Outsourcing has existed for many years; first in transportation industry, then manufacturing industry and now in IT. People often mix it with offshoring as it has become synonym.
We all know what happened to large steel plants when they were attached by mini mills. Initially, large steel plants let mini mills have free field in low end products which offered very low margins and as these mini mills upgraded their technology and product offerings, large steel plants could not comepete them.
We experienced similar thing in IT too. Large players- IBM, Cap Gemini, EDS initially let offshoring companies play in low end (considered by big guys) technology and in production support and maintenance, lower end of value chain. As these offshoring companies upgraded their skill set and service offering, they started to compete with large players in big projects- ERP implementations, application development, re-engineering/migration areas, earlier considered dominant field by large players. Now, large players have started to follow strategy of offshring companes by setting up offices in India and other countries. I am sure they did not want to be caught offguard and become "large" steel plants of IT business.
For every wave, from large or mini computers to micro computers, or pure onshore players to offshore players, there is always some undercurrent that disturbs the whole business game plan.
I am wondering if there is anyone out there who knows what is next to offshoring, interms of disruptive technology? What can we expect that will change the current business game plan and current that we all are experiencing?
