Outsourcing Tools for Insourcing

Posted October 9, 2009 by   · Print This Post Print This Post

Outsourcing Tools for Insourcing.

The typical outsourcer also provides a spectrum of support and consulting services compatible with a totally insourced environment. Thus, outsourcing is only one of the core service offerings. Enterprise customers now ask the question: why outsource when I can insource using the right tools? While there may be many reasons to outsource, there are equally many reasons not to outsource. The reasons relate to ERP, SCM, CRM and DRM solutions that can be used to keep customers loyal and flexibly prepared for a future outsourcing. Emerging BPM / business process management tools and software as a “service,” can likewise create opportunities for retention of functions in house.

Does your “outsourcer” also sell tools that facilitate insourcing? In this article, we take a quick look at one particular tool offered by the king of outsourcers for its enterprise customers’ data centers.

Panoply of Insourcing Tools.

Insourcing tools help a customer manage its technology and service delivery to its internal customers without dependence on a third party for design, maintenance and support. Let’s consider a few:

  • Web-Enabled Self Service and the ASP Model.
    Under the “Applications Service Provider” model, the external services provider hosts its own proprietary software solution. The customer enters data into the provider’s software by remote control, either using web-enabled services or high-speed link.
  • Web-Enablement of Customer’s Proprietary Software.
    Companies such as Citrix have developed tools to allow a customer to place its own proprietary software on a secure Intranet, thereby reducing access costs, particularly for end-users who are traveling, home-based employees, or in a large complex organization with multiple offices worldwide.
  • Software Licensing Model.
    Software that helps customers perform their own “managed services” has developed over time. In the “early days,” data base software such as Oracle and DB2 organized data. More recently, enterprise resource planning software (“ERP”), supply-chain management (“SCM”), customer relationship (“CRM”) and device-relationship management (“DRM”) software have enabled enterprise customers to harness a uniform set of business process tools across large organizations. Such more robust software serve as tools for reducing complexity, enforcing business process rules and showing transparency of data. Such software also can plan, identify and manage for business continuity in case of disasters. As an emerging insourcing or outsourcing tool, new software tools facilitate provisioning of resources.
  • External Benchmarking and Performance Metering Tools.
    Service level agreements (“SLA’s”) define the various performance parameters that define the essential services under any outsourcing agreement. Enterprise customers have tools that measure the same operational data that the external service providers see at the service provider’s facilities. Customers now are demanding access to benchmarking and performance metering tools.

Why Outsourcers Might Offer Insourcing Tools.

There are many reasons why outsourcing might not be a proper solution for a client. Currently, IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems all offer some form of tool to enable an enterprise customer to automatically provision server workloads based on supply and demand and network traffic. The same “silicon switch” that enables a customer to manage insourced IT resources could thus be used to transform to a hybrid insourced-outsourced combination or externalize the business process virtually.

Transitional Tools for Eventual Outsourcing of Process or Infrastructure, or for Provisioning of Services “On Demand.”

In such cases, the outsourcer should consider providing tools that retain customer loyalty and, like a Trojan horse, enable the customer to become an outsourcing customer “on demand.” The customer becomes trained in the service provider’s software, and such training might inspire confidence that, by using such tools, the customer can place more trust in an outsourced solution, either temporarily or on a continuous outsourced basis. These tools face the challenge of maintaining user control and limiting access to software applications while demand surges or subsides across a network of servers and data centers.

Infrastructure Support.

In fact, among others, IBM has adopted this strategy to service customers who might need hosted infrastructure and rapidly deployable additional server capacity. Its Tivoli “Intelligent Orchestrator” software will allow customers to convert a data center into an IT utility, where provisioning of network capacity (bandwidth), server processing capacity, storage and other computing resources are allocated dynamically in response to defined parameters of supply and demand. This resembles a “utility” because the “grid” operator may now anticipate demand and plan for allocation and reallocation of resources. In emergencies, the “grid” (data center with Intelligent Orchestrator (or competitive equivalent) could redistribute computing resources globally. But the challenge of dynamic global provisioning will remain daunting.

Pricing Challenges.

Tools for insourcing present challenges for the vendor. If the price of the tool is too attractive, the tool will sell and the services will not. If the tool is too expensive, outsourced services might be preferred, but only where the customer has no alternative. And by promoting tools, the vendor might cannibalize revenue from services, and vice versa. Pricing could be in the form of per-seat, per user, global site license, or site license by some other “line of business” demarcation.

Legal Issues in Dynamic Provisioning of Computing and Telecom Resources.
When we look at dynamic, rules-based provisioning of resources across international boundaries, we must remember that data transfers across borders remain subject to local legal controls. These include:

  • data protection laws.
  • privacy laws.
  • export controls on military data or “dual use” civilian-military processes.
  • license restrictions on authorized use.
  • infringement indemnifications that may be territorially restricted.
  • force majeure risks.

Transitioning from Software Licensing to Outsourcing.

Generally, a contract for a software license does not change when the parties enter into an outsourcing relationship. But customers should consider what changes should be made when this occurs, and what risks and assumptions have changed by virtue of the transition. By gaining the customer’s trust through a software tool, the vendor can thereby convert the customer to an outsourcing customer quickly, almost immediately. “Just sign here.”

We believe, in such cases, there could be significant business issues that need to be reflected in an appropriate contractual document. We recommend that an outsourcing lawyer be consulted in such circumstances.

More Information.

Bierce & Kenerson, P.C. does not provide any of the tools described above. However, we may be able to identify or comment on legal and practical issues of tools that may be of interest to the IT and technology-enabled services community. Please let us know if you have any questions about our experiences with particular vendors.

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