Speaking at the recent MENA ICT Summit in Amman, Jordan in early October, it was heart warming to witness the rapt attention with which the government, the fledgling IT and business process industry and even members of Royalty listened to the story of cities like Pune and the paths they have chosen to build a revenue of over $6 billion in exports from humble beginnings of a few hundred million dollars at the turn of the millennium.

The focus on high quality education and industry oriented skills development, the development of a domestic industry with both government and private sector embracing contemporary IT solutions for improving factor productivity and the ability to promote the destination to global and local industry leaders—all this and more will probably be absorbed and implemented by Amman and Irbit in Jordan and indeed in over a hundred Bangalore wannabe cities all over the world in the near term to emerge as competitors for Indian prowess!

That does of course beg the question—is it competition or collaboration? With the threat of protectionism looming large all over the world and the very real opportunity of inclusiveness that a global delivery model provides, it may be wise for all significant Indian firms to consider near shore outsourcing centres in Latin America, Central or Eastern Europe, Middle East and China, connected by technology so that work can be distributed and delivered across multiple locations in a seamless and cost effective manner—surely the model of the future!

To enable this, Indian firms too need to demonstrate the commitment to work with the governments of Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Jordan and China to launch a collaborative effort in chosen cities.

For the cities themselves and that includes a score or more aspiring locations in India and the neighbouring Saarc countries as well, a realisation needs to dawn that there is more to building an outsourcing destination than pouring tons of concrete and steel into IT parks and installing a computer science or management studies concentration in multiple colleges and universities. A simple three step model that always works is:

* Develop a focus on what kinds of vertical and horizontal capabilities the city should be known for. If it’s financial services, business intelligence and ERP packages in Sao Paolo, it could be manufacturing and remote infrastructure management in Shenzhen or even software engineering in Dhaka and Amman. A survey of…

Source:http://www.financialexpress.com/news/Outsourcing-destinations-on-the-horizon/701850/

Businesses should be embracing IT outsourcing to free up resources, not merely to reduce costs, it has been claimed.

Writing for ComputerWorld.com, Adam Hartung commented that the overall objective when delegating functions to an external support provider is to make the business perform better.

“What most of them need is more room to experiment, try new technologies, try new applications, try new solutions, seek out new customer market opportunities and find ways to grow the business,” he suggested.

Mr Hartung said outsourcers can help achieve these goals, also noting that they can help complete end-of-life projects cheaply and quickly.

Firms should also be wary about spending on legacy systems as they plan to outsource IT, he noted.

Anthony Hayes, head of IT supplier management at the Royal Mail, recently told Computer Weekly that it is inevitable more businesses will choose to embrace IT outsourcing in future.

Source:http://www.ihotdesk.com/article/800093975/IT-outsourcing-frees-up-valuable-resources,-expert-says

An increase in IT outsourcing is inevitable over the next few years, it has been suggested.

In an article for Computer Weekly, Kathleen Hall noted many leading IT decision-makers believe businesses will continue to move computing functions over to support and managed services providers.

The journalist observed Anthony Hayes, head of IT supplier management at Royal Mail, thinks departments should keep their IT strategy in-house, while outsourcing their day-to-day operations.

Mr Hayes said both parties need to maintain accountability and explained the practice demands a different mindset and style of working.

He added: “The biggest difference is now we have a bunch of people assuring the delivery of the service, as opposed to delivering everything themselves.”

Chief information officer at Severn Trent Myron Hryck acknowledged there is currently a significant amount of IT outsourcing taking place in the computing world.

Ben Birmingham, managing consultant at Quantum Plus, recently claimed support and managed services is becoming increasingly popular among small and medium-sized enterprises.

Source:http://www.codestone.net/news/story/increased-it-outsourcing-is-inevitable/800079129/