A well-planned and smartly-negotiated mainframe outsourcing deal will put your company in a better position than you’re in now. You’ll be more nimble. Better equipped to focus on growing your business. You may even save money. All in all, you should expect a brighter future.

Cutting-edge performance.

Mainframe outsourcing puts the latest technology, processes and expertise in play for your enterprise. And you’re poised to take advantage of new developments as they emerge, because your provider’s top priority is to stay abreast of industry trends and best practices on your behalf.

Outsourcing gives you greater agility, because it’s scalable. You have the flexibility to power up resources when you need them, whether that’s to support a short-term project or steady corporate growth. You can adjust quickly and smoothly if cutbacks are in order or it’s time for a change in direction.

Your outsourcing deal should result in a more reliable disaster recovery plan, one that assures continuity and also your ability to comply with government-imposed or industry-specific regulations. You’ll save money, too, because you won’t be paying day in and day out to house and manage redundant infrastructure you may never need.

One reason mainframe outsourcing works so well for so many diverse enterprises is the availability of hybrid configurations. How you structure your array of outsourced services is entirely up to you. You can “go for it“ with full-scale transformation, or test the waters by starting with just one or a few selected services. Virtually every detail can be custom-tailored to match your goals and preferences.

More versatile financials.

Mainframe outsourcing providers enjoy far greater purchasing power than you do, no matter how large your enterprise. Those economies of scale benefit every aspect of mainframe operations -- infrastructure, software and people. You’re no longer dependent on dedicated software purveyors, and that alone could significantly reduce your operations costs.

You’re no longer held hostage by the need to reserve vast amounts of capital to cover the costs of upgrading and replacing expensive hardware. The upshot is that you’re converting high fixed costs with variable costs that match what you’re getting in return. You’re only paying for what you use.

With a growing variety of pricing models, you can expect to achieve benefits such as more predictable cashflow, too.

Sharper focus.

You can’t be competitive if you’re distracted from the core business of your enterprise. Whatever that is, it’s not providing IT services to support your people and workflow processes.

Mainframe outsourcing enables you to finally get out of the IT business. It frees up human and financial resources to devote to moving your company to the next level. You can comfortably, quickly and inexpensively test out a new business idea, thanks to the inherent scalability of mainframe outsourcing. Tests look good? Move forward with your new concept. Not so good? Back to the drawing board.

Better-informed corporate management.

Successful outsourcing starts with an internal IT assessment that allows you to chart out everything you’re now doing and the associated direct and indirect costs. The detailed data you derive from that assessment enables you to construct a well-tailored mainframe outsourcing deal. But it also strengthens your across-the-board decision-making and planning capabilities.

Mainframe outsourcing can not only make you more agile and more efficient, it could make you more competitive. And that’s the road to greater profitability.

Peace of mind.

With mainframe outsourcing, you can be confident you’re getting top-level service quality and availability. Your people always have everything they need, whether they’re located in the headquarters office or somewhere else around the world. You’re fully protected, so if something should go wrong, your employees and customers can expect minimal disruption.

And you can stop worrying about today’s most pressing mainframe conundrum -- how you’re going to handle the inevitable retirement of your key IT people and the concurrent aging out of your legacy infrastructure. 

Photo Credentials: Argonne National Laboratory