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71 Percent of Companies Frustrated by "Hidden Costs" of Mainframe Outsourcing, According to Compuware Study
DETROIT, Dec 12, 2012 (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) --
Compuware Corporation (Nasdaq:CPWR), the technology performance company, today announced the results of a *global 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 percent of CIOs. These hidden costs result from increases in MIPS (million instructions per second) consumption, as well as higher investments in testing and troubleshooting all due to poor application quality and performance. In fact, two thirds (67 percent) 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 organizations. 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, Mainframe Solutions, Compuware. "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
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, consumption is also escalating due to inefficient coding, adding unnecessary costs:
-- MIPS costs are increasing on average by 21 percent year over year, with
40 percent of respondents claiming that consumption is getting out of
control.
-- 88 percent of respondents using pay structures based on CPU consumption
(approximately 42 percent of those surveyed) think their outsourcer
could manage their CPU costs better.
-- 57 percent of all respondents believe outsourcers do not worry about the
efficiency of the applications that they write.
-- 68 percent of respondents believe that the increase in mobile
applications, for things like mobile banking, is driving higher MIPS
usage and creating additional costs.
Quality
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:
-- 54 percent of companies have had to increase investment in performance
testing and troubleshooting due to the poor quality of work provided by
their outsourcers.
-- 51 percent of respondents outsourcing their mainframe application
development and maintenance believe they are having to increase their
investment in their internal QA team due to the poor quality of work
being delivered by outsourcers.
-- Almost half of respondents (47 percent) find that the error and bug rate
in application code delivered by an outsourcer is higher than with
in-house developers.
-- IT teams are spending an average of 10 days fixing application bugs and
performance problems from outsourcers on any given project.
-- 67 percent of respondents expressed that the quality of new applications
or services provided by their outsourcer is not always satisfactory.
While some outsourcers invest in best-in-class application performance management tools to ensure the applications perform optimally before delivering them to their client companies, many do not.
"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."
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:
-- 80 percent of respondents claim difficulties with knowledge transfer is
impacting on the quality of outsourced projects.
-- 68 percent say their in-house teams no longer have the legacy knowledge
to maintain mainframe applications while 41 percent of companies state
that the lack of in-house expertise is a key motivator for outsourcing.
-- 65 percent of respondents claim staff churn within outsourcers'
organizations negatively impacts the quality and turnaround time of work
they deliver.
*Commissioned by Compuware and conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne, the survey was administered to 520 CIOs from large companies, covering a cross-section of vertical markets in Australia, Benelux, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, and USA.
About the Compuware Mainframe Solutions
Compuware's Mainframe solutions help the world's leading organizations maximize developer productivity, minimize costs and deliver better service. The Solutions are available within the Compuware Workbench, an open development environment that features an intuitive and easy-to-use graphical user interface. Workbench makes common mainframe tasks faster and simpler to perform for both experienced mainframers as well those new to the mainframe, enabling companies to develop new services faster, more efficiently and with higher quality utilizing existing resources.
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Compuware Corporation
Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, makes technology make a difference by providing software, experts and best practices to ensure technology works well and delivers value. Compuware solutions make the world's most important technologies perform at their best for leading organizations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited U.S. web sites.
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This news release was distributed by GlobeNewswire, www.globenewswire.com
SOURCE: Compuware
(Logo: http://media.primezone.com/cache/11175/int/6643.jpg)
CONTACT: Press Contact
Mary McCarthy
Public Relations Manager
Compuware - Mainframe Solutions
mary.mccarthy@compuware.com
(313) 227-8188
For Sales and Marketing Information
Compuware Corporation
One Campus Martius
Detroit, MI 48226
800-521-9353
http://www.compuware.com
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