My Mother always told me that cheaper is not a statement about price but rather a comment about quality. In the outsourcing world, cheaper has always been measured as lower unit rates, whether for application developers (dollars per FTE) or computing power (dollars per box or CPU minute) or for…
As the global economy shifts, the global market for offshoring services continues to expand. Countries that would previously never have been considered are now proving to be tempting destinations for outsourcing services. As we reported in this blog, forthcoming tax changes may affect the pricing available from the established Indian…
Cloud computing is getting a lot of traction in a time of shrinking budgets. Industry experts speaking at NASSCOM 2011 are expecting cloud based services to be roughly a quarter of the outsourcing industry over the next two years. So the business team is ready to move everything to the…
Two recent events serve to highlight the importance of proper due diligence and appropriate contractual protections when dealing with cloud-based and other hosted service providers: A recent white paper from Context Information Security details the results of a study they performed on several cloud service providers that identified numerous vulnerabilities…
“What does that mean?” may be one of the most common questions a lawyer asks when working on the early stages of a sourcing deal. Sometimes it’s because the client is using company-specific or industry-specific jargon the lawyer hasn’t heard before. But more often it’s because the lawyer is trying…
Following unprecedented back-and-forth with representatives from various governments, the ICANN board announced its plan to approve the new generic Top-Level Domain (gTLD) program at a special session to be held on June 20, 2011, at the ICANN meeting in Singapore. The approval of the gTLD program and the associated Guidebook…
Beginning later this year, ICANN is expected to accept applications for new generic domain suffixes for industries, interests and communities, such as “.bank,” “.movie” or “.music.” In addition to the generic terms, this round also includes the potential for various geographic tags that are not country codes (e.g., “.nyc” or…
If you have an Indian supplier supporting your business, chances are that your supplier is taking advantage of the STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) and SEZ (Special Economic Zones) schemes. These provide certain tax incentives to qualified companies–effectively lowering their cost of doing business and allowing more competitive pricing.…
In a speech on economic development in January this year, UK Prime Minister David Cameron addressed the need to develop businesses in sectors that will be key to the UK’s economic future. The government’s plans to foster development include direct changes to government procurement practices to foster contract awards to…
After more than 20 years of modern outsourcing, articles and studies still proclaim a failure rate ranging from 25 – 50%. Skeptical? Just talk to a sampling of those who have reasonable experience at managing an IT outsourcing relationship, or just do a little online searching. It’s no secret that…