial certainty with predictable and fixed monthly costs
Customer Success Stories
24/7/365 support for first time outsourcer
Our client provides wholesale out-of-town data centre space for some of the world’s largest companies. Having lost 2 members of its IT team – the company decided to outsource their IT because they wanted to focus on business and not be concerned with day to day IT operations.
Successful transition to Acora 24/7 outsourced service
Our client, a home finance company, is a high-profile, financial services organisation, with over 200 employees. The company sought a new IT Services partner to support an infrastructure transformation activity and successfully transition away from their incumbent provider.
24/7 service desk support for second time outsourcer
Our client is one of the UK’s largest trade unions. The organisation’s current IT contract with a single provider for 1st – 3rd line support was not delivering the service value they needed. As a result they decided to split the services and move to a multi source agreement.
Why Acora
24/7 UK-based operation
Mid market focus
25 years pedigree
Market leading systems
Mature Processes
ITIL Aligned Processes
Monitoring tools
Highly trained service community
FAQs
What to outsource?
The beauty of outsourcing is its inherent flexibility – almost any function or process can be outsourced these days. From general IT functions like technical support, to physical infrastructure, to line-of-business applications, there is a service provider to match.
Here at Acora we provide a comprehensive range of outsourcing options including:
• Front-line IT support
• Infrastructure maintenance
• Hosted desktop applications
• Hosted business applications (Dynamics NAV ERP and CRM)
• Microsoft Azure Cloud infrastructure development
The real question is ‘where to start?’
What to outsource first?
Although simple in principle, outsourcing is a significant step for your business. It is not advisable to outsource everything at once.
Instead, outsourcing should be prioritised in line with your business strategy. It makes sense to start with something small – replacing desktop Microsoft Office with subscription-based Office 365 for instance – to test outsourcing mechanisms and the benefits available.
Outsourcing is best completed according to a step-by-step plan over a period of many months (depending on the complexity of your IT environment).
Working with an IT partner allows you to draw from their experience and make the most strategically valuable outsourcing decisions. Contact our team to learn more.
How does IT outsourcing work?
As technology increases in strategic importance, your business needs access to highly-skilled engineers. But rising employment costs could break the budget – or leave you without the skills you need.
Instead of hiring your own IT team, outsourcing agreements provide you with a central helpdesk for initial fault finding and troubleshooting. This team is backed by highly-skilled Level 2 and 3 engineers who provide hands-on assistance – including site visits if required. And all for a fixed monthly fee.
As a fully flexible service, you can outsource specific functions – like your helpdesk and first line support – right up to your entire IT operations.
Can outsourcing work for medium size businesses?
Outsourcing works for businesses of all sizes, from the micro start-up reliant on SaaS applications like Microsoft Office 365, to the enterprise-class organisation who outsources their operating infrastructure to a Cloud infrastructure platform like Microsoft Azure.
Outsourcing allows SMEs to realise all the benefits of a dedicated IT team without the employment overheads that their enterprise-class competitors must absorb. For the cost-conscious medium-sized business, outsourcing maximises returns on IT spend.
And as medium sized companies are likely to be growing, outsourcing gives them the flexibility to scale more easily by tapping in to additional resource as and when they need it.
What drives IT outsourcing?
There are many reasons why businesses choose to outsource IT, but common drivers include cost savings, workforce rationalisation, skills shortages, and improved operational agility. Outsourcing allows your business to better predict and control costs without compromising on the quality of service provided to internal stakeholders or customers.
Because the outsourcing provider is responsible for hiring suitably qualified and experienced staff, your company can direct more resources to strategic projects, rather than day-to-day operations
Further Reading
Get in touch
The Acora team is ready and waiting to understand your challenges and see how we can help.
Contact details
Acora
Pegasus House, 1 Cranbrook Way, Shirley, Solihull B90 4GT
Acora
Acora House, Albert Drive, Burgess Hill, West Sussex RH15 9TN
01444 221123
International callers please use: +44 1444 221123