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“Hidden costs” of mainframe outsourcing frustrate

By Retail Technology | Thursday December 26 2013

Research finds 67% of companies dissatisfied with quality of output from mainframe outsourcers; IT teams spend an average of 10 days fixing performance issues

A global chief information officer (CIO) survey has found that reducing costs is a major business driver for outsourcing mainframe application development, maintenance and infrastructure. Yet multiple hidden associated costs are causing frustration for 71% of CIOs.

These hidden costs result from increases in million instructions per second (MIPS) consumption, as well as higher investments in testing and troubleshooting all due to poor application quality and performance.

In fact, two thirds (67%) of respondents reported an overall dissatisfaction with the quality of new applications or services provided by their outsourcer, citing a widening in-house skills gap, difficulties with knowledge transfer and staff churn within outsourcer organisations.

Application knowledge, quality and performance 

Technology performance company Compuware has published a related white paper titled, , detailing the findings from the survey, which was conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne with 520 CIOs from large companies, covering a cross-section of vertical markets in Australia, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US and UK.

“It is true that outsourcing can help companies reduce costs and gain access to technical expertise they might not have in-house, particularly as experienced mainframe developers move on and take their applications knowledge with them,” said Kris Manery, senior vice president and general manager of Compuware’s mainframe business unit. 

“However, as the research shows, there is a growing frustration that outsourcers are failing to meet expectations. Because there is no means to easily transfer application knowledge to the outsourcer – and to verify code quality and performance when it is delivered – application quality suffers, thus undermining any potential savings.” 

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