Outsourcing – Is it a blessing or a curse?

I am a member of a CTO Roundtable here in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Today we had a meeting and the topic was outsourcing. Over the last few years, several companies have elected to completely outsource their IT needs. An example is Best Buy, which outsourced their IT to Accenture last year.

During our discussion, some members said they were impacted by a business decision like this several times over the past few years. We talked about what we as technologists can do to guide our business partners to a better outcome than completely outsourcing our functions.

Here are some of my thoughts:

• We have to earn a place at the table with our business partners. What I mean by this is that we need to be at the table to discuss solutions to business problems.
• We need to learn to utilize outsourcing as an enabler to deliver business solutions. Outsourcing is here to stay and we need to make this a tool in our toolbox.
• “All models are wrong, some are useful.” This is certainly true for outsourcing; it is no silver bullet. The art is in taking the best of all models to be able to answer to the market request of “more with less.”
• Many pure outsourcing engagements are executed on a “design and throw it over the wall” approach. This approach will not be successful whether using outsourcing, in-sourcing or co-sourcing.