12 PROCESS AND PRACTICE

Photography: Aad Hoogendoorn

DANIL HUIJBENS (right)

...has worked at TOPdesk for 10 years as a consultant, team leader and project manager, and has helped over 100 organizations improve their services.

Text: Niek Steenhuis

PROCESS AND PRACTICE 13

STAY IN CONTROL
More and more organizations are outsourcing their services. This is routine for facilities organizations, but may take some getting used to for IT organizations. However, they have a lot to gain, as TOPdesk consultant Danil Huijbens has discovered.

here is a lot to say for outsourcing services during times of crisis: you lower your monthly costs and have

management. When the crisis hit, the company decided to outsource its entire IT department to Capatos, a large IT service provider. It was essential that the costs be as low as possible. I noticed that outsourcing had a negative effect on their services. Capatos had moved the helpdesk to Suriname, for instance. It was a lot cheaper, but customers soon discovered that the quality of the service had deteriorated. The helpdesk staff was not familiar with the hardware and software used by Producia, so they could not gauge the impact a malfunction would have. In addition, Producia had not standardized its hardware

greater freedom in only employing staff when you need them. Facilities organizations have a long history of outsourcing services, such as cleaning and catering, but outsourcing is also becoming more popular within the IT field. Unfortunately, this does not always improve efficiency, and can have a negative effect on services. I will use two typical case studies to explain my perspective on how IT and facilities organizations handle outsourcing, and what this can mean for these fields.

IT organization Producia
A few years ago, I visited Producia, a successful Dutch multinational. They had always taken care of their own IT services, from the helpdesk and workspace management to system and network

or software, making it difficult for Capatos to manage its systems. The IT service supply and demand is the root of this problem. The IT department wants an affordable solution, but they should be

14 PROCESS AND PRACTICE

THE EXTERNAL HELPDESK COULD NOT GAUGE THE IMPACT A MALFUNCTION WOULD HAVE
Danil Huijbens - TOPdesk consultancy

focusing on the quality of service. If that was their main focus, they would not outsource the helpdesk to Suriname a questionable decision at any rate. This is why the IT department should clearly formulate their goals and communicate them to the service provider. It is even more important that the business and the IT supplier continue to discuss and monitor the solution. This key element was missing in this case.

make new agreements with its suppliers. To improve communication, external employees took up dedicated positions at Endemol, working under a permanent manager. The service desk also received a more central position in the new building literally. In addition, the IT, Facilities and HR coordinators take part in a monthly production meeting to ensure that the supporting departments stay up to date on the customers expectations. Finally, they conduct a survey every year to gauge

and the Facilities department could see an improvement in the collaboration between the suppliers and the rest of the organization. I think that the approach taken by Endemols Facilities department is a great example of how outsourcing should be tackled. The Facilities department is responsible for the quality of services provided by the supplier, and sets clear supplier requirements. The supplier is closely involved with the entire organization and there is an ongoing dialogue between the department and the customer. Supply and demand is a natural part of operations for Endemol and many other

Endemols facilities department

Endemol has a lot of experience in outsourcing services. Their facilities department runs its own service counter, while everything else is taken care of by external parties. The facilities departments main task is managing the suppliers. The organizational structure worked, but the services still had room for improvement. They had trouble with the high staff turnover and did not like having to see new faces so often. These frequent changes affected the contact with the service desk. Moreover, Endemol and the suppliers expectations did not match, leading to dissatisfaction. When Endemol decided to relocate a number of years ago, they took the opportunity to

employee satisfaction.

THEY RUN THEIR OWN SERVICE COUNTER, EVERYTHING ELSE IS TAKEN CARE OF BY EXTERNAL PARTIES
Danil Huijbens - TOPdesk consultancy

Facilities organizations: it is simply a part of a Facilities employees daily tasks. The IT world is only just discovering outsourcing, and still eyes suppliers suspiciously. This is why I advise IT organizations to learn from their colleagues in Facilities Management. Outsourcing services may be new to IT organizations, so why not take advantage of the years of experience Facilities organizations have?

IT can learn from Facilities

I could see that these changes were a success when I last visited Endemol. The employees were satisfied with the services,