FSA should have chosen fixed-costs

The recent story that emerged from Outsourcing magazine online read that the FSA outsourcing costs have increased from an estimated £15million to over £80million. This is not only a substantial cost to the public organisation but suggests that resources were badly managed and assessments miss-judged.

The FSA not only set itself high targets, but it seems it neglected to consider the development of new technologies and smarter applications that needed to be integrated in the wider make-up of the IT infrastructure. If the FSA truly wants to be "the best performing IT department in its business sector by September 2008" it first needs to turn back the clocks but also to find a project manager who has realistic expectations.

The FSA tried managing this internally before the costs ramped up. Then they were most likely stung with an above average outsourcing fee.

If companies consider outsourcing and consultancy first, identifying prospects today and in the future - it is possible to keep costs low or near expectations.