Outsourcing is inexorably gaining favour among New Zealand's large organisations, according to the Computerworld 1000 survey.
The survey, conducted among the CEOs, CFOs and MIS managers of New Zealand's 1000 largest business and government organisations, shows many more organisations expecting to increase outsourcing than expecting it to decrease. More than a third of respondents said they expected to increase outsourcing in the training area, 26.7% expected an increase in the network support category and 37.9% expected an increase in outsourcing for software development.
Categories like help-desk and facilities management received a lesser response, around the 15% mark.
In comparison to the respondents planning to increase outsourcing of services, those planning to decrease such activity ranged overall from 2% to 6.8% across the activity categories.
What this may mean for internal IS structures will vary from respondent to respondent. A planned increase in outsourcing does not always mean a reduction in internal IS structures--the responses could simply indicate significant projects being planned.
That's the case with Kanematsu New Zealand.
"It indicates we are installing something and need outside help," says Kevin Balme. "We're getting modern."
Kanematsu is installing a PC communications system with groupware "for those that understand it."
That software development and training were the two areas most likely to get an increase in outsourcing should not surprise as there is a linkage, with new training programmes often coming on-stream during or after project implementation.
"Having introduced a new system," says Dave Clark, CIO of The New Zealand Guardian Trust, "you have to make sure people are trained up. I still see this as a failing in a lot of organisations--they give you a PC and expect you to get on with it.
"We have a good training component and if we can't do it in-house we look outside for high quality design and presentation."
Respondents were also asked to indicate their current use of outsourcing in the survey. Once again, the software development and training areas showed the largest usage of external resources at 72.8% and 72.4% respectively. The next highest category was network support at 57.8%.