Nix Bits

Does Outsourcing Deliver the Goods? Outsourcing seems to be all the rage for businesses. This article is focused on the financial return of such efforts and concludes outsourcing is not the grand panacea it’s often cracked up to be.

The conclusion: Either the costs of purchasing outside work are too high for the “losers” — that is, they don’t manage their purchases well — or their businesses have inherent flaws.
Flaws that cannot be cured by shifting work to others.

No surprise there.

My take — as someone who works for an outsourcer — is that organizations need to make a more careful assessment of their outsourcing needs. Merely throwing all IT work at a contract isn’t going to produce magic savings. The amount of work, after all, doesn’t change. The right answer is probably a mix of contracting and internal talent.