Technological Out-sourcing
Today many companies are doing an introspective analysis
to discover what they do really well, or what is the same,
what part of their activity is the one that gives extra or added value to the
product or service they produce.
It is often said that this activity is the core business of
the organization. Being therefore the activity or group of them in which it
should concentrate, developing to the maximum its potential, productivity, etc.
The rest of the activities, normally in support of these
core processes , can be outsourced, that is, placed in the hands of other
companies that are experts in these activities and that, therefore, can do them
more efficiently (lower cost and higher quality).
In this sense, the tasks, procedures, devices and platforms
related to information systems are susceptible to being outsourced, in part or
totally.
There are different levels of outsourcing of information
systems depending on the exact content of what is placed in the hands of third
parties:
• Housing ,
consists of installing the company's computer systems in a center owned by
third parties. Although the systems remain the property of the company and
managed by its personnel, aspects such as location, building security,
temperature requirements, humidity and environmental dust, physical operation
on equipment, such as cartridge change, shutdown, power-on, networks, etc. etc.
It is the mission of the company awarded the outsourcing.
• Platform
outsourcing is like the previous case, but the ownership and administration of
the equipment is also delegated to third parties. To maintain certain control,
a service quality agreement (SLA) is normally signed with the winning company,
which implies response times and system availability. The company maintains responsibility
for computer applications.
• Complete
outsourcing , in this case the control of computer applications also passes to
third parties, the company maintaining only the responsibility of correctly
identifying its information needs for its business processes, making requests
for these to the outsourcing company. It is evident that there must be a very
high mutual trust between both companies, as well as a well-defined contract.
Sometimes, to carry out this level of outsourcing, both companies create a
third investee of both that will be in charge of the design and operation of
the systems.
The generalization of information technology and telematics
is an inevitable and irreversible process, these technologies have proven their
validity to solve problems of an economic, practical, financial, information
management, and work efficiency type.
To take advantage of the positive effect and reduce the
perverse effects, there are changes that accelerate the process of computer
literacy and telematics. In this sense, relevant changes are observed in the
new generations, as well as its use in more and more activities of daily life.
One of these activities are the processes of education and
training of the population, since more and more, people are educating themselves
with technology as the main teaching tool, varying the traditional way of
learning. Older generations do not adapt as quickly as younger generations to
ICTs, but are more conditioned by the educational system and by the traditional
way of producing and accessing knowledge.
