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.

OBAMANIA and the Outsourcing world

Yesterday I witnessed unarguably the most extravagant presidential swearing-in ceremony of our times. Also the most awaited, I believe. No points for guessing, the OBAMANIA has arrived and was very evident with more than 3 million Americans in Washington and over 1.3 Billion television viewers witnessing "the change" that is bound to reshape the world.

I was forced to think if this is the end of the Outsourcing era? The era that has lasted more than a quarter of a century! Not really, my mind suggests. Outsourcing is no longer just the buzzword, its a phenomenon that has transformed the way companies look at IT and can consider IT as a contributor to the organizational growth story.

Will things change? Surely they will. But the extent is going to be limited and definitely not something that the IT Service companies in India need to worry about.

Outsourcing is no longer about Costs alone and thats the best part. Companies today are looking beyond costs for other benefits like better service levels, governance issues, information security, process optimization and innovation. The list is long and IT companies in India have, to a great extent, transformed their offerings to offer these benefits to their clients.

While exploring your Sourcing Options these benefits are definitely something you as a CIO or IT Director should consider before zeroing down on your Outsourcing vendor. Using a Sourcing Advisory services helps you doing just this.