Making sourcing decisions against a background of economic crisis should be easier ­ during a recession companies focus on cost and cost alone. Right now, the ability of vendors to respond rapidly to business needs will be thoroughly tested by recession, and Forrester expects most firms to renegotiate their sourcing contracts or reduce the number of service providers with which they engage.

That has many ramifications for IT leaders.

First, you should cut costs wherever you can. Focus on what you can do to rationalise your infrastructure and applications environments to cut costs ­ this will mean working across the business to identify any redundancies.

Accelerate those sourcing projects that will avoid near-term expenses ­ for example, rapidly migrating remaining applications from a “burning” database engine could avoid software licence maintenance fees for the coming year.

Solicit proposals from your vendors to get a better understanding of what they can offer in terms of service automation or application rationalisation frameworks.

Identify labour-intensive areas as candidates for sourcing. The largest efficiency improvements should be possible in the areas that consume the most labour resources. For example, look at your internal application-testing processes ­ testing occurs on every project, and test data generation, test setup, and test execution can be extremely resource intensive. Vendors that we track continue to strengthen service offerings in these areas, helping firms reduce the cost of this key activity.

Meanwhile, it is important to scrutinise all the IT sourcing proposals available, and to take a jaded view of them all. Make sure all the evidence from a vendor is convincing to all the decision makers involved before you reach any conclusions. Send the statement of work to a dedicated team to analyse proposed project plans and make the necessary adjustments to ensure any initial investments from your side are kept to a bare minimum.

Vendors are great at painting a picture of a happy ending but they lack the clarity to undertake the transitioning, and it often costs more than you realise. Go back to the RFP and include targeted questions concerning what investments they have made to accelerate project delivery. For example, do they use fast deployment methods or testing automation?

Encourage your internal stakeholders to voice their views and take on board what they have to say. Reach out to those business managers who are not already knocking on your door so that the entire organisation has an opportunity to benefit from your expertise and experience. Be ready to offer advice on consolidating vendors, proactive suggestions on changes to upcoming renegotiations, and information on how to get more value through better vendor management ­ what Forrester terms “activist sourcing”.

Most importantly, market yourself. IT leaders must explain to key stakeholders what they can do. In addition to offering advice based on your stakeholders’ stated needs, use this as an opportunity to offer consultative help that they might not realise you can provide.

For example, many users do not realise that sourcing teams can be brought in even before the decision is made to bid a piece of work or hire a vendor. Use your research skills to help colleagues understand some of the emerging contracting mechanisms, such as shared risk and reward or managed outcomes, which can de-risk projects from a cost perspective. This makes the sourcing role more consultative and proactive.

Please visit www.forrester.com/computinguk for several complimentary reports made available to Computing readers by Forrester Research.

Euan Davis is a principal analyst at Forrester Research.