Research has found 67% of companies are dissatisfied with the quality of output from mainframe outsourcers and that IT teams spend an average of 10 days fixing performance issues
Research has found 67% of companies are dissatisfied with the quality of output from mainframe outsourcers and that IT teams spend an average of 10 days fixing performance issues
Technology performance company Compuware has announced the results of a global chief information officer (CIO) survey on attitudes and experiences with mainframe outsourcing.
The survey found that reducing costs is a major business driver for outsourcing mainframe application development, maintenance and infrastructure. Yet multiple hidden associated costs are causing frustration for 71% of CIOs.
It emerged these hidden costs resulted from increases in million instructions per second (MIPS) consumption, as well as higher investments in testing and troubleshooting all due to poor application quality and performance. In fact, two thirds (67%) of respondents reported an overall dissatisfaction with the quality of new applications or services provided by their outsourcer, citing a widening in-house skills gap, difficulties with knowledge transfer and staff churn within outsourcer organisations.
Compuware has published a related white paper titled, Mainframe Outsourcing: Removing the Hidden Costs, which details the findings from the study.
“It is true that outsourcing can help companies reduce costs and gain access to technical expertise they might not have in house, particularly as experienced mainframe developers move on and take their applications knowledge with them,” said Kris Manery, senior vice president and general manager of Compuware’s mainframe business unit.
“However, as the research shows, there is a growing frustration that outsourcers are failing to meet expectations; because there is no means to easily transfer application knowledge to the outsourcer – and to verify code quality and performance when it is delivered – application quality suffers, thus undermining any potential savings.”
MIPS consumption on the rise
One of the greatest expenditures relating to mainframes is MIPS consumption. Contrary to popular belief, mainframes are being used more than ever, meaning consumption is naturally on the rise. However, the research contends that consumption is also escalating due to inefficient coding, adding unnecessary costs.
MIPS costs are increasing on average by 21% year-over-year, with 40% of respondents claiming that consumption is getting out of control. The majority (88%) of respondents using pay structures based on CPU consumption (approximately 42% of those surveyed) think their outsourcer could manage their CPU costs better.
Just over half (57%) of all respondents believe outsourcers do not worry about the efficiency of the applications that they write. And 68% of respondents believe that the increase in mobile applications, for things like mobile banking, is driving higher MIPS usage and creating additional costs.
Quality issues dog development
The quality issues in the outsourced development of mainframe applications are increasing the total cost of ownership, as additional time and resources are required to complete projects, contributing to an overall picture of dissatisfaction within the end-user community.
Just over a half (54%) of companies have had to increase investment in performance testing and troubleshooting due to the poor quality of work provided by their outsourcers. Another 51% of respondents outsourcing their mainframe application development and maintenance believe they have had to increase their investment in their internal quality assurance (QA) team due to the poor quality of work being delivered by outsourcers.
Almost half of respondents (47%) found that the error and bug rate in application code delivered by an outsourcer was higher than with in-house developers. A further 67% of respondents expressed that the quality of new applications or services provided by their outsourcer is not always satisfactory.
“Outsourcers and enterprises need to look at how they are working together and implement processes and tools that will lead to better outcomes,” said Manery. “For example, how can they document legacy applications to address problems around knowledge transfer? Can they bring performance testing into the development cycle earlier? Using simple solutions such as these, companies can better manage their outsourcer contracts and reduce the total cost of ownership of mainframes by removing the hidden associated costs, ultimately improving the quality of service delivered to end-users.”
Importance of knowledge transfer
The increasing complexity of the mainframe ecosystems outlined above is creating a greater need for existing applications to be modified, as well as creating a need for new services to be developed and integrated with existing mainframe applications. However, a significant lack of in-house legacy skills and documentation creates challenges, increasing the drive towards outsourcing and impacting quality.
A large majority (80%) of respondents claimed difficulties with knowledge transfer is impacting on the quality of outsourced projects. Just over two thirds (68%) say their in-house teams no longer have the legacy knowledge to maintain mainframe applications, while 41% of companies state that the lack of in-house expertise is a key motivator for outsourcing. Another 65% of respondents claim staff churn within outsourcers’ organisations negatively impacts the quality and turnaround time of work they deliver.
Commissioned by Compuware and conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne, the survey consisted was administered to 520 CIOs from large companies, covering a cross-section of vertical markets in Australia, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US.
