IT deployments require many different parts to work well together. In the simplest sense, the technicians on the job site, the project coordinators managing the workflow, and the higher-level managers who plan and strategize projects all have an integral role to play in successfully executing each deployment. It’s similar to the very machines being installed, repaired, or upgraded in these projects—it only works correctly when each element does its job well.
Prioritize partners who share their training protocols, on-site processes, logistics methods with you.
The set of project roles expands greatly when you’re dealing with global IT deployments, as they require even greater attention to detail than domestic IT work. While a managed service provider goes a long way to help the coordination and accomplishment of deployments in familiar regions, an organization needs global IT partners to effectively execute projects worldwide.
Expanding organizations rightly look to leverage their existing partners for a leg up in new regions. Field services management platforms and the partners which provide them are often well-equipped to handle elements like scheduling and project coordination in global IT deployments, but they, too, will stress the importance of forging partnerships with local entities. Here are three important qualities to look for when selecting global IT partners:
1. A local point of view
Naturally, global partners have a greater familiarity with how business is done in their own countries. This is a gigantic benefit in international IT projects, whether it’s your organization’s first deployment in a country or a routinely-serviced market on the other side of the globe from your headquarters. Regulations, tax laws, local economic factors, and regional best practices change often—thus, you want to establish partnerships that will last.
But what makes a global IT partner that will give your field service efforts in their country the most help? A key differentiator is a wide breadth of knowledge for you to tap into. Local requirements in global IT deployments span everything from tax law and currency to cultural differences in work availability and communication.
When choosing your international partners, assess them on their capability to address your questions about these topics:
- Specific localized costs (taxation, insurance, operating fees)
- Invoicing best practices
- Project material and worker logistics (including importing regulations)
- Job site conduct policies and issue reporting
- Local IT-specific regulations (such as data residency requirements)
- Cultural observances (like traditional work weeks, meeting customs, and local holidays)
- Effective communication methods among multilingual parties or in instances of no shared language
Using that as a basic checklist will ensure that you’re forging partnerships that will deliver global field service benefits well beyond job site assistance.
2. Previous experience with North America or Europe
As much as a global IT partner’s local insight helps your field services abroad, it needs to be supported by their own familiarity with where your organization comes from. Always prioritize vendors that have already done business with your part of the world.
The benefit of this is twofold. First, their previous experience means they will have easy answers to the common questions they’ve had to address with previous clients. With more experience, they will have a larger knowledge base from which to draw, particularly as it relates to how to navigate currency differences and the regulations and taxation as outlined by trade agreements between your two countries. If they’ve dealt with North American or European Union businesses before, they’ll be ready for whatever you can throw at them.
Second, the greater their familiarity with how business is done in your part of the world, the more they can help with specific strategies down the road. When the time comes for increased scale or scope, expansion to nearby locales, or improving processes, your global IT partners can give you enhanced confidence in these efforts.
Essential to this is both parties having a clear understanding of what achieving greater field service capability entails. Together your organization and your partner have to build a structure for the collaboration to take place within—between the model for executing work, rules for governance (and who takes care of which responsibilities), and knowledge-sharing processes, the details of your partnership have to be hammered out quickly through open communication.
3. Trustworthiness, based on transparency
Partnerships, both in the short and long-term, require mutual trust to be truly effective. Both parties need to be aligned on processes, goals, expectations, and timelines through transparency with one another. A transparent partnership breeds the trust that is essential for forging a long-term alliance.
This is a two-way street, in a lot of ways. Be clear with prospective global IT partners about your field service needs, budget, and strategy. Provide them with a clear roadmap of where your global IT management stands and where you want it to go. Then, make sure they’re willing to do the same.
Financial transparency is a large part of this, not only in getting the expected cost but also a breakdown of how VAT and other taxes will affect the final bill. But of similar importance is procedural transparency. Prioritize partners who share their training protocols, on-site processes, and logistics methods with you. Global organizations need IT partners that deliver managed outcomes while being open with their clients about how they do so.
Finding global IT partners who are experienced, provide comprehensive local insight, and are transparent in their methods is how an organization expands and improves its international field services with confidence. With these allies to assist with the many different variables involved in international IT deployments, you can focus on field service excellence wherever your projects may be happening.
