Outsourcing brings a diverse range of benefits to a company, with well-architected Digital Transformation projects boosting productivity and generating a healthy ROI. Startups stand to gain even more from outsourcing partnerships. But even the best executed Digital Transformation project can prompt questions about outsourcing and the circumstances under which it may be advantageous to keep a startup’s technology in house.
Startups and Digital Transformation Projects
Startups can gain lots of traction from Digital Transformation projects, but success may bring questions of when it can be beneficial to handle things in-house versus outsourcing DX-related tasks to a trusted third-party service provider.
Companies must carefully evaluate the financial aspects of this equation because it doesn’t always make sense to invest the time and money into in-house resources. Here are a few key considerations to help guide your decision on whether to outsource or handle technology in-house.
Do You Have the Staff? – Consider whether your startup has staff with sufficient bandwidth to handle your company’s Digital Transformation-related tasks. Hiring, onboarding and training can place a significant burden on a company’s human resources division, making it impractical from a strategic and operational perspective. And this says nothing of the fact that you would be adding a number of additional tasks to the HR department’s to-do list. Hiring also brings the potential for firing down the road. This too can sap a company’s resources.
Do You Have the Resources for Development? – Digital Transformation projects require good project management skills and significant resources. This often proves to be a real drain on a startup’s human and non-human resources. You need a development team with the expertise to create and test a platform or other digital solution. If your existing team lacks the expertise, then you’ll need to hire new talent, which carries long-term financial implications.
Do You Have the Ability to Maintain New Technology? – Digital Transformation must be viewed as a continuous process with periodic updates and maintenance being essential for success. Software, mobile apps and other technologies must be evaluated and updated periodically to ensure continued compatibility with integrated systems. This can be a major drain on resources, especially if your business has multiple enterprise software systems in place.
Do You Have the Marketing Capabilities? – Even the best Digital Transformation project will fail to generate a ROI if nobody knows about it. Therefore, it’s essential that you evaluate your in-house marketing capabilities so you can determine whether this is something that ought to be handled in-house or outsourced to a third-party service provider.
Do You Have the Ability to Provide Comprehensive Training? – A well-architected Digital Transformation project will fall short of generating the maximum ROI if you don’t provide sufficient training. An in-depth training program will equip staff with the knowledge they need to leverage your company’s technology in the best possible way. Training is a critical aspect of any good Digital Transformation strategy.
Do You Have the Data Management and Storage Capabilities? – A Digital Transformation development project requires a robust data management strategy, with data storage capabilities that allow for the implementation of security measures that will ensure compliance with the industry’s regulatory requirements.
It’s important that you’re realistic and honest as you assess whether it’s advantageous to take a startup’s technology in-house. The wrong decision can prove costly, both from an operational perspective and from a financial perspective. Decision-makers must consider the upfront costs, short term costs and the long term expenses.
You should also determine whether you can sustain efforts to manage your startup’s technology in-house when the time comes to up-scale. Will you have the resources and expertise required to effectively manage your technology in-house as the startup expands and grows? And what’s the timeframe for up-scaling? It may not be practical to establish in-house processes and resources if you would need to shift operations to an outsourcing partner in the relatively near future.
Achieving a Solid ROI With Digital Transformation Development Projects
Finding the right outsourcing partner is essential in the recipe for success, whether you’re a brand new startup or a well-established corporation. To achieve your Digital Transformation goals using process automation, you’ll need an experienced team that knows how to develop technologies that will capture your unique processes and workflows, while simultaneously improving efficiency and productivity.
At 7T, we take a collaborative approach to enterprise development projects. We engage the client from the discovery phase to deployment. Our many Digital Transformation service offerings include process automation solutions, enterprise software development for ERP and CRM systems (among others), along with SaaS development for web apps and mobile apps, amongst others. We work extensively with cutting-edge technologies as we strive to help clients solve pain points, improve efficiency and achieve their business goals.
We’re guided by the approach of “Digital Transformation Driven by Business Strategy.” As such, the 7T development team works with company leaders who are seeking to solve problems and drive ROI through Digital Transformation and innovation. We then provide collaborative, multi-phased and impactful Digital Transformation solutions.
7T has offices in Dallas, Houston and Austin, but our clientele spans the globe. If you’re ready to learn more about Digital Transformation and what we can do for your business, contact 7T today.
