In the 1990s, outsourcing took on new strategic dimensions.
Rapidly changing market dynamics caused organizations to spend more time focusing
on their core business and global competitive pressures.
In next 10 or 15 years, organizations may be outsourcing all work that is "support"
rather than revenue producing, and all activities that do not offer career opportunities
into senior management.
Organizations are realizing that there can't be all things to all people. As a result,
organizations are focusing more on their core competencies and relying on service
providers to manage critical but non-core processes for them.
India has effectively provided efficient software solutions to Fortune 500 companies.
Citibank, Morgan Stanley, Wal-Mart, AT&T, General Electric, Reebok, General
Motors, Sony, Boeing, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Swissair, United Airlines, Philips, General
Electric, IBM, Reebok, Lucas, British Aerospace, General Motors, and Sears are some
companies relying on software companies in India.
It is not surprising that corporate giants in the United States, Canada, Europe,
Australia, and Japan are increasingly looking to India for cost-effective and high-quality
software solutions. In fact, a World Bank-funded study in the United States confirmed
that vendors rated India as their number one choice for outsourcing.
India has invested heavily in technical education and can provide a ready supply
of bright people at relatively low cost. Infrastructure improvements in India, particularly
in the area of IT and telecommunications, and the independent nature of working
in IT make it possible to bring this talent to bear on virtually any programming
task. Traditionally, the most active location for staging these types of IT initiatives
has been India. A strong supply of high-programming talent, favorable government
and tax incentives, and the ability to complement U.S. time zones with a virtual
around-the-clock approach are some of the advantages India has to offer.
Some of the key benefits of outsourcing to India are:
- India has a taskforce of one million IT professionals. No surprise people
call India "Software Powerhouse".
- Access to leading practices: external service providers give companies access to
an extensive, highly specialized knowledge base--which providers must improve continuously
to stay in business.
- Clearer strategic focus: allows managers to focus on core competencies and strategic
issues rather than on routine, time-consuming activities.
- Better resource allocation: can help shift the traditional focus from transactional
activities and reporting to the delivery of forward-looking information and value-added
business analysis.
- Improving service quality and productivity -- reduce response time, deploy solutions
faster and improve system availability.
- Improve performance--maximize the performance of an organization's enterprise client/server
computing environment through the use of the latest technology and an outsourcer's
performance management tools and expertise.
- Achieving cost effectiveness as well as cost Reductions.
- Significant cost savings, up to 80% in certain cases.
- While it can be quite difficult to recruit the expected competence in Western countries,
it is a completely different scenario in India, where there are lots of available
programmers with a good academic background.