IT Security, Essay Example

Introduction

Outsourcing can be used for a multitude of reasons so that a specific goal or objective can be achieved by that business. Outsourcing is another tool the business can use to incorporate the necessary labor, size or expertise of their workforce to meet the requirements of the business objectives.  Outsourcing can be used in multiple different ways, both with positive and negative aspects surrounding those choices.  While there are benefits to outsourcing such as lower costs, increased ability to perform functions outside of the core business functions, and increasing the opportunities of the business by taking on a more versatile and dynamic position there are also downsides.   Initially the cost of doing business could be lower but overall the business will suffer due to issue with quality, hidden costs, inability to move business processes and increased risk exposure due to involving more business partners to critical business processes (Hira and Hira 2005).  There is also the potential of losing all of the knowledge and experience gained by performing the project when the outsourced resources leave.

Outsourcing Types

When outsourcing a function of the business, most of the time the ancillary functions of the organization is the first to be outsourced.  For example, if the company sells health insurance, an ancillary function to keep that business running is providing technical support to their users when filing health claims on the internet.  Outsourcing technical support for business applications is one form of outsourcing that is commonly used.  The benefits of this function are that it allows the company to focus on its core business processes, and in this example that is creating and selling health insurance options.  The negative side includes the potential security risk associated with a third party vendor accessing the corporate files as well as their customer’s information.  Even with the security risk there is also a risk of communication and customer experience degradation when using outsourced functions from other countries.

While outsourcing technical support may open the door for potential security issues and customer service complaints, the development and implementation of key business functions could also be outsourced globally.  When a company that has a core function of manufacturing corrugated paper wants to build an inventory control application they could build it in-house or select the services from a vendor that specializes in this type of application development.  The benefit of outsourcing this function is that it allows a specialized function to be completed by someone with the expertise to do so.  The company is in the business of manufacturing corrugated paper and not in software development.  The downside could be that the system is not built correctly due to the misunderstanding of the developers regarding the manufacturing business.  This could also pose a security threat to the system once it is put into production because the expertise regarding the intricacies of the system lies outside of the business.

The third area that will be covered regarding outsourcing is that of purchasing outsourced talent or skill sets.  Some companies could bring in an influx of engineers to develop a new product line or create new solutions to old problems the company is facing.  Hiring this skill set is a great way to build the corporation’s experience and knowledge base.  This is the main advantage of paying a premium to fill the skills gap. The problem with this type of outsourcing is that the knowledge gap will remain void after the experience has reached the end of the contract.  The experience the team brought with them as well as everything that the outsourced team learned on the project is no longer available.

When functions or services are outsourced the business must still adapt and incorporate their leadership and management structure to fit the need of the new resources.  With the outsourcing of the technical support team or bringing in engineers to build a new product line, these outsourced teams need to have a hierarchy within the organization as well as other role-based functions within project teams or functional areas (Brown and Wilson 2005).  The roles change when outsourcing from a tactical and hands on job performance to a leadership or project manager relationship with the new outsourced resources.

References

Brown, D., and S. Wilson. The black book of outsourcing, how to manage the changes, challenges, and opportunities. Wiley, 2005.

Bucki, J., (2012). Top 7 outsourcing advantages. Retrieved from http://operationstech.about.com/od/officestaffingandmanagem/a/OutSrcAdvantg.htm.

Hira, Ron, and Anil Hira. Outsourcing america: what’s behind our national crisis and how we can reclaim american jobs. New York: Amacom Books, 2005.

Progent. (2012). Why outsource? How businesses can benefit by outsourcing and co-sourcing IT services from progent. Retrieved from http://www.progent.com/pdf/outsource.pdf