Outsourcing IT Activities

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how outsourcing and off-shoring are vital to achieve organizational efficiency in the IT industry. The paper also shows, however, that great care must be taken in determining which business IT functions to shift outside the company. Case studies of the Southwest and Dell companies are provided to illustrate these points. The paper recommends that a value chain analysis be undertaken to determine which IT functions are key revenue drivers that should never be outsourced.

Outline:
Executive Summary
Introduction
Globalization
Case Studies
Future Trends
Conclusions & Recommendations

From the Paper:

"To be considered globally integrated and, in fact, to adopt globalization as an operational paradigm, one of the greatest necessities is infrastructure; both technological and physical. Many countries, in a drive to join the global economy and take advantage of the benefits globalization offers, are in a mad rush to develop, for as researchers have noted, technology networks have been one of the most heavily invested in areas of commerce over the last twenty years and this investment is increasing rather than decreasing (Brynjolfsson & Urban, 2001, pp.14-21). Countries and companies know that to join the world's economy they must first have the technology channels in place to handle the communication and transaction workload of international commerce, and must then have the physical infrastructure in place to handle transportation and logistics of goods and services through a supply chain channel. Such extensive global investment in technology has allowed companies to actually move back office functions as well as core business functions to remote locations with minimal impact on operational integrity."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Bounfour, A. (2003). The Management of Intangibles: The Organisation's Most Valuable Assets. London: Routledge.
• Brynjolfsson, E. & Urban, G. L. (Eds.). (2001). Strategies for E-Business Success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
• The Economics of Outsourcing. (2004, March 12). The Washington Times, p. A22.
• Edwards, L. (2004). Overseas call centers can cost firms goodwill. Marketing News, 38/7, p.21.
• Gainey, T. (2002). Outsourcing the Training Function: Results from the Field. Human Resource Planning 25.1,p.16+.

More papers on Outsourcing IT Activities:

• Research Proposal # 129763 : "Outsourcing IT Related Activities"
• Business Plan # 58634 : "Outsourcing"
• Analytical Essay # 130150 : "Outsourcing and Offshoring"

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