Dennis Torkko, Arthur Andersen Contract Services said that they are seeing that the market leaders in all of the industries are increasingly using the outsourcing as a way to build and sustain competitive advantage. They feel like the slave that is being auctioned off, all of that is missing are the chains, anonymous Information Technology person involved in an outsource. The outsourcing is seen by most of the observers as one of the pillars of the modern management and the economic practices, it is also one of the most difficult management topics to discuss.

In many groups, the word outsourcing is not an economic or management concept but an emotional and political concept. Within an environment where hard edged, slogans such as do not automate obliterate, lean and mean, non-core and zero added value are applied to jobs and by the default to the people who have been doing those jobs it is very difficult to avoid emotion and value laden opinions.

By the Australian Federal Government to outsource the majority of the 2,800 Information Technology jobs and related computer infrastructure in most government departments provides an excellent case study of how emotions and the values that can cloud the real issues of the outsourcing. In a series of the articles with the headings such as Bye, Bye Bureaucrats, Bureaucracy Gone Bad and the 80,000 heads to roll. The Bulletin outlined that the government expectations of $50,000,000 per year savings from the $2 billion per year expenditure on the government IT. The battle lines were immediately drawsn with the senior management from the various government Information Technology groups attacking the proposal and the key unions and staff associations such as the Community and Public Sector Union claiming that data security will be compromised and urging the public to send pre-written letter to the Prime Minister claiming.

The claim and the counter claim is also evident in the south Australia where the State Government outsourced $500,000,000 of the Information Technology infrastructure the cost of the Information Technology to the south Australian Government and EDS responded saying that the estimated savings of around $12,000,000 per annum had been realized. While both of the examples above are from the Public Sector similar debates occur in the Private Sector. The outsourcing is more than just another management fad, it is a highly emotional issue and as a result it has become increasingly difficult for both observers and participants.

REFERENCE:

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/Columns-Departments/Front-Office/The-Great-Outsourcing-Debate-44308.aspx

http://www.thomsettinternational.com/main/articles/hot/hot_outsource.htm

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/tag/outsourcing/