Offshoring IT Services
It has been a few months since my book “Offshoring IT Services” hit the stands. Tata McGraw-Hill’s marketing manager I spoke with said that it is not competing with “Da Vinci Code,” or “The World Is Flat” (Yet!)*…Oh Well... However, the success of my book is not the topic of discussion. The subject matter – offshoring -- is both politically unpopular and strategically complex; therefore, many industry ‘gurus’ and technologists who are curious don’t want to be seen as ‘interested’ in the topic. Even technology executives who are interested in the topic don’t want to be vocal about it since they probably don’t want to tip off analysts, customers (and competitors) to the fact that they are considering offshoring.
* Ps: For those curious about my experiences in writing the book, check out my ITToolbox blog entry “On writing a book.”
The intent in authoring the book was simple: I relocated back from the US to India and joined Infosys in 2003, primarily to learn and observe first hand the practice of Offshoring. I just had to see how projects were being sourced to half-way across the globe, executed and (almost) seamlessly delivered back to clients. I wanted to observe and learn since most of the literature on offshore outsourcing and offshoring focused on either the “pros and cons” of sourcing or on the “cost benefits” rather than the nitty-gritty of how offshoring of IT works.
Though it seems seamless to rest of the world, the foot-soldiers: developers, project and delivery managers orchestrate the ‘magic’ of Global Delivery Management [GDM] every day, refining the processes and learning the intricacies along the way.
In this blog, as in my book, I shall be trying to expose readers to some of the key challenges of sourcing. Together we will learn how to avoid the pitfalls that come from managing global IT projects.
Comments
Hi
Great post. Nice thoughts.. Well other than pros and cons of outsourcing or cost benefits we need to think of customer expectations. Most of the time clients don't outsource due to previous bad experiences with the company.
Posted by: Jane Bush | June 12, 2008 07:01 AM
Jane, you make an interesting comment though I guess a corollary of what you said would be that many a time clients DO outsource due to previous good experiences with the company…. reason why my employer gets a good percentage of revenue as a repeat business? ;-)
Posted by: Mohan Babu K | July 4, 2008 10:56 AM