Here is a challenge from this blog to you, the people who make our industry work: Let's work together to formulate the total cost of outsourcing; a new TCO for the 21st century.

Why do I make this challenge? First, because there has been some good news this year for one part of the massive NHS IT programme. The final rollout of the Pacs project, which involves digitising medical scans and patients' x-rays so they can be examined on computers by specialists, was completed on time earlier in the year.

That this is news for perhaps the wrong reasons – the shock of a technology project for the NHS being completed as it was envisaged, and within the promised timescale – shows how far some public sector outsourcing projects have fallen in a public psyche already troubled by data privacy issues and a collapse of confidence in the Government's ability to handle personal information.

This got me thinking about the total cost of all large outsourcing projects. What are the real metrics for measuring the success or otherwise of an outsourced service, apart from the total contract value (TCV) of deals, whether they be in sterling, rupees, or dollars? Or the amount shaved off the bottom line by sourcing expertise and services from outside the walls of the local enterprise?

Genpact is one of many companies saying that skills and expertise should now be our industry's real currency, rather than the ability to lower costs. But how do we measure the hidden costs of seeking skills from outside of our own enterprises, for example, or from an offshore destination?

Beyond that, what price can we put on the undoubted damage to our industry of the public's shattered confidence in the public sector – which, after all, should be serving them, not mishandling or losing their data? Or of the debacle over the wider NHS IT project? Can this impact be measured – in an equation that factors in missed deadlines and over-budget costs and gives us a calculation of the real cost ? Surely this should be something that can readily be calculated?

And what of other hidden costs?

It's a sad fact that for many people outside of our industry, the public face of outsourcing is the call centre or help desk staffed by people who have little or no local knowledge of the caller's location. These are everyday experiences for many people; these are real examples – not of poor service by the outsource service provider, but of poor management and training by the client. But what are the costs of this to the client, and to the outsourcer – the cost of the customer who feels let down, and who has no interest in the money that his credit provider might be saving?

Over to you.