As we've worked with and are in touch with several outsourcing companies, this weeks article by Norhternlight had me interested.

There's no denying it that it can be a painful process to outsource a whole department for example though people have always stressed the long-term cost benefits. This story takes a twist in that instead of underlying the savings it stresses the improved time-to-market. Knowing how fast teams can be assembled in countries such as Vietnam or India with highly skilled people I can only agree. In fact, for our product transLucid we are looking at using an outsourcing supplier to continue its development because 1) lower costs and 2) the availability of skilled workers.

Here's the article. I hope that I am not infringing on any copyrights of Northernlight here. I can only recommend to try out their business research solution. Personally, I unsubscribed for different reasons (mostly due to a lack of a need for market research material) but somehow stayed on their mailinglist.

-----------------------------------------------------
General Motors' recent decision to outsource roughly $15 billion worth of IT contracts over the next several years may seem to be just one of many such transactions going on in the outsourcing arena; and it is. But more than being just another example of the current state of the market, it is an indicator of the new direction it may be taking. One interesting thing about GM's move to outsource is the rationale behind it; it wasn't only money. For various reasons, saving money through outsourcing is not the easy win it used to be; this is ok with many companies as they now look to outsourcers to fulfill different needs. According to GM Chief Information Officer Ralph Szygenda, GM's outsourcing move, "Lets GM focus on innovation rather than spending a lot of time on managing its suppliers." GM is not the only company to realize that initial savings may not be the best primary driver when considering outsourcing.