CHAPTER 15 : OUTSOURCING IN THE 21ST CENTURY
⇒Insourcing
(in-house-development) – a common approach using the professional expertise within an
organization to develop and maintain the organization's information technology
systems
⇒Outsourcing
– an arrangement by
which one organization provides a service or services for another organization
that chooses not to perform them in-house
⇒Onshore
outsourcing – engaging another company within
the same country for services
⇒Nearshore
outsourcing –
contracting an outsourcing arrangement with a company in a nearby country
⇒Offshore
outsourcing – using organizations from
developing countries to write code and develop systems
⇒Factors driving outsourcing growth include:
1-Core
competencies
-Many
companies have recently begun to consider outsourcing as a means to fuel
revenue growth rather than just a cost-cutting measure.
2-Financial
savings
-It is
typically cheaper to hire workers in China and India than similar workers in
the United States.
⇒Rapid growth
- an organization is able to acquire best-practices process expertise. This
facilitates the design, building, training, and deployment of business
processes or functions.
⇒Industry changes - High levels of reorganization across industries have increased demand
for outsourcing to better focus on core competencies
⇒The Internet
- The pervasive nature of the Internet as an effective sales channel has
allowed clients to become more comfortable with outsourcing.
⇒Globalization
- As markets open worldwide, competition heats up. Companies may engage
outsourcing service providers to deliver international services
⇒According to PricewaterhouseCoopers
“Businesses that outsource are growing faster, larger, and more profitable than
those that do not”
⇒Most organizations outsource their
noncore business functions, such as payroll and IT
⇒Outsourcing benefits include:
-Increased
quality and efficiency
-Reduced
operating expenses
-Outsourcing
non-core processes
-Reduced
exposure to risk
-Economies
of scale, expertise, and best practices
-Access to
advanced technologies
-Increased
flexibility
-Avoid
costly outlay of capital funds
-Reduced
headcount and associated overhead expense
-Reduced
time to market for products or services
⇒Outsourcing challenges include:
1-Contract
length
-Most
outsourcing contracts span several years and cause the issues discussed above
-Difficulties
in getting out of a contract
-Problems
in foreseeing future needs
-Problems
in reforming an internal IT department after the contract is finished
2-Competitive
edge
-Effective
and innovative use of IT can be lost when using an outsourcing service provider
3-Confidentiality
-Confidential
information might be breached by an outsourcing service provider, especially
one that provides services to competitors
4-Scope
definition
-Scope
creep is a common problem with outsourcing agreements