Project Management Newsletter
 
NEWSLETTERS
 

CIO.com updates, insights and advice on technology, management and your career.

 CIO BlackBerry News and Tips
 CIO Research and Analysis
 CIO Microsoft
 CIO Insider
 
 
 
LEADERSHIP
 
CIO Executive Programs
The Leader in Face-to-Face Education for Senior Executives

Offering regional and national programs, CIO (and CSO) events bring together some of the most respected names and thought leaders in information technology and security. Presented by CIOs and other senior level executives, these invitation-only programs offer timely topics and strong networking. Learn More »

 
CIO Executive Council
A Peer-Advisory Service and Professional Association for CIOs

Public Council Teleconference: Application Rationalization — Hidden Costs and Smart Decisions

November 17 at 11:00 am US/Eastern (GMT-5)

Join Honorio Padrón, of The Hackett Group, who will share the drivers for companies to tackle application rationalization and the results of research that define the hidden cost of complexity. Additionally, we will discuss key decision milestones—to start or not, holding the course steady and fulfilling expectations.

Virtual Desktop Cost-Benefit Analysis — Michael Jacobs, Catlin Group

The analysis contained in this presentation measures the cost of everything from the machines and licenses to the infrastructure for virtual vs. traditional desktop environments.

Honor your best senior team members - Apply for the CIO Ones to Watch Award

Get well-earned public recognition for your top up-and-coming team members, your IT organization and your enterprise. Award winners will be announced, publicized and feted in May 2010, great timing to help attract new IT recruits to your company.

More / Register »

Learn more about the CIO Executive Council »



 
 
RESOURCE CENTER
 
 
 
 

How to Outsource-Proof Your IT Department—A New Game Plan

Coordination and communication expenses erase much of the savings derived from offshoring work.

 

June 15, 2007CIO

CEOs increasingly believe that sending IT work offshore will magically reduce costs and increase productivity. To combat this outsourcery, CIOs need a little white magic of their own.

Kevin Sparks is being chased by ghosts. They're the ghosts of outsourcing past, and they're telling him to change his 200-person IT department at Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) of Kansas City before his past becomes his future.

Sparks's history includes a stint at Yellow Freight where, he says, a large outsourcing deal with Arthur Andersen fell apart. Much of the outsourced IT had to be brought back in-house, causing an upheaval in his staff and operations. He also worked at a small managed health-care provider. Because he was short-staffed there, he used offshore developers to help fill in some of the holes in a packaged application he was installing to meet the Y2K deadline and to retire the company's legacy system. The code the outsourcers produced, Sparks says, was fine, but the coordination and communication expenses erased much of the savings derived from offshoring the work.

The common theme in these experiences was that the business thought that Sparks's IT group was neither flexible enough, nor cost-efficient enough nor productive enough to compete with the outsourcer—impressions that were often revealed to be wrong after the fact.

"There's always the perception among businesspeople that 'I'm paying too much and not getting enough return'," Sparks says. Especially in large companies, "a lot of the decision to outsource has to do with the fact that they're not in touch with what's going on in IT". CIOs haven't helped, Sparks believes, because they've failed to provide clear-cut proof that they can compete with outsourcers. Sparks wants to make his group competitive in every area that the companies he's worked for have used to justify outsourcing: cost, efficiency, responsiveness, productivity and quality. Here's how he's doing it:

  • He has consultants helping him prepare for a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) assessment of his IT processes—just as the Indian offshore outsourcing companies do. This will give the business a clear picture of the efficiency, productivity and quality of Sparks's department to compare with what outsourcers have to offer.
  • He's started a project management office to coordinate all midsize and large development projects to improve on-time performance.
  • He's created an architecture group to standardize systems and apps wherever possible to reduce costs and increase productivity.
  • He's developed performance metrics. Sparks's budget is now "transparent", he says, so the auditors can see exactly where he's spending and how much his people cost. At Kansas City prices, that's not a bad idea.

Oddly enough, Sparks doesn't have to do all this. BCBS is a non-profit, and doesn't face the competitive pressures of a public company. And with concerns about privacy and security running high in health-care, health-care companies assume a huge risk by sending anything out of house.

But Sparks is doing it anyway. Why? Getting better today means he'll be more competitive tomorrow, when economics and industry fluctuations begin to make a more compelling case for outsourcing.

And they will.

 
 
Loading...
 
WHITE PAPERS

The CIO Calls the Shots

Learn how a selective sourcing model can deliver services in a flexible, efficient manner.
 

Informatica Platform and Integration Competency Centers

Forrester used its total economic impact methodology to interview seven companies that have standardized their data integration practices.
 

Adobe for Business Process Automation

Companies must be able to react to customer demands, competitive threats, and compliance requirements.
 

Increase Customer Satisfaction and Lower TCO

With Adobe® LiveCycle® Enterprise Suite (ES2) software, organizations can easily deploy intuitive user experiences.
 

Top 10 Habits of Highly Effective PMOs

This white paper outlines the top ten habits necessary to make your PMO more effective and maximize its benefit to your organization.
 

Why an Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, EPPM

Beyond traditional project portfolio management, Primavera P6 EPPM improves visibility into every aspect of the project manufacturing process.
 

WEBCASTS

The Case for Data Protection for SMBs

Every business needs a data back-up and recovery strategy. Without it, a severe storm or power outage could result ...
 

Enterprise Capture: Your Onramp to Business Process Automation

Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Time: 11:00 AM PT/2:00 PM ET

Today more than ever companies are see...
 

Enhance SAP

New research from AMR shows that SAP environments can be dramatically more efficient with the addition of document ...
 

Beyond Installing ITPM Software: How a global company reduced risk and successfully implemented ITPM

Live Webcast: November 11, 2009
1:00 PM EST

Hear directly from one of your peers who has reduced risk...
 

The Last Software You'll Ever Buy? The CRM Platform as Development Platform

Join Stan Gibson the principal of Stan Gibson Communications and CDC Software's Scott Munro for an engaging discuss...
 

Real World Performance: More Than Just Benchmarks

Real World Performance: More Than Just Benchmarks
 

Resource Alerts

Get instant email notifications by topic when white papers, webcasts, and case studies are added to our library.

 
FEATURED SPONSORS
 
 
 
SPONSORED LINKS
 

SETLabs: The Impact of Performance Engineering

Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the Tension Between Flexibility and Control

Build a Foundation for Unified Communications

Removing the Barriers to IT Governance: How On-Demand Software Changes the Game

Cloud Computing--What is its Potential Value for Your Company?

Seven Design Requirements for Web 2.0 Threat Protection

Learn about the growing threat of insider data theft.

Top to Bottom Performance Management Excellence at the City of Chicago

Architecting Business Intelligence Applications for Change: The Open Solution

Taking the Service Desk to the Next Level

Disciplined Autonomy: Resolving the Tension Between Flexibility and Control

Join us at the US-Brazil IT-BPO Summit, on November 10th in New York.

Unified Communications: Thoughts, Strategies and Predictions. Join the discussion

Read the RSA report: Security for Business Innovation

Webcast: Looking to the Cloud for Email and Collaboration Services

64-page prescriptive guide to security, compliance, and IT operations.

Keep your IT expertise up to date. Join the Intel Premier IT Professionals.

A new fleet of PCs with a total ROI in 10 months. Find your ROI.

eZine: A Roadmap to Reducing IT Complexity

Reduce risk, gain agility. See how Progress can help your business.

Virtualization Technology as a Business Solution

eZine: A Roadmap to Reducing IT Complexity

World-class trading technology solutions from NYSE Technologies.

If You're Paying for Telecom, You're Paying Too Much. Contact Asentinel Today.

Trade-In your old printer and save up to $1,000 plus free recycling!

IDC White Paper: CCM for IT Compliance and Risk Management

Tolly Group Lab Test Results: Cisco vs. ShoreTel

Enterprise Capture: Your Onramp to Business Process Automation

Focus Under Pressure: Why IT Governance Becomes Mission-Critical in a Down Economy

The Total Economic Impact of Network Security Intrusion Prevention

Seven Technologies for Advanced Mail Protection

How Consumerization of IT Will Make Your Business More Productive

Adobe® LiveCycle®solutions for intuitive user experience

Mind the Talent Gap: Global Survey on IT and HR trends and challenges

Seven Ways ITIL Can Help You in an Economic Downturn

See how AT&T can help protect your network.

Top Five CIO Challenges

Streamline IT Costs. Boost Performance with WAN Optimization.

Want to know how you can maximize employee productivity?

Build your 1st app FREE with Force.com

TDWI checklist helps define data readiness for analytics. Download report.

Increase UPS efficiency without sacrificing protection.

A Clear View Toward Virtualization

Virtualization Technology as a Business Solution

The rules of infrastructure management just changed.

A Clear View Toward Virtualization

Interactive Q&A helps you discover key ways to maximize IT assets.

Ready to virtualize tier one applications? Check your virtualization maturity.

Think you can't afford a Cisco Switch? Cisco Catalyst Switches are now more affordable.

Five minute business analytics assessment. Immediate results.