Technical Advise Week #11 - Outsource Intervention

Well before starting WWIII I thought I should intervene between the two technical experts. Looking over their commentaries (ramblings) for the last few weeks I reached a conclusion that I needed to step in. I believe that I have the authority to do this and if I don't please accept my heartfelt apology (and I am sure that I will pay dearly from the two experts as well).

I thought it might be appropriate to talk about outsourcing since it is a fact of life and no longer viewed as an emerging solution. The International Institute for Outsource Management (IIOM http://www.int-iom.org/) in proud to be a supporter for the Frost and Sullivan's Global Sourcing Conference to be held in Orlando December 2-5. Readers who are interested in attending should contact us at info@int-iom.org for a $250 electronic discount.

In the October 8th edition of informationweek.com the focus was on the U.S. Tech Talent pool shortage. Now before you starting getting out your weapons, they weren't talking about current resources but the pipeline of talent coming into this domain area. In a survey conducted by the Society for Information Management and carried out amongst 130 CIOs and Senior IT Executives the following concerns were expressed.

• 51% Attract, develop & retain IT Professionals (thus the push to outsource)


• 42% Align IT & Business (guess we need to do that onshore before going outsource)


• 40% Build Business Skills (again we have to do that internally and also treat IT as a business, not as a service.... not sure if that shoots SOA in the foot or not, maybe a topic that the expert advisors can take up later... that is if they wake up from getting their intellectural power rest)


• 29% Reduce the cost of doing business (outsourcing)


• 28% Improve Quality (we need to do this inhouse before we expect it elsewhere. Bottomline... it's everyone's responsibility per Deming, Juran, Crosby and others)

The rest of the survey showed concerns for security, managing change (refer to Agile notes earlier in this blog), IT Strategic Planning, Better Use of Information, and the Evolving CIO role (which sound a whole lot like the same lament we heard when them when they were managers and we still here today from managers). My two cents on the last part, evolving is a fact of life and not something unique to the role. Our role should in fact be hitched to and encourage change when it makes sense in all of these other areas. Guess I had better stop before I go off on another tangent and yes I guess I had better stop now as the Technical Advisors are now complaining that I'm taking up their space. I suspect the rest did them so much good that they are chomping at the bit to added some commentary.