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Should We Outsource IT?
10/20/2005
To Outsource or Not to Outsource
Clearly, outsourcing d'esn’t have to mean working with an overseas help desk vendor; nor d'es it mean dismissing the IT department. Rather, as the University of Florida examples illustrate, it may mean that when you add a new service or take on a complex project, you’ll want to carefully select a partner with expertise that complements your own—especially if the project is outside your staff’s knowledge base.
Outsourcing is nothing new to higher education, of course. Areas like facilities management and food services have been outsourced for many years, points out Geoffrey Tritsch, president of Compass Consulting International (www.compassconsulting.com), an independent consulting firm focused on technology in higher education. And as IT has grown as a cost center and focus of interest, outsourcing has “been filtering into technology more and more over the years,” he says.
Still, in strategic planning with higher ed clients, Tritsch adds, the questions always come up: “Should we be outsourcing? And if so, how much should we be outsourcing?” Although cost is almost always the impetus behind outsourcing, most experts agree that outsourcing may or may not be less expensive than keeping a function in house. Importantly, outsourcing certain areas frees up staffers to focus on core competencies and their improvement. Tritsch agrees that, indeed, when it comes to outsourcing, there are other things to carefully consider, including control of the project or technology. Furthermore, with IT, Tritsch says, some outsourcing is inevitable. “It’s really not a matter of if; it’s a matter of how much.”
In that case, where should you start? “We’ll usually look for where the customer is having the most trouble and is weakest,” he says. “That varies from customer to customer.” Compass helps schools figure out what those problem areas are and calculate the dollars it would take to outsource a specific function.
Tritsch, who has been an independent consultant to higher education for more than 25 years, says he’s watched the outsourcing pendulum swing in and out of favor several times over the years. Right now, “I would say we’re probably pretty far to the outsourcing side, and it’s starting to swing back,” he says. But many factors—including national and worldwide economic climate changes—can affect the pendulum as well. For a useful Q&A white paper about outsourcing in higher education, go to compassconsulting.com/articles/outsource.html.
Linda Briggs is a freelance writer based in San Diego, Calif. She can be reached at lbriggs@lindabriggs.com.
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