Outsourcing IT : A Governance Guide

IT departments are under increasing pressure to meet the many, often conflicting, demands of boards of directors, shareholders, end-users and competitors to name but a few.

The need to compete in a global market intensifies this pressure, bringing with it the need for skilled personnel, regular upgrading or replacement of systems and networks, a proliferation of software licences, and even new premises - in other words, considerable cost.

In response to the need to identify specialist suppliers of IT services capable of responding with agility to fierce global competition with greater economy, many boards of directors have turned to outsourcing the IT function to specialist suppliers.

Statistics show that this trend is growing, but there is also a body of evidence to show that many IT outsourcing projects fail.

The reasons are many and various, but almost all have their origins in inadequate adoption of governance processes and procedures. Outsourcing IT - A governance guide addresses three components of the governance of IT outsourcing: the IT outsourcing process; the nature of governance and the use of methodologies and tools for the implementation of governance principles; and the management of risk within the IT outsourcing process.

The objectives of the book are first, to provide boards of directors with clear criteria for the application of governance principles in an IT outsourcing environment; and, second, to provide guidance on useful strategies, processes and procedures for their implementation.

The author, Rupert Kendrick, is a non-practising solicitor and, for many years, was a partner in a medium-sized law firm. He has written, trained and consulted widely in the legal profession on legal IT issues.