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Selective outsourcing - not throwing the baby out with the bathwater
Where the bathwater is all the boring IT stuff someone else could do better

By silicon.com

Published: Thursday 02 October 2003

Outsourcing remains one of the biggest trends right now and it also seems to be maturing, as recent research and deals reveal.

According to a study out today - albeit commissioned by Synstar, an organisation with a vested interest - half of European IT directors are in favour of selective outsourcing. And they didn't just have a shout around - 700 were polled.

The thinking normally goes like this, apparently: Outsourcing is bad and it will threaten the jobs of everyone here, including me... outsourcing isn't too bad but I'm still afraid of losing control of certain functions, especially applications and IPR... outsourcing, when done selectively, can reduce costs, give us more skills and keep me in a job. Everyone's a winner!

Is it that simple? In a word, no. But that's not to say selective outsourcing doesn't have its merits. The nature of many businesses these days means there needs to be a sophisticated approach. Farming out infrastructure or business processes - often those which add little value or can be done much cheaper offshore or by those with economies of scale - is sensible.

Very few companies think they can do everything themselves these days. Pan-Scandinavian bank Nordea today showed just as much with the latest (selective) win for IBM. But soon it will be just as common to find that few companies and CIOs think they can pick up the phone to an Accenture, CSC, EDS, IBM or one of a number of others and expect their problems to be solved, wholesale.

Don't believe us? You wait and see.