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Old 3rd Jun 2017, 13:41
  #503 (permalink)  
Uplinker
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: UK
Posts: 2,471
Received 84 Likes on 49 Posts
There is a tried and trusted way to build and maintain good systems:

You recruit a good team.

You train them well.

You pay them well, (not excessively, but well).

You ensure they have good terms and working conditions.

You ensure they have good equipment.

You pay overtime when necessary.

You value them.

Hey presto; they will be motivated and will create and maintain a good system for you. They will be proud to work for you and will go the extra mile for you as well - working on a bank holiday or overnight if an emergency occurs for example.

As soon as a company starts outsourcing things, the "ownership" and "pride" of maintaining the system is lost. The accountants can show an apparent saving on the balance sheet, but this will be temporary, as BA have just unintentionally proved.

No disrespect to any contractors: they will be called in and will do the specific job they have been contacted to do - but they will not have, nor be expected to have the overview or ownership of the whole system, and they will effectively have blinkers on. The old school systems engineer will notice other little things while working on the system and will take it upon themselves to sort them out when they have a minute in the interests of maintaining and improving the system. The contractor will generally not do this.

In my working life, I have been lucky to have worked under the conditions I set out above, but I have also seen outsourcing happen again and again. In my experience, the post outsourcing results have never been an improvement on what was there originally. Only the accountants, shareholders and the boss, (with his increased pay and bonuses), ever think the contrary.
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