This blog has been archived
This blog has been archived. Do visit our other blogs to join the discussion.
Long viewed as a tactical tool for reducing operations costs, global sourcing has now become a strategic activity through which companies can flexibly adapt to business change.
November 20, 2009
July 28, 2009
A Return to Sole Sourcing?
When an outsourcing trend is headlined in the business press it’s a safe bet that it’s already embedded in the industry mainstream. Still, it was interesting to note in a July 17th article in The Economic Times -- Big IT to gain as global cos tap best-of-breed vendors – that “outsourcing customers plan to work with fewer vendors at lower rates.”
As an employee of a “best of breed vendor”, this would be welcome news indeed, if it was actually news. However, companies have been cutting back on the number of service providers several months; and in some cases for years. So, why is the shift away from multi-sourcing suddenly garnering press coverage and what’s driving it? Meanwhile, does this trend represent a return to the “your mess for less” era?
July 13, 2009
How do You Define Innovation?
When the global economy started to go down the tubes discussions about innovation and outsourcing all but disappeared from the business and IT industry press and blogosphere. Recently, though, the topic has reappeared. Either business is improving or some companies recognize there are other ways to survive and thrive in the downturn besides slashing budgets, canceling projects, and seeking lower service rates.
Curious as to which is the case, I spoke with a few Infosys clients to get their ideas outsourcing and innovation. The conversations, which by no means represent a statistically valid research sample, were mostly positive. Innovation has not completely lost out to cost cutting. If fact some clients see a positive connection.
December 14, 2008
A different take on shared services -- partner integration through global sourcing
October 28, 2008
On-site / Offshore Staffing Ratios: Your Mileage May Vary
Predictably the report has gotten a lot of attention in the U.S. business and IT industry press. What is surprising, however, is that it was largely overlooked by the general news media, particularly given the quadrennial U.S. debate over immigration policies rages on.
Continue reading "On-site / Offshore Staffing Ratios: Your Mileage May Vary" »
August 21, 2008
Moving work offshore: It’s more than just numbers
Some time ago I got a call from a client I met at a conference last fall. His company had been acquired and he was part of a sourcing strategy team charged with reducing internal IT headcount. As they were asked to meet a target number that seemed unrealistic, he wanted to know the average number of jobs that mature outsourcers transfer offshore.
Continue reading "Moving work offshore: It’s more than just numbers" »
April 9, 2008
What do we mean by “outsourcing maturity?”
Now it’s one thing to use “mature” to indicate experience. A couple of months ago I quoted a client who referred to himself and his peers “growing up” as sourcing practitioners. However, the word can also imply stasis, or as my dictionary defines it, “Having reached full natural growth or development.” I have a problem with applying this definition to the global sourcing market.
Continue reading "What do we mean by “outsourcing maturity?”" »
Welcome to the Global Sourcing Blog
Welcome to the newly launched Infosys Global Sourcing Blog. As online media has grown more personal, the services sourcing world has also become more global. Some of the drivers are similar in both cases: better technology, easier collaboration tools, disintermediation and more globalization. And the way they are consumed is similar too: co-existence with traditional models (newspapers and TV in the case of media; traditional sourcing models in case of services), modular (mash-ups and personalization; modular sourcing) and dependent on maturity levels (new adopters typically leapfrog old methods; also based on readiness and past experience). These are happy coincidences!
Infosys has kept pace with and, in many cases, led the pack in terms of defining the ‘art of the possible’ in the IT and BPO services industry. We pioneered the Global Delivery Model more than two decades ago and have leveraged the Global Sourcing inflection points during Y2K, 2001-02 recession.
Now, in the present uncertainty, we are expanding the frontier of what Global Sourcing can deliver. More services (SaaS, Platform BPO), higher value-add activities (R&D, Engineering), multiple locations (Eastern Europe, China, South America) and transformational solutions are all part of this evolution. We helped Thomas Friedman coin the term ‘Flat World’ and practice what we preach – we are a truly flat world company that is global, innovates continuously and is helping clients win in the turns.
This blog is dedicated to furthering the art and science of global sourcing through conversation, thought, debate, comment and observation. We encourage participation from well-intentioned contributors to help us make this a lively and growing forum for the global sourcing community. This blog is not about Infosys – it is about you, the global sourcing practitioner, the visionary, the beneficiary, and other affected parties. We would like to welcome all shades of opinion and, in the process, demystify the concept and practice of Global Sourcing for all of us!
Happy blogging in the Globally Sourced Flat World…
