Gartner analyst Linda Cohen raised the specter of business disruptions after telling attendees that they need to develop disciplined approaches to outsourcing, not ad hoc ones -- especially as their companies adopt multisourcing strategies and sign contracts with more and more IT services providers. "You are heading for a much more complex operating environment where you have more services delivered externally," Cohen said. Strategic Responsibilities

The key to successfully managing multiple outsourcing vendors, according to IT executives from Du Pont Co. and ABN Amro Bank NV who attended the Gartner conference, is retaining strategic planning and architecture design responsibilities in-house.

By doing so, "you're responsible for your own destiny in defining how the systems work together," said Bruce Jacobs, CIO at ABN Amro's North American operations.

Amsterdam-based ABN Amro is outsourcing its IT infrastructure management, application development and telecommunications services. For example, the banking company finalized application development deals last September with five vendors, including Accenture Ltd., IBM and India-based firms Infosys Technologies Ltd., Patni Computer Systems Ltd. and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.

The five vendors compete for individual application services contracts but must work as a team in a "peer-to-peer relationship," Jacobs said. In effect, ABN Amro has created an "internal market" for contracting application development work globally, he explained.