Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? Yes, it is Friday and it is the 13th day of the month. Not that the Round Up is superstitious, but your imagination does tend to run away from you on such days. The BBC has reported that experts at the Glasgow Science Centre are looking into the global phenomenon of Friday the 13th to determine if there is any science behind the superstitions. Sound a little crazy? Just stay with me on this.

The Glasgow Science Centre has said that it is a mix of superstitions - Friday being the unluckiest day of the week and the number 13. Since when has Friday ever been the unluckiest day of the week, I hear you cry! The Round Up will have to agree with you on that one.

But what has Friday the 13th have to do with outsourcing? If you asked someone to list a few factors that impact business performance, fear of Friday the 13th, probably wouldn't show up on the list. But perhaps it should. An article on Entrepreneur.com revealed a report that showed nine percent of Americans are Friday the 13th phobic, and further studies show that $800 million to $900 million in business revenue is lost on that ominous date. Not something to be sniffed at then.

Keeping this in mind, could the release of the report ‘Taking Control of IT’ by Deloitte this week have any link to the bad luck that is associated with superstition. From the outset it is a bleak report for local councils’ and IT outsourcing, however, on closer inspection it just advises the revision of how ITO contracts are managed. Instead, the report could be described as the ‘seven deadly sins of outsourcing contract management.’

That is as far as any indication of bad luck in the outsourcing industry goes. The rest of the week has been full of positive news. Freelancer.com surpassed half a million outsourcing projects within the micro-outsourcing market place. Also, the Environment Agency of England and Wales has signed an ITO contract with Capgemini which aims to be the ‘greenest’ in government.

On reflection things look pretty positive. So I believe it is not an oxymoron to bid you farewell and ‘happy Friday the 13th’.