IT Sourcing Sorcerer

A virtual CIO (vCIO) provides access to executive-leveltechnology leadership on demand. You gain strategic advice, governance, commercial expertise, supplier management, and technology planning—all without carrying the full cost of a permanent executive. Via a vCIO, organisations can gain enterprise-grade CIO capabilities for around ten percent of the cost of a full-time executive resource. Also k...

Are your IT services delivering real business value… or just keeping the lights on? In this latest episode of the IT Sourcing Sorcerer Podcast , I break down the core ideas from my ebook “The SDM Formula” —and why Service Delivery Management is the missing link in many organisations. 💡 We explore: ✅ How to move from reactive IT to value-driven service delivery ✅ Why Governance, Performance &amp...

53% of leaders say productivity must increase, but 80% of the global workforce says they’re lacking the time or energy to do their work. The first Frontier Firms are emerging, and 71% of workers at these firms say their company is thriving, compared to just 37% globally. Enjoy the listen.

“90% of Outsourcing Deals Lose Over Half Their Value—Here’s Why” According to Ernie Zibert’s research, the problem isn’t outsourcing itself—it’s how we manage it. 📊 A survey of 100+ IT professionals revealed: 50% cite low customer satisfaction as the biggest issue 90% believe 60% or more of expected value is lost over the lifetime of an outsourcing deal Shockingly, 1 in 3 say 100% of value disapp...

What’s the real difference between a $1 Million and a $1 Billion IT sourcing deal? Surprisingly… almost nothing. Whether you’re negotiating a small agreement or a mega-deal, the fundamentals remain the same: ✅ Contract clarity ✅ Performance accountability (SLAs) ✅ Transparent invoicing ✅ Demand management ✅ Relationship governance Scale adds complexity—but the playbook doesn’t change. If you’...

Are you still measuring outsourcing success by cost alone? That’s a trap many organizations fall into—and it leads to missed opportunities, unhappy customers, and stalled innovation. In my latest piece, I break down the Five Dimensions of Sourcing Value —a practical model that helps you: ✔ Reduce value leakage ✔ Align sourcing with strategic priorities ✔ Balance trade-offs between cost, flexibilit...

Unlock the Science Behind Sourcing Governance 🚀 Most organizations spend 70–80% of their IT budgets just “keeping the lights on” —and the same inefficiency plagues sourcing governance. The result? Strategic forums are often cosmetic, while operational meetings dominate. This imbalance costs businesses 15–50% of annual contract value in lost opportunities. It’s time for a shift. ✅ People – Invest...

Sourcing Success: The Three Fates Every IT Leader MustMaster 🔮 Are your sourcing strategies guided by fate—or by design? Drawing inspiration from Shakespeare and centuries-old wisdom, my latest piece, Sourcing’s Three Fates , explores the three critical forces that shape every sourcing relationship: TINA (There Is No Alternative) SAM (Sourcing Account Management) DAE (Dollars Are Everything) . Wh...

Outsourcing can unlock efficiency and cost savings—but italso hides two costly evils: 🔍  Paying for Nothing 🔍  Paying Twice for Something From inflated SLAs to duplicate software licenses, these traps quietly drain budgets and erode value. In his guide  Outsourcing’s Two Evils , Ernie Zibert shares practical strategies to avoid them: ✔  Audit your agreements —cancel overlapping maintenance and w...

Why “Lowest Cost” Outsourcing Could Be Your Biggest Risk When it comes to outsourcing, chasing the lowest price often feels like a win—until reality hits. According to Ernie Zibert’s Sourcing Value Compass , the five dimensions of sourcing value— Financial Benefit, Market Discipline, Flexibility, Specialization, and Customer Satisfaction —are deeplyinterconnected. Here’s the kicker: • Lowest cost...

🚀 Why P5 Pricing is the Future of IT Managed Services For over two decades, IT pricing has been dominated by P x Q models—Price × Quantity. While functional, these models fail to align IT costs with actual business demand. Enter P5: Price per Period per Person—a game-changer for transparency and scalability in IT services.

When most managers order IT services, they assume they’ll “get what they paid for.” Reality check: You always get CHIPS with that order. And no, not the crunchy kind! CHIPS = ✔ C – Customer involvement ✔ H – Heterogeneity of service quality ✔ I – Intangibility ✔ P – Perishability ✔ S – Simultaneity These five characteristics make IT services fundamentally different from IT products. 👉 You can’t s...

Rethinking Cloud Value Assessment This podcast challenges outdated IT cost‑comparison models and introduces a modern framework for evaluating cloud investments. Traditional “generation one” metrics—comparing on‑premises costs to cloud pricing—fail to capture agility, scalability, and flexibility. Instead, businesses should benchmark service‑to‑service across cloud providers, ensuring true apples‑t...

This podcast identifies the ten things every CxO should do to slash cloud waste. 2025 marks the first-year cloud spend exceeds traditional IT, with cloud revenue forecast around $917B versus $868B for traditional tech (Gartner). This trend only accelerates into trillion-dollar territory by 2028. If you need one number to mobilize the board: assume 40% of your cloud spend is wasted.

This podcast discusses the IT tendering processes and critiques traditional Request for Proposal (RFP) methods. The metaphor “RFP cow is too fat” suggests that the conventional RFP/RFx process has become bloated, inefficient, and overly complex . Organizations invest too much time and effort upfront in procurement, even though this phase contributes only a small fraction, less than 10%, of overall...

This podcast by Ernie Zibert, the IT Sourcing Sorcerer, outlines the five essential governance processes for successful IT outsourcing relationships. These processes are designed to improve sourcing outcomes and are compliant with ISO 9001:2015 standards. Enjoy the listen.

Today, we’re diving into Ernie Zibert’s thought-provoking ebook, “The Death of Managed Services.” It’s a bold title, but Ernie makes a compelling case for why the traditional IT Managed Services Provider—or MSP—model is rapidly becoming obsolete. Enjoy the listen.

This podcast shows the synergy between the evolution in our understanding of human sexual performance and IT sourcing governance. We do not have specific guidance for customers and service providers so that they can efficaciously design and deploy IT sourcing governance. Until we attain such a goal, we should treat a discourse on IT sourcing governance with the same reverence as neophytic treatmen...

Today, we’re diving into a fresh approach to IT outsourcing — something called CREAMS. No, not the kind you put in your coffee, or the kind you put on your skin, but a strategy that could transform how your company manages IT Services. CREAMS stands for, 'Cloud Realised and Enabled Augmented Managed Services'.

This is a summary of the Cyber Security Principles published by the Australian Government’s Cyber Security Centre on 4 December 2024. Proudly bought to you by the IT Sourcing Sorcerer. Enjoy the listen.

This podcast provides best practices for the effective governance of your cloud service provider(s). It answers the question, ‘is there any difference between governing traditional outsourced service providers and cloud providers?’ In addition, this podcast answers the question, ‘what's the best way to govern your cloud provider relationship?’ The lyrics to the Kate Bush’s song, Cloudbusting,...