Cooperative Outsourcing: Securing Value from Information Technology

As competitive pressures push utilities to look for new ways to do business, outsourcing the information technology (IT) function becomes increasingly attractive. By contracting for outside IT services, utilities can reduce costs and increase efficiency.

The decision to outsource, however, now goes beyond cost-cutting considerations. Companies are just as likely to turn to outsourcing when they want to concentrate on new business opportunities or dramatically change their overall structure. Rather than simply cutting IT expenditures, outsourcing can deliver substantial value in terms of long-term performance and profitability. And it is no longer the troubled organizations that are outsourcing. At least 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies will have outsourcing partners in 1995.

Cooperative Outsourcing

Future relationships with IT providers will increasingly involve shared risks and rewards. These value-based contracts (em which link compensation to a provider's ability to deliver specific benefits (em are rapidly gaining popularity across all industries. The U.S. systems-integration market alone experienced a 300-percent increase in value-based contracts from 1993 to 1994.