The misunderstandings and misperceptions about IT outsourcing seem to border on superstition. Even now, in 2017, it’s common to hear things like: 

• “They’ll steal our data!”
• “They’ll learn our secrets!”
• “We’ll have no accountability!” 

We’d all be ahead of the game if we could trade such nonsense for some common sense. How much common sense? Just enough to understand this about each of the statements above: 

1. “They’ll steal our data!” First of all, who is they? The company to which you might outsource your IT? Why would they steal your data? To whom would they give it or sell it? Wouldn’t you bind them to the terms of a non-disclosure agreement before you started working with them? What would they gain from violating those terms? What would they stand to lose?
2. “They’ll learn our secrets!” Yes. So will anyone to whom you outsource anything. You’ll learn some of theirs, too. It’s a two-way street. That’s what non-disclosure agreements are for. Outsourcers make their living knowing and protecting customers’ secrets and supporting their operations. If they violate the terms of any non-disclosure agreement or abuse the trust of any customer, they’re out of business. Legal penalties follow. And they know it.
3. “We’ll have no accountability!” Even if you were to ignore everything from #1 and #2, do you really believe a third party would be less accountable than a politically entrenched and risk-averse member of your organization? If so, do you really believe an employee would point the finger at himself for a missed deadline, dropped ball, or security breach before he’d point that same finger at a third party? 

If you don’t see the common sense of IT outsourcing, and if you don’t believe in the evolutionary inevitability of specialization, ask yourself this: What business are you in? If the answer isn’t IT — say, you’re in the insurance business — you might want to reconsider the statements in 1, 2, and 3 and accept the fact that someone who specializes in IT might be better at managing IT. 

Common sense might not be able to predict the future. But it does account for inevitability. And the future is coming, regardless of whether you embrace it or acknowledge the way business will be done in it. 

And remember, those who embrace the future now will be called leaders.