Outsourcing IT in Nigeria: What to Keep and What to Give Away

The Strategic vs Commodity Distinction

The fundamental question in any outsourcing decision is whether the capability in question is strategic or commodity. A strategic capability differentiates the organisation — it is something that, if done exceptionally well, creates competitive advantage. A commodity capability is something that every organisation of a similar type needs, but which does not differentiate any of them.

For most Nigerian organisations, the management of email infrastructure is a commodity capability. The way those organisations use data to understand their customers may be strategic. The first is a candidate for outsourcing. The second, generally, is not.

The Nigerian Outsourcing Market

The Nigerian IT outsourcing market has matured significantly over the past decade. There are credible, capable providers for most commodity IT functions: managed hosting, network management, helpdesk support, cybersecurity monitoring. The quality varies significantly, and vendor selection matters more than it does in more mature markets — but the capability exists.

What does not yet exist in abundance in the Nigerian market is strategic technology outsourcing — the kind of embedded advisory partnership that manages not just the infrastructure but the technology direction of an organisation. This is a gap that creates real risk for Nigerian organisations that mistake outsourced IT management for outsourced technology leadership.

The Retained Capability Question

The most important question in any outsourcing discussion is: what capability must we retain internally, no matter what? The answer shapes the outsourcing strategy. For most Nigerian organisations, the retained capabilities include the understanding of how technology serves the business model, the oversight of vendor performance, and the accountability for technology decisions at the leadership level. Everything else is a candidate for evaluation.