Outsourcing consultants, an unfufilled opportunity ?
Having read essentially two of Geoffrey Moore’s books (Dealing with Darwin and The Gorilla Game) , I wonder if Intalio should augment its marketing effort towards Outsourcing consultants, as they do for Business Process consultants.
The books are all about Core vs Context, the former defined as what provides sustainable competitive advantage, and the latter all the rest. Now Core can be Mission-critical (or not), but it is far too important to mess around with it unless you have the expertise. Context, although it too can be Mission-critical (or not), is not essential – by definition – in providing a competitive edge, and the ressources it consumes should be reallocated into Core. This can be done by Outsourcing what one company’s Context is, to another company whose Core it is, and that can spread cost over several similar clients, at best charging Marginal cost for it, instead of Full cost as when it was in house.
Now here comes my thought : the Outsourcer probably has a fair amount of idiosyncracies in the Context’s processes. These, the Outsourcee cannot accomodate easily. Business Process management would then be a nice tool for spotting these particularities and have them resolved, before the Outsourcing begins, therefore reducing the risk of failure in Mission-critical Context handover.
If this thinking has any merit, the people to pitch sales to would be Outsourcing consultants, who could suggest using Intalio’s suite as a preparation tool before actually outsourcing.