New MBA to help reduce risk of outsourcing failure

Two UK universities are in talks with an IT industry body about launching a new specialist MBA course in outsourcing from next year in an attempt to reduce the risk of failed contracts.

The course has been proposed by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), which claims current MBA and project management qualifications don't equip executives to deal with increasingly complex outsourcing arrangements.

Martyn Hart, NOA chairman, said businesses are struggling to manage portfolios that include a range of best of breed outsourcing service providers and often an offshore element as well.

He told silicon.com: "There's another skill in managing outsourcing contracts. It's not just project management."

The NOA is hoping the as yet unnamed universities will be able to offer an accredited outsourcing MBA from next October, using a combination of existing MBA modules and ones developed with the NOA.

Hart said: "It might help to reduce the risk of outsourcing failure and that's good for UK Plc."

Figures provided to silicon.com earlier this year showed two out of three outsourcing deals fail because organisations are only paying lip service to the contractual details in the rush to make cost savings.