Nitin Karandikar raises some interesting points about IT outsourcing and the increasing complexity of the outsourcing value chain. He references an Information Week article: The Second Decade Of Offshore Outsourcing: Where We’re Headed that looks at the changing relationship between enterprise customers and offshore IT providers; how the outside providers are evolving into longer-term strategic partners rather than cheap labor body-shops. Nitin goes into much more detail and I recommend looking at his post.
This trend raises some interesting questions. If the outside partners become more strategic, will they become tied to one enterprise so the chain becomes simply an extension of the enterprise for accounting purposes? If not, how can you really be strategic for multiple enterprises, especially if they are in the same market?
