It's a fact of life: No outsourcer will meet all the needs of your business perfectly. Of course, we could say the same thing about in-house IT shops, but when you have direct control, you have room for improvement through prioritization. The fulcrum that balances outsourcing is being willing and able to give up flexibility and control to get savings.
As word leaks out about your network-management outsourcing plans, expect your employees to think worst-case scenario. Even if you are not cutting staff but instead repurposing some or all to new projects, morale will suffer. Change is traumatic. Be straight with your people, or key employees will seek other work. Make no mistake, your IT staff's knowledge is a tangible organizational asset; losing it would negatively affect pre- and post-conversion operations and hinder a smooth knowledge transfer. And if the outsourcing effort fails, converting to a new MSP or bringing operations back in house will require staff and knowledge acquisition.
In the past, outsourcers could bolster knowledge transfer by absorbing some of their clients' existing staff. Now, though, MSPs are under more economic pressure, and given the limited number of dollars involved in an SMB contract, staff redeployment is less likely. None of the management outsourcers responding to our RFI even hinted at this option.
Of course, monetary incentives can slow turnover. In addition, some knowledge will transfer to the outsourcer naturally during the conversion process, and some will exist in the reporting that the MSP provides.
But some of your employees--and their knowledge--will walk into the parking lot, turn the key and drive away. Count on it.
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