Trends in international outsourcingtrends in internationale outsourcing Trends in international outsourcing Trends in international outsourcing

The past few years international outsourcing has come to play an increasingly large part within the IT industry. Mainly large companies like KPN and Sogeti regularly decide to relocate projects offshore, especially to India. For example, KPN announced two weeks ago that 450 Getronics jobs will be moved to India. Sogeti’s vision is that in 7 to 9 years one in three people from India offers their services to Dutch clients (right now this is barely 6 percent). In years to come international outsourcing will become more normal and will take place on a larger scale.

This development calls for adjustments in the behavior of Dutch IT employees and managers.

De afgelopen jaren is internationale outsourcing een steeds grotere rol gaan spelen binnen de IT industrie. Met name grote bedrijven zoals KPN en Sogeti nemen regelmatig besluiten om meer werk te verplaatsen naar het buitenland, vooral naar India. Zo kondigde KPN twee weken geleden aan dat er 450 Getronics banen naar India verplaatst worden. Sogeti heeft als visie dat over 7 tot 9 jaar een op de drie medewerkers uit India zijn diensten verleent aan Nederlandse klanten (nu is dit nog geen 6%). De komende jaren zal internationale outsourcing steeds gewoner worden en op grotere schaal plaatsvinden. 

Deze ontwikkeling vraagt om aanpassingen in het gedrag van Nederlandse ITers en managers.

The past few years international outsourcing has come to play an increasingly large part within the IT industry. Mainly large companies like KPN and Sogeti regularly decide to relocate projects offshore, especially to India. For example, KPN announced two weeks ago that 450 Getronics jobs will be moved to India. Sogeti’s vision is that in 7 to 9 years one in three people from India offers their services to Dutch clients (right now this is barely 6 percent). In years to come international outsourcing will become more normal and will take place on a larger scale.

This development calls for adjustments in the behavior of Dutch IT employees and managers.

The past few years international outsourcing has come to play an increasingly large part within the IT industry. Mainly large companies like KPN and Sogeti regularly decide to relocate projects offshore, especially to India. For example, KPN announced two weeks ago that 450 Getronics jobs will be moved to India. Sogeti’s vision is that in 7 to 9 years one in three people from India offers their services to Dutch clients (right now this is barely 6 percent). In years to come international outsourcing will become more normal and will take place on a larger scale.

This development calls for adjustments in the behavior of Dutch IT employees and managers.One of the most important points is the mindset with regard to foreign employees. The outcome of international outsourcing depends mostly on the willingness of Dutch IT employees to work with people who are far away. A few weeks ago I spoke to a manager at Accenture who has worked with people from India for years. He sees them as his colleagues, he knows many personal things about them, he often travels to Bangalore to meet them and spend some quality time with them and he uses video conferencing all day long. By seeing offshore people as your colleagues and making them part of your team, more can be achieved.

Another important point is the development of project managers, one of the key positions to making international outsourcing run smoothly. Managers who have experience with managing people in Eastern Europe or India know what to keep in mind. Right now there are few IT people who have this experience. Learning tools and best practices will increase the success rate and career of an international project manager.

The role of consultants will also change. A few months ago I spoke to someone who works at Deloitte and manages an office in Hyderabad. He told me that every month thousands of people are hired in India. The role these people fulfill varies from administrative to high level consultant. People are flown in for projects regularly as well, especially to the United States but also increasingly to The Netherlands. The more normal it will be for people in The Netherlands to work with international consultants, the more their numbers will increase. For Dutch consultants this will mean that they can specialize in areas that have a strong connection with the location, language or culture. In other words; they will specialize in positions that are hard to fill for foreigners.

In the future it will not matter where colleagues are located or what their nationality is. Technology and ‘adjustment’ will make this possible at a large scale. The objective is to find the right person for the right position. Companies will make more use of global staffing, whereby they will set up their own offices with their own talented people. They will also make use their partner’s facilities or they will (temporarily) bring people to The Netherlands.

If you are interested to learn more about global IT staffing, Hugo recommends you to visit www.bridge-global.com