Strategies for managing and controlling outsourced relationships

Overview Learn what's entailed in various outsourcing scenarios, the benefits and risks of each option, and factors that make certain types of arrangements most likely to succeed.

In the outsourcing arena, there are no defined best practices that will ensure 100 percent success. But by weighing all the factors and options and then taking a course of action suitable to your particular situation, you can remove at least some element of risk. This detailed analysis of outsourcing strategies drills down on the issues facing CIOs who are considering these types of relationships:

• Onsite support
• Offsite and offshore
• Offsite and onshore
• Functional support
• Program or project support

It also describes the evolution of outsourcing and current business process trends, including:

• Movement from tactical and transactional processing to strategic and transformational outsourcing.
• Outsourcing from single process to multiple processes though a general contractor who can act as a solution integrator.
• The convergence of Internet, application, and business process service providers and the emergence of IT utility providers supplying multiple services.

The document concludes with a look at some concerns for both employees and CIOs when an outsourcing decision has been made. Here are a few key points:

• Businesses must retain key employees to act as "watchdogs" for the business as the need for vendor management increases.
• As internal staff compete with outsourced partners, they must adopt new technologies, tools, architectures, and processes.
• As the need for global business processes evolve, so must new standards and methodologies for distributed development and implementation.
• Soft skills that must be acquired include project leadership and teamwork, communication and documentation skills, tolerance and understanding of global cultures.
  

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