If you pay much attention to the news, you'll know that I lost my argument over what constitutes 'core business' for a large utility. We have millions of customers who regularly contribute to my personal welfare in response to the bills we regularly deliver to them. Printed or emailed, these bills reach all customers on a more or less monthly schedule. In return, we commit to providing speedy response to any and all complaints and grouses. All of this would be utterly impossible without modern and reliable IT.
Some businesses could probably manage without elaborate IT. TomBrennanSoftware, for example, could probably thrive with Tom's kids holed up in a spare room with a Selectric and a postage meter. They could get it done and still have time for a social life. Not so for any number of mega-businesses. Like us. If we switched (pun) from electricity to some other commodity delivered to millions of customers along with the promise of superlative customer service (which the PUC demands), we would still need IT to make it work. So I argue that IT *is* our core business, while electricity happens to be the current excuse for our massive accounts receivable. As I said, you can see that I lost the argument. . . . J.O.Skip Robinson Southern California Edison Company Electric Dragon Team Paddler SHARE MVS Program Co-Manager 626-302-7535 Office 323-715-0595 Mobile [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Elardus Engelbrecht Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2015 12:09 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Outsourcing Experiences Tom Brennan wrote: > The word "resource" hadn't been used for a person yet, and managers ran > projects themselves and knew who was best for each particular task. What a > strange world it was. True. I see outsourcing as: 'Let other companies do my work which is NOT my core business or which is cheaper to let others do it'. So, cleaning of buildings, gardening, sewer unblocking, guards, catering, etc. are usually outsourced here in sunny South Africa. I know of a bank, which has folded many years later, which outsourced all its IT to an outside company. ALL of it, mainframe, network, PC, printing, staff managing those equipment, etc. were transferred to that company. [1] That despite their IT is part of *core business*. Go figure. Groete / Greetings Elardus Engelbrecht [1] - I know it, because I found out that grimy slimy truth during job hunting in 1990 around... ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
