How to decide whether outsourcing is for you
Organizations without a centralized IT department often turn to application service providers or outsourcers. But in doing so, they usually discover there's no quick fix to their IT needs.
Organizations with fractured IT environments include companies cobbled together through mergers or acquisitions, companies whose IT organizations may have grown organically in a decentralized manner, and departments of public sector organizations that have been allowed to operate relatively autonomously.
Sooner or later, top management decides something's broken. The pendulum swings, and the company launches centralization or consolidation efforts to fix anything from corporate e-mail to an enterprise resource planning application to IT as a whole. Under pressure to increase effectiveness and show cost savings, the planning meetings begin. Someone proposes going to a single system; others object, citing the need for continued flexibility and control. Inevitably, a motion is made to just outsource the mess.
Outsourcing solutions exist. For example, one outsourcing company will take desktop support off your hands, providing each user with a standard PC, operating system, productivity applications and ISP connections.
However, if you have a high proportion of knowledge workers who expect to be able to install their own applications on their PCs, these installs might void the outsourcer's support contract. Clearly there are some hard cultural issues to work through before IT gets buy-in for desktop outsourcing.
In another case, two recently merged companies clashed over whether to use Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange for e-mail. Several managers floated outsourcing as a "none of the above" option. But it quickly became clear that e-mail outsourcers could not deliver service in the more than 100 countries where this company operates, and that a standards-based outsourced e-mail system would deliver less functionality than Notes or Exchange. Given this firm's stated requirements, outsourcing wasn't a viable option.
It's paradoxical that some of the companies that most want outsourcing are the least prepared for it. If the mess is so bad that you can't manage it, then an ASP or outsourcer probably can't either. To figure out whether outsourcing is for you, and then do it right, consider the following action plan.
First, begin by taking a full inventory of the "mess." Identify classes of users, and agree on the requirements.
Second, figure out what core infrastructure elements - such as dedicated WAN connectivity and enterprisewide directory services - need to be in place before any support organization can manage components like global e-mail and enterprise applications. Start a remediation program internally to build that basic infrastructure first.
Third, evaluate whether ASPs or outsourcers can meet most of your requirements. If you still want to outsource, give one manager ownership of the infrastructure and the outsourcing negotiations. Remember, you can't outsource what you don't understand or control.
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Blum is a senior vice president and principal consultant with The Burton Group, an IT advisory service providing in-depth analysis for network planners. He can be reached at
