IT directors and chief information officers must develop
strongsupplier-relationship management skillsto increase thebusiness valueofoutsourcing.
Speaking earlier today at the
OutsourceWorld
conference in London, Forrester analyst
Euan Davis said the priority for global outsourcing was no
longer about
cutting costs.
"Labour arbitrage won't count anymore," Euan Davis warned. He
said
CIOs would no longer simply base their outsource decision on labour
costs. "Businesses will have an insatiable desire to optimise
processes and reduce [operational] costs," he said.
Forrester Research predicted that, by 2015, most outsourcing
contacts would be based on higher-level services such as
managed services and
business process, rather than on man-hours of programming.
Davis said CIOs would need to support this shift in outsourcing by
making sure their businesses established strong
governance processes and
change-management procedures. He told CIOs the teams managing
their outsourcing contracts must be well versed in
supplier-relationship management. He also urged IT directors to
ensure their businesses had strong
project and programme-management skills.
Forrester Research has found India is suffering an IT skills
crisis and the staff attrition rate is running as high as 50% in
some
Indian offshore operations. Davis said
Indian outsourcing providers would move up the value-chain to
provide greater business expertise to companies in the long
term.