Even though IT outsourcing regularly becomes a topic (mergers, acquisitions, next generation sourcing ...), it needs a lot of expertise and experience. Without good project management, IT outsourcing will not be a success. Holger Bredenkötter has been working as an IT consultant on this topic for more than 20 years. In his article, he explores the question of why IT outsourcing projects always represent a state of emergency for companies, what IT managers need to pay attention to when the time comes and why you actually need four project managers.
The topic
The term IT outsourcing refers to the fully responsible transfer of IT functions and/or business processes with a high IT content to legally independent - i.e. external - service providers for a defined period of time.
This article presents the biggest challenges in IT outsourcing projects that arise from this particular task. It starts with the fact that there is no such thing as THE IT outsourcing project; the facets range from the simple relocation of IT components to a new data centre to business process outsourcing, where entire business processes are to be handed over to a service provider.
And since IT outsourcing has been practised for many years (at least by large companies), next-generation outsourcing has also become a common project task. This involves the necessary measures to change the service provider at the end of the contract and to completely shift the IT infrastructure and support processes to a new service provider in the course of day-to-day business, so to speak.
In addition to deciding whether a company should outsource at all, the motivation, scope and expectations must also be defined and backed up with hard figures. Only in this way can the achievement of the project goals be proven later.
For project management, this means: communication and control at management level to drive strategic and tactical decisions, calculate business cases and, best of all, to be able to predict the future (after all, an outsourcing scenario must be planned for a period of 5 - 10 years). But also accompanying technical transformations and introducing organisational changes must be ensured by project management in such projects.
It is undisputed that a long-term project can only be successful with the help of a structured approach. But how can such a complex project be controlled with the usual project management procedures and tools?The topic
Read the complete article on nc360°, the Info-Platform of noventum consulting.
The topic
The term IT outsourcing refers to the fully responsible transfer of IT functions and/or business processes with a high IT content to legally independent - i.e. external - service providers for a defined period of time.
This article presents the biggest challenges in IT outsourcing projects that arise from this particular task. It starts with the fact that there is no such thing as THE IT outsourcing project; the facets range from the simple relocation of IT components to a new data centre to business process outsourcing, where entire business processes are to be handed over to a service provider.
And since IT outsourcing has been practised for many years (at least by large companies), next-generation outsourcing has also become a common project task. This involves the necessary measures to change the service provider at the end of the contract and to completely shift the IT infrastructure and support processes to a new service provider in the course of day-to-day business, so to speak.
In addition to deciding whether a company should outsource at all, the motivation, scope and expectations must also be defined and backed up with hard figures. Only in this way can the achievement of the project goals be proven later.
For project management, this means: communication and control at management level to drive strategic and tactical decisions, calculate business cases and, best of all, to be able to predict the future (after all, an outsourcing scenario must be planned for a period of 5 - 10 years). But also accompanying technical transformations and introducing organisational changes must be ensured by project management in such projects.
It is undisputed that a long-term project can only be successful with the help of a structured approach. But how can such a complex project be controlled with the usual project management procedures and tools?The topic
Read the complete article on nc360°, the Info-Platform of noventum consulting.
