Is outsourcing becoming more common?

Elessar

The company I work for have recently decided to outsource our in-house development. Up to now myself and others on the team have been doing the smaller dev projects and they have used day-rate contractors for the larger ones. Now they have contracted a UK company to do the work, despite several of us making it clear we would like to move in that direction full time.

I've also come across an RFT that essentially seems to be asking for a managed services partner to effectively outsource the entire IT function. To be clear, I don't work for a dedicated software development house, but rather an IT department that does some in house development among other things (networks/platforms/PM etc). Obviously I'm a bit concerned. A friend of mine just a few months ago was made redundant as his company outsourced his IT/dev job to India.

Is this becoming more common?

beauf

Outsourcing has always been common in IT.
On the flip side I also see all of these not work out from time to time, and projects come back in house.

14ned

Elessar wrote: »

Is this becoming more common?

If anything, it's not as prevalent now as it once was. But it's still common that when some bit of obsolete product or server approaches EOL and it has nothing sensitive in it, you outsource its maintenance to some lowest bidder so you can focus your staff on something more value adding. And get rid of the dross of staff too of course, the ones you couldn't fire before due to domain knowledge.

In the end, always keep your CV fresh and ready. The axe can always land at any time, and it's pretty common that they make you train in your cheaper offshore replacements in order to get your non-statutory redundancy.

Niall

Tow

We are starting to bring work back to Ireland from our development team in india. The older management are gone and the new management previously had to deal with the outsourced developers on a day to day basis...

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118724010#Comment_118724010

And when they have dealt with the on shore on a daily basis and see their bonus impacted the extra costs, guess what they'll do.

I wonder how those companies who outsourced to Ukraine are doing these days.

Manach

Yes, it is quite prevalent as software houses are used to deliver on project needs. The timezone difference for say India is not too bad and it is easy to build up a report with the Engineers but nailing down the requirements and dealing with schedules when can be a problem so having a technical background to speak the same IT language is important. At the end of day, so long as an organisation just considers the upfront costs, offshouring will always be here.

Flinty997

Mixed bag with us. We've had a few out sourced systems go awry and pulled a few of them back in house. We are though rapidly , outsourcing all our non-core systems. All our main projects are now almost all lead by contractors.

As all the non essential projects get outsourced there's less work in general. I can see very soon we'll be back outsourcing the main projects again. Be won't be able to retain enough staff to maintain then.

Tow

Bank of Ireland is regularly used as an example of outsourcing. I remember when they first started, projects had to be quoted for internally and in India... Roll on 25 years they are hiring like mad, after throwing over a billion at trying resolve the resulting difficulties.

Jim2007

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118779575#Comment_118779575

But what was their objective in outsourcing? Twenty five years ago most bank management did not give a crap about the long term outcome - cut costs to the bone, keep the profit margins high, collect the bonus and be gone in 10 years at the latest. If you pay people to run something into the ground you should not be surprised if they succeed.

Outsourced development is no better nor worse than in house development in terms of skills and experience. I have seen very good results and very bad results on outsourced projects over the last 30 years and the most consistent characteristic - the developers were doing exactly what the client paid them to do. If you pay for quality, put the effort in from a business point of view, you'll come a way with a good outcome. But if you do otherwise and complain about it, then that is on you and you should not be surprised with the PM lands the blame at your door.

DublinWriter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118779575#Comment_118779575

I remember they made a lot of their own IT people redundant because of this and a few months later one of their senior execs had porn found on his business laptop as well as using it to hire hookers in Vegas. What a coinkey-dink!

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2004/may/30/theobserver.internationalnews

Tow

The same happened with the head of Aerlingus, after he ruffled a few feathers.

scottygee

I think in IT or web dev it's really common. But I've noticed a trend as well with marketing because businesses are looking for ways to cut costs, specific specialties, and increase efficiency.

And a lot of these "contractors" can easily create contracts, send them, sign them, and that's it. With the rise of smart contracts from apps, it's easier to tweak and create specialized contracts to tamper-proof transactions which keep them protected.

But there are still some businesses that are hesitant to outsource cause of the quality of service.

But for me, outsourcing is a great way to streamline your business operations especially when you're a small one.

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crybaby

Yes, outsourcing is definitely becoming more common across various industries. Companies are increasingly looking to cut costs and improve efficiency by outsourcing specific functions. In my own experience running an insurance company, we've outsourced several back-office processes to an insurance BPO company. This move has allowed us to focus on our core business while benefiting from the expertise and cost savings provided by the BPO.

nickkohl

Outsourcing is indeed becoming more common, particularly in industries like fintech, as companies strive to innovate while reducing costs. Design thinking plays a key role in this shift, especially in financial technology. It helps companies better understand user needs, create innovative solutions, and scale quickly through iterative prototypes. Outsourcing partners who specialize in design thinking in fintech firms develop user-centric digital products without heavy in-house investments. Read more on https://dworkz.com/article/design-thinking-in-the-financial-sector-process-benefits-challenges-аnd/ .This trend is growing due to its ability to save costs while enhancing customer experience and accelerating time to market.