When should I be concerned about Offshore ICT Service Providers?
- You’re tempted by that nifty free/cheap widget for your government website
- You’re thinking of running a survey of your website users or your employees and someone is offering free/cheap access to a survey site, somewhere
- You’ve heard on the grapevine that your New Zealand ICT services outsourcer may be hosting your website offshore
- You’ve seen in Computerworld that your local ICT outsourcer has just been bought by the Trading Group from Mesopotamia
- You’re putting a tender onto GETS (Government Electronic Tendering Service ) and you wonder what you would do if you got a response from Galactic Computing Services on Mars. OK, maybe not Mars.
- Someone asked you what role cloud computing has in your business plan
- You’ve read The Four Hour Workweek and figure there has to be a catch.
There are probably lots of other situations that might or should get you thinking about whether there might be hooks in an attractive proposition that you haven’t thought about. It pays to remember the cliché that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is. And, unless you work for an agency that routinely deals with ICT providers that are not based in New Zealand, you may be blissfully ignorant about such hooks.
I’m sorry; I can’t offer much help with item #7.
And it may be a bit late for the advice we have to help you with items #3 and #4.
However, if you’re tempted (#1), thinking (#2), preparing (#5), or being questioned about your plans (#6), we may be able to help.
How does Government Use of Offshore ICT Service Providers Interim Guidance help?
It explains what risks you may encounter if your outsourcing initiative takes you offshore, not just outside government. It provides possible mitigations for those risks. It’s got a resources section of places to go for more information that’s four pages long and includes laws, policies, standards, and places to find model contract clauses to show your lawyers. It’s even got a list of things to help you talk to your lawyers about drawing up a contract.
When is Government Use of Offshore ICT Service Providers Interim Guidance most useful?
It is most useful when agencies are thinking about sending government data offshore or outsourcing data processing and management services to offshore ICT service providers.
It does not apply to purchases of hardware, software, or development services unless government data is leaving the country or being manipulated from outside the country.
And it’s probably not a lot of use if you already know that you’d lose your job if you sent “X” outside New Zealand or if the “data” is actually 30-year old hard copy publications that have been scanned so they can be made available without reprinting.
