IT Outsourcing for the Industry
Lower costs and less complexity
The German manufacturing industry is under enormous pressure to modernize. What we see in practice at companies is often paradoxical: heterogeneous IT landscapes that have grown over the years have built up massive inefficiencies. Studies and our own analyses show that 15-25% of IT operating costs are attributable to these structural deficits alone.*
IT Outsourcing in the Industry: Targeted Elimination of Inefficiencies
The market is changing from simple "lift-and-shift" models to value-oriented partnerships. It is not enough to simply move inefficient processes to the cloud. Our approach aims to reduce complexity through Managed Industrial IT Services on our Avvia platform, drastically reducing the number of pages.
IT Cost Optimization in the Manufacturing Industry: The Biggest Cost Drivers
Many companies rely on hybrid IT models but continue to operate their own, often underutilized data centers, or face cybersecurity deficits. This complexity blocks efficiency and growth.
Value-Based Pricing in IT Outsourcing: Transparency Instead of Flat Rates
We meet this challenge with a new commercial logic: Value-Based Pricing. Instead of providing blanket offers, we carry out a detailed due diligence (pre-project) to determine the real costs and the actual savings potential.
- Transparency: We make visible where there is unused IT capital.
- Savings: The aim is to reduce IT operating costs by up to 20% p.a.
- Automation: By using AI and a higher proportion of global delivery in the services, we are leveraging efficiencies that would be almost impossible to realize internally.
IT Outsourcing and Cost Structure: From CapEx to Real Business Value
Of course, the shift from capital expenditure (CapEx) to operating expenditure (OpEx) remains relevant. But the real leverage lies in eliminating waste. If 30-40% of IT projects today are aimed at increasing efficiency, the outsourcing partner must deliver:
- Liquidity through usage dependency: You only pay for the resources your company actually needs.
- Sovereign IT with VPC: Data sovereignty is a decisive factor for German SMEs. If required, we offer a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) that combines cloud agility with data sovereignty.
IT Outsourcing in SMEs: Practical Examples from the Industry
Our long-standing partnerships with industry leaders in plant and mechanical engineering, as well as the construction supply industry, show that this strategy works. We don't just take over servers for our customers; we also create new content through our managed services, the foundation of digital business models. Eliminating inefficiencies enables our clients to redirect budgets from "managing the status quo" to true innovation.
A typical scenario: A company with a turnover of 5 billion euros can achieve potential savings of 15-25 million euros per year by streamlining its IT landscape. This capital is then available for value-adding investments.
Managed IT Platforms in Industry: Efficiency and CO2 Reduction
Our platform Avvia is more than just infrastructure. It also addresses the increasing regulatory pressure, for example, regarding CO2 balancing. By consolidating on efficient, highly automated platforms, we not only eliminate financial inefficiencies but also significantly reduce the IT sector's carbon footprint.
The days of opaque IT costs are over. If you want to remain competitive today, you need a partner who is prepared to be measured by the actual value contribution. With due diligence, value-based pricing, and the Avvia platform, we offer the industry the tools to break out of the cost trap and confidently shape the digital transformation.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers (FAQ) About IT Outsourcing for Industrial Companies
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What is IT outsourcing in the industry?
IT outsourcing in the industry refers to the targeted outsourcing of IT operations, infrastructure, and services to a specialized service provider. The aim is to lower IT costs, reduce complexity, and increase the reliability of business-critical systems - particularly in the manufacturing and process industries.
In the industrial context, it's not just about traditional infrastructure (servers, data centers), but also about managed IT services that account for production proximity, availability, security, and regulatory requirements. Modern IT outsourcing models are not based purely on "lift and shift", but on consolidation, automation, and standardization of established IT landscapes.
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How much can be saved through IT outsourcing?
Analyses show that in mature, heterogeneous IT landscapes, 15-25% of costs can be attributed to pure inefficiency (e.g., unused servers, manual processes). Consolidation and managed services can save large parts of these cost blocks.
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Does IT outsourcing make sense for SMEs?
IT outsourcing often makes sense in particular for medium-sized industrial companies, because complex IT landscapes are operated there without sufficient specialized resources for operation, security, and further development.
- IT outsourcing can help SMEs to make IT operating costs more predictable,
- relieve internal IT teams
- and budgets from pure system management, and support innovation and digitalization.
However, the approach to outsourcing is crucial: flat-rate models without transparency risk of simply outsourcing existing inefficiencies. IT outsourcing in SMEs is successful when it is based on clear key performance indicators, value-oriented pricing logic, and, if necessary, sovereign IT models such as virtual private clouds.
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What distinguishes the "value-based pricing" approach from traditional outsourcing?
What distinguishes the "value-based pricing" approach from traditional outsourcing? With conventional outsourcing, you often pay for the capacity provided, regardless of how efficiently it is used. With value-based pricing and our due diligence approach, we analyze your actual costs and inefficiencies before pricing. This approach can deliver savings of up to 20% by eliminating inefficiencies through automation and consolidation.
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What is Avvia?
Avvia is the managed industrial IT service platform from Arvato Systems. It bundles services to streamline overly complex IT landscapes and offers functions such as cybersecurity, cloud orchestration, and automation from a single source.
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Why is sovereign IT important?
Many industrial companies shy away from the public cloud due to concerns about their IP addresses. With "Sovereign IT" and the option of a virtual private cloud (VPC), we offer the full scalability of the cloud while ensuring that data sovereignty and the physical storage location remain under your control or within the German jurisdiction.
Written by
As Head of Strategic Business Development, Johannes Fuhrmann manages the portfolio and product development for the manufacturing industry, focusing on digital twins and data ecosystems. He previously worked at Deloitte and VELUX. He holds an MSc in Information Systems Management (University of Warwick) and a B.A. from HAW Hamburg.