How legal is this? Offshoring of role, etc

[Sheepshanks]

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IBM have been doing that for a looong time.

[Vaud]

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In my experience these things happen:

• Systems Integrator (lets call them HAL so they are one step ahead of IBM) tell the board (via IT director or CFO) they can provide a gold/silver/bronze/iron/dust service at x cost levels
• HAL runs a number of business case and service levels
• The business gets told that through this wonderful new partnership that will help the company more forward strategically a new service model will be implemented involving HAL who will provide a transformation in service and access to new insights for the business
• The CFO approves "iron" or "dust"
• The CIO has to live with it having promised "gold" to the business
• The business can't work out the gulf between the promise and the execution
• Generally the SI meets their SLA (at least after transition) as the penalties are too high not to. The fact that these SLAs are vastly poorer than the initial ambition is not shared with the business.

Cynic, moi?

But that is how these work. The deal is sold to the CFO, not the CIO. In many businesses, of note UK ones, the CIO reports to the CFO still - IT is not viewed as a strategic (board position) issue in many UK organisations - so it lives where it started, in the first functions that were IT enabled - payroll within finance.

Yes, there is a lot wrong with this picture.

[james_tigerwoods]

Vaud said:

DELETED: Comment made by a member who's account has been deleted.

In my experience these things happen:

• Systems Integrator (lets call them HAL so they are one step ahead of IBM) tell the board (via IT director or CFO) they can provide a gold/silver/bronze/iron/dust service at x cost levels
• HAL runs a number of business case and service levels
• The business gets told that through this wonderful new partnership that will help the company more forward strategically a new service model will be implemented involving HAL who will provide a transformation in service and access to new insights for the business
• The CFO approves "iron" or "dust"
• The CIO has to live with it having promised "gold" to the business
• The business can't work out the gulf between the promise and the execution
• Generally the SI meets their SLA (at least after transition) as the penalties are too high not to. The fact that these SLAs are vastly poorer than the initial ambition is not shared with the business.

Cynic, moi?

But that is how these work. The deal is sold to the CFO, not the CIO. In many businesses, of note UK ones, the CIO reports to the CFO still - IT is not viewed as a strategic (board position) issue in many UK organisations - so it lives where it started, in the first functions that were IT enabled - payroll within finance.

Yes, there is a lot wrong with this picture.

That sounds like my company. Only worse.

I shall not name names. But the name contains a sign of the zodiac that typically fits in June