by Gery Menegaz for Between the Lines 

"Organizations considering outsourcing need to understand how the outsourcing business proposition maps to their specific needs.

In the early days of technology outsourcing, the driving force behind an outsourcing strategy was cost savings -- culminating with many US firms going so far as to stake out offices in India. With the growth of the Indian middle class, the cost proposition has diminished significantly.

Today,  outsourcing critics suggest that organizations are reducing costs through the replacement of expensive full time employees with less expensive contractors. This is not a viable long-term strategy.

In the organizations where I have worked, outsourcing was seen as a way to not only reduce costs, but add flexibility to the technology teams. Temporarily adding specialized skills to the bench allowed the firm to innovate, and enabled the firm's technology teams to focus on core business issues.

Today, IT services firms are expected to be strategic partners, invested in the success of their client, not just the project.

For as many reasons as there are to employ an outsourcing strategy, there are just as many reasons not to. Here is a quick rundown from a recent survey."

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