Video: What Client Leadership Needs To Know About Outsourced IT

hey Channel insiders I'm your host Katie boso and welcome back to part two of my interview with chance Irvin vice president of Information Technology at Transit Technologies if you haven't watched or listened to part one head on over to Channel insider.com right now to catch up today in part two chance explains how he approaches leadership about why he needs to take on a new channel partner and what he has to consider before the conversation even starts chance you you talked a little bit earlier about how you know when you communicate with your leadership you let them know hey I could do it in this amount of time but if we work with these outsourced it Partners they'll get it done much faster much better inside of our timeline how else do you communicate with your business's leadership about the need for channel partners and outsourced resources because typically we're not talking about people that are as versed in it as you are or as those Channel partners are my story here is a little bit of a cheat because I have business leadership now and in a previous job they want to go they know they want to Outsource as much as possible so I I think I'm in a little bit of a different spot than a lot of folks have been so in my case the discussions aren't very difficult if I'm talking about bringing in an internal person that is way harder for me right now but I think that's unique in established companies you've been around for 60 years or more probably not even that long necessarily your leadership is probably going to be some of the folks that are it's not local it's I'm concerned for the security those sorts of things well if I was in that scenario I would be going to them and talking to them about if you wanted to do I'm going to use sock two compliance as an example but what is your big nugget sock 2 if I try to pull that internal in a accomplish everything we had in the same time frame would be 40 to 60% more expensive than what it's been with the third parties I would have to buy systems that I don't have to have because the mssp has them I'm just a portion of their bigger pond so my costs are down because of that to cover 24/7 Personnel wow the cost on the people alone would probably about match everything I'm getting from all the other places but that would be just the people I haven't even touched the system yet so just from a cost perspective take the time model that out here's what that would cost internal here's what it cost external and you got to know how to carve up the dollars you have implementation money you have operational money the CFO in your company probably understands how to you know implementation money spends differently in the accounting World money is not money you have money type one money type two money type three you have money that hits e or the bottom line you have money that doesn't and in your spend and in your efforts you have those different pieces and if you if you understand that great then these comments aren't for you you already there but so many of our peers they don't realize that and and if if they can go and they can you know show the internal versus Outsourcing comparison that's one layer of numerous layers and then show okay if and on the external not only is it already less expensive in the allout cash spend 40% of it in the first year is just implementation well implementation is treated in a certain way in the counting in a mature organization so that implementation money doesn't hit eida and again if you don't understand this go talk to your Finance leadership that's another big thing you want to get good connections around the rest of the business get the CFO on board with with where your mind is because if that role can help you tell your story you're going to be 90% down the road if the CFO already understands your point and why these things are valuable so I'm a big advocate for um championing your your financial leadership and then of course your your own direct leadership before you take it to the entire team if you report to the CEO fine or the COO fine wherever you report to that if you report to the CFO great that takes care of your first your first bullet point but definitely Champion your direct leader make sure you understand how do they need to understand your world and just thr throwing bunch of Technology lingo at them is is not going to do it you need to have sit down have a cup of coffee just talk to them learn a little bit about them I do report to the COO and it's taken me a while to understand how does she think about the business management and how these things fit together still a challenge today it's been it'll be 3 years in uh next month but the challenges are much less because we've taken the time and we've put in the effort we both of us you have to help them understand this is where I'm usually coming from all of us it folks we have different OC secrecies I can talk business but my my passion level my face and my demeanor everything is the same as if I'm very upset about something I have to know that about myself I have to catch myself and say hey wait a minute I'm just thinking really hard about this and I really believe this is where we need to go I'm not mad about anything as you get to know people you get to let them know what are your nonverbals and yeah I am some very unfortunate nonverbals I know I know that I got to let we all do yeah so but you learn that and this whole question it's not about what do you need to say in the meeting that's going to memorialize the decision to do this project if that's the first time you're trying to explain to the Business Leaders you lost you need to have planted some seeds had some conversations hey Mr sales leader how does this issue impact your world hey customer service management how does do this impact your world have some of those conversations to understand the various things you can bring to the table how do they understand how once this is fully in place and it's operational how is it going to make their team's lives more effective you got to have those conversations before you get in those meetings for the memorialization of this thing yeah because you need those people to be Champions on it they need to have almost all their questions already answered because you've had those over coffee over lunch or in different meetings because they know you understand their plight what it is they've got to it's a complex answer there's no I don't think I don't think there's a golden answer there's no three bullet points that get it done you got to put in the work you got to spend time get to know who they are the CFO I've happened to I have to be working with the CFO that I worked with at a different company previously I know how to let him know this is the change and Effectiveness across the company that context says a lot to him oh we're going to improve Effectiveness for Revenue generating people by 30% he knows what that means to the bottom line but all CFOs are not the same just cuz my CFO looks at that your CFO might look at something else you got to figure out what it is that he tracks and then turn your conversation into those contexts that really speak to him I love that chance I think what's so important about what you're pointing out is like you said there's no three bullet points there's not a Magic Bullet here as we love to say in this industry there is no magic bullet but I think what's important to consider about it conversations is that they are business conversations and their people conversations you can't just go in guns blazing and say all right sock two sock three here we you can't say those things to your CFO or your coo they they don't know what you're saying and they have a lot going on as well so it's important to talk to them about their needs and then figure out how to work that conversation around what you're pitching to them for those it needs so I think you explained it brilliantly I have a fun question for you which are what technology Trends are you implementing into your business this year and how are your channel Partners helping you do this if at all this year it's it's definitely all about that security and compliance so that's a baseline piece and how can we do any of the things we need to do to make ourselves more secure but to do it in a way that doesn't impact the RN users very much it's going to be a difference right there going to be a change they have to do some things different but with some of the tools that we've put in place it's minimal NOA before is a tool that we went for security this year we're using it I wouldn't say very well but there's still a lot of improvement our vciso group helped us make that decision our vciso team has a lot of experience with that tool so they've been able to help us hit the ground running and and be using it as well as we are at this point so quickly with everything else going on 5 months in I think we're doing pretty well with it that's that's one example I think a big buzzword out there right now is AI and everybody wants well what are we doing with AI what are we doing with AI and you know I just recently challenged one of my peers internally he's like okay just because we got some AI domains and we have an AI domain that redirects to our Doom that doesn't make us serious about AI how are we going to tell our story what are we actually doing with it so right now trying to figure out how to utilize AI in a meaningful way in transportation we're providing software and integration solutions for Wheels on the ground things like routing we've already been doing routing things and making Intelligent Decisions about hey we just got a a note from the Google data that the street we're about to have them turn on it's blocked two blocks down how fast can we get that to the people that we've already been routing right so that they don't get stuck in that little traffic jam in that in that street right so AI is going to help us do better at that we did pretty good anyway machine learning and things from the past few years but you know how do we take that to the next level so a lot is going on there from a Solutions perspective also our VCS very on top of the AI stuff how do we Implement AI safely the big concern with AI is whatever you put in there if you're using a public AI engine the whole world now has that data so what are you putting in there and uh make making sure how we use it is secure so that's a big thing because we've been even even bringing AI things into read AI is is an example of one that our end users are asking for today fundamentally not against it it's a great thing you know it it wraps up a meeting for you and gives you a nice sections of here's what the conversation was this person said this this person said that and it's all categorized that's great it's fantastic but what were you discussing in that meeting was it appropriate to even have it on have we trained the people hey wait a minute that meeting is about solving a particular problem for end users and you're probably going to be talking about some end user data in that conversation probably shouldn't be using it in that case we need to make sure our our end users are one educated we need to know whichever tool whether it's read AI or we use co-pilot with Microsoft whatever we end up with I'm very much on that security compliance minded thing for use of AI so AI is probably the biggest new fund technology our business is looking to do I'd be surprised if most of the listeners out there don't have business their Business Leaders asking the same thing how are we how are we making the most with AI yet to be seen I look forward to where we are in 2025 with the rate that it's moving uh and developing I do look forward to that conversation continuing into next year and seeing where exactly we go but I think you're right it is so important to consider security just again it comes to just because you can should you right where exactly does that make the most sense y chance before we wrap up today is there anything I didn't ask or any any advice that I haven't kind of pulled out of you that you would like to give to the MSP to the channel solution provider audience you've probably heard it a little bit in this conversation but you need to look to be a mentor to the people you're selling to as well I've been doing this for 25 years and the older I get the more I understand I don't know and hopefully my peers out there are thinking about things that way as well there's always more to know and I know more based on the smart people I surround myself with and you as a provider if you're coming into my team you're going to be part of my umbrella of solutions I absolutely am going to expect you to be a mentor to me to my user race now the folks listening to this you might be the salespeople you got to know that what you're selling the services the people on your teams are going to be able to fulfill that mentorship capability for me because I'm going to figure that out while you're trying to sell to me if you are Mr or Mrs salesperson you're not the person it's not you it's the folks that once we sign that fulfill what it is you're selling I got to know that that team is going to make these things connect so regardless of the name of the tool you're going to license to me it's about the people it's about the support and enablement that comes through your team that's the biggest thing for me and I think it needs to be for most of my peers out there that would also be buying but you might even have to help them understand what I just said they don't realize they need that kind of support from you that piece underneath I think too many too many of my peers they're just they're just trying to check a box cuz the business is pushing them get going get going get going hit this Milestone I need to hit milestones and I I know I need to hit Milestones but if I have to hit a milestone a day late or a week late because it's going to be right a week later but a disaster I would rather explain we're not going to make that date it's probably going to be a week later well well why is that it's like because we can't get it right by that date I need another week for my people my my peers don't have that conversation the day it's due you should see that coming you should be able to say hey that's that's not going to make it we're going to have to push that date but you as a provider you need to help some of my peers out there if especially ones that haven't been doing this very long they're new in their leadership role you have an opportunity to take advantage of them because they don't know any better and you can make your numbers this quarter this cycle well good for you they're going to learn they'll eventually understand oh my gosh they took total advantage of me or you could take advantage of the opportunity to help build that new leader up I promise you some of the things I do in my procurement are from lessons I learned when I first got started in management those things will never happen again and I'll never work with some of those people because they took advantage of me as a young person I didn't know any better and wow I didn't get what I needed out of it so for channel company leaders trying to sell into this Market Integrity is huge I won't name the company but one of my favorite scenarios when I had a hard thing I had to go ask this provider I was like hey here's a scenario this happened this was wrong nobody's fault but it's I know now this wasn't right in our agreement and they said okay what adjustment do we need to make and we talk through it they're like oh okay let's redo this for this aspect of the scope and it was carved out specifically like let's just do a supplemental that changes that well wow that was easy they were like well don't take it wrong but we don't care about this this contract that we're already at we care about the next one so what do you need how do we need to solve your problems I was like wow that is huge and what trust they built in that scenario cuz once we once we signed paper when we got it into the thing that group was now focused on what do we need to do so the next time the renewal comes there's just no question they're going to keep working with us that's how everybody needs to operate that little story turn that into you as providers turn that into how you can do that within your own world most of the folks I'm working with most of them I've worked with in some capacity in my past for a long time I know them from somewhere I've been watching their careers what they've done in their world and how they've treated their customers so I can't can't promise that all of them are going to stick around forever because I still have to be honest at looking at what I can find in the in the market and do the right thing for the business but the Integrity play that's always going to be right if we'd like to learn more about Transit Technologies is there anywhere we can go sure uh Transit technologies.com is a great place to start there's links into our other businesses within we do have a Blog link within there that uh folks keep up to dat uh things that are happening CH I appreciate your advice and your insights so much and I absolutely know our audience well and thank you so much for joining me today it's been a pleasure getting to talk to you fantastic I appreciate the conversation Katie look forward to seeing your work in the future thanks so much to chance for joining me today and thank you for watching or listening to this episode of Channel Insider partner POV check out all episodes on Channel insider.com or watch on our YouTube page at Channel inssider news and Trends you can also listen to every episode in podcast format on your preferred podcast listening platform don't forget to like subscribe and follow wherever possible so you never miss an episode you can also connect with Channel Insider on LinkedIn and X Channel Insider or with me at Katie boso once again I'm your host Katie boso and I'll see you next time n

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