Security should be embedded into outsourcing engagements — not bolted on later, advises Tekion’s Mukkavilli, who insists that all AI agents are designed with strict data controls.
“Every CIO should adopt a similar ‘security-first’ outsourcing stance to protect innovation velocity and customer trust,” he says, adding that the security, compliance, and data residency should be evaluated on a regular basis.
Do we know who has access to what?
As data crosses borders, geopolitical issues become a concern. “Organizations face growing constraints regarding who can handle sensitive work, making it important for them to know their supply chain contractors list,” Manos says. “They need to ask themselves: who can access the data, who can see the code, and whether or not outsourcers have access to customer-specific environments.”
Manos adds: “Not including provisos around AI and its access to your data, source code, and IT documentation could lead to some risky and unexpected outcomes.”
AI and tool-driven development can complicate things further as they learn the client’s environment, development efforts, infrastructure, and processes. Working with partners with these kinds of tools and capabilities offers significant benefits to your organization, but IT leaders need to be vigilant in the global outsourcing landscape.
How realistic are our outsourcing business cases?
Technology-driven cases can fail to fully deliver on their promised benefits. “If you’ve tied outsourcing decisions to [certain] assumptions — we don’t need to outsource because we’ll automate — you may find yourself with gaps when automation underperforms,” West Monroe’s Borowski says. “Outsourcing can flex up and down, but only if you’ve got the right partner and the right deal. Otherwise, you’re left with stranded work you didn’t anticipate.”
CIOs need to apply a more rigorous, risk-based lens to their business cases before letting them drive their sourcing decisions.
IT leaders should continually address their business cases for outsourcing — as well as the questions above. “It’s not just a good time to rethink outsourcing strategies — it may be the best time in recent history to do it,” Borowski says. “The question isn’t whether IT leaders should be reevaluating; it’s how quickly they can.”
These reviews should become regular practice. “Outsourcing is no longer a ‘set it and forget it’ decision,” says Tekion’s Mukkavilli. “CIOs must treat it as a living strategy that gets revisited annually against new technologies, regulatory requirements, and business needs.”
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