E-Business Solutions

ASPs bite at the banks

IN ANCIENT EGYPT, it became fashionable to outsource ritual killing to another species. Cleopatra, 'working in partnership' with her asp, is possibly the best-known example.

The benefits were equivalent to those boasted for classical IT outsourcing: an undesirable job (in Cleo's case, killing) was transferred to a third party (the asp); minimal human intervention was required to get the desired results (death of Anthony and Cleopatra).

Today, the use of outsourcing services and shared utilities is common.

In many sectors, outsourcing has spread in waves. For example, in 1987 in the UK, each health authority had its own systems development group. Within 10 years, all of these had either been outsourced or commercialised through management buy-outs.

Throughout industry sectors, the key question that management has been asked has changed from ''How will you best run your department?'' to ''Have you thought about outsourcing?'' to ''Why haven't you outsourced yet?''

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