"I personally do not resist the idea of outsourcing," he said. "But outsourcing requires a clearly defined SLAs, QoS, business requirements and policies."

He explained that since outsourcing providers often do not have the industry know-how and understanding of the company's business process to deal with situations outside the planned framework. The dual approach provides the best combination to handle both the expected and the unexpected.

Under Tai Fook's dual approach, HP is involved in certain areas, like data center management, PC monitoring, server maintenance and help desk support for users. The in-house IT team remains responsible for projects that involve coordination with users, Ying added.

Another major purchase decision for the firm's IT restructuring was its networking infrastructure. Under the revamp, instead of hiring an ISP service, Tai Fook decided to run its own network-the firm applied for an ISP license, allowing it to own a gateway to the Internet. This ensured the necessary bandwidth the firm needs for the next three to five years, according to Ying.

Although the firm has only rolled out the first phase of its three-phase project, benefit has already been seen. Tai Fook's new trading system for both internal staff and customers currently supports 350 staff and 100,000 clients. Ying noted the system can support up to 300,000 users.