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Planning

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2007 Infosys Technologies Limited, Bangalore, India. Infosys believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date; such information is
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Planning Management Expectations 03

Planning Staff Role Expectations 07

Planning Application Sourcing Strategies 10

Planning BPO Sourcing Strategies 14

Planning Infrastructure Management 17


Sourcing Strategies

01
Planning

Executive Summary
Many global sourcing relationships must also recognize that
have been undermined by executives are usually busy and
executives holding unrealistic have limited time to learn about
expectations, like global sourcing outsourcing. Companies some-
can cut 60%-80% of domestic times bring in industry “experts”
labor costs, process improve- who may or may not understand
ments can be implemented in a
what can be achieved from global
few weeks, etc. Internal global
sourcing. Written material must
sourcing project managers must
always be available to answer
educate executives on the
subtleties of global sourcing, queries and test assumptions.
especially the effort required during Global sourcing must be managed
transition to the new sourcing as a “project” with short- and long-
reality. term performance goals. By
A successful education program agreeing on the metrics and target
should be based on the fact that results before signing a contract,
some people learn best by listening executives get the opportunity to
and others by reading, some from make informed strategic decisions
text and others from graphics. It and understand consequences.

02
Many companies have managers who engage
and deploy global sourcing within the
enterprise, only to have senior executives
Global-Sourcing-in-Action The materials used Assessment Checklist
with unrealistic expectations destroy the
credibility of the team and the project.
A publisher of financial analysis
wanted to understand and to educate and Have our competitors or other
companies with which we are familiar
(customers, suppliers, local firms)
communicate the real-world impact
Executive expectations are created
from many sources, ranging from
that offshore services could provide.
The CIO observed that executives
inform company demonstrated success in global
sourcing?
magazines to peer conversations. Project management practices include
Internally circulated project materials must
emphasize the expected results and the time,
were developing perspectives or
opinions about offshore services executives can be marketing and communication tasks
that are well received by executives.
based on incomplete information—
money and staff required for executives to
address expectation gaps at the beginning
either from conferences, from
published articles, or service provider
repurposed for Our executives have experience in
global markets through our customers
or direct suppliers.
of the discovery process. From initial
evaluation through implementation and
promises. Inevitably each of these
sources provided insight that only public consumption, Line-of-business and administrative
management have earlier been given
governance, executives must understand the partially applied to the company’s
project’s scope, drivers, and objectives.
Global sourcing initiatives that have failed to
situation. While the CIO intuitively felt
that offshore would provided little
should local political leeway to innovative solutions that
have transformed our business.
communicate the objectives of the strategy
properly and consistently invite backlash and
near-term benefit given the
company’s requirements, a feasibility
or social issues arise
unnecessary internal stress. study was conducted to assess its Project managers can benefit by creating a Common Mistakes
Management of internal expectations is portfolio of applications and a few of “straw man” strategy for internal circulation.
primarily about communications. Every its business services to quantify both The proposal must contrast different Assuming that a purely financial
individual in an organization has risks and opportunities. adoption approaches and include both positive business case is compelling to all
preconceived notions about the merits and negative market references. Since executives.
of global sourcing. Successful most executives have preconceived Failing to reinforce consistent
communication involves a continuous stream notions about global sourcing, it is messages about a global sourcing
of statements on goals, expectations,
objectives, and results. Applying a “rule of Every individual in important to anticipate and prepare
responses for a full range of reactions.
The material must address the wide range
strategy through a variety of media
and communications styles.
Ignoring objections from some
thumb” from the advertising business,
internal stakeholders need to “see”
consistent global sourcing messages 17 times an organization of concerns and justify focus on a single
course of action. A review cycle that gathers
executives on the basis that the
objections are founded on
unreasonable opinions that will change
to be “familiar” with the work. Project diverse opinions and intelligence on potential
leaders must not expect executives across
the enterprise to understand, endorse, or
has preconceived strategic conflicts is a critical part of this
process. Lasting support for a global sourcing
with time.
Remaining inflexible about a strategy,
blocking a pilot project or a small
support a specific global sourcing initiative strategy is best developed within executive
based on a presentation or an email. The
best marketing and communication plans
notions about the suites rather than be forcefully introduced.
Dissidence will always exist; complete
victory that can pave the way for a
more comprehensive global sourcing
solution.
include a series of metrics that measure the
“reach” as well as the comprehension of
messages. Often, gauges are used to gather
merits of global consensus is rarely achieved. Company
leadership must understand exceptions to
and anomalies in the global sourcing strategy.
Inflating management expectations
by touting only success stories to
support a forming global sourcing
opinion – positive and negative – on the
message. sourcing Information on the global sourcing strategy
must be redistributed widely as soon as the
strategy.

04 05
final decision is reached. The final strategy The important caveat for public information
must also document areas in which global about a global sourcing strategy is that
sourcing will not be used and the strategic released information must be consistent with
basis for the defined scope. The strategy the proprietary information on the strategy.
must include areas of focus, changes Executives must receive routine reports (at
required to current operations, risks least quarterly) that detail the status and
that will be mitigated by global impact of the global sourcing strategy and
sourcing, and new risks that will be relationship. Ongoing results help
introduced. The materials used to educate business units make decisions on
and inform company executives can be whether or not to broaden global
repurposed for public consumption, should sourcing services to other business units
local political or social issues arise. and technology areas.

Executive Summary
Staff transitions are inevitable in The management must ensure that
the context of a globally sourced the affected staff can see their
solution. Experience shows that the roles in the new solution clearly,
best transitions set staff whether the roles involve new
responsibilities or a change in
expectations early and provide risk employment accompanied by
mitigation strategies to buttress the retention bonus, severance
transition objectives. packages, and outplacement
services.
Ideally, the operations profile must
conform to a common process Marketing and communications are
model such as ITIL, COBIT, or the essential throughout the strategy
Capability Maturity Model (CMM). development and transition
processes. Consistent, truthful
Within the context of such a process messages about the company
model, specific roles for staff must strategy are important for ensuring
be defined for both transition and smooth employee relations and
steady-state operation. maintaining high morale.

06
News that management is considering global attributed with cost, time, skill, and other
sourcing will permeate the company quickly. Maintaining institutional diagnostic metrics.
Assessment Checklist
Some employees will express dismay or
frustration because they do not like surprises knowledge about the Maintaining institutional knowledge about the Does the company have a reputation
for handling employment actions fairly
that impact their livelihood and careers. In company’s architectures, processes, and
the absence of information, people naturally company’s architectures, best practices is a vital objective of planning
and compassionately?
Have prior innovative strategies
assume the worst – that they will lose their and transition. While establishing new
jobs. This will hinder current business processes, and best responsibilities, the management should take strengthened the company’s bottom
line and given it experience in managing
operations and endanger the sourcing a risk-adverse point-of-view to maintain key
strategy. Employees that remain can also practices is a vital objective personnel and develop succession plans.
business risks?
exhibit passive-aggressive behavior long after Maintaining sufficient human capital through Is institutional knowledge collected
any redeployment action, caused by the of planning and transition. the transition to steady-state operations is and codified into enterprise
architecture, including technical,
displacement of friends and associates. critical, and good communications make the business process, and information
Executives should anticipate this reaction difference between a controlled situation and architecture?
and be prepared with employee Global-Sourcing-in-Action a mass exodus of the best and brightest in
Are company executives willing to
communications, human resources the organization. When turnover risk is high,
A government organization considered invest in the transition stage to ensure
assistance, and public statements. executives may want to reconsider the global success?
Marketing and communications moving services offshore and was sourcing strategy.
programs must replace inaccurate considering strategic options. The CIO Does the company have proven
assumptions with consistent, useful, The future IT organizational structure resources, internal or external, to
chose to create a list of employees must detail the linkages among business manage marketing and
and honest information. Communication that would be retained and those to
plans include metrics to ascertain the reach strategy, IT strategy, structure of the communications effectively?
be deployed if the organization chose current business, and the IT
and acceptance of the global sourcing
strategy and transition. Different to outsource. This list was accidently infrastructure defined in the business
published, creating chaos. After three case. Within these confines, management Common Mistakes
communication goals are reasonable at
different points in time. Constituents will months of evaluation, selected can map future roles and responsibilities, Withholding too much information from
gradually understand the objectives and functions were chosen to be sent policies and procedures, and governance the employee base under the guise of
strategy, though not necessarily agree with offshore. Mismanagement had activities, including escalation procedures. trade secrets, confidentiality, or fear
it. As more details are revealed, greater Specific metrics should be mapped to the of public reprisal.
caused significant turnover, including
confidence in the economic value of global several positions that were difficult skills required to execute each process and Failing to inform mid-level managers of
sourcing will develop, especially among to replace because of the unique skills used to match the skill levels of the client’s the complete global sourcing strategy
supportive and previously undecided staff to the requirements of the defined before asking them to prepare for
constituents. sets they required. The organization staffing changes.
was forced to outsource functions roles for the transition and steady-state
Change brings opportunities. Advertising new environments. This can be used to optimize Not providing sufficient forums for
that were not strategically beneficial employees to discuss their concerns
staffing and role opportunities with the news the client and service provider organizations.
since it was unable to deliver the and interactively learn about the
of the changes will provide motivated It is important to provide consistent, clear,
employees with incentives to support the services internally. strategic justification for global
and honest messages about a global sourcing sourcing.
sourcing program. Working on a global
strategy from the moment the idea is taken
sourcing project provides excellent The transition from current state to global Using inadequate retention, severance,
experience and professional development seriously to minimize negative reaction in and outplacement strategies to
sourcing begins with the development and
opportunities in the global economy. Rather analysis of process models. Process employees. These messages will also help preserve institutional knowledge that
than giving the employees the trite definitions should be in plain language and face of social, economic, or political backlash. was not captured earlier.
option of leading, following, or getting use standard formats for goals, workflow, A key to overcoming bias is to make the
Assuming that the global sourcing
out of the way, companies should skills, staffing, roles, automation, best teams better acquainted. Sending employees provider has the best solution to manage
emphasize opportunities to develop practices, and metrics. To best support to offshore locations to meet the teams and staff expectations with little investment
skills that are in demand in the global process analysis and change, all models must experience the local culture is a significant or effort by the client organization.
market. use simple, clear language and be consistently step toward acceptance of new strategies.

06
08 09
Planning IT organizations are shifting offshore
non-legacy application support, Ensuring clear
including design and implementation of
packaged applications, remote
application management, and back-
transfer of control
office integration. As IT organizations
realign applications with business processes, for each project is
the growth in business process management
is driving derivative growth in supply chain
and customer relationship management.
essential as most
Moreover, application services are
segmenting into discrete markets for design,
projects fail due to
requirements gathering, development, and
testing. Segmentation is fostering new poor project
opportunities for IT organizations to
selectively outsource functions that augment management
Executive Summary internal projects without shifting entire
projects or teams offshore.
Global sourcing
Packaged application differs from
work is increasingly Global-Sourcing-in-Action
internally developed
using global sourcing for design and operated
and
services. Global
implementation. While 40%-50% of sourcing requires
the A large chemical company wanted
working
work is still done with the
on- or near-site, third-party
projects to evaluate which applications
Many companies only think about with business needs, develop and organizations that operate in
are being managed and delivered through would most benefit from offshore
applications when considering integrate technologies with other different cultural norms, and labor. The company categorized
global sourcing. Application enterprise applications, and companies that use offshore services. Global
often, at a different organizational its applications into portfolios or
development and maintenance is provide ongoing support for the sourcing is increasingly capable of providing
the core of offshore services, but level. All these complexities must groups of applications with
help desk, including level-three design, implementation, business process
clients vary in how they engage in be managed in ways consistent common support requirements. It
questions and root-cause analysis. expertise, and specialists in Java, ABAP, or
global sourcing. Companies with with business objectives. The focused on assumed benefits
.NET. This shift is reducing the average cost
little experience in global sourcing Companies with experience in relationship requires greater provided by offshore—the ability
of implementation by 20%-30%. IT
often begin by contracting for a global sourcing use a wide variety communication and a thorough to provide routine application
organizationsrequirements
are realizing thatdefinition.
global sourcing
The
specified number of FTEs. of services for application work, maintenance and off-hours quality
including consulting, business can not onlycomplexity
provide many of the resources
of communication,
Sometimes they take responsi- testing. Applications that aligned
bility for keeping FTE workloads expertise, and packaged and capabilities thatand
travel, domestic firms provide,
governance increases with these requirements were
full. application implementation. In but can alsowhenoptimize global resources and
the third party is in a distant considered as higher candidates for
addition to developing trusted reduce project costs
location. by average 30%.
As IT organizations become more using offshore. Applications that
familiar with global service relationships with global Global sourcing has become a solution to required closer alignment with
providers, clients become more While many companies still consider
providers, the relationship shifts augment various enterprise capabilities business objectives were consider
skilled at purchasing and optimizing global sourcing for cost savings,
towards projects. Providers often including front-office, back-office, supply less likely to benefit from offshore.
results from global sourcing. they are discovering unexpected
help design solutions that align chains, customer relationships, and The analysis guided decisions about
benefits such as innovation,
enterprise operations. Thispartnerships,
wide range of the scope of work and the skill sets
transformation, and
expertise is being adopted by IT organizations that vendors would need to provide.
that had been confined to technical silos even

11
when the business operated around them. support to legacy solutions, packaged
Leading firms now employ thousands applications, process reengineering, Assessment Checklist
of business process experts who can alignment with business objectives, and
extend application expertise to supply improved quality. IT organizations should Does the enterprise have a global
chains, customer relationship solutions, expect that increased vendor governance will sourcing strategy?
and business intelligence. be required to oversee continuous Does the company have a complete
Business units are increasingly turning to investment, monitor results, and ensure inventory of current and pending
alignment with business objectives. application projects?
global sourcing for business process
management. As businesses define process Do project managers have guidelines
for moving application services offshore?
models, they find discrete components that
can be delivered more cost-effectively
offshore. Since business process outsourcing
Business units Does the company have the ability
to segregate applications or processes
means many things to different companies,
examples range from customer support
are increasingly in an effective manner?
Are open communications integral to
centers to financial processing and lost
luggage tracking centers. Each of these turning to global the corporate information sharing activities?

examples has both direct and indirect


implications on internal operations, alignment
with partners, and customer support. This
sourcing for Common Mistakes
model of integrated, end-to-end solutions is
increasingly being architected and delivered
business process Using global sourcing as an “all or nothing”
by offshore resources.
Segmentation of application capa-
management. solution for individual projects rather than
realizing that most projects have pieces or
components that can leverage offshore
bilities creates significant new resources.
opportunities for IT organizations. Avoiding packaged application
Companies can use global sourcing to implementations or embracing emerging
augment internal project teams, selectively solutions because of traditional models.
leveraging global teams. For example, project
Assuming that service providers from
managers can use offshore teams to test offshore locations do not understand local
development work for the core team so that business problems rather than realizing that
the results are ready when the team arrives the world operates in a global market with
the following morning. Similarly, project widespread skills.
managers can outsource specialized skills Expecting service providers to instantly and
during a project. Companies can also send automatically resolve longstanding
specific monitoring or maintenance functions, operational problems such as tension
such as monitoring an application, offshore. between the IT organization and business
In such cases, the offshore team notifies units.
the onsite team of problems, just as trouble Rigidly separating technical and business
tickets are escalated. solutions when leading companies are
integrating capabilities and automating critical
Global sourcing offers varied and dynamic functions.
solutions for applications. Capabilities include

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Planning Clients approach BPO differently from other
global sourcing engagements. Most global
Global-Sourcing-in-Action
sourcing remains focused on information
technology (IT), while BPO is usually driven A major airline moved its travel
by the business units. Often, business teams support function offshore.
piloting initial BPO projects leverage the IT Searches for lost luggage, inquires
organization’s outsourcing experience and about frequent-flier mileage, and
program management skills to increase their similar functions were handled by
chance of success. Business teams must support teams in India. Each of
also invest in the added structure of defining these functions needed to be
and documenting both process and available on a 24/7 basis with no
organization flow. This is a precursor to holidays—the same dates that the
determining the pieces of business process airline flies. The airline’s research
that can leverage global resources and those found it was less expensive to train
that place inordinate risk on the company. and manage a service provider
team in India because most of the
Executives must also retrain internal teams
cost depended on labor working

Executive Summary
to operate with greater repeatability and
around the clock. The airline
consistency so that the advantages of global
considered placing teams in several
sourcing are not undermined by the
locations around the globe with a
inefficiencies of rework.
“follow the sun” model, but found
Despite significant growth in recent years, that the cost and quality concerns
global sourcing of BPO is only a fraction of of multiple locations outweighed
the IT work performed offshore. Business the benefit of avoiding graveyard
Global sourcing clients have been governed through global delivery executives can shorten the learning shifts for employees.
moving selected business process teams.
services offshore for some time. curve for global sourcing by leveraging
However, these are often Companies prepare for global experience residing in the IT
transactional in nature — discrete
operations that follow specific
sourcing of business operations by
documenting existing process
organization. While the IT services may
differ completely from the required BPO The types of processes
methodologies, dividing process services, the process of defining the scope
instructions. As clients gain
experience with successful IT and responsibilities into knowledge and of work, selecting potential providers, going offshore are also
business process outsourcing process roles, and considering evaluating capabilities, and even touring
(BPO) projects, their confidence is global sourcing capabilities for
select functions. Specific adoption
offshore locations are very similar.
Moreover, many providers deliver both IT
changing from discrete
growing. Companies are moving out
more critical business operations,
such as HR and finance. While only
and implementation strategies
must be based on operational and
and BPO, allowing the company’s existing
provider to deliver business services and
components to
financial evaluations that are
40% -50% of these functions can
be performed offshore, the complicated, not simply becoming
reduce the need for procurement and
evaluation. enterprise solutions.
projects are defined, managed, and aware of global BPO resources.
The first step in BPO is to define the business
process and the services to be moved changing business requirements. Effective
offshore. Many companies do not have global sourcing requires the process to
documented processes, and use informal be crisply defined so that handoffs and
methods that change and evolve with exchanges between internal and

15
provider teams operate with consistent
expectations and deliverables. Assessment Checklist
Neglecting this process flow will undermine
the benefits of global sourcing by forcing Does the business have
rework and interfering with communications. documentation about the business
While internal organizations can quickly adapt processes that are being considered
and “go with the flow,” service provider for global sourcing?
relationships that cross cultural and Has the company formally
international boundaries require better articulated the primary objective
structure to operate efficiently. driving it towards global sourcing?
Structured processes are an important reason Is the company experienced with
for global sourcing providers to operate international business and
effectively with junior staff who can learn operations?
and master pieces of a process and perform
consistently and precisely, even if they do
not understand the larger business operation.
Current internal employees are often just
the opposite: senior people with broad-based
experience. Moving such people into a
Common Mistakes
Expecting that service providers will
automatically reengineer business
Executive Summary
structured model often makes them feel
constrained. It is usually best to make such processes and introduce industry
people the end-to-end process managers best practices. Globally sourced infrastructure streamlining data center
rather than putting them into silos within Abdicating sourcing responsibility to services are gaining rapid attention operations, automating functions
the overall process model. the service provider rather than among IT organizations. While the whenever possible, creating
including it in the overall team capabilities have been expanding for accurate asset inventories,
The types of processes going offshore are several years, widespread market installing modern management
also changing from discrete components to objectives and goals.
acceptance is just beginning. CIOs tools, and creating data centers
enterprise solutions. For example, Constraining the provider into a niche are evaluating the costs of data with approximate “dim light”
companies are shifting from using process rather than listening to center and device management and facilities.
global delivery for level 1 of a customer thoughts and ideas that can impact realizing that staffing is the biggest Savings from relocating
support center to handling enterprise- overall business operations. remaining cost. infrastructure management
wide human resources. While only 40%- Assuming that a company Global sourcing of infrastructure typically range from 10%-45%
50% of an HRO function can be performed headquartered offshore lacks the is achieved by dividing current depending on the client’s
offshore, global sourcing companies can resources or capabilities to functions. Physical assets remain operations, standardization,
undertake the entire solution, leverage global understand American business at the location of origin, but the centralization, and related
resources when appropriate, and use onsite management tools, monitoring efficiencies. It is important to
models.
or near-site people and resources as needed. functions, and even logical database note that many Fortune 100
In this manner, companies are changing the Duplicating work and expertise for administration are performed companies are using captive units
way they think about global sourcing. Global global sourcing within the business offshore. to consolidate and centralize
units though it already exists within IT organizations prepare for global infrastructure management
resources are increasingly one piece of an
the IT organization. infrastructure sourcing by instead of global sourcing centers.
overall solution rather than a remote, low-
cost labor facility for discrete processes.

16
Infrastructure management is moving also have operation centers located within
offshore. Physical equipments (e.g., servers, the United States that can become fully Assessment Checklist
mainframes) and data are not relocated
Global-Sourcing-in-Action
operational within a few hours, if an Does the company operate with a
overseas; rather, global sourcing affects emergency arises.
A major financial institution created remote management structure even
technical operations staff functions
a mandate to drive a high While assets are usually not moved offshore, while sharing the building and being
(infrastructure labor). Functions include percentage of costs from its data near the physical data center?
some companies are relocating data centers
system monitoring, job scheduling, problem center operations. It evaluated to lower-cost locations. In some cases, Are various command-control
management, architecture, and database various options including relocation, assets are moved to less-populated areas of facilities using common tools and are
administration. Depending on the outsourcing, and consolidation. the United States, where the cost of real they able to monitor, track, and close
function, up to 60% of the operational Since labor was the highest cost estate can be 20%-30% less than in major trouble tickets using an integrated
staff can be placed in offshore component, the only way to achieve cities and where wage levels are also often system?
locations. Effective global infrastructure the desired savings was to lower. The core skills required to operate Does the company require 7x24
management depends on processes and maintain ownership of the data data centers are commonly available in nearly support that was previously
communications, usually aligned with ITIL centers within the company and all communities across the United States. In unaffordable?
standards. As with any service delivered outsource the labor or other cases, servers are consolidated into
globally, best practices in this model differ management and administration Is the IT organization increasingly
managed centers, usually operated by leveraging automation as a solution
from those of internally managed operations. offshore. It created “lights out”
outsourcing providers. Centralized facilities to replace growth of the operations
Global sourcing is enabled largely by data centers and moved the
often encourage standardization of tools and staff?
automation. Software tools have made remaining operations to a provider
configurations to reduce operating costs.
most data centers “dim light” environments in India. While the company
Shared data centers also exist in various
where manual intervention is required only achieved the desired costs savings
from data center operations, it
forms, ranging from rented raised floors in Common Mistakes
periodically. Servers, storage, networks, and co-location facilities to completely
even physical facilities can be monitored and found that costs increased in other Assuming that systems are too
outsourced data centers, including assets.
usually managed remotely. The ability to organizations, especially in security. complex for automation or remote
Cost savings from global sourcing range management and insisting on a high-
relocate operational functions offshore has
from 10%-40% during the first year, touch approach to data center
been enabled by a significant increase in
network bandwidth and reliability of global
networks through both the Atlantic and
Software tools mostly from labor arbitrage. Highly
standardized, efficiently run clients realize
operations.
Creating captive units to manage
Pacific routes. Global sourcing separates
duties into discrete functions which often
have made most less savings that those migrating from a
relatively inefficient internal operation.
remote operations, but developing a
center that is too small to provide
Depending on the data center configuration,
align along tool functionality.
Global providers originally monitored assets
data centers “dim clients may have migration or investment
costs in the first year that offset projected
sufficient economies of scale.
Resisting division of responsibilities
from 24x7 command centers located
offshore. While early operational models
light” environments savings. into process models that allow some
functions to be performed offsite or
usually worked from a single site in India,
current models include facilities in multiple
where manual While offshore infrastructure operations may
now be a new concept for many companies,
offshore.
Insisting on service levels that are
cities and often from different countries that
share common tools and “follow the sun”
intervention is they will become a standard operating model
over the next few years. In addition to too costly and/or levels of data
redundancy that exceed the business
operationally. Time zone differences are also
leveraged to provide better off-hours
required only outsourcing services, Fortune 100
companies are consolidating “command- requirements.
control centers” around the globe, with
coverage (e.g., middle of the night support
for job scheduling and monitoring). Providers
periodically. facilities in Malaysia, Thailand, and Eastern

18 19
Europe. IT organizations can prepare for Adopting process frameworks such as ITIL
consolidation by standardizing tools can provide increased structure that makes
and streamlining operations, including future consolidation or relocation less
managing different centers with traumatic for the organization.
common toolsets.

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