Outsourcing

I feel that as a manager you need to be making the decision if your business will be outsourcing. IT can give you the necessary information you need to decide if you will outsource, but the final decision needs to be made by the manager.
When it comes to the question of whether to use best of breed or single-sourcing in terms of IT, I feel that the decision is clear. When using a best of breed approach, you are creating a great deal more work for managers. Managers have to keep up with multiple businesses that are responsible for your company's IT. Not only do managers have more work to do, but the different companies that perform various IT functions may not work together harmoniously. These issues show that a single sourcing approach is the safer option for a corporation.

Outsourcing and Virtual Offices

Outsourcing is obviously a great way to take a business process that is not one's core competency and let another person, or group of people, handle that task in a sufficient manner. Outsourcing can also be a way for companies to save money by assigning certain tasks to a cheaper workforce. Although their are these obvious benefits, outsourcing can lead to some very serious problems. British Petroleum is the perfect example of the failures that can arise with outsourcing. Outsourcing is all about relationships. When you delegate a certain task to another organization, you are giving them the responsibility to represent your interests. In other words, their mistakes become your mistakes. BP's failure to track performance, safety, and a variety of other factors led to problems with the Deepwater Horizion.

Another interesting topic is the subject of virtual offices. A company goes virtual when they no longer perform their normal day-to-day operations in a physical location, instead choosing to work from home and use an office as a home base for activities such as client meetings. I have a friend that works for a company that uses a virtual office. He designs web pages, which he could much easily do at home. They use their office as a home "hub" that allows them to have a meeting place for clients, employees, and contact. The idea of a virtual office is one that may gain popularity due to the rise in technological jobs.

IT Transformation

Dr. Stephanie Mills talk on the new types of IT implementation at OLOL was an intriguing topic. Doctors are a group of people that are not very open to new ways of doing things. With that being said, it seems to be a tall order to implement a new IT system that combines, automates, and archives many different types of hospital activities. Where as a hospital seems like a likely place to implement comprehensive technology,   doctors and hospital employees might make it difficult to implement such technology. Dr. Mills really showed the benefits of the new technology, while illustrating the difficulties in getting the medical community at OLOL to "buy in."