Outsourcing not providing expected benefits

Two-thirds of British companies aren't getting the benefits they expected from outsourcing. Well, quelle surprise. When the outsourcing/managed services hype struck 1-2 years ago, everyone (journalists and analysts alike) warned that outsourcing wasn't a panacea and it needed to be managed very carefully for it to work. Who wants to bet that the majority of the aforementioned British companies didn't listen and simply signed a contract, hoping all their IT problems would just go away?

There's undoubtedly an element of incompetence on the part of the outsourcers as well. But as is usual in such matters, who wants to bet the pendulum is now going to swing to the other extreme (it's already on its way) and all these companies are going to take their IT functions back in-house again? If they do, who wants to bet they'll try to build up some degree of flexibility by using SOA development techniques – except without enough management to actually ensure it's done properly? Then in three to four years, they'll outsource again to relieve themselves of the IT management nightmares they've given themselves. And so the circle of IT life turns.

Still, the good news is that we all should expect a bit of an IT boom next year as companies begin to re-invest in their infrastructure again.

Technorati Tags: outsourcing, SOA