Ron Boucher doesn’t like surprises when it comes to keeping IT functions up and running. It is why the technology manager for Nature’s Path Organic Foods doesn’t take too many chances when it comes to selecting vendors.
This was especially true when the company was expanding and rather than increase the size of the IT infrastructure, a strategic decision was made to change to an outsourced IT setup.
“Our company was growing and outsourcing allowed us to quickly ramp up skills and infrastructure,” he said. “Our IT focus is on business systems, not commodity infrastructure, so outsourcing was a good fit to let us focus on our priorities. “
Long View Systems, an IT consulting firm with offices in western Canada and the United States, was chosen to run the commodity infrastructure that the Richmond, BC-based organic foods company was no longer interested in hosting in-house.
“We had a couple of vendors come in and do the dog and pony show,” said Boucher. Long View was chosen as they were the only participating vendor willing to adapt to Nature’s Path’s business model, rather than the other way around.
Among other solutions, Long View provides outsourcing and managed IT services at a fixed cost, including staff augmentation and Hardware As A Service (HaaS.) Boucher said he’s been provided with best of breed systems that tie all the logistics together.
However, the decision to outsource IT services was not financial.
The undertaking was justified as a strategic decision to allow him to focus on managing existing and new systems that were directly related to critical business functions, like payroll. As well, outsourcing lets the company’s 400 employees focus on its core business strength: Making cereal. Given these goals, Boucher said he has not directly measured cost savings for the change.
