IBM's centre of gravity shifts to India

As noted in Slashdot's commentary "IBM's India Workforce Likely Exceeds That In US" (link)
From data in IBM's annual report and gleaned from other sources on the company's employment data.
The original article by on Computerworld (link) by Patrick Thibodeau, 2012.

Should Western graduates plan to work offshore?

Should Western graduates plan to work offshore? Australian tech graduates are being encouraged to take up internships in India. Should we?

Extract from the article...

"Now the NSW government has given its backing to a program to send young workers to the sub-continent to gain experience and improve their employability.
Five information and communication technology (ICT) students and recent graduates from the University of NSW and Sydney University will spend eight weeks living and working on campus at Infosys, India's largest technology services vendor, from January next year.
Headquartered in Bangalore, and listed in the US, Infosys is an IT outsourcing and consultancy vendor employing 153,000 people worldwide, including 2400 in Australia."

 (see the article on smh.com.au)

Complications of attempting to outsource services

The situation at Capita UK illustrates the potential for services outsourcing initiatives to run up against end-customer objections. In this case Capita IT Services offshore outsourcing plan contravened Capita UK's service level agreements with its end-customers.
But was the problem really as straight forward as it appears?

Links:

C. Hall, Capita IT staff strike over Indian offshoring plans, 2012.

Capita: we have a number of business outsourcing opportunities available to you. (web page 2/10/2012).

Capita India is Capita (web page 2/10/2012)

Capita UK offshoring plan killed by customer backlash - insiders

fundit.ie crowdsources funding for projects

Fundit.ie crowdsources funding for projects ranging over: art, craft, design, events, fashion, film and television, food, games, media and publishing, music, performance, science and technology...

Paraphrased from Fundit.ie's About page.

"Fundit.ie is based at 44 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, Ireland. It is an all-island (island of Ireland) crowdfunding website for creative projects, giving anyone the power to help good ideas happen. It is designed to support greater individual giving to the creative sector; an area that up until now has been under-utilised. The approach serves to strengthen the bond between a creator and their audience which offers the potential for wider-ranging, long-term relationships."

Loughborough Centre for Global Sourcing and Services (CGSS)

The Loughborough Centre for Global Sourcing and Services (CGSS) undertakes independent research on the trends and practices in global sourcing of IT and business services. Its goal is to improve sourcing practices through on-going engagement with managers and policy makers. In particular, the centre is interested in understanding how individuals, teams, organisations and other stakeholders cope with: the centralisation of business and IT service functions through shared service units; the disaggregation of business and IT service functions through captive centres and third party vendors; the back-sourcing of previously outsourced business and IT service functions; and the emergence of new sourcing models such as cloud services.

For information about the centre see http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/sbe/research/centres/cgss/index.html

Working in Bangalore; an inside view of outsourcing

This series of films attempt to peel back the cover of what happens on the other end of the phone in Bangalore's software outsourcing industry.

"You're in a space warp where you don't know you're in Bangalore."

Is what we see depicted in these snapshots of work life in Bangalore really much different from what happens in our own work places? Is the software development industry marked by diversity of approach or is its culture, professional norms and values much more homogeneous than expected?

The films are available to purchase from www.der.org

Outsourcing reversal at GM

From Slashdot... "GM's new CIO Randy Mott plans to bring nearly all IT work in-house as one piece of a sweeping IT overhaul. It's a high-risk strategy that's similar to what Mott drove at Hewlett-Packard. Today, about 90% of GM's IT services, from running data centers to writing applications, are provided by outsourcing companies such as HP/EDS, IBM, Capgemini, and Wipro, and only 10% are done by GM employees. Mott plans to flip those percentages in about three years--to 90% GM staff, 10% outsourcers. This will require a hiring binge. Mott's larger IT transformation plan doesn't emphasize budget cuts but centers on delivering more value from IT, much faster--at a time when the world's No. 2 automaker (Toyota is now No. 1) is still climbing out of bankruptcy protection and a $50 billion government bailout." For more see Information Week (July 09, 2012)

Commentary on managing distributed teams

From the HBR blogs...

"Managers frequently ask for best practices for managing their global teams, and recently we've noticed some common themes. Here are the three questions that keep coming up again and again, and what the research tells us about how to address them..."
"...managers of virtual teams should have dual, complementary objectives: structure and socialize. First they must shift their teams' work practices away from the dynamic adjustment outlined above towards more structured coordination. Clear team-level work processes, output requirements, and group norms reduce the complexity of virtual team coordination from coordinating efforts across multiple sites to aligning one's efforts with a single, consistent set of expectations. Second, as the speed of today's economy means no team — collocated or distributed — can eliminate all such dynamic adjustment, virtual team managers also work to support and facilitate dynamic adjustment when it's required by promoting and encouraging informal interaction."

Reference: Managing a Virtual Team, by Mark Mortensen and Michael O’Leary (link), published: 9:52 AM Monday April 16, 2012

Mocality - crowd sourcing business in Africa

From the Mocality blog; how we built this business...

Quote: When we started this business, we knew that (unlike in the UK or US, where you can just kickstart your directory business with a DVD of business data bought from a commercial supplier), if we wanted a comprehensive database of Kenyan business, we would have to build it ourselves. We knew also that if we wanted to build the business quickly, we’d have to engage a lot of Kenyans to help us. So we built our crowd program that utilises M-PESA (Kenya’s ubiquitous Mobile Money system) to reward any Kenyan with a mobile phone who contributes entries to our database, once those entries have been validated by our team. Over two years, we’ve paid out Ksh. 11m (over $100,000) to thousands of individuals, and we have built Kenya’s most comprehensive directory, with over 170,000 verified listings. Personally, I regard the program as one of THE highlights of my 18 year career on the internet.
From day 1, we aimed to target all Kenyan businesses, irrespective of size. As a result, for about 2/3rds of our listed businesses, Mocality is their first step onto the web. That’s about 100,000 businesses that Mocality has brought online.

Links
Mocality site (link)
Mocality blog (link)

How about crowdsourcing your seed capital?

"Kickstarter, a crowdfunding platform for creative endeavors, was founded in April 2009... The unique all-or-nothing approach to funding has struck a chord with both creators and funders and is allowing enterprising individuals to bypass traditional establishments to create films, music albums, events, and even products. Kickstarter helped hundreds of projects raise millions of dollars in 2010." Mashable blog (link)

Further reading
Kickstarter "A NEW WAY TO Fund & Follow Creativity". Web site (link)
Kickstarter Surpasses $100 Million in Pledges. Mashable post (link)

Microsourcing labour case

Lifebushido: The Challenge of the Microsourcing Labor Markets is available from Erran Carmel's web page under the 'Cases for Teaching' section - http://auapps.american.edu/~carmel/ The case is about a small American firm growing in a new part of the sourcing world — microsourcers, also known by other labels: micro-work, human-cloud, crowdsourcing. LifeBushido is a middleman platform that mediates between the buyers and the global supply of sellers in specialty knowledge work. The case takes place in 2011.

Localisation, Translation, Culture

Panel discussion with Damian Scattergood, Paul Quigley, and Stella Grubo, STAR Translation Services, Docklands Innovation Park, Dublin.

A discussion on outsourcing/sourcing, managing inside and managing outside; the relationship with clients and suppliers. What is culture and how does it come into the frame? How to manage the interface, who to manage, and listening or being listened to!



About Star TS (link) Star's video summary of the session (link)

Ways to avoid outsourcing failure...

According to Robinson and Iannone (2007) Transition is the most challenging period in an outsourcing project. Over two thirds of projects encountered problems that began at the transition stage. They suggest three approaches to address issues that germinate at the transition stage

"1.Refocus and retraining of the retained organization is critical. In most cases, the retained staff consists of IT professionals who have been "doers", with strong technology management roles in service delivery. Now they must shift gears and reconstitute themselves as managers and liaisons between their organization and the service provider. Special training may be necessary so that members of the retained organization understand and can operate effectively in their new roles.
2.Use acceptance criteria. Tactically, a key success factor at the transition stage is the use of acceptance criteria: What are the marks that the service provider needs to hit, by what dates? Unrealistic transition timetables are a frequent source of trouble. Both buyers and providers should look with a sceptical eye at the viability of their transition timeframes.
3.Choose the right transition economic model. A milestone-based, achievement-based economic model is a better approach than a time-based economic model."

(Robinson & Iannone, 2007)

Reference
"9 Ways to Avoid Outsourcing Failure" by Robinson & Iannone, 2007. CIO Magazine (link)

"Understanding Transition Performance During Offshore IT Outsourcing" by Beulen et al (2011).

Am I dealing with Guanxi yet?

The problem with Guanxi for non-Chinese dealing with China based or culturally influenced organisations is figuring out when Guanxi applies.

Q&A on the topic of gifts:

• Does it start with big gifts? 
• No, someone starts the process out with longish introductory engagements, these are usually set up by mutual parties or intermediaries.
• What happens in the build up, before? 
• Generally a lot of ground work has to be done in advance.
• Who gets gifts? 
• Usually gifts may be given by equivalents at each level. The most important at the level of business/organisational owners.
• If the first meeting doesn't go well, does that stop the relationship getting closer? 
• No, anything can be recovered, but no one expects a screw-up at the eventual formal kick-off, which anyway happens after all the ground-work is done in advance (months of interaction).
• Who presents and receives a gift? 
• The highest representative at the highest level present.
• When selecting a gift what should I consider? 
• Things like value, symbolic importance, scarcity, use. Get advice from a suitably respected and experienced organiser.
• Do you need to bring a gift to every meeting?
• The first meeting for the agreement between organisations is the most important (but of course preparation has taken place earlier, see above).
• When should the gift be opened? 
• Well you should ask 'can I open it?' usually if it's ok the gift will be a small thoughtful token, but if it isn't ok to open it it may be a high value, socially 'heavy' gift, one that generates an obligation of sorts.
• Does the big visit (agreement visit) to the host require a reciprocal visit to the guest's site? 
• Often, yes, and consider again, to eat with the guest is very important, particular consideration should be given to what food is offered.
• What role does food play? 
• To eat with the guest is very important.
• What kind of food should be ordered? 
• Again, the best of everything makes for auspicious relationships.

Establishing a 'new software capital'

Offshoring and Outsourcing in China
Xi'an: A regional perspective. An interview with Prof. Rong Du, Department of Management, School of Economics and Management, Xian University.

What are the challenges that Xi'an has had to overcome to establish a local outsourcing industry?
What barriers exist?
What benefits filters through to the local economy?
Who is the competition?
What specialisations are specific to China and Xi'an (BPO, ITO, R&D, Manufacturing)?
What are Xi'an's advantages?
Do businesses support each other through clustering?
Can you provide examples of the kinds of businesses basing themselves in Xi'an?
How do so called tier 2 cities position themselves amongst each other and alongside tier 1 cities?
Which international markets are most open to setting up operations in China or working with Chinese firms?

Tech sector more than just jobs for geeks.

Chris Horn's Sunday Independent article on under-employment in the Irish tech sector & the cultural issues concerned bit.ly/yYKlCX

Videos for cases...

The case of Unnat-e offers an insight into the vendor's perspective in the outsourcing industry.


Xian: A Sourcing Destination

• CT outsourcing product development and maintenance (link)
• China's software parks (link)
• Sourcing arrangements for global sourcing insurance services (link)
• Outsourcing IT services by Market Maker (link)

Offshoring trends: Gartner

Eight New Countries Moved into the Top 30 (Gartner's top 30, 2010/11 www.gartner.com)

India and China Remain Undisputed Leaders but Dynamic Market Sees Credible Alternatives in All Regions (Gartner's top 30, 2008 www.gartner.com)

In 2008, Global Offshore Spending to Grow More Than 40 Per Cent (Gartner's top 30, 2007 www.gartner.com)

How the US lost out on iPhone jobs

(via Peerside) Apple makes it clear that it isn't just labor costs that makes the US uncompetitive

"Apple has become one of the best-known, most admired and most imitated companies on earth, in part through an unrelenting mastery of global operations. Last year, it earned over $400,000 in profit per employee, more than Goldman Sachs, Exxon Mobil or Google.

However, what has vexed Mr. Obama as well as economists and policy makers is that Apple — and many of its high-technology peers — are not nearly as avid in creating American jobs as other famous companies were in their heydays.

Apple employs 43,000 people in the United States and 20,000 overseas"

Further Reading
New York Times Article By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER, 2012 link

Building effective teams Anywhere!

Alfredo Behrens writes about building effective teams in emerging markets. His examples highlight the fallacy of assuming that organisational members can simply collaborate and work effectively with any other organisational members. People know people, they come from different communities, different teams, different cultures. The simple notion that organisational members are interchangeable is inherently problematic.

Further reading
A, Behrens. Building Effective Teams in Emerging Markets. HBR Blog. 2012. (link)

Cases for Global Sourcing

1. You've got email MAT
2. Symantec moves off-shore
3. We need warm bodies
4. Celtic Tiger, Chinese Dragon
5. Keeping Pace with the local
6. Relocating knowledge
7. We have a problem Heuston
8. Happy Hollowing Customs
9. Managing global local
10. Core banking source