I was struck by a recent blog post by Bryan Glick at Computer Weekly http://tiny.cc/6j828 on CIOs’ challenges revealed by an industry round table.  Among some of the usual suspects on the list were:

·        How to connect IT with the strategic priorities of the organisation

·        Communicating and marketing IT more effectively

·        Compliance, governance, metrics and risk management

·        Technology is not the problem

·        Supplier relations

One that leapt out at me was the old problem of supplier relations and, in particular, the continued ability for IT outsourcing to shoot itself in the foot with rigid SLAs that don’t reflect business or life’s realities.

As one guest at the round table related, in-house staff found cost-driven SLAs made no realistic allowance for low-level but vital support that IT team had provided before the work was outsourced. In time, the IT team found they had to separately reinstate these services, cancelling out the original savings from outsourcing.

It’s clear that anyone can make a short-term business case and drive through a ‘wish list’ of savings. However, it seems strange that we are still ignoring, or failing to even identify, the mutual benefits for both sides that apply in any long term buyer-supplier relationship. We’re still seeing the organisation that steamrollers the supplier on costs to quickly deliver its perceived ‘value for money’, or the IT programme that falls apart because the provider failed to really understand the buyer’s needs or their long term financial commitments.

Whatever the project, it’s time for our industry to consider a more open discussion on from how IT is procured and supported - the longer term outcomes and what type of working partnership might realistically deliver them – before we fast forward to the budget or the T&Cs page.  This means gaining a better understanding the customer’s needs. It also demands (as I’ve said before) that the supplier develops more transparent performance measures and pricing models.