Evaluation of New
Technology and Products
The OSC will begin not only
to assess new technologies and products but also to refine the requirements
for providing the functionality discussed previously. At this point
in the migration strategy, OSC will have data independence from the mainframe
applications. The goal of data independence is to be able to change the
database without affecting the applications, or to change the applications
without affecting the database. During this evaluation phase, the
OSC will consider electronic commerce processes technology options from
the newest enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solutions, to the
latest Geac product line. The OSC will also consider outsourcing
as an option at this point.
Outsourcing is not one of
the options discussed previously, although it may be one of the options
OSC explores as it moves forward in the migration strategy. An increasing
number of organizations outsource some significant portion of their information
technology services. The evolution of the external services
provider (ESP) industry continues at a pace almost equal to that of information
technology as a whole. An increasing number of Federal and State Government
agencies are turning to outsourcing so they can focus resources on their
core businesses.
Outsourcing is an attractive
option to many organizations for the following reasons.
-
To help reduce or control operating
costs;
-
To improve the quality of delivered
information technology services;
-
To provide staff resources when
they are not available internally;
-
To provides access to world-class
capabilities; and
-
To free resources for other
purposes.
An in-depth and thorough analysis
of the OSC’s information technology operations will be made in order to
determine which services should be considered for outsourcing as well as
identifying the potential return on investment that may be realized through
outsourcing.