Is IT becoming just another supplier relationship? According to a story in today's Wall Street Journal - Competitive Approach Taken to Outsourcing, that seems to be what is happening:
The shift marked one element in a broader transformation in the IT-services industry: Rather than simply handing over the keys to the tech department to one provider, businesses are increasingly signing shorter outsourcing deals with multiple firms that have employees around the globe. Often, they hire multiple firms to work on the same project.
Years ago, the business mantra was get close to your suppliers. Then came the "china price" -- low cost sources from China in manufactured goods and India in IT services. Companies got close enough to their suppliers to say "match the price or I am out of here." IT did the same, but still in the traditional way of large multi-year contracts. That appears to be changing. Is the result making IT services just another commodity (as Nicholas Carr argued a few years ago)?
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