The Pros And Cons Of IT Outsourcing

During the last eighty years, the adoption of advanced Information Technologies (IT) by the United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD) has endorsed the US military to be the most powerful force all over the world (Marquis, 2011). To adopt IT technologies, two approaches are offered: IT outsourcing or IT insourcing. Formerly, the US DoD used to be an internally IT managed department that aimed at bringing more work in-house to be performed by federal employees( Insourcing: Critical Risks, Missed Opportunities, and Strategies for Improvement). In the current technological environment and economic climate, DOD is outsourcing many of its functions. Many reasons contributed to the shift from the IT insourcing to the IT outsourcing. According to Marquis(2011), the IT insourcing approach requires the establishment of new locations, policies and processes, hiring new employees, and buying new equipment (Marquis A.). Thus, the in-house approach is generally more expensive due to the expenses of development and other hidden costs like training charges (Marquis A.). Furthermore, new outsourcing options and service providers …show more content…
To start with, contractor companies provide too little documentation of the IT products or solutions of DoD employees because of proprietary concerns or unmentioned contract requirements (Marquis, 2011). However, there is potential documentation that private companies have to provide as part of the development effort of system such as support documentation which consists of training materials detailed to support staff; all user references to use when resolving problems; a trouble-shooting guide; and escalation techniques for handling difficult problems (agilemodeling). Consequently, this leads to an unethically tie to a particular IT outsourcing company for ongoing maintenance or upgrades, or higher maintenance costs especially when the contracts