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2003 | Buch

Successful IT Outsourcing

From Choosing a Provider to Managing the Project

verfasst von: Elizabeth Sparrow, MSc, MBCS, CDipAF

Verlag: Springer London

Buchreihe : Practitioner Series

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Outsourcing permeates the IT world and has had a profound impact on the work of IS professionals. Nearly all will, at some stage in their careers, work with outsourced services as customer or supplier. Elizabeth Sparrow's insights into the benefits and pitfalls of this complex area will help IS professionals tackle the challenges of outsourcing. Combining relevant background information with practical guidance this book covers the whole outsourcing process, from the initial decision to outsource through to managing the outsourced services on a day-to-day basis.

Successful IT Outsourcing considers:
- The objectives behind outsourcing
- The selection of a service provider
- The management and measurement of the performance of outsourced services
- The role of the outsourcing contract
- Why outsourcing sometimes fails and how to turn failure into success

Features and Benefits:
- Describes the origins of IT outsourcing, and recent developments
- Examines the way in which an organization might determine whether to outsource and how it can choose a service provider
- Discusses how to develop effective outsourcing relationships
- Provides context and advice to assist IS professionals, whose work is being outsourced, as they consider their future careers and the possibility of transferring to a new employer

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Frontmatter
1. Introduction to IT Outsourcing
Abstract
Outsourcing is ubiquitous in the IT world. Pick up any IT newspaper and you will invariably find several reports about outsourcing initiatives. As complexity and change in IT increase perhaps it is only natural that organizations seek to contract out key IT services to those with specialist technical and professional skills.
Elizabeth Sparrow
2. The Case For and Against Outsourcing
Abstract
Talk of outsourcing generates heated debate among IT professionals. For some it represents an enlightened approach to the management of routine IT services and a mature development of partnerships with suppliers. Others see it as symptomatic of an organization that has failed to grasp the strategic importance of IT and is not prepared to invest in the professional development of its IT staff. Outsourcing — at least when it involves the transfer of staff from company to service provider — challenges our thinking about our ability to choose our own employer and our value as professionals.
Elizabeth Sparrow
3. Objectives and Parameters for Outsourced Services
Abstract
The first critical step in any outsourcing initiative is to identify your key objectives. This will determine what you outsource, how you measure success or failure, and will also guide your choice of service provider. This chapter will cover the first tasks in any outsourcing programme:
  • Set strategic objectives.
  • Identify and take on board stakeholders’ views.
  • Select IT functions to be outsourced.
  • Use benchmarking to assess current performance levels.
  • Define service requirements.
  • Prepare the business case.
Elizabeth Sparrow
4. Choosing a Service Provider
Abstract
Outsourcing has been described as a marriage between two organizations. It is a serious commitment, with long-term consequences. It is also a formal relationship underpinned by a contractual agreement. Critically, it depends on the relationship that is developed between the parties.
Elizabeth Sparrow
5. Managing Performance
Abstract
Now comes the challenge of making outsourcing deliver value to your organization — can you make a success of it? After the excitement of choosing a service provider and celebrating the award of the contract, how do you ensure that outsourcing produces the benefits that were promised? At first you may have a sense of anticlimax — or calm before the storm — depending on your perspective! The consultants and other expert advisors that helped guide your organization through the selection of the supplier and the negotiation of the contract have probably packed their bags and left.
Elizabeth Sparrow
6. Measuring Performance
Abstract
It has been said that ifyou cannot measure an activity, you cannot control it and if you cannot control it, you cannot manage it. Without dependable measurements, intelligent decisions cannot be made.
Elizabeth Sparrow
7. Risks and Controls
Abstract
Outsourcing can be a risky business. Certainly IT outsourcing can deliver improved services, quicker adoption of new technologies and reduced operating costs. But it can also result in unforeseen charges that exceed any possible cost savings; it can lead to stagnation and delays in implementing new services; and it can result in a loss of control over IT activities.
Elizabeth Sparrow
8. When Outsourcing Fails to Deliver
Abstract
Outsourcing is a complex business and difficult to get right. If your organization is dissatisfied with the service it receives from your outsourcing supplier, it is not alone. In the UK, a survey of senior IT staff by Computing found that nearly half were unhappy with the quality of service they received from outsourcing contracts. A Dataquest study in the USA revealed that just over half of all outsourcing customers had renegotiated their contracts and in nearly one-quarter of these negotiations, the supplier lost the account (www.​computerworld.​com). This has resulted in significant growth in arbitration and litigation in this area of computer law.
Elizabeth Sparrow
9. ASPs, WASPs and the Future of Outsourcing
Abstract
A new range of outsourcing supply companies has emerged since the late 1990s, based on new business models that deliver selective outsourcing services. In the space of 4 years over 1,000 new outsourcing companies were set up in the USA — many did not last, but the market continues to expand with a high level of merger and acquisition activity.
Elizabeth Sparrow
Backmatter
Metadaten
Titel
Successful IT Outsourcing
verfasst von
Elizabeth Sparrow, MSc, MBCS, CDipAF
Copyright-Jahr
2003
Verlag
Springer London
Electronic ISBN
978-1-4471-0061-4
Print ISBN
978-1-4471-1114-6
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0061-4