e-Book: A Guide to Strategic Sourcing


A comprehensive guide on strategic sourcing & outsourcing decisions for IT leaders.


This e-Book presents an approach with detailed steps to implement strategic sourcing in the enterprise. CIOs can learn how to make the key decisions that drive an effective sourcing strategy and its implementation. Excellent Read! (80 pages)

IT leaders must make well-informed outsourcing decisions in today's dynamic business environment. The "e-Book: A Guide to Strategic Sourcing" provides a comprehensive framework to assist IT professionals in navigating the intricate landscape of outsourcing.

The problem often lies in the complexity and many factors involved in outsourcing decisions, including core competence considerations, cost-value analyses, and operational impact assessments. Additionally, these decisions can take two forms: strategic and tactical outsourcing. Significant issues can be overlooked without a structured approach, leading to unexpected setbacks and inefficiencies.

The e-Book offers a practical solution, laying out a step-by-step process to address these challenges. It emphasizes the importance of strategic over tactical outsourcing, given the closer relationships required for effective strategic decision-making. The guide elaborates on the benefits of the structured outsourcing decision process, which include reduced costs, fewer delays, and better stakeholder relationships.

A unique feature of this guide is its focus on the unique needs of the U.S. IT industry, particularly government contractors, providing insights into navigating the unique procurement requirements of the sector. However, the guide is also applicable to commercial entities.

Key parts of the guide include setting strategic direction, determining core competencies, establishing a process implementation team, defining product families, evaluating potential substitutes, analyzing processes, and determining supplier capabilities.

The guide includes practical tips to enhance the implementation of its recommendations, such as including major stakeholders, training participants, and continuous process improvement. As such, this guide is an invaluable tool for IT professionals seeking to make more informed, strategic, and beneficial outsourcing decisions.

This guide to strategic sourcing will help you with the following:

  • What is strategic sourcing?
  • What are the key concepts in strategic sourcing?
  • How do you create a competitive advantage using strategic sourcing?
  • How to craft a strategic sourcing strategy?
  • How to implement strategic sourcing in the enterprise?

CIOs and IT leaders can utilize the learning from the "e-Book: A Guide to Strategic Sourcing" in several ways to tackle the real-world challenges they face in their strategic and tactical operations:

  1. Strategic Decision Making: This guide provides a structured process for outsourcing decisions, which is crucial for any CIO. Informed decisions about outsourcing are not the result of impromptu approaches. By following the systematic process described in this guide, CIOs can make more informed decisions, reducing costs and improving efficiency.
  2. Internal vs External Workloads: CIOs often grapple with whether to keep certain operations in-house or outsource them. This guide's outsourcing decision analysis offers a methodology to assess the costs and benefits of both options, allowing IT leaders to make decisions that best align with their strategic objectives and operational capabilities.
  3. Stakeholder Involvement: One key learning from this guide is the importance of involving all stakeholders in decision-making. IT leaders can use this principle in their teams to ensure all perspectives are considered when making strategic decisions, leading to more comprehensive and effective solutions.
  4. Supplier Assessment: Selecting the right suppliers and partners is crucial to any IT leader's role. The guidebook provides a process for determining supplier capabilities and developing ranking criteria, allowing CIOs to ensure they select the most capable and compatible suppliers for their needs.
  5. Continual Improvement: The guidebook emphasizes the need for continuous improvement in processes. CIOs must ensure their teams regularly review and improve their procedures, ensuring their department remains effective and efficient over time.
  6. Training and Development: One of the guide's tips is proper participant training. IT leaders can use this insight to ensure their teams have the necessary training and development to execute strategic sourcing and outsourcing activities effectively.
  7. Adaptability: Lastly, this guidebook acknowledges that while it provides a structured process, it may need to be adapted to the organization's specific needs. This teaches IT leaders the importance of adaptability and the need to modify established processes to serve their organization's unique requirements best.

Using a real-life industry as an example, this discussion discusses the key decisions and how to make them to create business value effectively. MUST Read!




This e-Book: A Guide to Strategic Sourcing has been accessed 1100 times.
Must Login To Download


Signup for Thought Leader

Get the latest IT management thought leadership delivered to your mailbox.

Mailchimp Signup (Short)

Join The Largest Global Network of CIOs!

Over 75,000 of your peers have begun their journey to CIO 3.0 Are you ready to start yours?
Mailchimp Signup (Short)