Outsourcing Pushed by Accountants
Cost reduction is part of economic reality of the day....
With all of the dramatic moves in the financial market many executive management teams are looking to reduce costs and improve margins. Outsourcing is a area that may CIOs will be asked about in the near term.
Before you start an Outsourcing Process there are many factors to consider. Question that you should as are:
- If your enterprise is going through periods of rapid or dramatic change, including changes in the way you do business, how will outsourcing impact this?
- Your enterprise's IT function is efficient and has a low cost of operation, what value will the outsourcer provide?
- The primary motivator for outsourcing is the drive to reduce costs, why could you not do the same internally?
- The enterprise does not have the management talent or competency to plan and manage the outsourcing process and outsource provider, how will you know that you are getting value from your outsourcer
- Outsourcing is being driven by senior management that does not have a strategic vision of where the enterprise is going, is the driver behind this move someone who thinks this is the "in" thing to do
- Internal costs of the IT function are not fully understood, how will you know that you are getting the most cost effective solution from your outsourcer?
- Performance metrics are not well defined for the IT function, how do you know that the service provided by your outsourcer will be as good if not better than what the enterprise is getting today?
- The enterprise operations are entwined with IT functions such that if the IT function is outsourced a significant amount of core enterprise functionality and operational knowledge will have to be transferred to the outsourcer, will the outsourcer have a large "learning curve"
- The enterprise's strategic plan has not been defined with all of the outsourcing implications defined, is it possible that outsourcing is not in the best interest of the enterprise's operation?
Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing helps you answer these questions
The Practical Guide for IT Outsourcing is delivered electronically in WORD and/or PDF format.
The word version of the template was recently updated to utilize CSS a style sheet. Included with the template is a 3 page Job Description for the Manager Outsourcing, the most recent version of the Business and IT impact Questionnaire, and an ISO 27001 and ISO 27002 audit program. The Outsourcing template address Sarbanes-Oxley and HIPAA directly.
