NOW is the best time to Outsource!

Nothing new in this! People supporting outsourcing always use every opportunity to suggest it’s the best time to outsource. So what’s so unique right now?

Well, right now you need it. Most companies are left with very few options but to cut or rather freeze their IT spend. Even if you decide not to introduce a single new IT system, your current IT comprising of systems, infrastructure and back-office support are going to need an efficient handling that too in a reduced budget scenario. On the other hand some IT systems might just become a necessity to maintaining your competitiveness. Club these two scenarios and you know right away that you need outsourcing.

Having explained and hopefully convinced you that you need outsourcing now lets see why it’s the best time. Here’s why:

1. Outsourcing has evolved and the right outsourcing partner can just provide you with the innovation and experience your IT need to help you remain competitive and in business
2. A deal today is going to be at-least 30% cheaper than it was a couple of years back. Recession coupled with increased competition has forced IT vendors to reduce costs and introduce more value in their service offerings. Also, lower employee attrition and reduced salary levels across the Industry coupled with falling real estate prices in India have helped the Indian IT vendors to reduce their costs
3. Whatever you save in an outsourcing deal today provide you with additional budgets for new but necessary initiatives
4. Most Indian IT vendors have introduced innovation as a success mantra and you get the direct benefit of this mantra

As an India based sourcing advisory, we not only help you understand when and what you can outsource but also assist you in selecting the best suited Indian IT vendor for you specific requirements. We walk alongside you through the whole outsourcing engagement to ensure highest delivery levels from the selected IT vendor and an unprecedented level of vendor management in your best interest. Evident cost savings is just another benefit.

So, you need it, and it’s the best time. Go for it.

Davos 2009 – The IT Industry Perspective

While world leaders discuss the larger issues impacting the earth, as a Sourcing Advisory consultant I am left to speculate what is going to happen in the IT Industry.

In Davos, the one common view observed was that 2009 is going to be a terrible year. An equally worrying aspect though is that the impact might well spill over to 2010 and 2011. And this is where I wonder what the biggest world leaders think of IT as an industry and its future. Will technology reinvent itself and hold the key to reviving the world economics?

Davos 2009 has strengthen the belief I expressed in my previous post that “Innovation” is going to be the key for the IT industry hereon. IT budgets are frozen world over and so when the economy reopens, budgets for IT expenditures would be extremely limited. Every penny spent will be accounted for and questioned. Thus IT will necessarily reinvent itself ensuring rate of return is justified in the larger framework of “higher value driven” expenditure policies.

Some facts that in my views hold the key are:

• The exponential growth of networks and internet
  
• Aspiring and demanding new generation of internet users and spenders
  
• Rising demand and availability of real time information feeds
  
• Capital available with large number of PEs, willing to bet on brighter ideas
  
• Green technologies taking center stage across industries

As an India based Sourcing Advisory, we are keeping a sharp eye on every economic move that impacts global enterprises and their engagements with IT as a whole; especially in India.

Davos 2009 - World Economic Forum: “the mindset”

Leaders from across the globe met at the World Economic forum in the backdrop of the biggest recession of our times. These are no ordinary times and this was no ordinary summit. We know this for sure because it’s not always that the head of states and governments in such large numbers (almost 40) are seen attending what predominantly is a global business forum.

Such large scale political participation raises doubts of Protectionism as each country tries to overtly protect its own economy and interests. Such a tendency can negatively impact the global business phenomenon and practices that have developed over the past 2 decades. These troubled times I know are bound to change the way business is looked world over. But I sincerely hope that the impact is not catastrophic to the very idea of globalization.

The three key discussions in Davos 2009 were:

1. Finding ways to stabilize and revive the current global economic system
2. Addressing the challenges of the “post crisis” world
3. Global fight for environmental protection

The good part is that world is already looking forward to a values and principle led post crisis world. That too “cleaner and greener”.

Will this strategic exercise of the biggest global business minds help changing the course of the future? Well, only time will tell.

What’s in store for Indian IT?

That’s not really a million dollar question.

Indian IT definitely stays. Though this is the time for Indian IT to come off age, companies to rethink on business strategies and align their business.

Building specializations and creating a niche is the key to success for the future. Now, when the fight is tough, Indian IT must prepare itself to hold its global leadership, specially the tier 2 and 3 companies. Such an effort will help these companies gain recognition and compete for specialist roles in the outsourcing pie of the future. CIOs and Sourcing consultants do look at tier 2 and 3 vendors whenever specialization becomes a key to vendor selection. Developing a niche will facilitate such companies become the obvious choice of future.

Many Indians have been instrumental in revolutionizing IT with their innovative thinking. But as an industry we still are categorized as a service provider rather than a think tank. Being an Indian, I strongly believe we need to change this. Thinking of new ideas and conceptualizing them into ground-breaking products is another need of time and the Tier 1 Indian IT companies as well as start-ups should take on this cause. This will not only help us reduce dependence on MNC IT products but also pave way for global customers to look towards India for beating competition.

“Innovation” is the only way forward!