Introducing the four B's of IT services
With new challenges comes a need for new perspectives. As the world of work suffers one seismic shock after another, it’s increasingly perilous to rely on the old maps to navigate the shifting terrain.
Happily, there are always wayfinders out there, plotting new paths through the landscape and shaping more progressive, mature organisational talent models.
So it is with today’s skills shortage. For myriad unforeseen reasons – some cyclical, some systemic – we are seeing vast gaps opening up in key knowledge sectors. The acceleration of digitisation in particular means that IT skills are in unprecedented demand. And while classic resourcing methods are often enough to plug those gaps, there are times when a more fluid approach to accessing talent pays great dividends.
In technology resourcing, one of the more interesting paths being uncovered by HR and procurement wayfinders is the shift in focus from provision of resource to provision of outcome. Under this alternative way of thinking, the big question is not ‘Who do we need to get the job done?’ but more fundamentally ‘What are we actually trying to achieve?’.
The next step is to take this question to an IT services provider to agree the specific outputs being sought. Then you effectively ‘hand over’ those outputs, removing the guesswork from resourcing decisions and instead relying on specialist expertise to work out the best way to get there.Neither talent nor procurement teams are IT experts, and there are potentially many routes to the desired outcome of a defined IT project.
By adopting a model that focuses first on the destination, you get to focus on the business matter at hand, leaving outside experts (such as our tech talent specialists Experis) to plot the most effective and efficient path forward. Farewell bums on seats, hello brains in gear.
1. Build – Invest in learning and development to upskill your people and grow your talent pipeline
2. Buy – Go to the external market to find the best talent that cannot be built in house in the required timeframe
3. Borrow – Cultivate communities of talent, including part-time, freelance, contract and temporary workers to complement existing skills
4. Bridge – Help people move on and move up to new roles inside or outside the organisation.
As a resourcing partner, the Four Bs capture ManpowerGroup’s best-practice guidance on building effective workforce strategies in the digital age. For IT projects, they can be reordered and redefined as paths to desired outcomes for different types of project and services. Here’s how the Four Bs of IT Services can help your organisation flourish.
In the world of Agile development, the use of flexible, multidisciplinary teams is the new norm. There are projects where it makes most sense to augment your existing team with a seamless blend of Experis and/or partner-based resources. These squads can be fluid and scalable, ready to assemble, evolve and disperse as needs change.
By way of analogy, let’s say you’re a keen weekend gardener who wants to improve their garden.
When thinking about Services Bridge, this could be a landscaping project that you’re keen to get your own hands dirty on, but which requires your gardener’s expertise – and contacts – to carry out. The point with Services Bridge is that you’re still the one outlining and owning the vision, but being supported in the safe delivery of that vision by a hand-selected team of experts.
Certain IT projects come with a clear outcome and defined delivery timescale. You give the provider the outcome expectations; they scope and build the project/resource plan to meet the agreed costs and timescale.
Continuing with the garden analogy, in the Borrow example, you bring in the professional at the start. Your outcome is the water feature; you agree between you how it’s going to look and what success looks like in terms of quantity and quality of output. From that point on, the project is in their hands and you can get back to your day job, while still being able to check in on schedules and progress.
It’s important to note that your organisation must be comfortable handing over control of the project for this model to be successful.
Now let’s say your gardener installed a water feature and it was a roaring (or babbling) success. You’re thrilled with the results. Even better, you’ve found a reliable gardener who you now decide to contract for fortnightly maintenance work. The timeframe here is potentially longer, an ongoing commitment over months or years, and the outputs are agreed deliverables with qualitative and quantitative service levels – lawnmowing once a week, hedge trimming to less than 2 metres, weeding around specific plants, etc.
So it is with Services Buy. You may want the provider to take on a task like Remote Infrastructure Management or your IT Service Desk. With agreed scope and relevant SLAs in place, we’ll expertly deliver the service you need with a scalable model that flexes in capacity to meet changes in demand.
Finally, the thing with gardens is they never stop growing. There are always new discoveries to be made about what grows well where, new techniques for plant care and new equipment to do the job better. A good gardener is always looking, always learning, always upskilling.At Experis, so are we. We set up the Experis Academy to ensure our knowledge workers keep pace with technological development. For you, this means quick access to high-calibre talent equipped with the in-demand skills required to solve your evolving IT challenges and achieve the outcomes that actually matter to your business. Our Services Build capability keeps your IT operation looking rosy whatever the future throws at it.
We’re hugely excited by the possibilities opened up by reconceptualising IT service provision through the Four Bs model. If you’re inspired by those possibilities, we’d love to discuss them in more detail with you. Get in touch today to start the conversation.
