IT
Outsourcing Trend Saves Dying Companies
Outsourcing has become a common phenomenon in the IT world. With
the power of high-speed telecommunications, it is
now possible to access skills for almost everything, from answering
the telephone to developing computer systems, at a fraction of the
cost.
In “The Use of Outsourcing as a Business Strategy: A
Case Study
”, an article from the most recent issue
of the Journal of Information Technology
Research
(Editor-in-Chief: Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, Information Resources Management Association, USA) researcher Ram D.
Misra, Montclair State University (USA) believes that
today’s global business environment has put companies under pressure to
have competitive advantage in cost-efficient ways such as operational excellence through
outsourcing.
“In this age of
lean production (just-in-time), companies are forced to become lean in
keeping their internal resources, both capital as well as human resources,” writes Misra.
“This has forced companies to look outside
to get access (often temporary) to resources of other companies.
They are looking for outsourcing arrangements, collaborations, and partnerships with other
companies.”
Often companies who are fighting for
survival must focus, in a short term, on operational goals
such as lower costs, as well as be strategic. Misra believes
that a company ought to outsource what it cannot do well or
what it can do at a cheaper cost in order to bring new, more
profitable business.
(Portions of this article were taken from
the Journal of Information Technology
Research.
)
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