The Strategy of IT Government’s Purchasing Project Outsourcing

In the government purchasing activities, there are more IT purchase projects with high frequency. This is because the government agencies, the public financial institutions and the delivery of public services for the social sectors are located in fixed places, so they cannot be separated from the various normal consumables, IT supplies, facilities, etc. Now the author does an analysis on the ways to enhance IT projects in the strategy of IT government’s purchasing project outsourcing.

The analysis on the strategy of IT project "homemade" and outsourcing

Before making a strategy of IT project "homemade" or outsourcing, you should first understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and risks by comparing the IT project "homemade" with outsourcing.

In the specific operational process of purchasing IT project, if there is no big difference between the IT technical content, implementation of the business and those of the peer, the project can be “homemade”, and not to be outsourced. When it deals with special and complex technology and it is the first time to implement, and also is in the exclusive control stage, we will have to study the markets, and invite competent, professional and technical experts to decide which one to choose, the homemade or outsourcing. Making decisions should base on the scientific assessment, analysis, feasibility studies, etc. If you are in need of an urgent application of science and technology products, which are just "released" or not "get into shape"(such as the products used by public security, detection and special trades), you must take into consideration of the leakage risks of outsourcing, you should be in a disadvantageous position, and led by suppliers easily. In such circumstances, you must take homemade and outsourcing together, the strategy could be considered separately; you can choose strategic providers to establish strategic partnership with them, by which you can access to reliable technical support and share risk with them. The payments and budget limits should be under a more complete control, figure out periodical financial budget, which is to be compared to the actual status accurately. You should also pay attention to the good outsourcing experience in terms of sharing financial info, automation speed and work efficiency, in this way you can fully benefit from the wealth of those valuable practices better and further promote the decision-making in the strategy of government’s purchase IT outsourcing!

The analysis on the strategy of choosing IT project outsourcing vendors
　　
If the contents of IT purchasing project concerned with specific laws and regulations, and the outsourcing providers have long-term stable developing and servicing teams, who are able to guarantee their products to update with the laws and regulations, then you can take consideration of outsourcing. The purchasing staffs have to consider the development of the outsourcing market. If the outsourcing market develops well, it will be good for the choice of outsourcing. In addition, the competitors’ business strategy and the attitude of the community on outsourcing should be also the considered as external factors. It is very important and indispensable for IT project outsourcers to have the abilities of assessing key factors such as professionalism, their strengths and accreditations (such as the certificates for system integrators issued by the Ministry of Information Industry, the certificated software vendors, etc.). The software or products’ functions developed by providers should be considered, as well as the satisfaction of providers’ clients (such as the providers’ project management level, software engineering tools, quality assurance system, configuration management methods, control of costs, progress and quality measures and results, etc.). Price definitely should be considered when choosing the outsourcing providers, but it is only one of the factors for reference, the service quality, market credibility, and actual capacity, etc. are the important factors affecting the choice. Furthermore, the costs of purchasing IT products also have to be considered in advance, which is closely related to the suppliers’ market position. If the suppliers are in the stage of market expansion, they are eager to establish a good market model case, their price is normally lower than the outsourcing providers who have a certain market share, so cooperating with these providers will undoubtedly help to reduce the cost of purchasing; Of course, choosing the providers in the expansion phases, the purchasing staffs have to bear certain risks, hence it is necessary to make accurate judgment on the providers’ technical development abilities. In the area of government’s purchase of IT projects, it is the best option to choose the providers with good technology development skills and market competitive skills, it also useful for establishing long-term cooperative relations with the providers.