Is Off-Shore Outsourcing A "Bane" Or A "Boon"?

ticle in CIOInsight,India, that this type of Virtual Consulting is not
Quoted some interesting survey results fromonly viable, but beneficial?
companies that have gone offshore."Of thoseGranted I have also seen and heard of companies
companies that have gone offshore, 88 percentof all sizes and (supposed) levels of maturity (SEI
said they had gotten better "value for theCMM) fail when trying to outsource projects. But,
money" with U.S. firms. That isn't too surprising.IMHO, the cases I have heard about appear to be
What is surprising, and what has to be worryingattributed to a lack of understanding of how to
U.S. IT services firms, are some other results ofplan and/or manage these types of outsources /
the survey: - 71 percent said the "quality of thevirtual / remote projects.
deliverable" was better than U.S. firms provided,What have you heard about the success and/or
and - 67 percent said "on-time delivery" wasfailures of companies to successfully outsource
better. In other words, India's IT services firmsprojects? and why did they succeed or fail?
are outperforming their U.S. counterparts in threeWhat do you see as the Risks, Issues,
key areas: they're producing better products andOpportunities, and/or Rewards of off-shore
services; they're doing it faster; and they'reoutsourcing relative to Virtual Consulting?
charging less. That's good news for CIOs, but badHow might we turn this ongoing trend to our
news for U.S. firms." - I know that there has beenmutual benefit?
and continues to be "heated" discussions andAgain, IMHO, I actually see this trend of off-shore
debates about off-shore outsourcing in manyoutsourcing as an opportunity for Virtual
forums.Consultants / Consulting.
Is off-shore outsourcing a "bane" or a "boon" forJust think, if companies believe that you can
Virtual Consulting?design, manage, test, etc. a product / project
IMHO, the fact that at least some of thesebeing developed remotely and possibly off-shore,
companies are able to successfully employthan why can't you also perform your consulting,
off-shore resources to produce quality products indesign, management, testing, etc. tasks remotely
an cost effective and timely manner, is proof thavirtually relative to the physical location(s) of the
Virtual Consulting really works!company?
Wouldn't you agree?Further, doesn't this lead us in the direction where
In other related articles, they specifically note thatthe objectives are to use the best, highest
India is experiencing a boom due to ITquality, most cost effective and time efficient
outsourcing:resources for a task / project no matter where
Ref: "Growing trend toward IT outsourcing is ain the world they are performing the work?
boon for India By Scott Leith The AtlantaDoesn't this tell us that we are starting to really
Journal-Constitution Sunday, May 4, 2003"deal in a true "Global Economy"? And isn't this
Don't you think that as companies see that theywhat Virtual Consulting is all about?
are able to allow work to be performed remotelyYou tell me?!
/ virtually, even half way around the world in