Just Say "Know" to Outsourcing.... and make sure you Know How To...
The cover story “just say know to outsourcing” in the recent issue of CIO magazine makes for interesting reading. The ideas in “3 Ways to Answer the Outsourcing Question” resonated with my thinking. The author, Stephanie Overby, says there are three ways to respond when the "O" word is uttered:
- If you have a solid sourcing strategy and decision-making framework in place and an accurate understanding of costs, service level and other considerations, you'll want to inform the CEO and let him know you're evaluating the options.
- If you're developing your sourcing strategy and getting a handle on internal and external costs, service levels, and other considerations, you want to get buy-in for that process and buy yourself more time to complete it.
- If you have not yet started to develop an overarching strategy and have little visibility into internal and external costs, service levels and other considerations, turn this into an opportunity to do so.
To this, I would add the most important aspect: Know "How To" manage outsourcing and offshoring:
- If you have a program management framework, you want to extend it to managing offshored projects too. Though the body of knowledge in offshore IT management space is limited, you may reference the Offshoring Management Framework (OMF)…[Ref: my book: “Offshoring IT Services"]
Why do CIOs and IT executives need an Offshoring Management Framework? Simple: By defining and customizing their own governance and management processes, CIOs and their teams will be better positioned to strategically leverage their vendor’s sourcing models. Better than being sold on the hype of “Global Delivery Models” that most large software service firms offer; right?
