Outsourcing without a plan is bad. Multisourcing without a plan is even worse. Manage the enterprise's multiple outsourcers holistically, or risk gross inefficiencies and wasted money.

Outsourcing Failure Abounds

Although most companies outsource, Info-Tech's research has found that only 40% of enterprises have a formal system in place for managing outsourcer arrangements. In addition, outsourcer management is among the lowest rated priorities for mid-sized IT decision makers. This lack of effective management and governance over the multisourcing process could help to explain why over 50% of outsourcing projects fall short of expectations.

Multisourcing refers to the practice of outsourcing multiple IT functions to two or more providers. A solid majority (62%) of mid-sized enterprises have outsourced some portion of their IT services. More will be looking to outsource multiple IT functions in the future. Application development, Web design, and application maintenance are primary outsourcing targets, as well as data center...