AT EVERY technology conference, there's always a message for the season. The 10th annual IBM Asia Pacific Insights 2008 forum held in Shanghai last week was no different. 

The message that IBM speakers did not fail to repeat: The firm's services are good during both good and bad times. It must have thought that it was time for a reminder what with some Asian economies entering into recession and companies possibly holding back IT spending in the quarters ahead.

Big Blue was referring to its largest revenue generator, Global Business Services. The business unit provides consulting services as well as manages customers' helpdesks, servers and computers on their behalf. 

Companies that outsource get economies of scale - and as such, cost savings - from sharing the same infrastructure used by thousands of other IBM customers worldwide. So it seems its services business is recession-proof.

I wonder, however, if outsourcing one's IT requirements to a service provider used by every other company around the world will produce the same frustrations. You can't get economies of scale and highly-customised services at the same time, surely.

Or can you?

To be fair, IBM has earned its boasting rights. Its Global Business Services division grossed some US$5 billion in Asia Pacific last year, making it the largest IT services provider in the region, according to Gartner.

At the same time, nearly 60 per cent of all change management programmes - necessitated by new technology rollout or internal restructuring - in companies fail to meet all the business objectives. This is based on a 2008 IBM survey of 1,500 managers in 15 countries worldwide, including Singapore.

That figure (60 per cent) is not new. The same failure rate has been thrown up in the last five years at many other technology conferences.

Such a high failure rate only goes to show that using technology - and even having a good tech service provider - is no guarantee for success. There are other ingredients including a sound business model, good leadership and a passionate workforce.