CIO Magazine’s top 3 initiatives for CIOs make interesting reading. It suggests that 2009 is a great year to look to outsourcing for economic, efficiency and innovation advantages. Its top 3 suggestions for CIOs looking at their outsourcing arrangements are focused on structure of deal, cost of deal and rationalisation. Which on the face of it makes pretty gloomy reading for outsourcing providers.  Look deeper however, and there are rays of light in the article, and possible angles for lead gen campaigns.

1. The article suggests reviewing the structure of agreements to make them based on demand/consumption rather than people/T&M. Such agreements require better alignment between supplier and customer - surely a major factor in generating useful leads, proposing a solution and winning the bid
2. Portfolio rationalisation for application outsourcing – the article also suggests an optimum mix of outsourcing suppliers depending on the size of the CIO’s organisation. A bigger share of the pie will be up for grabs for suppliers willing to invest in getting it.
3. Cost-cutting: keeping costs down was always going to be one of the three. However, the article says that CIOs can also save money by spending it - if you can get to market faster, make quality improvements or improve productivity versus what’s already being delivered then you’re in a good position.

If CIOs are looking at these three priorities now, it’s a great opportunity for marketers to work with sales and take propositions to companies based around one, two or all three of these priorities.

It’s worth noting the many comments that that have been posted in response to this article. The backlash against offshoring is clearly gathering momentum, especially in the wake of the money earmarked for IT projects in the economic stimulus package.