Make Sure You Capture IT Service Providers' Value-Add When They Front Third-Party Cloud Services

Sourcing execs face a growing barrage of cloud computing offerings from suppliers across the tech industry. Although some offerings promise real benefit to enterprise users, the whole new range of services coming to market only adds to the complexity that sourcing teams face in evaluating IT service providers and other suppliers in the computing field. One growing trend in cloud computing — toward delivery collaboration between core tech vendors and IT services specialists — saw a significant concrete endorsement in the past few weeks. Late in 2009, CSC announced a new cloud computing contract win with an existing UK client — the postal services company Royal Mail Group (RMG). CSC's service offering in this case builds off a cloud computing partnership with Microsoft.