Scaling up IT projects from local to global level isn’t always a simple process for international businesses. Multiple locations, inconsistent pricing and contracts, conflicting service levels and global deals with central budgets but regional decisions are just some of the challenges decision makers face when deploying global IT projects.
The global pandemic has forced organisations to transform overnight. In one European survey, about 70% of executives from Austria, Germany and Switzerland said the pandemic is likely to accelerate the pace of digital transformation. Business needs have changed as companies have adapted to a new way of working; they have had to deploy IT infrastructure at speed to support a remote workforce in order to continue with ‘business as usual’ as much as possible.
The sudden transition has only heightened the challenges businesses were facing previously when it comes to
global IT projects. But an organisation’s future state and market readiness doesn’t have to be set in stone and there is a solution to this problem.
International presence
We are witnessing an increasing importance of IT in the value chain, and reliable global provision of IT infrastructure is paramount to any enterprise. However, international businesses often struggle to deliver operational efficiencies in multiple locations with local intricacies including different time zones, language barriers and region-specific requirements. In fact, according to a recent survey, a third of multilingual companies struggle with language barriers and almost half (49%) say collaborating across time zones is an issue.
Under the current circumstances, travel restrictions and social distancing measures have forced international companies to work at more local levels. As restrictions start easing, businesses are considering whether a return to the office is necessary and what this could look like. For those who are heading back to the workplace, getting technology supplies in very short timescales will be vital to bring the workforce back safely.
A global technology partner has extensive experience delivering quality solutions and services and recognises the pitfalls and hurdles from previous experiences. Having global teams means it’s well equipped to engage all business functions to boost productivity and drive collaboration across different time zones and locations as circumstances change.
All-encompassing coordination
Once global organisations have overcome the strain of deploying operational efficiencies, they often face challenges when it comes to inconsistent prices, contracts, standards and reporting which ultimately impacts the speed to market.
The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in many businesses anticipating significant reductions in revenue. Companies will potentially be looking to shift contracts to more flexible arrangements, such as changing SLAs to reduce costs or seeking more flexible commercial models with shorter time scales.
If businesses work with a global partner, the latter can help to coordinate engagement from pre-sales, solution
design, commercial models, order processing, invoicing and logistics across all operations. Cooperating with a partner means businesses can align their project terms in a timelier manner either to multiple regions or globally as required.
Availability
When coordinating global IT projects, businesses often encounter unavailable services and inconsistent service levels. Organisations often don’t have the in-house expertise to administer new and existing technologies and manage business applications if things go wrong.
With an increasing number of people working remotely, businesses have had to quickly scale their IT offering to support their employees and deploy technologies to enable the workforce to work effectively. But some organisations haven’t had the in-house skills to do this at scale.
Working with a technology partner guarantees that your organisation is always supported. International service desks ensure no latency for remote connections from one place in the world to another – regardless of distance. Managed service providers have a broad depth of knowledge to respond to extremely tight timescales and deliver a standardised service regardless of where you are in the world.
Central system
Deciding how to transact business internationally can prove challenging, in particular in global deals with a central budget but regional decisions. Local taxes, exchange rate fluctuations, import regulations and holds at customs are just some of the hurdles businesses need to overcome.
The pandemic has only heightened the obstacles associated with international business transactions as circumstances are changing daily and can vary from one region to another.
A global technology partner can offer organisations a centralised payment process which helps smoothly run the processes and remove all concerns about customs, shipments and import regulations.
At Logicalis, we pride ourselves on being able to optimally support global IT projects. While large globally operating companies could develop the necessary IT expertise in each individual branch and work with local partners, this is often more expensive and onerous to manage than working with a global partner. Our expertise can prevent organisations from encountering problems that they would otherwise face if they started their IT journey locally, and subsequently attempted to grow to international level.
The pandemic crisis has accelerated the need for adopting new technologies and this is only expected to continue
over the forthcoming months and years. Organisations won’t return to their pre-COVID business practices but rather look at how the technologies they wish they had invested in before, can help to support their long-term capabilities and business objectives.