Organization & transformation

Outsourcing: the next generation

The outsourcing market is on the verge of experiencing a massive transformation. The legion of Indian service providers will be sidelined or absorbed and companies that pioneered this corner of the high tech industry will suffer similar fates if they don't wake up. Who will emerge as the new leaders? Google and Amazon.com, brands that we associate with search and retail, will become better known for outsourcing.

Ludicrous? Not if you follow this industry. Desktop computers yielded to laptops. And now Web portals are giving way to social media sites. Software once distributed by disk is now available as apps over the Web — often for less than the cost of a slice of pizza. The same Darwinian process is creating a fresh ecosystem in outsourcing, one that will usher in an era of consolidation and a new way of working with clients.

Arjun Sethi and Olivier Aries comment on this new model of outsourcing that they see evolving and explain what it means for today’s players. Read their commentary:

The End of Outsourcing (As We Know It)
10 August 2010 — Bloomberg Businessweek
[Read Article]

Media highlights

Customization Is Out, as CIOs Seek Standardized Outsourcing Solutions
8 September 2010 — SearchCIO.com
Arjun Sethi, head of the outsourcing practice at global management consulting firm A.T. Kearney, describes in an interview the momentum building behind a shift in outsourcing projects away from custom work and head-count labor to standardized, vertically-integrated outsourcing solutions.

Outsourcing Ready to Vanish in the Cloud?
12 August 2010 — Fast Company Expert Blogger Rob Salkowitz
Arjun Sethi, partner and head of the outsourcing practice at A.T. Kearney, believes that the rise of cloud computing and the move from on-premise to hosted IT services in the mainstream enterprise will render the majority of the current outsourced IT workload extinct. This means that parts of the world that have just become accustomed to the income potential of the outsourcing industry will have to become unaccustomed in a hurry.

The End of IT Outsourcing As We Know It
11 August 2010 — CIO
CIO.com talks to Arjun Sethi about his bold predictions for the IT outsourcing industry. Sethi says, “We foresee a new model wherein outsourcers will provide standardized software solutions on a per-use basis. For that, they will combine and leverage BPO services with cloud-based technology.”