I presented a session on Outsourcing and EA at the IRM EA conference last week; specifically how, as Enterprise Architects, we are in a prime position to ensure that outsourcing deals are both created and run effectively as we are in the unique position of having the knowledge and understanding of both the business and IT across the entire enterprise. We likened EA’s to the Spartans in the battle of Thermopylae who held off an army of (allegedly) a million men for seven days with only 300 warriors – primarily because they understood and had a map of the landscape. (Unfortunately they were betrayed and slaughtered after a week – hopefully the analogy doesn’t stretch that far!).
Research by both Gartner and AT Kearney suggests that around 1/3rd of outsource initiatives fail. We discussed how use of our architecture knowledge and artefacts can mitigate the risks of failure and how EA can be used to bring greater success. We touched on our work to help organisations use EA and Essential together to reduce the outsource transition time (from idea to completed transition to a new provider) from a typical 18-24 months to 6-9 months, which addresses a key concern raised by the FCA. We showed some examples of how Essential has been used to support such initiatives across a number of organisations.
The conference itself was very interesting and it seems to me that EA is really coming of age – there were many talks showing how EA is used in organisations to provide real and concrete benefit to senior managers.
If you would like a copy of the presentation then drop me an e-mail at the info at e-asolutions.com address.