- Deciding Whether to Outsource
- Customer Satisfaction
- Definability and Measurability
- Financial Savings
- Sharing the Risk
- Delivery and Quality
- Scalability
- Stability and Variability
- Predictability
- Competency and Staffing
- Velocity (Reaction to Change)
- Key Messages
- Harris Kern's Enterprise Computing Institute
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Key Messages
You may be able to outsource specific functions or applications operations, but what's most difficult to outsource is a common goal. The goals of any IT organization should be to increase service levels and to reduce cost, both of which will increase customer satisfaction. These goals can conflict with those of an outsource partner, whose goal, like that of any business, is to grow revenues, especially within existing accounts.
Share the risk with your outsource provider, both from a reward and recognition perspective and from a remuneration perspective. It must be a true partnership to succeed.
The overall message that should be coming across is that outsourcing makes the most sense in an environment, set of services, or application that's definable, stable, and measurable. If clear definitions, expectations, and metrics of the key factors listed above are lacking, your outsource partner won't be able to provide timely delivery of quality and predictable services in a cost-effective manner. In addition, you can be assured that customer satisfaction will be negatively affected. If you address these factors before you address the issue of sourcing, your chances for success improve dramatically. Like any project, the worst time to define, reinterpret, or change requirements and expectations is during the build and delivery phases. If you wait, you can be assured that your chances for success will be drastically diminished; addressing these factors early on will ensure your greatest chances of success!