Virtual IT department

IT service providers with only technical expertise are the dinosaurs of the industry. As a specialist in outsourcing, Gisa is therefore building more and more on strategic and process-related consulting for customers.

With the motto "Virtual IT department for medium-sized businesses" the Halle-based company aims to be a holistic partner for its customers. The focus is on expanding the customer's know-how and resources. Moreover, cooperation with specialized partners such as SAP is becoming increasingly important for Gisa.

"With digitization, the topic of IT has become insanely complex for mid-sized companies."

Torsten Rogosch, a member of the Gisa management team, sees this as a challenge for medium-sized companies, but also for his own industry.

"Where in the past, the topic of hardware was mostly the only thing that was discussed"

says Rogosch,

"today is about the strategic orchestration of the entire IT landscape."

At the latest with the purchased cloud solutions and their connection to existing solutions, the overview can quickly be lost for the end user.

IT as the core of value creation

The challenge: Who designs a sustainable IT strategy in line with the corporate strategy that contributes value to the achievement of corporate goals? Who coordinates and manages suitable and efficient special service providers in IT?

Whether open source, cloud, AI, IoT, the range of applications used today extends from on-premise to cloud products to the pure use of IT applications without their own instances, depending on the requirements. The complexity is recognized by medium-sized companies, but there is a lack of experts on site who can handle these issues.

"A normal medium-sized company has an IT department of maybe three, four to ten employees at the most, they can't cover all these special topics anymore"

says Torsten Rogosch.

The idea of a virtual IT department is not new - but Gisa sets its own qualitative criteria and is increasingly aligning its corporate strategy accordingly. A company that wants to ensure growth and innovation can only do this on the basis of all-round professional IT.

As a virtual CIO, Gisa plays out the advantages of a large IT department for its customers - with strategic and process consulting through migration of landscapes to application support and operation in its own data center network in Germany.

Software and hardware are orchestrated appropriately. From the support and operation of SAP applications to database management and support for cloud solutions such as Office 365, Gisa covers all fields as a full-service IT provider and coordinates the work of specialized partner companies. What distinguishes virtual IT from pure outsourcing?

At Gisa, virtual IT becomes process-related application support on behalf of the customer.

"We free up resources for the companies - they can turn their attention to their core business"

Torsten Rogosch emphasizes the opportunities for medium-sized companies.

"We set up a powerful IT substructure. In addition, we have access to proven value networks. The outsourced IT organization pools knowledge of methods, processes and platforms. In this way, we intelligently and personally support the success of the company."

The scope of the full-service provider ranges from IT consulting and management to application management, enterprise management, infrastructure operation, BPO solutions and license management. Nevertheless, personal proximity and accessibility remain important.

"A virtual CIO must be able to be at the customer's site within two hours if needed"

Rogosch emphasizes.

Quick check against fear of change

Gisa wants to make it easier for SMEs to get started with virtual IT, showing clear responsibilities right from the start.

"We are aware of the reservations about changes in global IT management in Germany. That's why we propose a structured quick check as a first step. If successful, this check will become the basis for a transition."

What does it look like: Experienced IT professionals take one to three days to analyze the company's IT and correlate it with the company's goals. This is followed by an in-depth look at IT sourcing, IT governance, security and business continuity. One thing should become clear to the customer during the quick check:

"We want to take responsibility and define it very precisely"

is how Rogosch summarizes the approach. Gisa relies on partnerships for this.

"A strong partner in the industrial sector is our parent company, Itelligence."

Rogosch continues.

"Because if the entire production processes run via SAP solutions, we also need additional specialists. Virtual IT is IT management and control. We assure the customer of clear contractual capability and standards."

The virtual IT department is part of a larger Gisa strategy towards a new quality of IT management that extends beyond the year 2025. And so Gisa is already positioned today not only to accompany customers into the S/4 world, but to be a permanent partner.