IT outsourcing has an increasing demand recently primarily because of the importance of IT solutions within a company. Especially for those who are in the software industry, although not limited to this particular industry, IT personnel are the key drivers for their business. IT professionals can be regarded as one of those individuals who receive a healthy paycheck, and having an in-house team of IT professionals may be costly for one’s business. A costly in-house IT team could be the reason why there are an increasing number of companies who push for IT outsourcing. Among the solutions being offered by outsourcing companies are Application Development, Quality Assurance and Testing, and Technical Support. These solutions are quite important for those software developers or software companies who wish to cut down their costs and who are also looking to enjoy the other benefits of outsourcing.
Having realized the benefits of outsourcing, government agencies and companies coming from different industries now turn to outsourcing solutions providers for some, if not most, parts of their processes. Just before the month of August comes to a close, CSC(NYSE:CSC) released a press statement that it has been awarded by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) a task order to support the Office of Information Technology. Under the task order from USCIS, CSC will be providing information technology services for the former’s operations that are mission-related. According to the press release, the task order will be covering a “full life cycle support for all phases of systems engineering and development, production, software application operations, configuration management, training, service desk support and IT security.”
Another press release was made before the month of August ends, but this time it is from a European retail company based in United Kingdom. The announcement regarding the IT infrastructure deal of Tesco (LON:TSCO), which amounts to $45 million, with CA Technologies was made in August 30, 2011. The IT services to be rendered by CA Technologies would include monitoring of the online retailer’s mainframe, networks, suppliers and credit card transactions. However, such transaction is not only limited to the online aspect of the Tesco’s business. In fact, it will also cover the companies under theTesco plc group, including the supermarkets, Tesco Bank and Tesco Mobile. As a means to cut down the complexity and time spent on IT processes, Tesco has decided to continue the transaction with CA Technologies, which is now on its third decade.
While there are companies that look at IT outsourcing as an opportunity that will be able to help them with their business allowing them to streamline their processes, there are still some who opt to keep their IT in-house. But for the case of Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY), they have already tried outsourcing their IT processes as early as 2004, but things are to change soon as the company announced that is has plans of hiring 200 information technology specialists in the next year. According to Best Buy’s CIO, the company needs to develop its own technology talent as they are planning to strengthen customer relations across multiple sales channels.
Shifting from outsourcing to in-house does not always mean that the outsourcing partner is incompetent because sometimes decisions such as this are rooted on internal reasons. However, it wouldn’t hurt if for outsourcing needs, you would go for that outsourcing partner that is preferred and trusted by many.
Author: Jamee C.
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