Shocking findings from a new poll reveal that 72% of end user companies and 82% of supplier organisations believe outsourcing will finish off IT departments for good.
The poll was conducted at the National Outsourcing Association’s (NOA) recent summit.
Martyn Hart, chairman of the NOA commented:
“Even though this may seem like a blow to the IT industry, it is purely indicative of the changing nature of how companies are doing business.
“Many companies are now looking to outsource ICT functions to specialist providers – it means that increasingly, IT workers will be working at specialist IT houses rather than in-house for companies.”
The outsourcing decision lies with the CEO, according to 33% of end users and 50% of suppliers. The CFO has the final say according to 21% of users and 25% of suppliers and only 14% of users and 11% of suppliers said the final decision lies with the CIO.
The NOA, warns, however, that losing all internal knowledge of an outsourced process can be dangerous. Hart commented:
“The role of the IT director is changing from a more operational ‘hands on’ approach to a more strategic function – in the future the main responsibility of the CIO and the IT team will be to deliver business strategy through ICT by managing external partnerships and facilitating the smooth provision of IT services from a third party.
“Delivering innovation to the business through new technology and ideas may well be more appealing to in-house IT professionals than having to deal with day to day technical problems.”
A total 250 delegates were polled.
