Managing Offshore IT

Last week, I had blogged about how my offshoring blog is doubling as a recruiting tool. Of course, not all recruiting has moved the Web 2.0 way. Though much of recruitment for offshoring firms happens at offshore base locations, sourcing firms, including my employer, are also hiring top-end technology consultants onsite; albeit selectively.  

I had an interesting time interacting with and interviewing fellow consultants and technologists the past couple of weeks. The consultants in question were referred to us by the head of their company’s consulting practice since the group was being disbanded due to some corporate restructuring; and the management of the firm had offered to connect them with other partner organizations (including Infosys). Why that group was being disbanded rather than being offered/sold as a consulting practice is something I had no intention of probing. So here I was, working with my colleagues to whet the profiles from that data set, and began making cold calls to talk with the prospective candidates. A few observations based on my interactions with the prospects:

Continue reading "Observations on Hiring Consultants Onsite" »

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The offshoring and outsourcing challenges for large IT initiatives are well documented in the media, and analysts periodically write papers and reports on “top reasons for sourcing failure.” [a sampling of blogs on the topic:Robinson and Iannone, Alan Inglis, George Mathew, James McGovern among others ] An entire segment of the management consulting sector thrives around deal consulting and sourcing advisory services [I highlighted some of the risks of offshoring in my book too].  The practical challenges of sourcing, however, appear as a footnote in discussions around ‘change management,’ and herein lies a challenge.

Case in point, I was at meeting of an engagement team and managers of one of our clients in the context of their team exploring the use of BEA’s Aqualogic as an integration platform. During the discussion, one of the executives made a mention that although we were a large service provider, with over hundred-thousand talented individuals who had expertise in myriad technologies, he was only exposed to the (Infosys) team assigned to their projects onsite and offshore, which was primarily in Microsoft .Net Application Development and Maintenance (ADM) space.

Continue reading "Addressing a practical Offshoring challenge: Making your Engagement Manager work for you" »

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It doesn’t require an industry analyst to tell us that there are multiple trends shaping up in the business-technology landscape; and some of these don't seem to have much correlation to others. If one pays any attention to business or technology media, one would get a feeling that everything seems to be correlated to the downturn or slowdown. let’s take the following examples:

• Executives at some firms, reading the tea-leaves about the impending slowdown are digging their heels deeper and taking a closer look at their spending, expenses and sometimes key initiatives that could be making them competitive. 
• Some Business Integration initiatives that were started with much fanfare last year are getting a second look before they can be rolled out. This includes key SOA initiatives, which I had blogged about a while ago
• Offshoring will continue to remain on corporate radar screens as a means to derive efficiencies by leveraging global talent

Though there may not be a direct correlation between the three trends, one can connect the dots.

Continue reading "Connecting the dots : Slowdown, SOA and Sourcing" »

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My earlier blog post on Onsite Engagement Managers (EMs) generated a few interesting comments, by Akshay, Amit, and most recently by Big Kahuna who has an interesting viewpoint: 

“while I  do believe it's a very important role, I  also think the success of this depends on a) how it is communicated, across levels b) the authority vested in the engagement manager and c) will of the vendor's leadership/operational folks in actually actioning on perceived improvement areas.
My experience from a few years in this field (working for an i-banking kpo) is providers are fairly short sighted, constantly chasing monthly billing (acceptable), but not really focusing on offering an overall experience for the client.
While it is not likely to hurt vendors today (since clients don’t have too many alternatives), clearly down-the-line....when the market opens up (which it will), vendors that take a very bottom line driven approach will not be the better for it."

Continue reading "Offshoring Engagement managers: good to great..." »

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The Big Blue yesterday unveiled its latest mainframe, the 64-Quad Core System z10 mainframe, a topic tech bloggers are eagerly commenting on [Om Malik,  Engadget,  Dvorak]. An interesting dimension to this move by IBM is the resurgence of interest in mainframe programming by the ‘younger generation’ entering the workforce.

Among these commenting on the topic, a blog that caught my eye was Ben Worthen's viewpoint in WSJ’s blog [“Young Mainframe Programmers are the Cat’s Meow”], where he raises the question: Where do businesses find people who remember how to program the things? The obvious answer would be: offshore; but there again, it is not as simple as that.

Continue reading "Z10: IBM’s latest mainframe, jobs and offshoring" »

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I was reviewing Michael’s detailed comment to my blog entry on my earlier note “What makes a client offshore visit successful?” and I thought I should do justice by re-posting it on a blog entry as many readers may not have RSS to comments of the blog.

Continue reading "Additional Comments on : What makes a client offshore visit successful?" »

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Continue reading "The World is flattening . . . except when it comes to filing taxes" »

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A while ago, I had blogged about ‘Offshoring Study trip’ where westerners - clients, prospects, students and others - make regular trek to offshore locations. There are different agendas for trips that a variety of stakeholders undertake and some of them include:

• Students and academics: Empirically observe and learn from people on the ground. The goal of such offshore study trips is generally to observe aspects of offshoring from an academic perspective and the agenda could include visits to offshore companies, meetings and Q&A sessions with executives etc. [Examples of such visits 'study trip' 'India Study Trip']
• Prospective clients: The agenda of such visits by prospective clients is to assess the infrastructure and capabilities of one or more short listed service providers. Such visits are generally organized for executive management or CXOs during final stages of negotiating with service providers.  Of course, the agenda is for those undertaking the trip to see through PPTware and online brochures.
• Existing clients: The agenda for client visits in an existing relationship vary and depend on the nature of engagement and prospects for future enhancement in relationships. The visits are generally orchestrated by onsite engagement managers who may also accompany visiting executives. Other times such visits may involve line managers, architects and others from client end to spend time with offshore teams at their base locations.

Case in point is a recent visit by a CIO and senior executives of a client I work with. The client's team was accompanied by the onsite Engagement Manager, who got the following 'thank you' note after the visit:

Continue reading "What makes a client offshore visit successful?" »

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I was reflecting on the nature of engagements that some of our teams undertake, more because of the fact that the engagements mirror the portfolio owned by CIOs, essentially trends in typical IT shops and it is a no-brainer: a larger percentage of work involves maintenance and sustenance of IT systems. [ref: Software maintenance - who's interested?]

The challenge in such (application maintenance management) scenarios is not in the intricacy of work but the fact that it is not seen as sexy or cool by many developers, and software engineers, and even less so by most software architects. The reason is obvious: the industry has glamorized new development as being ‘creative’ while labeling maintenance to an equivalent of ‘grunt work.’ Given this mindset, it wouldn’t make sense for me to even attempt making an argument for why architects should get more involved in ‘legacy’ work but here it goes anyways.

Continue reading "Offshore Architects, Legacy maintenance and modernization" »

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It is that time of the year when many of us reflect on ‘the year that was’ and make resolutions for the year to come.

The year for me began with wrapping up definition of a technology strategy for an affiliate style portal to be architected for an insurance client. An offshore Architect assigned to work with me did a wonderful job researching some of the key aspects the emerging trends in portal definition technologies. The client also decided to break down the construct phase along modular lines and sourced the work to Infosys and another vendor. The project then moved on to the construct phase and my colleagues from a delivery unit took charge.

Continue reading "2007 : A year in the life of an Offshoring Architect" »

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Continue reading "Thoughts on Offshoring ERP/non-ERP Packages" »

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Continue reading "Can your offshore vendor’s Marchitecture help you?" »

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In my previous blog entry I began to explain the changing roles and expectations of Offshoring Program Managers. Before I elaborate on the thread, Radhakrishnan commented if I could explain “offshore programs.”  Without using an intricate definition of what offshore projects and programs are, an offshore program is a term I use simply to talk about  larger projects and programs with a strong offshore component. The program could be executed by an offshore service provider or at an Offshore Development Center belonging to the same organization/client.

Going back to my thread on the changing paradigm that I am noticing in the market:  clients and stakeholders are increasingly expecting vendors’ Program Managers to also manage niche aspects of IT Programs including aspects of contract administration, Relationship and Change Management (areas circled in the figure)

Continue reading "Managing offshoring programs ... continued" »

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Last week there was an interesting news release about Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the Netherlands-based Nielsen Company inking a large sourcing deal, by some accounts, the largest sourcing/offshoring deal by an Indian services firm. Coming at a time when naysayers were beginning to question the sustainability of the model in light of challenges of rupee/currency fluctuations, questions on India/China etc, this is bound to provide fodder to strategists and deal consultants who are bound to analyze the intricacies for sometime to come.

Continue reading "Big sourcing deals and managing offshoring programs" »

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In my previous blog, I was musing about the increasing significance of Enterprise Architects. Continuing the thread, it is interesting to see others also striving to Define the Enterprise Architect
There are a lot of different definitions for “enterprise architect.” It can get really confusing, particularly if you follow a lot of blogs written by enterprise architects — and I did.

I came across a few interesting blogs on technology managers and EA. Ed Gibbs  blogs on Moving to Enterprise Architecture, the blogs on successful software architecture and Six Sure Fire ways to Sink your Enterprise Architecture also made for an interesting read.

Continue reading "continued ... Enterprise Architecture Offshoring" »

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Wall Street Journal had an interesting article “Firms Get Creative To Work Around Visa Bottlenecks” that looks at different aspects of challenges faced by employers planning for foreign-born candidates in America.

As organizations globalize and continue to hire the topic is sure to generate interest among sourcing managers.

Continue reading "Musings on Offshoring, immigration, visas and attrition" »

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Business Week features an article “India's Talent Gets Loads Of TLC” that talks about how India’s “Its labor supply is no longer endless.”  This is a topic of perennial interest to technology managers. The article begins with

A visit to Infosys Technologies' Mysore campus [An unofficial pictorial of the Mysore campus on Flickr]  highlights the extraordinary measures Indian companies are resorting to these days to attract and retain top talent. The 334-acre site boasts a multiplex theater shaped like a giant white dome, four huge food courts, 96 hotel-like guest houses, and a stylish activity center with a gym, pool hall, and eight-lane bowling alley. Last year the outsourcing company trained 20,000 recruits in everything from software writing to teamwork. Expansions under way will enable Infosys to train twice as many. "When I heard IBM's presentation at a job fair, they talked a lot about their brand and innovation but not much about training," says Sanjay Joshi, 22, a graduate of MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology in Bangalore. "That's why being at Infosys is the Indian middle-class dream."

As expected, the article has generated a barrage of blog responses:

Continue reading "Offshore Talent wars. Who wins: the talent!" »

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As we continue to globalize, is there a distinct “Indian Management” philosophy that is emerging? This has been a topic of analysis and discussion among management thinkers in recent times. A Business Week article titled “Karma Capitalism” sometime ago set me thinking on these lines.

Before I elaborate, I must add that there is little consensus on what exactly “Indian Management” philosophy is all about… just as most westerners have their personal views on Chinese philosophy equating it to popular classics like the ‘The Art of War’ [Again, an area where I will claim no expertise in]. This said, many managers, academics and executives of Indian origin living in the west seem to be living and practicing a distinctive style of management, weaving in some of their personal values and beliefs in the context of a western/modern management framework.

Continue reading "Offshoring and Indian Management philosophy" »

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Chetan and Michael made a couple of interesting comments on my recent blog “What’s the big deal about big sourcing deals?”

Michael seems to agree with the theme when he says “Media needs a headline to splash and nothing is more headline-esque than a deal worth hundreds of millions or in some cases a billion or more” but Chetan seems to extend my assertion by pointing out the big-picture: “At a sales/account or program mgt level , larger outsourcing deals could get complex with respect to delivering the desired cost savings , best practices , governance , security & risk compliance , the growing web of SLA’s , program management etc.” These are certainly strategic aspects of larger deals.

Where I would take off on my argument on big and small deals is about how all (sourcing) strategies need to translate to actionable tactics… street level strategies if you will. I find it interesting that hardly any analysts, writers and other blog ‘thought leaders’ focus on this aspect.

Continue reading "Street level offshoring strategy" »

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A topic that many consultants, leaders and managers are loath to talk about, except offline is that of office politics. To be fair, Most management programs – MBA courses, even PMI’s certification program and workshops and other management training  – offer pointers on addressing and managing organizational dynamics and organizational behaviors and there is an increasing emphasis on interpersonal communication skills and conflict resolution.

Though most management theorists are circular about the issues, there is only one way to move forward while encountering office politics, as with most other issues, address them: do not bury your head in sand.

Continue reading "Office dynamics and politics of consulting and offshoring" »

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For years management thinkers, textbooks and movies eulogized the glamour of the Expatriate professional. Wikipedia “An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently resident in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing or legal residence.” With an entire generation of technologists cris-crossing the globe, the glamour of being an Expatriate professional is certainly wearing thin (though not the experience and exposure that it brings).

I sometimes wonder if the conventional definition of Expat is being redefined. For instance, the Wikipedia entry talks about how “the term is often used in the context of Westerners living in non-Western countries, although it is also used to describe Westerners living in other Western countries” Does this mean that Indians living and working in the west, many of whom are permanent residents or Naturalized citizen in their adopted lands are not Expatriates?

Continue reading "Musings on the Expat Techie" »

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Continue reading "It's that time of the Quarter: Offshoring accounting" »

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A few weeks ago I was speaking with an IT director at a firm that has been sourcing software application development to us for a few years. The discussion was in the context of a security audit they had undergone. Though the discussion was primarily around the impact of the audit recommendations and how we could work to ‘harden’ the application the Director was also interested in knowing more about the security practices we brought to the table as a part of our services.

Queries like these are increasingly common as clients engage with service providers who in turn leverage globally distributed teams to ensure successful architecture, design, development and delivery of software systems.

Continue reading "Security and Offshoring IT" »

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Most of us in the software services world - whether in the technology consulting, application development or program management space - are acutely aware that we are also continually selling something: we are selling our skills, solutions and competencies, essentially sending a message to ‘clients’ that we [and our organization] can deliver on the requirements and ideas.

Now, selling has two sides to the equation: the client (or someone) should have a need and be willing to ‘buy’ the services that you offer to sell. Identifying such white-spaces in their requirements and helping them fill the gaps with your offerings for a win-win relationship; well, this is business 101, right? However, selling and buying software services is not always as explicit as the marketplace for fungible products. Sometimes, the ‘selling’ also involves helping the client’s stakeholders articulate the demand to her stakeholders [not sure if I would call this ‘upselling’]

Continue reading "Offshoring Consultants who can also sell" »

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When I read the Cutter Advisory (reprinted  below) by Dwayne Phillips titled "Celebrations," I began to reflect on the softest underbelly of software services: its people; and also on the ‘human’ interactions that touch us ........ even hardened technologists and managers.

Phillips says how we should not -- must not -- ignore events in our lives. . . . Stop work. Grieve.

In an offshoring context there are moments where “Stop work. Grieve” alone does not suffice. 

Continue reading "Grief, celebration and the human face… of offshoring" »

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Among my recent blog posts, the one asking ‘Is IT-Business/Domain Knowledge overrated?” generated a fair number of comments, as is to be expected. After all, “Business IT Alignment” is the holy grail of management thinking with even academic and business media spending reams of newsprint to the topic.

My question was rhetorical as I was trying to draw on my observations and past experiences in the field. Vikas Ohri comments “Knowing domain helps to break communication barriers, appreciate the business need, relate to impact of your system in the overall scenario even when it is not explicitly stated….. Analysis of failed IT programs does provide some insights... ”

Similarly, Robert Rojas comments “It sounds like you're saying that a shortage of domain expertise means it should not be sought after. … Just because the expertise is not there does not diminish its importance.”

Ram posted a comment asking if I might want to take up "common" domains like Banking or Retail, argue the same case and see how much sense the article makes in that context. Therefore, let me illustrate my thinking with another example.

Continue reading "Is IT-Business/Domain Knowledge [While Offshoring] overrated? ... Continued" »

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In my previous blog I was musing on modernization. Here are two scenarios of 'legacy modernization' I got involved in recently:

Scenario 1: A 50 year old manufacturing company with IT systems dating back over three decades. After the company embarked on a roadmap to migrate some of their homegrown, mainframe based MRP (Manufacturing Resource Planning) systems to a commercial package, they got bought out. ...And surprise? A renewed focus from Head Office on cost cutting and offshoring, and that’s where my consulting team got involved.

Continue reading "Random musings on Legacy Modernization: Part 2" »

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Utter the term ‘legacy modernization’ in any technology forum and eyes will light up. The topic is bound to generate animated discussion among techies, architects and IT managers alike. Of course such discussions among IT managers and consultants have a tendency to get polarized: consultants will probably have dollar signs gleaming in their eyes while IT managers try hard to defend their portfolio, arguing “why fix what’s not broken”

Services companies thrive on providing innovative modernization solutions, while software companies try equally hard to pitch upgrades to their own legacy platforms. And then there is the whole mainframe-to-(whatever) discussion that periodically erupts.

Continue reading "Random musings on Legacy Modernization: Part 1" »

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A few weeks ago, I got on a conference call with some of my peers across time-zones. After the meeting was called to order, one could hear the distinct wailing of a baby in the background. The manager chairing the call couldn’t stop himself from grumbling “Can the person with the baby crying in the background please get on mute?”

Continue reading "Babies crying in the background and Offshoring" »

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Technology sourcing is more about managing people and teams than with any other aspect, and unlike most other businesses, the people being ‘managed’ are highly skilled, educated and articulate.

Dr. Tushar Hazra’s Cutter advisory that came to me a few days ago made for an interesting read. The advisory, titled “Making Teamwork and Collaboration Happen in a Dysfunctional Work Environment”  begins by talking about  dysfunctional teams, asking “can teamwork and collaboration happen in their work environments? How difficult is it to make teamwork and collaboration happen there?”

Continue reading "Offshoring, sourcing and 'Dysfunctional Work Environment'" »

Posted by Mohan Babu K. at 06:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Most of us have come to realize that Offshoring requires additional skills in planning and scheduling across time zones and geographies. What about Culture and Mother Nature? 

Planners of an American client faced a unique challenge when they scheduled a field-trip to India last week, omitting to account for a regional holiday due to the ‘New Year’ in the Indian calendar. The American client managers were amused and decided to take the extra day off to visit the local sites and get over their jet-lag.

Continue reading "Snow days, holidays and offshoring" »

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I was working with a client (shall go unnamed) recently, helping the IT Director define a strategy and roadmap that his (and our) team could take forward. His vision and mandate was crisp and refreshing. Having recently taken over a portfolio of applications, he was looking to make incremental changes to the underlying systems, architecture and framework components in an ˜agile” fashion. This was the tactical part. His strategy was to get business sponsor the ‘low hanging fruit’ (more functionality) while he would also overhaul the underlying architecture.

Given this scenario, consultants would typically take a boilerplate and start calling out the ˜steps” [a.k.a. a typical IT strategy /roadmap definition exercise]:

Continue reading "Defining Agile strategy: Case in point" »

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