Managing Offshore IT

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.

I have also interacted with victims of global sourcing, some folks who were either downsized or laid-off when their organizations decided to offshore work. During the past few years, I have also been shocked to hear of occasional victims of offshoring: colleagues and peers who were involved in traffic accidents, while commuting to work and some dying while on assignment in foreign lands.

To the list of victims of offshoring, I would like to add Aditya Mohan. Aditya, our 4.5 month old baby, died on board an international Jet Airways flight that was landing in Delhi. His death, during my business travel with family, under unusual circumstances brought home the unpreparedness of the system and infrastructure to support those involved in the business of offshoring:

• Nandan Nilekani blogs “Are there parallels that can be drawn to derive some actionable insights to help transform Discoms to profit-making, world-class organizations?” I guess Nandan is not talking about Airlines from India that are globalizing despite their lack of preparedness in offering world-class service?
• The lack of crisis support system in India. I have heard from friends and colleagues about their experiences on landing in India. In some cases I would just shrug my shoulder thinking what’s the big deal about a bit of hassle of shuttling from an international airport terminal to a domestic one? Not knowing how to react when an aircraft lands with a young child in a serious condition… I am not sure if any excuses in this regard are conscionable. [ps: you could help by reviewing and signing my petition asking authorities and the airline to investigate]

The incident is making me reflect on the merits of frequent cross-country travel that many of us in the business of sourcing undertake, sometimes with young families. We do realize the risks in the back of our minds but one can say the professional benefits and advantages generally outweigh such hazards. The point where the line between personal and business risks gets blurred is unclear to me. ....… Dear Aditya RIP

Posted by Mohan Babu K. at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

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

Executives at client organizations are (and should be) taking a closer look at risks of globalization. The fact is that residents of Bangalore and for that matter most other major metros across the globe, are coming to grips with newer threats and risks. Most residents also realize that the specialists, government and other authorities are also working hard to address the newer risks in the society. Corporate leaders have a responsibility to work with the relevant stakeholders in the society to address and mitigate such risks. For executives at client and vendor organizations, the mitigation strategies would probably include reassessing their risk assessments and disaster recovery plans.

Nothing new in what I am stating above. While in college years ago, I remember reading a chapter on Disaster Recovery (DR) where the author talked about an extremely ‘hypothetical’ scenario: an aircraft crashing on a data center. I am sure that chapter has been rewritten for students of IT today but I wonder about ‘hypothetical’ scenarios authors may be using. I had briefly analyzed key risks of global sourcing in my book and also blogged about it a while ago.

Paraphrasing Americans (and British): we live in a post 9/11 (and 7/11) world, fraught with newer risks. This said, one doesn’t have to rewrite a textbook on risk management. Any robust Risk management strategy should have a feedback mechanism to acknowledge, assess and plan for mitigation of newer risks.

Posted by Mohan Babu K. at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

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]

Of course, it is also a logistical challenge for offshoring-globe-trotting executives who have to carry universal adapters and chargers that can plug into different power plugs across the world.
 
The problem of incompatible chargers is not restricted to cellphone makers. Ever been in a conference room where you forgot your laptop adapter and asked around if others have one you can borrow, only to find that you have a Toshiba and your neighbor has a Dell or HP?

The problem of incompatible adapters/chargers is perhaps a fundamental design challenge we see back in the IT world too. And here we don’t even have to think of analogies since the problems are just the same: software vendors defining proprietary gateways and adapters – for reasons best known to them – and the end consumers, IT executives and CIOs continue to scramble around for ‘adapters.’

 

 [Image source: powermega.com]

 [Image source: vagabondish.com]

The  Enterprise Architect and consultant in me is naturally inclined to find a solution for such problems leveraging available toolkits including SOA, integration, software adapters etc etc… just like some innovative marketers who have found a niche supplying universal adapters

However, another part of me wonders if it is the consumer in us that accepts incompatibility from cellphone and laptop manufacturers which also accepts incompatibility from software vendors?

Posted by Mohan Babu K. at 03:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)