Summary: IT and
business process outsourcing deals have seen an interesting shift in 2015 – the
duration of contracts have decreased by roughly 15% and annual contract values
were down 8%. However, the raw number of outsourcing contracts hit an all-time
high. This is possible due to the increase in digitization and the greater need
for flexibility. As businesses need new, creative IT providers, they have been
shying away from long-term contracts where they can be stuck with a single IT
provider. Additionally, the increasing popularity of AWS, Microsoft Azure, and other
on-demand, dynamically priced and highly flexible IT infrastructure services,
businesses have been opting to ditch the traditional physical hardware.
However, with the dynamic nature of cloud-computing services, there is a higher
potential or complete reinvention of a company’s IT infrastructure, which lends
itself to shorter, more flexible contracts.
Relevance: In our
class, we have the changing face of IT and the increasing need for high
flexibility, such as in Lean or Agile development. It appears that our society
as a whole is moving toward the trend – everything needs to be able to easily adapt
to changing requirements and needs or unexpected problems. This is also
outlined in the idea of DevOps, which emphasizes small, quick changes to
software rather than slow, large developments. Because companies are realizing
that the pace of growth itself is increasing, there is merit in having IT
providers for shorter periods of time who can adapt as quickly as the industry.
Importance: This
greatest significance of this article is that it shows how the nature of
in-house IT support and IT outsourcing is changing because of rapidly changing
technology. As MIS professionals, IT will be a large part of many of our
careers, and we must stay knowledgeable with the current trends in the
industry. Understanding these trends will help us better prepare for our
careers as real MIS professionals after graduation because we will have a
better idea of what to expect and what to focus on. Companies are looking for
IT providers that will be able to satisfy the information systems needs of
their organization on a short-term basis, and this trend is expected to
continue well into the future.
Good article, but the link to the Top 10 Outsourcing companies was even more interesting. The article you linked to had little to do with DevOps, but to the changing nature of outsourcing. Here is a link to the top 10 outsourcing service providers for 2016, and rounding out the rest of the top five were India’s TCS and Wipro. They include: 1. Cognizant; 2. Accenture; 3. IBM; 4. TCS; 5. Wipro; 6. HCL; 7. Dell; 8. Infosys; 9. CapGemini+IGATE; 10. CSC
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