The complexity involved in negotiating contracts is holding
companies back from outsourcing e-business projects, a survey of IT
professionals has revealed.
Research into the attitudes towards e-business outsourcing from The
Times' top 250 UK companies, carried out by international marketing
consultancy Frost & Sullivan, found that among IT executives,
the biggest hurdle was the complexity of contracts and service
level agreements.
Of the respondents - half of whom were chief executive officers,
and half IT directors - about 77% said they outsourced all or part
of their IT operations.
For e-business, the figure was only 38%, and most of this
outsourcing was for basic functionality.
IT managers had different concerns than their boardroom colleagues
about outsourcing e-business, the research revealed.
The main issue for chief executives was the perceived loss of
control involved in e-business outsourcing, whereas IT executives
highlighted concerns about the contract negotiation process.
"There is no doubt that you must be very disciplined about how you
put together the contractual agreement.
"An awful lot of big outsourcing contracts have failed on the
naivety and professional incompetence of the people who are
outsourcing or responsible for making the outsourcing happen," said
one respondent.