Reading the excellent article in Computer World by Mary Brandel I find it funny that a business process that so many are still trying to get their heads round is having to re-invent itself.
Within the article she picks out some key themes:
1 - Outsourcing 2.0 allows genuine global talent management
Indeed, terms like global sourcing and strategic sourcing are starting to replace offshoring for companies striving to fit their use of overseas talent into their overall business strategies. And offshoring is no longer solely about cost. For instance, Siegel has occasionally requested that his outsourcer assign specific developers from other countries to a given project because he’s gotten to know and respect their work on other projects. “These are people who came up through the ranks and ended up being real stars with functional experience,” he says. “Seven years ago, that never would have happened. It took time for them to obtain the institutional knowledge and, based on that, move upstream.”
2 - Moving your business model towards the 'best way' to do business [common sense?]
“It’s about the best way to get business done, whether it’s offshoring, outsourcing, resourcing or insourcing, as well as a broader view than just, ‘What’s the lowest price that I can pay for a service or commodity?’”
Delphi’s strategic sourcing approach does not explicitly require an offshore footprint, McCabe says. At times, he might contract with a domestic outsourcer that chooses to use offshore workers as part of its service. Other times, he explicitly chooses an offshore provider, but for reasons beyond cost.
3 - Buying best of breed and forcing collaboration between competing suppliers [I like this one]
Adopting a more technology- driven sourcing strategy that takes advantage of the core competencies of several providers.
“We can do that more readily than five or six years ago because suppliers are getting the message that we want three or four and we want them to collaborate,”
4 - Just because you outsource it doesn't mean you off-shore (who'd have thought - what a revelation!!)
If the old offshoring model could be represented as a one-way arrow pointing from the U.S. to a lower-cost overseas location, the new global sourcing model has arrows that form a complex web. In the new model, work can flow from a client in the U.S. to an Indian company that passes along a coding piece of the project to a Chinese subcontractor and the consultative piece to its employees in the U.S. Or a U.S. provider might divide the work among a team of U.S.-born workers, offshore coders and foreign employees with deep functional experience.
5 - The new buzz word is "Co-sourcing"
....sees the relationship more as co-sourcing than offshoring. “They have a certain set of responsibilities in the development process, we have a certain set, and we measure each other to be sure we’re each holding up our end of the bargain."
I like that... and it links closely to number 3.
But just to add a dose of reality-salts to the high mindedness - read the comments from Computer World's readers.....It really gives a flavour of US thoughts on outsourcing and offshoring.
