5 minute read

IT teams are no strangers to task prioritization. Deciding which projects to work on over others is vital not only to the success of the IT department but also to your enterprise as a whole.

Research indicates that the average enterprise manages more than 400 custom applications at any given time, with a 20 percent growth in custom apps every 12 months — all of which increase the demands placed on IT teams. In projects for which they cannot provide direct resources (i.e. labor), IT can identify and lean on trusted third-party partners capable of delivering valuable services while saving the IT organization unnecessary effort.

In this way, different business units can more quickly and efficiently address their immediate needs while still relying on IT leadership for guidance.

Let’s have a look at 4 pain points of IT teams and how an outsourced URL redirection service can help enterprises better manage their web properties and overall online presence.

1. Request to Build and Manage In-house

When a business unit has a need, its first natural instinct is to contact IT. After all, there’s an in-house IT resource and IT should be consulted for all matters related to technology.

The business unit might have a need that it thinks deserves a unique, custom-built solution. But even if a project scope and deadline are created, IT teams that have to execute on custom-built solutions on their own often get distracted by time-consuming operational chores such as app updates, security testing, server maintenance and the like.

For example, managing the URLs for a company’s various web properties, especially after a merger, spin-off, or division launch, can quickly become more complicated than originally anticipated. Indeed, for many companies, a fully-accessible website is not just a 24x7 marketing brochure but rather serves as the portal through which customers do business with the company.

As such, site accessibility becomes an issue not simply related to marketing — it is of importance to the CTO. Indeed, managing URLs and web pages can become quite a large IT project that is costly and challenging to scale. Beyond the consequences of a poorly functioning site are even bigger implications to consider, including loss of site SEO equity due to an improper redirection implementation. Even buying, deploying and managing SSL certificates — usually performed through the web host — can escalate into a time-consuming effort that can be eliminated with an outsourced partner that specializes in such IT management.

2. Headaches of Vendor Management

The upkeep of a company’s website and other web-based properties usually requires the management of several vendors that keep a company’s online presence humming.

This can quickly escalate in complexity when there is a company-wide rebranding or name change, a merger or acquisition, or a new division or product launch. More web pages and more product names may also impact security, analytics and other enterprise IT services.

Some of these sites or pages might be new and some might replace those that are older and out-of-date. Further, the C-suite, in addition to marketing, product management, and operations teams, need a single “source of truth” for all of their URLs, especially as the measurement of behaviors through different Web properties is imperative to the understanding of how customers engage with the business online. As clicks, visits and page views are correlated with revenue, it’s paramount to ensure that the user experience is unobstructed.

Many third-party partners offer incomplete solutions to the demanding and multi-variable needs of enterprise IT teams. For instance, be sure to confirm that you’ll be receiving detailed analytics to track how your site visitors are using your URL redirects and make informed decisions on content and infrastructure decisions.

3. Reliance on Non-Cloud-Based Apps

Using additional computing capacity costs more money. It’s well-documented that cloud-based SaaS applications require no servers or infrastructure and no project development costs. Simply subscribe, configure and go!

While an enterprise may have complex needs, it’s always a good idea to determine whether a subscription SaaS application exists to address that need. Using a Web-based SaaS service, instead of building an application from scratch, frees up the IT team’s time and resources. Furthermore, cloud-based SaaS applications are always operational and ready for enterprises to access, wherever they are stationed.

Find an outsourced partner that offers a cloud-based service with a single focus on URL redirects. This will help remove the need for the IT team to build an application, and allow trusted experts with deep domain expertise to address URL management needs on a daily basis.

4. Need to Train Non-Technical Staff

IT teams are no strangers to building solutions that then need to be explained — in business process terms — to the business unit so that employees can take full advantage of the solution. Indeed, the training elements, including the development of both technical and business/user documentation, can be quite time-consuming.

A hosted solution needs to be ready out of the box and intuitive so that non-technical users can take full advantage of the solution from Day 1, with all documentation included. This ensures that other stakeholders and teams — including marketing, public relations and sales, among others — can easily understand the interface and extrapolate learnings from data, without the added burden of training on the IT team’s part.

Built With Business in Mind

EasyRedir understands the intricacies of URL redirects and security in ways that a typical IT department might take years to fully capture. Rather than having your IT team build a URL redirect solution from scratch, your internal teams can rely on a trusted partner that understands their needs and has their best interests in mind. Try us for free today.

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