Stories by Stephanie Overby

It's starting to feel like 1999 all over again for Alan Boehme, the year the dotcom/digital economy hit its high-water mark and the IT job market peaked

When Darius Jackson became ING's head of IT infrastructure support and service delivery in January 2005, his job was to clean up a mess. two years earlier, the financial services company had outsourced its IT infrastructure (hardware, software, help desk and so on) to a major service provider in a seven-year, $US600 million deal. But now the business leaders of the company are worried that they aren't getting the value they want out of the relationship.

Mary Lacity probably knows as much about IT outsourcing as anyone in the industry. Currently professor of information systems at the University of Missouri-St Louis, Lacity has studied the industry since its genesis nearly 20 years ago.

First came Southwest: no frills. Then JetBlue: a few more frills. Now Virgin America: low fares, deluxe service and a new approach to IT

It's a scenario scary enough to induce night sweats in even the steeliest CIO. Your CEO, just back from a conference in Port Douglas, strides into your office. Yesterday, he played golf with the vice president of sales for one of the big IT services companies and now he's telling you that this company could take over most of your IT functions and cut your company's IT budget in half. Not only that, they can deliver better services levels. After all, it's what they do!

WANTED - Experienced IT professionals with broad technical competency and working knowledge of both emerging technologies and legacy systems. Should have top-notch analytical and problem-solving prowess, excellent communication skills, and the ability to work well independently and as a member of a team. Must have experience in business process management, certification in project management and a solid understanding of enterprise architecture. Customer service attitude required. Vendor management background a plus.

Labour armitage - cutting costs by exploiting the availability of lower-wage workers - remains the name of the game in IT sourcing. CIOs continue to seek savings through offshore outsourcing, and the Everest Research Institute predicts those savings will continue to drive sourcing offshore for the next 30 years. Today, 73 percent of Fortune 2000 companies say offshoring is an important part of their overall growth strategy, according to the 2005 Duke University CIBER/Archstone Consulting study. And Gartner predicts worldwide offshore spending will reach $US50 billion next year.

After years of focusing on the bottom line, CIOs are setting their sights on top-line growth

China, starved for executive talent, is importing CIOs. And discovering how IT works - and doesn't - in this emerging factory to the world is supercharging their careers

Since day one the issue of offshoring has been a scratchy one, raising both eyebrows and hackles. And now, with some organizations chafing three-to-four years into their offshore contracts, apparently there's a real itch to scratch.

Large-scale outsourcing deals promise big savings, but they fail half the time. Here's how to make them work for you

Hosted, on-demand CRM is sometimes cheaper and easier to roll out than the software that lives on your own machines. But if you think on-demand means that all you have to do is flip a switch, you're dead wrong.

Working with offshore partners requires CIO oversight and strong capabilities on both sides.

CIOs who outsource discrete processes that have well-defined business rules are almost always happy with the outcome.

JPMorgan Chase's decision to first outsource IT and then bring it back in-house stands as a cautionary tale for any CIO considering an outsourcing megadeal.