Elizabeth Sparrow

Elizabeth Sparrow is a formerpresident of the British Computer Society (BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT). She is an author and consultant, specializing in outsourcing relationships and change management programmes.

Sparrow has an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Southampton and a Masters in Information Studies from the University of Sheffield.

Sparrow began her career at the British Library where she carried out a review of the Library Association Library.

She has worked at the Crown Suppliers and the Crown Prosecution Service where she was responsible for managing changes in working practices in a programme that was integrated with simultaneous changes taking place throughout the criminal justice system. As IT Director and member of the Senior Civil Service at the Home Office she led a major infrastructure upgrade project and launched an innovative private finance initiative.(1)(4)(5) Since 1999 Sparrow has been an author and consultant. She has authored two books on outsourcing and globalisation: Successful IT Outsourcing and A Guide to Global Sourcing - Offshore Outsourcing and Other Global Delivery Models.

At the British Computer Society (BCS) Sparrow chaired a working party on offshoring which viewed the inexorable growth of IT offshoring both as a challenge and an opportunity for the UK’s IT profession. As well as analysing the offshoring phenomenon the group recommended an action plan to help the UK’s IT profession respond to globalization, Sparrow has regularly written and commented on the impact of offshoring.

In 2012 she was a trustee at AbilityNet.