“The biggest problem with outsourcing now is an inexplicable faith in service providers,” Tritsch said. “Too many [schools] give critical functions over to outsourcers without doing their due process.”
He noted that outsourcing your IT functions doesn’t “absolve you from managing.”
Outsourcing facts vs. myths
Before looking at what questions to consider when evaluating IT outsourcing, Tritsch outlined what he called several outsourcing “facts” and “myths.”
• “Everybody’s doing it”: Myth. While most institutions are outsourcing at least some of their IT functions, few are outsourcing all of them, he said.
• Outsourcing saves money: Myth. While outsourcing has the potential to save money in some cases, Tritsch said, in others it just moves the same pool of money around—from a school’s capital budget to its operating budget.
• Outsourcing is “greener”: That depends. Somebody’s still paying the electric bill, Tritsch said; that organization might be more energy efficient, or it might not.
• Outsourcing has its place: Fact. In the right situations, it can be an effective ed-tech strategy.
• An organization must decide not only whether to outsource but what specific tasks and services to outsource: Fact. IT outsourcing doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition, Tritsch emphasized.
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