The document discusses how IT sourcing must change to meet the demands of the "Ideas Age" economy. It notes that organizations now need to rapidly respond to changing customer needs. IT departments must be able to quickly source solutions or risk being replaced. The "Ideas Age" requires a focus on core competencies and interconnected functionality with customers. Leaders must source flexible, integrated systems using insourced, outsourced, and multi-sourced services. Cloud computing enables organizations to nimbly source innovative solutions. An "Information Services Sourcing Blueprint" can help organizations define, source, integrate, and deliver best-of-breed business and IT services to achieve outcomes.

1. IT Sourcing In The Ideas Age Economy
Author: John D. Rowe
One of the long stated mantras of almost every IT department has been to align business requirements
and IT service. This lofty goal must now be accomplished in hours or days – not weeks, months or even
years. Why? Organizations are focused on a non-stop quest to alter their business models from a slow
and hierarchical Industrial Age approach to an agile and responsive Internet Age approach purposely
engineered to rapidly respond to ever-changing customer requirements. The transition from Industrial Age
to Internet Age models is insightfully discussed by authors Michael Hugos and Derek Hulitzky in opening
chapter of a must read book Business In The Cloud. This hyperconnected social-media Internet Age is
further evolving into what can best coined as the Ideas Age. This blog series of ITO – Six Honest Serving
Questions has offered additional market insights primarily pertaining to sourcing IT infrastructure
technology services. In this final blog entry for this series, we will address “how” IT sourcing must change
to meet the demands of a new business model in this Ideas Age.
In July 2011, Thomas Friedman penned a New York Times’ column The Start-Up Of You that succinctly
described today’s corporate cultures which demand short-term results from highly skilled talent - “people
who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also
people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day.” The results of these demanding
expectations, in conjunction with an extremely competitive global markets, are forcing a referendum on IT
and business unit relationships. IT departments which cannot rapidly and innovatively source viable
solutions for their respective business units are being dismissed and replaced with alternative sourcing
solutions, particularly led by those who feel empowered with the entrepreneurial spirit of the Ideas Age.
For some, a paradigm shift in organizational approach and thought leadership will be necessary. The
Ideas Age economy demands focus on core business competencies and a passion to develop
interconnected functionality with customers and trading partners. Modern organizations can no longer
afford the expense or time of endless planning cycles to design legacy business and IT architectures
which require multi-year implementations together with distracting asset maintenance and replacements.
To attain and remain a viable contender in today’s fast-paced global market, leaders must expand their
definition of IT solutions to include an integrated changeable market-based system of insourced,
outsourced, and multi-sourced services seamlessly and securely connected. Cloud computing is one of
several technology enablers that empowers business and IT leaders to swiftly source creative and
innovative solutions. In a recent Forbes article entitled Next Generation IT: Why We Need A Cloud
Middleman, Glenn Weinstein from Appirio states that “Experts are now valued not for their ability to select
and install the right servers and storage devices, but instead for their knowledge and ability to navigate
the cloud vendor eco-system”. As the benefits of cloud computing continue to be realized, Information
Technology (IT) will figuratively, and literally, be transformed – less focus on technology integration and
more focus on integrating outcomes of value add service offerings.
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2. The two-dimensional Information Services Sourcing Blueprint depicted below represents a simplistic
model to reference when considering the many intricacies of “how to” source a flexible eco-system of
integrated IT services which supports today’s dynamic business requirements and outcomes in the Ideas
Age economy. By expanding IT choices (insourced, outsourced, multi-sourced) and utilizing proven
systems logic, organizations of all sizes can free themselves from complex, confusing, and costly IT
operations and projects which have infamously been associated with Industrial Age IT service models.
Many of the Six Honest Serving Questions such as Why, Who, Where, What, and When need to be
answered in the aforementioned blueprint by a collaborative team of business and IT professionals who
can architect twenty-first century business solutions independent of internal or external bias. In this age of
ideas the ability to effectively define, source, integrate and deliver best-of-breed business and IT services
which achieve viable business outcomes will largely replace legacy IT’s traditional role of managing
physical technology assets.
One of the obvious questions for any organization is “how do I integrate multiple service providers to
create a cohesive market-differentiating end-user experience”? Service Integration is the answer. In a
December 2010 blog, EquaTerra (now KPMG) published a blog entitled 2011: The Year of Service
Integration? which defined service integration as “the coordination of people, processes, tools and
technology across multiple third-party service providers, both internal and external, to manage the
delivery of end-to-end business and IT services to end-users.” The role of service integrator, blending
business, relationship and technical acumen, will be essential in your Information Services Sourcing
Blueprint.
As noted in a previous blog of ITO -Where To Source IT, security is an essential ingredient that must
span every solution regardless of sourcing. Today, IT services can be dispersed across a global web of
geographic locations which include point solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM)
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), internally managed enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and
back-office business process outsourcing (BPO) services. Context-aware security services are needed to
effectively manage today’s complex IT architectures which includes internal and external suppliers.
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3. Executive leadership must be constantly focused on developing requirements and delivering outcomes
that best serve their customers in the Ideas Age. Developing and populating an Information Service
Sourcing Blueprint that is right for your organization will no doubt require new skills and thought
leadership; however, the journey need not be complicated or costly especially if organizations are willing
to call upon the power of simplification along with creativity and ingenuity. As the father of modern
management, Peter Drucker, once stated “the best way to predict the future is to create it”. Today is not
too soon to start.
About Independent Infrastructure
Independent Infrastructure is an external IT service broker founded to offer private and public sector
organizations a fresh approach to sourcing, integrating, and managing information technology services in
the twenty-first century. Independent Infrastructure‘s pay by use engagement model provides buyers
unique access to services when needed, and for the duration of time that is needed, thereby easing both
time and budget constraints for internal resources. Please visit our web site at
www.independentinfrastructure.com.
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