Information Technology Staffing

The short answer to that question is no.  Technology, like anything else happens in spurts and goes through trends.  The Outsourcing of IT is no exception.  For all of those organizations that thought they had an “IT Strategy” they quickly learned that the strategy is only as good as the business model that it supports.
Outsourcing IT is no exception to this rule. 

For the past several years organizations have learned that outsourcing may not be the ultimate answer because “the playing-field” has changed and organizations need to adapt.  In this period of downturn, the outsourcing of IT to foreign countries is no longer the bargain it once appeared to be.  Since the U.S. dollar has been devalued it has had a direct effect on the pricing that organizations receive from off-shore countries.

I wrote yesterday in my blog, “Outsourcing and IT” that in India, a country that supplies and services a good portion of the U.S. outsourcing needs is starting to use third and fourth tiered personnel to supply services.  The glaring problem with this is that it suggests that organizational projects can be put in jeopardy by continuing the same practices with less than qualified people.  This costs a company time and investment leaving an organization questioning, “where is my competitive advantage?”

Insourcing is not something you hear about every day, and yet, it appears that the brunt of the American Corporation Outsourcing has tapered off and is on the decline, along with the US Dollar. Insourcing is when companies decide that they can afford to do the same jobs that they sent to other countries, in-house or thru local subsidiaries and technology consulting firms.

In the practice of information technology I would suggest that we have been hit hard by outsourcing and it has lead to massive lay-offs.  Now some of those jobs are coming back or so we think.  I believe there is a balance that can be struck.  Companies may not be able to build massive IT departments like they once had, that is not cost effective, but they can partner with technology consulting firms to assist them when they need IT staffing talent or when they need IT expertise or mentoring from  time-to-time.  My organization STAR BASE actually has a program called "CIO Assist" which is a way to provide any organization with the IT expertise they need on a short-term basis

So, to answer the original question, “Can anything remain Stable?”  The answer is no, but in this case, a combination of insourcing/outsourcing does just the opposite for the US Economy, it helps lower the trade deficit, provides more jobs for Americans and it means a more streamline process. Perhaps this is a start in helping to repair the economic downturn in this country. This pleases me as I hope it does my readers.  Blog on!