10 outsourcing pitfalls

The aim of this white paper is to focus on the main pitfalls encountered when putting together a call for tenders for a facilities management contract (first-time tenderer or renewal), then when implementing it, and finally when awarding it to a new entrant.

This white paper is based on the experience of the two authors, and reflects the pitfalls they believe represent the major risks to be avoided throughout the life of an outsourcing project.

It puts each pitfall into context, through the challenges it represents, and offers practical, factual recommendations for avoiding them.

It is aimed at any manager in charge of putting together an invitation to tender for an outsourcing contract, or any manager in charge of implementing an outsourcing project. It requires knowledge of the fundamental principles of outsourcing.

It will first look at the preparatory phases of a call for tenders , addressing the following points:

1. To avoid overlaps and omissions:
   How do you allocate a facilities management contract?
   What you need to know about the number and consistency of lots, and their financial size, to avoid the risk of an uncovered or overlapping area.

2. To avoid misunderstandings between customer and supplier perceptions:
   What service levels should be chosen?
   What should be taken into account to define service levels that are shared and accepted by the supplier and his client?

3. To avoid misunderstandings and chaos in your relationships with service providers:
   What kind of governance should you put in place?
   Important points to bear in mind when setting up efficient governance.

4. Building a win-win relationship:
   How to pass on knowledge of a current outsourcing contract?
   What to pass on to the newcomer to build a healthy, balanced relationship.

5. Avoid finding yourself tied hand and foot at the end of the contract:
   How to manage the reversibility of the outsourcing contract?
   Everything you need to know at the start of the contract to ensure a successful reversibility phase.

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Then deal with the implementation of the outsourcing contract:

6. Don't miss out on your savings targets:
   How to transform the outsourcing market?
   What you need to know to ensure that your outsourcing market transformation project meets your stated savings targets.

7. The false idea of a miracle recipe with the Cloud:
   What justifies migration to the Cloud?
   The 5 key points for deciding to migrate all or part of your applications to the Cloud.

8. Double subordination of transferred staff:
   How to manage transferred staff?
   Recommendations for integrating transferred staff.

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 And finally, address the contracting stage to a new entrant:

9. Do you need to change the existing team?
   How to successfully renew an outsourcing contract?
   The different ways to go about renewing your service provider.

10. Don't lose money on your hardware assets
    How do you manage your hardware assets?
    Points to bear in mind if you don't want to lose money on your hardware assets when a new entrant takes over your outsourcing contract.

1 - AVOID OVERLAPS AND OMISSIONS

Allotment of outsourcing contract

ISSUE #1

When drawing up specifications for outsourcing all or part of your IT perimeter, or for renewing an existing contract, you need to consider the number of work packages and their scope.

In fact, the contract will run smoothly if the lot managers have sufficient financial resources to carry out a transformation with a view to reducing operating costs, and if the interfaces between the managers of the different lots are fluid and adhesions minimal. This is to avoid arbitration and conflicts.

Example of a conflict: A large group had a data center in Singapore. Response times for the hosted SAP application were poor from Australia. One service provider was responsible for the network, another for SAP and a third for the servers. It took a great deal of persistence and governance on the part of the project owner to debug the problem of poor management of a "Carriage Return" by Citrix security servers...

RECOMMENDATION #1

Batch strategy and consistency

Allotment must take into account the company's desired strategy and the importance given to each basic function. Lot outlines must be very clearly defined to avoid areas of conflict or grey areas. They must be clear-cut to facilitate the choice of an allotment scenario, and must take account of the company's constraints (in situ or remote maintenance, for example).

Indeed, even if different managers are chosen to manage "adjacent" lots with causal links, it is absolutely essential that the handover and responsibilities are clearly established, otherwise you risk finding yourself the arbitrator in a conflict between service providers.

Limited number of lots

It is necessary to limit the breakdown to the main basic operational functions (MCO, MCS, Supervision, Help desk, etc.). Ancillary functions can be integrated into the defined basic packages.

Indeed, the multiplicity of lots makes contract management more complex and inefficient (potentially increasing costs).

Lot budget

In order to reduce operating costs, it is essential that the service provider transforms the operating model to improve quality and efficiency, while reducing costs and achieving a satisfactory return on investment. To achieve this, the technical scope of the work packages must be sufficiently substantial in financial terms to justify the investment.

Subdivision must be based on natural boundaries of service and underlying technology, to avoid operational overlap between service providers and maintain a perimeter that enables profitable transformation within each lot.

How many outsourcing providers are there?

CHALLENGE #2

When issuing a call for tenders for outsourcing, the legitimate question of the number of service providers arises.

Should you choose a single service provider, who will ensure overall contract consistency but will become unavoidable, or several service providers, at the risk of higher management and administration costs for the IT department and a lack of consistency and continuity of services?

Example of sub-division / choice of service provider: An industrial company producing in Europe, South-East Asia and South America created three separate lots, for each major geographical area, for one of its services, office automation or "WorkPlace Services". While this approach was consistent with support issues (languages and proximity), it complicated the harmonization of hardware and images installed on workstations, requiring strong coordination from the IT Department.

Example of a multi-provider model: In the case of technical assistance requirements to support a specific transformation or evolution project, it may be worthwhile to set up a system with several providers (maximum 4). In this system, several providers are chosen in the same technical assistance package, and each must respond to the customer's requests for assistance. The service provider who submits the best offer in the shortest time will be selected.

Another system can be set up based on the rotation of service providers, each of whom will have exclusive rights to requests for one year. In the event of failure, the next-ranking supplier will be awarded the contract.

RECOMMENDATION #2

We see two important reasons for not settling for a single provider:

We need to create the conditions for emulation through permanent competition. It's healthy for service providers to quickly realize that there may be alternatives.

Each provider has its own specialties, depending on its history, customer base, geographical coverage and development strategy. Typically, your provider may be excellent in "WorkPlace Services" but rather weak in SAP services...

However, we advise against taking on too many service providers within the operational perimeters of the outsourcing contract, as managing and aligning them within a common governance structure will quickly become very complex. (See previous paragraph).

If a lot spans several continents, or geographical plates, and the volume allows it, it may make sense to split it into several lots, typically one per geography, and choose a well-established regional service provider.

The number of service providers for the operational perimeters of a contract must be strictly greater than 1, and possibly less than 4 per geographical area (for the largest contracts).

2 - AVOID MISUNDERSTANDINGS BETWEEN CUSTOMER AND SERVICE PROVIDER PERCEPTIONS

Service levels

ISSUE #1

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) define the quality of service expected by the customer on specific, measurable points. It is important to define the respective obligations of both parties when drawing up the contract. It is tempting to place all obligations on the service provider, but the latter may not be able to assume certain obligations.

RECOMMENDATION #1

For the contract to run smoothly, the customer must be aware of his obligations to the service provider, and must monitor his own obligations.

Example: When a ticket is resolved by a service center, it is necessary to receive customer feedback before the ticket can be closed. The customer's obligation is to provide this feedback, and in the event of non-compliance, the service provider must be given the ability to auto-close the ticket after a specified period, so as not to deteriorate its performance.

Include, in the contractual definition of service levels, the customer's obligations in addition to the service levels expected of the service provider.

RECOMMENDATION #2

Not all indicators need to be objective. For example, using customer satisfaction as an indicator must be acceptable to a service provider. This could take the form, for example, of a systematic satisfaction survey at the end of the incident.

A baseline should be established for these indicators during the first few months of the contract, followed by a policy of improving this baseline (by implementing transformation projects). It should be noted that the indicators measured by the IT department can rarely be reused as they are by the service provider, as the latter often uses different measurement methods.

While it is important to define indicators qualitatively during contract discussions, the quantitative part of certain indicators will need to be reviewed after the outsourcing project has started, based on baselines.

Don't hesitate to create different levels of service for different classes of users.

Example: For a large international group, a VIP service level enabled the group's Executives to receive office support over extended time slots, and the CEO to receive VIP service anywhere in the world, including airports.

While some indicators may be subjective, it is advisable for all indicators to measure a "baseline" during the first months of the contract, and to set targets for improvement.

Service catalog

ISSUE #1

To enable the implementation of appropriate service levels, the IT department will need to define a service catalog. This will be used to build the offer from service providers and/or the IT Department if certain services are handled internally.

The service catalog will serve as the basis for the relationship between the customer and his service provider throughout the life of the project. It serves as a reference for both parties.

RECOMMENDATION #1

The definition of a service catalog should be based on ITIL 4 recommendations, to ensure that it is comparable with the market. This is all the more important if benchmarks are included in the contract.

The main chapters covered by a technical service sheet are as follows:

• Description of the service and its objectives
• Resources imposed / provided by the IT department
• Service scope
• Requirements
• Service governance (comitology)
• Environment and constraints
• Supported performance and warranty levels
• Indicators
• Perception of service satisfaction
• Terms of service
• Known metrics associated with this service (volumetry)
• Expected deliverables
• Taking changes and exceptions into account

The service catalog must be based on ITIL recommendations, while respecting market standards as closely as possible.

3 - AVOID MISUNDERSTANDINGS OR CHAOS IN YOUR RELATIONSHIPS WITH SERVICE PROVIDERS

ISSUE #1

Governance is a key factor in the success of the contract. It enables the IT Department to ensure compliance with the company's strategic trajectory, and to deduce the objectives to be achieved. It is based on monitoring compliance with service levels and performance indicators, in order to deduce changes and corrective actions.

RECOMMENDATION #1

Governance is a function in its own right, and can either be internalized within the company or outsourced. If it remains within the company, Governance must be carried out by dedicated resources. If it is outsourced, it must be the subject of an exclusive lot or contract in relation to operational lots, for obvious reasons of conflict of interest.

The Governance function needs to be sufficiently budgeted so that the staff involved can monitor indicators, projects and corrective actions, without letting service providers get out of control.

Governance is essentially a control function, exercised through steering committees for each service provider, but it must also act as a point of reference for service providers.

The budget dedicated to governance should represent around 10% of the overall outsourcing contract budget.

CHALLENGE #2

Defining service levels and contract performance indicators is crucial to the success of the relationship of trust.

Indicators must be relevant, because it's extremely frustrating for both parties to have "green" indicators when end-users, the ultimate judge of peace, complain.

‍Example: Take a customer satisfaction indicator (satisfaction survey after the resolution of each incident) and a quality indicator; these indicators can be a compilation of indicators measuring the performance of services delivered by the service provider. During the transformation phase, add a project follow-up indicator.
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RECOMMENDATIONS #2

This governance should be based on service level agreements (SLAs) set by the IT department and performance indicators agreed between the IT department and the service provider.

These indicators are management indicators, and their number must be kept to a minimum in order to build a relevant and comprehensible dashboard. Variations in these indicators will be the subject of a root cause analysis, enabling the necessary corrective action to be taken.

Too many indicators make it difficult to assess performance clearly, making it all too easy for the service provider to hide behind a forest of figures, and for the IT department to get lost in the complexity.

Traditional performance indicators such as incident resolution time, incident backlog, etc. are necessary to monitor the operational performance of each service line, but must be aggregated and reinforced by customer satisfaction indicators.

Build a simple dashboard, by mutual agreement with the service provider, presenting a limited number of indicators, to monitor and explain variations in indicators to the steering committee.

4 - BUILDING A WIN-WIN RELATIONSHIP

ISSUE #1

When a service provider responds to a call for tenders, it studies what it knows about its customer's information systems, and draws up the Future Operating Mode (FMO) to which it will adhere. This FMO will be inspired by the way he delivers to his existing installed base of customers. His aim will be to align his customer as closely as possible with an existing optimized and industrialized operating mode, in terms of technology, processes, tools and organization. Its price will depend on the knowledge it has acquired during the bidding phase, on the possible coherence of the FMO with its own operating modes, and on the complexity of the transformation project.

RECOMMENDATION #1

It's important for the IT department to understand the provider's FMO (visit the provider's customers) and to adhere to the FMO.

It's also important for the IT department to be transparent. Among other things, many hidden costs may be overlooked during the preparation and financial evaluation phase. These hidden costs must be made visible to the finance department to ensure that the contract balance is respected.

Example: Mr. Durant works in the purchasing department, and loves computers. Naturally, he helps out by supporting his colleagues' PCs. The cost of this service is not included in the costs booked by the IT department. It's a hidden cost.

The IT Department needs to provide all the quantitative (volume) and qualitative information it has to enable service providers to size their contracts.

When drawing up specifications, the IT department must be transparent about the technologies, processes and tools it has put in place, and show hidden costs as clearly as possible.

CHALLENGE #2

The future operating mode (FMO) will depend on two scenarios:

• First-time buyers :

For a first outsourcing contract, the customer is a first-time buyer. In this case, the opportunities for transformation by service providers can be extremely important, since in most cases they can industrialize and optimize costs within the scope of the activity entrusted to them.

• Renewal of outsourcing contract :
  

In the event of renewal, the outgoing service provider is assumed to have already optimized the activity concerned. At first sight, it would seem difficult for the new provider to propose significant improvements.

As the outgoing provider will have already invested in a transformation at the start of the contract (see below), it is highly likely that very few innovations have been proposed and implemented over the past two years. The new entrant will need to propose a breakthrough strategy to be able to offer a cost reduction (e.g. move to the Cloud).

Implementing the FMO will require the deployment of a transformation project, and therefore an investment for the service provider. As a general rule, the service provider looks for a return on investment in the project over 18 months, in order to start making money at the end of the contract's life.

The provider's financial margin depends on the successful implementation of the FMO transformation. At the end of the contract, the service provider will be less inclined to introduce new innovations or transformations, unless the return on investment is very rapid.

RECOMMENDATION #2

The following diagram clearly shows that the duration of the contract will have a decisive influence on the price offered by the service provider.

In the model above, the service provider undertakes to deliver for a price of 75 (orange line) what costs the IT department 100 (gray line).

For the first eighteen months, the provider leads the transformation and loses money, until the blue curve falls below the orange line, when the transformation to the FMO bears fruit. Profit for the provider will only appear when the hatched area is the same size as the grey triangle, towards the end of year 3.

The provider's gross margin will be 15% over 5 years in this model, but only 7% over 4 years!

If the contract lasts only 4 years, with the same transformation costs and the same 15% margin target, the service provider price can no longer be 75, but will rise to 80!

Transformation requires a high level of investment on the part of the service provider (and the IT department), and we need to ensure that the contract lasts as long as is necessary for the return on investment.

5 - AVOID BEING TIED HAND AND FOOT AT THE END OF THE CONTRACT

Managing reversibility

ISSUE #1

One of the fundamental challenges of outsourcing is reversibility. This means handing over the baton so that the newcomer can start the new contract under the best possible conditions. This phase is crucial to the success of the new contract.

When the IT department wishes to terminate a contract, it must be able to re-internalize, or transfer to another supplier, all the knowledge it possesses. This reversibility maneuver is often under-documented in supplier contracts, yet the pitfalls are manifold:

• Data recovery ;
• Software recovery ;
• Retrieving operating procedures ;
• Transfer of affected personnel (see European directive in section 9);
• Asset transfer.

All these questions need to be answered before the start of the contract, because sooner or later, the contract will come to an end, and a new reversibility agreement will have to be signed. Incumbent providers are quite sensitive to this point, but new Cloud providers and other "as a Service" solutions boast about the scalability of their platform, but never mention the exit. Unlike regulated services such as electricity or mobile telephony, the legislator has done nothing to make switching supplier simple and straightforward.

RECOMMENDATION #1

To achieve this, the contract's exit strategy and the recovery of data and software must be clearly spelled out in the contract, with clearly defined costs and timescales. This recommendation applies whether or not the platform supporting the contract is "as a Service".

It should be noted that more and more applications sold in SaaS mode are native, and no reversibility can be envisaged, except by changing the application.

A detailed analysis must be carried out with the existing service provider to determine which data belong to the IT department, and should therefore legitimately be returned to its owner at the end of the contract.

When the contract is signed, provide a detailed description of the reversibility project, its content, cost and schedule.

Implementing reversibility is a complex project in itself, and one that needs to be closely monitored by an IT department project manager. Indeed, in the event of a transfer between an outgoing service provider and a new entrant, many stumbling blocks will arise. Strong IT governance will be required, in a difficult context where the outgoing provider may no longer have the motivation to help.

Of course, for the IT department, this reversibility must be achieved without any disruption to service, as the business must not be affected.

As with the Transformation project, the IT department will have to monitor the reversibility project in detail, and arbitrate if necessary, to force a successful reversibility.

6 - DON'T MISS OUT ON YOUR SAVINGS TARGETS

The transformation of the outsourcing market

ISSUE #1

Transformation and evolution of practices is a key success factor for outsourcing projects.

In fact, the service provider made a commitment to its customer and the IT department to significantly reduce the budget for the activity entrusted to it.

To do this, it must implement the transformation program on which it has based its cost and margin targets. It is therefore essential for the service provider to execute the transformation project he has proposed, or risk not meeting his budget and profit targets.

From the CIO's point of view, this transformation also guarantees the success of the operation. Letting your service provider lose money will strain relations and make even the smallest discussions frustrating and difficult:

• Every change requested by the IT department will be rejected or overcharged.
• The quality of service delivered by the service provider will be reduced as much as possible to save money.

This situation pushes both parties into a negative spiral, the outcome of which is either litigation or breach of contract.

RECOMMENDATION #1

The IT department must therefore appoint one or more project managers to oversee the transformation project. The project manager will only monitor the project, and will not replace the service provider's project manager.

It's a control tower function, not a pilot one, because the responsibility for the success of the transformation must be, and remain, that of the service provider.

It must also set up specific SLAs for this project. These will be based on clearly defined milestones in the project schedule.

The IT department needs to understand and monitor the implementation of its service provider's transformation project, in terms of governance and with relevant indicators.

7 - THE FALSE IDEA OF A MIRACLE RECIPE WITH THE CLOUD

Why use the cloud?

ISSUE #1

The Cloud is an option on the market that competes directly with traditional outsourcing (which generally relies on a dedicated external data center or internal company resources).

Typically, IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service) are credible alternatives to infrastructure and software outsourcing, but there are also many possible combinations in PaaS (Platform as a Service), which allow you to retain control over certain aspects of application development.

RECOMMENDATION #1

Before launching a Cloud migration project, you need to check that the applications you wish to migrate are eligible, as well as the operating costs in relation to expected performance. Determining eligibility involves :

• The application's technical capacity to migrate to a Cloud environment. This can be controlled manually or with the help of tools.
• Confidentiality and security of data handled by the application to be migrated. What is the level of confidentiality and security of data to be stored on servers outside the company?
• The level of service required in terms of application availability and machine power demanded by the candidate applications to be migrated. If the latter require high availability and/or consume unpredictably high machine power, the Cloud solution may not be suitable.
• Return on investment. The costs of migrating to a Cloud environment (application transformation, application migration) need to be weighed up against the savings promised in the supply of machine power, hosting and managed services around this activity.
• The feasibility of reversibility. The Cloud provider must comply with the ITU recommendations (Chapter 8.5.8 Portability and 8.5.11 Reversibility of the ITU Y.3502 standard).

Migrating applications to the cloud is a project in its own right, and needs to be considered from every angle (ROI, technical, service level, confidentiality & security).

8 - DOUBLE SUBORDINATION OF TRANSFERRED PERSONNEL

Management of transferred personnel

ISSUE #1

Under the terms of Council Directive 2001/23/EC of March 12, 2001 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the safeguarding of employees' rights in the event of transfers of undertakings, businesses or parts of undertakings or businesses, it is often the case in outsourcing contracts that staff assigned to transferred activities are themselves transferred.

The challenge for the service provider taking over the staff is to integrate them into the company and its culture. The change of culture and the stress this can create for the staff concerned must not be overlooked.

Example: Following the appearance of signs of stress among staff working on a large outsourcing contract, a major local service provider launched a psycho-social risk survey of 230 people working on the contract. Three quarters of the staff questioned came from the customer, while the other quarter were long-standing staff of the service provider. The results of the analysis clearly showed that the transferred staff presented, on average, much higher risk profiles than the service provider's historical populations, with a perception of increased stress for 61.4% of the staff questioned, compared with 27.7% for the historical staff.

RECOMMENDATION #1

As the transferred staff will find themselves operational under the new contract, it is necessary for ISD members to be aware that these staff are no longer company employees, to avoid continuing relations "as in the past", and to avoid any appearance of a subordinate relationship.

In fact, the service provider will have to put in place the means to integrate these employees into its own teams and culture.

To achieve the transformation necessary for the success of the contract, these staff will have to change their operating methods, and members of the IT department will have to encourage these changes.

The IT department will have to consider the transferred staff as external and accept, or even encourage, their new operating methods to facilitate the change management of its service provider.

9 - SHOULD THE CURRENT TEAM BE CHANGED?

Renewal of outsourcing contract

ISSUE #1

When a contract comes to an end, many CIOs are faced with the question of renewal. Should the existing service provider be renewed by mutual agreement, or should the contract be put out to tender again?

Private contracting offers the advantage of speed and lower cost, but does not call into question the outgoing service provider or the IT department.

RECOMMENDATION #1

Re-entering the contract market requires a great deal of preparation, and must begin at least 12 months before the end of the current contract.

The IT Department will take advantage of this call for tenders to push for breakthrough strategies. It will force existing service providers to step out of their comfort zones and come up with innovative proposals.

However, when it comes to sorting out the responses, we need to strike a balance between the attractiveness of a new entrant, whose best features we can only see, and our intimate knowledge of the weaknesses of outgoing providers. The aim is not to dismiss them out of hand.

The IT Department must put the contract up for renewal to benefit from technological breakthroughs and/or innovations.

10 - NOT TO LOSE MONEY ON MY ASSETS

Asset management

ISSUE #1

When the outsourcing contract is signed, the IT Department will have to decide on the future of its tangible assets (servers, PCs, network hardware, etc.) and software. The IT Department has a number of options open to it, ranging from retaining ownership of the assets to selling them to a buyer, or writing them off...

Regardless of the financing solution chosen, whether leasing or "as a Service", the harmonization of hardware is a critical factor in reducing costs, whether for workstations, servers or other items.

Cloud suppliers and service providers offer you standard product ranges that enable them to make economies of scale on hardware maintenance, image master creation and operating procedures.

In most cases, your assets are of no interest to the service provider.

RECOMMENDATION #1

If, despite this, your service provider offers to take over your assets, don't hesitate! But avoid entering into an equipment rental contract with fleet renewal.

The pitfall to be avoided is that each new asset is a pretext for extending the overall financing contract. An "as a Service" approach is much better, as it places the burden of asset management on the service provider, as well as the trade-off between the speed of renewal and the financial equilibrium of the contract.

If the service provider does not take over the equipment, or if you switch to the Cloud, you will need to account for the asset write-off on the balance sheet.

The IT department should give priority to dematerializing assets, purchasing them as "as a Service".

AUTHORS' BIOGRAPHIES

François Bonifacio has a 36-year career behind him, 10 of which have been spent abroad.

He has been an IFMT-certified interim manager since 2020 and has joined the Infortive Community of interim CIOs.

Between 2013 and 2020, he created for Eurofins, the IT development subsidiary in Agile mode based in Luxembourg and India. It contributes to Eurofins' digital transformation by developing and deploying all IT solutions for Eurofins' business lines (LIMS, eCommerce, MRP, ERP, CRM).

Between 2001 and 2012, François spent 12 years in BU and profit center general management, first with HP in consulting, outsourcing and hardware and software maintenance, then with Capgemini as CEO of the Outsourcing France subsidiary.

François graduated from L'Ecole Supérieure d'Electricité (SUPELEC 1984), from CESA marketing (Groupe HEC Management) in 1992 and from Stanford University's AEA Executive Program in 1997.

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Éric Mahieux has over 40 years' experience in the IT industry, gained in ESNs, manufacturers and software publishers.

After working as an Engineer, Project Manager and Consultant for several ESNs (CAP GEMINI, GFI), he moved into management, taking charge of Business Units for several ESNs (ATOS, BRIME), for IBM (Systems Integration and Outsourcing) and then in software publishing (CAST Software).

He was then Managing Director of the French subsidiary of a Dutch group specializing in SAP (Integration, Outsourcing).

Today, he is an information systems consultant specializing in auditing and information systems studies (Risk, Quality, Innovation), and an interim manager for General Management / BU functions. He joined the Infortive community of Transition CIOs in 2020, and is also a member of the 400 Partners community.

Éric is a graduate of IUT Paris Descartes (1983) and lAE Paris (Master II Information Systems in 1994).

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Bibliography

• Managing outsourcing risks - ANSSI - gouv.fr
• Outsourcing Dictionary - Pierre Laigle - Edition Hermès
• 10 Best Practices to Avoid Cloud Vendor Lock-In - Muhammad Raza - BMC Blogs
• Recommendation ITU-T Y.3502 Cloud Computing - International Telecommunication Union
• ITIL Foundation, ITIL 4 Edition - Axelos - TSO
• ITIL 4, Understanding the approach and adopting best practices - Jean-Luc Baud - ENI
• Circular of November 8, 2018 on the doctrine for the use of cloud computing by the State - Legifrance

IT is a sector with huge performance gaps

IT deals with abstract concepts that are becoming increasingly sophisticated. It is therefore preferable to recruit a high-level individual, as he or she will find it easier to manage complexity. In fact, his or her value for money is far superior to that of many average individuals who won't have the required capacity for abstraction. Accelerated technological obsolescence means that new technologies have to be relearned on a regular basis. This argues in favor of high-level individuals who can adapt more easily.

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