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| A LITTLE OF HISTORY |
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The first documented contract of
offshore outsourcing was in 1974, between the American company Burroughs
and the Indian company Tata Consulting Services (TCS). In this contract TCS
developed software
in exchange for hardware. The results were positive, so much that in 1978
a dedicated joint-venture, Tata Burroughs Ltd., was set up. Offshore outsourcing grew rapidly in the '80s, but it remained a synonymous of software development. It was only at the beginning of the '90s that the idea that the techniques invented for offshore software development could be used for a wide range of clerical activities started to take hold. The first offshore outsourcing case outside software development is widely thought to be the center for backoffice activities of GE Capital, a financial services multinational, carried out in India in 1993. The early cases were, in the first half of '90s, proprietary facilities for multinational companies. These were dedicated to captive (i.e. for the parent company only) backoffice activities. From the second half of the '90s these facilities were matched by autonomous companies, often started by expatriates from the "supplying country" (mainly, but not only, India) who had settled in the "consumer country" (mainly US and UK). Such facilities were offering services to any customer on the free market. Another important evolution of that period was the extension of offering to frontoffice services (for instance, call centers) -something that required a higher degree of sophistication and therefore enhancement of the processes. Both types of structure live and grow today. The new ventures are multiplying and new players, also quite known and respected, are entering the scene. |
Choosing Globalisation I How To Contact Us