the Kingdom of SIAM

There's a new buzzword on the block: SIAM, service integration and management.

[update: this can be an internal practice to aggregate a multi supplier value chain. I've heard it most often in the context of a service that is itself outsourced]

This is "back to the future": you are outsourcing the bulk of your IT to a trusted partner, just like the large scale outsourcers of the past, e.g. EDS.

it is the same but different. You still put your trust in one partner. But now you choose some or all of the underlying suppliers and the SIAM provider manages them for you as the integrator. The skillset of the SIAM supplier is a little different to the old-school outsourcer: the SIAM provider specialises in servise aggregation, service level management, supplier management...

Jim Finister of TCS wants to convince me that SIAM will grow to consume most of the IT market. (Jim did a witty presentation at PINK14 based on songs from "The King and I"). Of course I'm skeptical. It remains to be seen. It seems to me outsourcing of any kind is optimising for cost rather than optimising for speed. There is a major disconnect with the modern obsession with agility and change. so we shall see, but SIAM is on the scene.

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