Financial institutions must consider outsourcing their IT operations to maintain competitive edge

Nicki Cooney, IIR's event producer, said: "The financial services industry in the Middle East is changing rapidly, not least in the UAE, which is opening up, thanks to the initiative of Dubai International Financial City.

"Outsourcing continues to boom throughout the world and financial institutions are continuing to explore and increasingly outsource their non-core services as a way to achieve not only strategic goals, but improve customer satisfaction and reduce costs. This enables a company to focus resources on more critical core business functions such as new product development and market expansion, while leaving operational details to outside experts.

"However, there is a real lack of information and guidance in the region to assist institutions thoroughly understand the pros and cons of outsourcing their IT operations and they must do the necessary homework to make a deal work."

The 1st Middle East IT Outsourcing Forum For Banks and Financial Institutions will address and examine all current, critical and emerging outsourcing issues and trends. The Forum will be held at the JW Marriott Hotel, Dubai between September 25 and 29, 2004.

International speaker contributors include HSBC - Hong Kong, McKinsey & Co - Germany, PricewaterhouseCoopers - The Netherlands and the UK-based PA Consulting Group, who recently secured seven prizes at the Best Management Practice Awards 2004, including Platinum Overall Winner.

Cooney explained: "On technology specifically, outsourcing is an ideal opportunity for institutions to offer their customers enhanced services without the expense involved in owning the required technology or maintaining the human capital required to deploy and operate it. In many situations, outsourcing provides companies with a cost-effective alternative to in-house capabilities."

She was quick to identify that outsourcing also has many fundamental risks associated such as contractual obligations, improper disclosure of information regulatory action and contingency plans. "Risk management is critical and is the subject for our pre-forum workshop, headed by Richard Smith of Deloitte Consulting in South Africa."