Offshore Management Framework: The key to managing outsourced IT projects across time, distance and cultures.

August 17, 2008

Youngest victim of Offshoring

I have been moonlighting on this blog since August’06 in my avatar of a corporate blogger. During the time I have enjoyed chronicling my observations and referencing experiences of my colleagues in the trenches and ivory towers alike. Like many Indian born technologists, I have benefited professionally from globalization and flattening of the world.. having begun my journey even before the phrase was coined by Tom Friedman.

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August 10, 2008

Emerging risks of globalization and Risk Mitigation 101

We seem to be living in an increasingly dynamic world where the meaning of risk continues to evolve. One does not have to really blog about the fact that disasters and other emergencies in a flattening world are more common today than perhaps in the past, a fact that hit home recently in the offshoring city [Bomb Blasts Hit India’s IT City Bangalore ]. Thanks in part to the resilience of Bangaloreans, the city bounced back almost instantly.

Middle-managers in sourcing organizations and offshoring firms probably read about the incidents in the news and realized that the disruption to their operations was (thankfully) minimal, reflected on it a bit and went back to their operational challenges. However, technology executives, consultants and sourcing specialists, risk management consultants and others are taking a harder look at the risks and associated risk mitigation strategies

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August 03, 2008

Musings on Global Travel and Universal Adapters

Most of us who have cellphones, blackberries and PDAs have come to accept the issue of incompatible chargers as a matter of fact. Many of us business travelers also frequently forget chargers either back at home or at the hotels. For instance, on a trip out of town last week, I forgot my phone charger in the hotel room while checking out and realized it only when I got an e-mail from the help-desk next morning asking if I would be collecting it or would like to have it posted to me. Frequent travelers have found workarounds around the problem [get a free phone charger with a little social engineering]

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July 26, 2008

Do you want to debate the merits of IT Certifications with our offshore Architect?

Get techies talking about certifications, and the debate is sure to get interesting. I have my opinion on the topic, including on the merits/challenges of continually ensuring (re)certification; but this entry is not about my viewpoint. Bloggers and the tech media regularly pick on the topic to fuel a debate (and possibly readership). A week ago, I was intrigued to receive an internal mail featuring Amit Jnagal, an Architetect based offshore, who has also recently donned the Corporate Blogger hat. The mail was intended to motivate fellow employees in our practice unit on the organizational drive towards employee certification.

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July 18, 2008

Pre Sales and referenceable clients

My team is working on a large proposal for a prospect that is looking for a revamp of its Enterprise Architecture Strategy. This prospect, and as other clients are also increasingly doing, asked to speak with a few past clients where we had done similar work. And here, it was not one or two but nearly half-dozen references they were asking to speak with. Those who have worked on pre-sales support initiatives probably realize the significance of such a request.

It is one thing to get an existing client to agree to use a reference to the work we have done as a case study but getting them to actually talk with another prospect; well that’s where things get interesting.

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July 11, 2008

Architecting Business Solutions vs. the Business of architecting technology solutions (continued)

In my previous post, I talked about the extending role of Enterprise Architects at services firms into Marchitects. This ‘selling’ of architecture services is no different from what our peers in client organizations undertake too.

Enterprise Architects, many of whom report into a CIO/CTO organization are also under continual pressure to ensure that the organization derives an optimal ROI from their IT investments, which means they need to ‘sell’ the value of robust, scalable architecture, planning and roadmaps to their stakeholders, some of whom may be focused on the tactical: ensuring that the quarterly targets are met, budgets balanced and operational challenges addressed. Even the ‘strategic’ focus may sometime involve reacting to external trends (read between the lines: it is the economy, slowdown etc)

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