NDLI: A US Client’s learning from outsourcing IT work offshore

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Rottman, Joseph W. Lacity, Mary C.
Copyright Year	2007
Abstract	Based on 45 interviews and significant documentation, we explore the offshore outsourcing experiences of a US-based biotechnology company. This company offshore outsourced 21 IT projects to six suppliers in India. Senior managers and the official documents from the Program Management Office consistently reported that offshore outsourcing was successful in reducing the company’s IT costs. But interviews with knowledgeable participants actually managing the projects suggest that many projects were not successful in meeting cost, quality, and productivity objectives. We found evidence that this company’s offshore strategy to simply replace domestic contractors with cheaper, offshore suppliers was a poor fit with its social and cultural contexts. Specifically, we found that strong social networks between the company’s internal IT employees and domestic contractors were not easily replicated with offshore suppliers. Furthermore, the internal project management processes were often incompatible with offshore suppliers’ processes. This paper also analyzes seven project characteristics that differentiate highly-rated projects from poorly-rated projects. These project characteristics are type of IT work, size of supplier firm, location of supplier employees (onsite/offshore), dollar value of the contract, duration of the project, timing of the project, and client unit managing the project. The paper concludes with four overall insights for clients and suppliers.
Starting Page	259
Ending Page	275
Page Count	17
File Format	PDF
ISSN	13873326
Journal	Information Systems Frontiers
Volume Number	10
Issue Number	2
e-ISSN	15729419
Language	English
Publisher	Springer US
Publisher Date	2008-01-15
Publisher Place	Boston
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Outsourcing IT Offshore Operations Research/Decision Theory Systems Theory, Control Management of Computing and Information Systems Business Information Systems
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Theoretical Computer Science Computer Networks and Communications Information Systems Software

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

Analyzing IT maintenance outsourcing decision from a knowledge management perspective

Firm strategic profile and IT outsourcing

Knowledge transfer planning and execution in offshore outsourcing: An applied approach

Effective information technology (IT) governance mechanisms: An IT outsourcing perspective

Decision-making in cloud computing environments: A cost and risk based approach

Understanding the outsourcing learning curve: A longitudinal analysis of a large Australian company

The impact of process standardization on business process outsourcing success

The impact of cultural differences in offshore outsourcing—Case study results from German–Indian application development projects

Determinants of relationship quality for IS/IT outsourcing success in public sector

A US Client’s learning from outsourcing IT work offshore

Similar Documents

Analyzing IT maintenance outsourcing decision from a knowledge management perspective

Firm strategic profile and IT outsourcing

Knowledge transfer planning and execution in offshore outsourcing: An applied approach

Effective information technology (IT) governance mechanisms: An IT outsourcing perspective

Decision-making in cloud computing environments: A cost and risk based approach

Understanding the outsourcing learning curve: A longitudinal analysis of a large Australian company

The impact of process standardization on business process outsourcing success

The impact of cultural differences in offshore outsourcing—Case study results from German–Indian application development projects

Determinants of relationship quality for IS/IT outsourcing success in public sector

A US Client’s learning from outsourcing IT work offshore