Outsourcing: IT directors unsure on outsourcing compliance

IT directors unsure on outsourcing compliance

29th May 2006
Almost half (48%) of UK IT directors are not confident of their grasp of outsourcing compliance issues such as TUPE, according to research undertaken by Vanson Bourne for global IT services firm HCL Technologies (HCL) released last week.

However this average drops to just over a third (36%) for IT directors in the financial services sector and 38% for the retail and logistics industries.

Company size is also a factor. 57% of IT leaders within larger companies of over 3,000 employees said they were confident of their compliance awareness compared with 47% of IT directors within smaller companies.

Stuart Drew, managing director of HCL's financial services European division explained what these figures meant: “The financial services industry has been awash with legislation from bodies such as the FSA so some time now, whilst simultaneously being one of the pioneers in adopting outsourcing.”

“The increased role of compliance within the industry means many organisations now allocate significant resource to ensuring they are in line with regulation. This combination of history and dedicated compliance facilities may go some way to explaining their confidence above the industry average.”

Mike Babarkoff, head of HCL's retail division supported this concept: “Within retail, outsourcing has been seen as a fast route to cost savings and refocusing on core activities for quite some time. Whereas financial services had faced a barrage of legislation such as Sarbanes Oxley and IFRS, retail organisations often need to be very aware of employee legislation, much of which is applicable to outsourcing as well, so that would explain retailers confidence compared to other industries.”

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