IT Outsourcing - Eco impact?
Sunday Dec 02, 2007
At the and of last week, I attended Forrester Research's Services & Sourcing Forum in Nice (thanks, Boss!). It was really interesting to see research and real examples of how IT sourcing has evolved, so that the Selective Sourcing / Multi-Sourcing approach that we (Sun UK) started promoting a few years back is now more common, and (I would say) seen as best practice. Also, how far we have moved from the "your mess for less" mega-deals. However, some of the presenters from banks and the like were still talking about services on a huge scale.
I will write up more at a later time.
I'm still concerned about some of the ethics of offshoring. Much emphasis was made of how simply offshoring ("Global Sourcing" is the euphemism) for lower costs is not a good strategy. But, nonetheless, labour rates in India are lower than, say the U.S. So is it exploitation?
And when you take it beyond IT to industry & commerce as a whole, it seems to me that much offshoring also succeeds in outsourcing a company's carbon footprint; and thereby they can feel it is no longer their problem. Or maybe I'm too cynical.
On a related note, on the flight back (yes, I flew - mea culpa) I read a 2 page ad by the Prince of Wales's Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change, with a letter to the world leaders meeting in Bali, to exhort them to DO SOMETHING about climate change. I was delighted to see Sun as one of the companies supporting this.
I went on to read the Prince of Wales's own article - Bali offers a vital chance to change the world - and was amused by the footer to the article, which is usually along the lines of "the writer is the Chairman of XYZ Megacorp and advisor to the Committee on Money Laundering". This one just simply says "The writer is heir to the British throne"
OK- 'nuff said!
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