Too many IT directors are embarking on outsourcing as an
almost reflex action and with inevitably disappointing consequences
says analysis and research company Gartner.
At its Symposium/IT Expo last week, Linda Cohen, vice president and
distinguished analyst warned against such compulsive outsourcing
and advised organisations to begin a more disciplined approach to
what she calls "multisourcing" in order to achieve business growth
and agility, and not get burned.
Right now, many firms are so disillusioned with outsourcing that
they are actually embarking on an insourcing strategy. Ms Cohen
explained to ComputerWeekly.com why dissatisfaction was occurring.
"Companies make outsourcing deals based on business problems.
"Firms sign 3-, 5-, 7-year outsourcing deals based on today's
problems and so in, say, three year's time that problem is solved
and the deal is actually not good. There needs to be a whole new
way of attacking outsourcing. We are living in a multisourced world
where some things are outsourced and some are insourced," she
commented.
To Gartner, outsourcing is an innovative discipline that takes
organisations beyond quick-fix cost cutting to enable capability
building, global expansion, increased agility and profitability,
and competitive advantage. As such, multisourcing requires a new
mind-set and frameworks for communicating, interacting with, and
overseeing service relationships both inside and outside the
organisation.
Gartner chose its Symposium to launch a book that Ms Cohen has
co-written with fellow Gartner sourcing expert Allie Young called
"Multisourcing: Moving Beyond Outsourcing to Achieve Growth and
Agility."
Ms Cohen says the book is directed towards CEOs as much as IT
directors and aims to shatter a number of myths attached to
outsourcing, of which Gartner believes there are eight principal
ones: the myth of sourcing independence; the myth of service
autonomy; the myth of economies of scale; the myth of
self-management; the myth of the enemy; the myth of procurement;
the myth of the steady state; the myth of sourcing competency.
