Be Strategic About Talent When Times Are Tough

Talent is the largest component of most IT budgets and you need to be able to find the best balance of cost and capabilities with your pool of talent BEFORE times get tough.

This is where Strategic Talent Management comes in. Strategic Talent Management simply means separating your talent into three layers:

1. A low cost layer in a Virtual Captive or an Managed GIC which typically costs between $15-20/hour and is the best place for all baseline support costs.
2. The second layer is your internal team, which is the next most expensive source of talent.
3. The third layer is the flex consultant and contractor layer. This is usually the most expensive source of talent.

The point is to use a Virtual Captive for as much as you can. Don’t get caught in a situation where you have all your talent in the most expensive layers (which is internal talent, and consulting talent) because when times get tough, you are going to have to cut staff and reduce capabilities, experience and knowledge.

The fact is a Virtual Captive is the lowest total cost of external talent available anywhere. And that matters because talent is such a big part of IT costs.

So be strategic about how you use talent. Only then can any IT cost optimization strategy really work.