Thursday 15 Sept: SmartSourcing

SmartSourcing

The first meeting of the 2005/6 season got our annual programme off to a good start.

Robb Mann

Our speaker, Robb Mann of QVIP, took us through the pitfalls waiting for the unwary of outsourcing as well as the benefits. He proposed potential solutions for the shortcomings in the process.

From case studies Robb made several points that are perhaps not obvious. For example, outsourcing of support can lead a company into being less knowledgeable about new and current technical possibilities. Unless it is part of the contract it may not be in the interests of the outsourcing company to spend time looking for better or more innovative future solutions on behalf of their client. Whilst the relationship starts off well future technologies and solutions are not properly investigated and the technical environment stagnates.

QVIP own a database of successful projects against which similar projects, either proposed or actual, can be measured. Having identified areas where performance is suboptimal these can then be addressed.

Robb’s warm method of delivery encouraged a great deal of audience participation. The floor freely added their own experiences and thoughts to the discussion.

Further reading

A copy of Robb’s slides is on our downloads page.
You can find an overview by selecting Smart Sourcing on QuantiMetrics’ downloads page.

Robb referenced a presentation given by CSC’s David Moschella at the November 2004 conference of the Strategic Outsourcing Special Interest Group.

You can download David Moschella’s presentation from the conference page after (free) registration.