Outsourcing: Surviving and Thriving

This report gives top tips from the conversation at the Outsourcing: Surviving and Thriving workshop, held on the 15th September. The event was made up of a panel session, which four experienced and senior IT professionals shared their knowledge with the members, followed by 5 focused round table discussions.

Today's challenging economic landscape has persuaded many organisations that concentrating on their core business is a necessity, while offering significant opportunities to outsource non-core tasks.

But for those organisations new to outsourcing, or even those with experienced hands, how do you negotiate the minefield of working with and understanding the positions of suppliers, customers, and of course, your staff? How can you get a better understanding of what you're trying to achieve, and get the transition phase right? What are your communication needs? How do you define value? And what key lessons have organisations learned along the way, about contracts, governance, incentives, skills and risk?

This Forum discussion set out to determine how organisations either setting out on outsourcing for the first time, or looking to re-embrace it, can not only survive, but also thrive. It considers the benefits and pitfalls along the way, including some of the key legal, organisational and behavioural issues.