Business Transformation Requires Transformational Leaders

Everyone involved in software development knows the labor market is very tight. It's hard to find good people for almost any important task. In the past few months, the Cutter Consortium conducted a survey to determine what the demand was for developers of distributed, component-based systems.

One requirement for e-business is that IT professionals' skills be both "deep and wide." They should have a strong technical foundation in a number of areas, and they have to be more attuned to what's happening in their nontechnical business arena than was required before e-business.

If we lived in a perfect Internet world, an e-commerce1 site would meet the needs of its customers in terms of providing an effective user interface, meaningful information, easy navigation, fast performance, high reliability, and ongoing security.

In the minds of some, the debate still rages: is e-business merely another overblown trend, or is it (as many analysts claim) a monumental change on the order of the industrial revolution?

The majority of this Executive Report focuses on a case study that traces the outsourcing process at Amtrak from its inception and, with the advantage of hindsight, relates the lessons the company has learned. It explores the impact of Amtrak's failure to adequately focus on the strategic benefits of outsourcing as a result of placing too much emphasis on tactical, short-term goals.

The accompanying Executive Report begins with an outsourcing case study and follows with a look toward the future of outsourcing. The case study starts with a history of the organization: Amtrak. US Congress passed the Rail Passenger Service Act in 1970, creating the National Passenger Railroad Corporation (Amtrak) to provide intercity rail passenger service in the US.