IT Sourcing: “Workforce Trends and Skills Development”

HOBOKEN, N.J. — Information Technology (IT) sourcing is a growing trend, and the rise in popularity of US and international corporations entering into sourcing agreements is well documented. Headlines often focus on the “problem” of skills and capabilities leaving the US and moving offshore.

As the IT sourcing trend has become increasingly widespread, universities have introduced courses at the graduate level that focus on grooming skills required for managers who are faced with the sourcing decision. A unique program is now offered in The Howe School of Technology Management at Stevens Institute of Technology. The need for in-depth understanding of the four key aspects of sourcing was recognized and developed into a program that can be undertaken as part of the Master’s of Science in Information Systems and MBA degrees, as well as in a stand-alone certificate program.

“All four courses are important elements that must work in concert to bring value to the organization from any sourcing effort,” says Christine Bullen, senior lecturer and sourcing program coordinator. “The unique aspect of this program is that Stevens is the only university tying together four courses into a coherent program.”

The four areas are governance, legal issues, relationship management and organizational impact. Governance addresses the initial decision and strategy formulation, as well as day-to-day management, once a decision is taken. Legal issues looks at one of the critical elements in sourcing that can make or break an engagement. Relationship management focuses on how to bring two (or more) different organizations together to support the effort, managing cultural differences, distance challenges, and the other diverse relationship issues. Organizational impact examines the positive mechanisms that can be used proactively to manage the change that sourcing can bring to an organization.

“In an effort to understand better the impact of sourcing on the workforce,” says Bullen, “the Society for Information Management (SIM) is sponsoring an international research project examining the current and future needs of IT skills and capabilities in client and service provider organizations.”

Current trends indicate declining university IT enrollments in the US and informal reports show that US client-organizations are devaluing basic IT skills and capabilities because of the ease of purchasing them through sourcing. This research, which Bullen and a team of SIM-sponsored researchers will discuss at the September SIMposium in Boston, is addressing these issues with organizations to determine whether there is such a trend. The following are the goals of this research:

• understand the current and future needs for IT skills and capabilities in organizations, including private and public sector organizations and client and service provider organizations;
• determine how organizations do/will recruit, develop, and retain in-house IT skills and capabilities to meet current and future needs;
• determine how organizations do/will access IT skills and capabilities through third party global sourcing; describe what skills universities should be providing in their graduates;
• identify the patterns of skills and capabilities that will change over the next three years.

The research is on-going with preliminary results scheduled for a session at SIMposium 2005 in Boston, September 11-13.

For more information on the SIM Workforce Trends research or the Stevens program, contact Professor Christine Bullen at cbullen@stevens.edu

About Stevens Institute of Technology

Founded in 1870 and celebrating 140 Years of Innovation, Stevens Institute of Technology, The Innovation University, is one of the leading technological universities in the world dedicated to learning and research. Through its broad-based curricula, nurturing of creative inventiveness, and cross disciplinary research, the Institute is at the forefront of global challenges in engineering, science, and technology management. Partnerships and collaboration between, and among, business, industry, government and other universities contribute to the enriched environment of the Institute. A new model for technology commercialization in academe, known as Technogenesis®, involves external partners in launching business enterprises to create broad opportunities and shared value.

Stevens offers baccalaureates, master’s and doctoral degrees in engineering, science, computer science and management, in addition to a baccalaureate degree in the humanities and liberal arts, and in business and technology. The university has a total enrollment of 2,234 undergraduate and 3,700 graduate students with more than 400 faculty. Stevens’ graduate programs have attracted international participation from China, India, Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America. Additional information may be obtained from its web page at www.stevens.edu.

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