After implementing a cost heavy ERP, this is the next tough question that the CIOs face. On one side is the strong expertise that comes with a seasoned vendor and on the other is the accessibility of an in-house team. The choice is tough indeed!
While the best approach is to have a lean team of in-house experts who work in tandem with the external support experts, it is rare that the CIOs get to have the best of the both worlds.
Here is a comparison of both the scenarios, just to help you decide better!
|
In- House |
Outsourced |
|
| Cost effectiveness | An in-house team of SAP experts generally costs more than outsourcing. | A specialized vendor for SAP services offer support to clients through online support and ticket systems. |
| Trainings | Investment of time & money. Training is limited to the few SAP team members. | SAP certified consultants train a larger set to teams. Trainings are periodic and can be done for different system upgrades. |
| Business Processes | In-house team would of course have a stronger hold on all processes and terminologies. | Business processes and their impact needs to be communicated to the support vendor, time and again. |
| Update and Upgrades | All the system updates, do not always impact a running ERP. Hence the in house team can be exempted from all trainings. | Staying up to date with all recent features and upgrades is mandatory for a SAP vendor. |
| Solution delivery time | Solution delivery can get delayed due to factors such as attrition in the team or workload priorities. | Laced with deep expertise across industries, SAP vendors can foresee a lot of risks and take preventive steps to complete the implementation in time. |
| Monitoring and escalations | Internal teams have a limited know how and more often than not, it takes long to address user issues. | SAP consultants have access to lot of resources and expertise to address and solve different user issues quickly. |
