Offshorting discussion with MIT Sloan Students of Professor Jeanne Ross, Center for Information Systems Research, April 2010. Presenters were Neeraj Wadhera (Fidelity Investments) and Katrina Pugh (AlignConsulting, formerly Fidelity Investments). Emphasis was on how to effectively manage the offshoring relationshps like a virtual team.

1. “IT Offshoring with Intention”
Neeraj Wadhera, Fidelity Investments
Kate Pugh, AlignConsulting, Sloan SM/MBA „96
Professor Jeanne Ross,
Center for Information Systems Research
April 6, 2010
1IT Offshoring with Intention

2. Agenda
• Introductions
• What does IT Offshoring Take, in Your View?
• “IT Offshoring with Intention” Practices
• Discussion
2IT Offshoring with Intention
(See IT Offshoring with Intention details in the Appendix)

3. Introductions and Context
Kate Pugh (SM/MBA „96)
• Former VP, KM for
Fidelity PWI
• Consulted in 1999 to
Mahindra British Telecom
• Offshored Finance Portal
to Mumbai with JPMC
• Neeraj‟s IT client
• Neeraj‟s KM / Change
Mgt. provider
• Consult in Strategy, KM,
Change Mgt
Neeraj Wadhera
• Fidelity Technology
• Founding member of
FMR India IT (Fidelity‟s
captive org. in India)
• Built and led IT delivery
teams (400 people)
• Built and led 2nd site
(Chennai)
• Intro‟d Change mgt
practices with
consolidation of sites.
3IT Offshoring with Intention

4. Outsourcing is here to stay!
• Outsourcing/offshoring is here to stay.
2006 – 246B
2007 – 297B
2008 – 326B
2009 – 373B (14.4% increase)
2010 (projected) - 412 (all figures in USD billion)
• Out of total $1.6T 2009 Worldwide IT spend, 23% is outsourcing/
offshoring.
• Outsourcing/offshoring to India alone forecast 2010 is $48B.
• Of this, offshoring in India will b $7-$10B (Captive, as opposed to 3rd
party)
• Organizations have learned to move work
offshore and save costs…
4IT Offshoring with Intention
*Source XMG Global, a leading ICT research and advisory firm
This is one of the few global
IT industry categories seeing
growth in 2009, while the
rest fell.

5. The Challenge is to “Maximize the value”
“Traditional”
• Task-based
• Round-the-clock
• Cost-Effective
• “Flexible Capacity”
“Value-Maximizing”
• Greater control /
reduced risk
• Innovation
• More complex
functions
connected to
customer/product
5IT Offshoring with Intention
How do you achieve it?

6. “IT Offshoring with Intention” Practices
1.Effective Leadership
2.Effective management
3.Capability building
6IT Offshoring with Intention

7. Effective Leadership
• Sharing the Big
Picture
• Leading as “Farming”
– Tomato vs. Corn
7IT Offshoring with Intention

8. Effective management
• Adopting a
“Program” Lens
• Infusing Meetings
with “Conversation”
• Leveraging
Workforce Diversity
– Cognitive vs. Motivational
8IT Offshoring with Intention

9. Capability building
• Intentional
• Teaching SMEs to
Teach
• Publishing and
transferring
knowledge
9IT Offshoring with Intention

10. We weren‟t in the McKinsey‟s study, but…
Category
“Offshoring with Intention“
Practices
McKinsey Global Offshoring and Outsourcing
Dimensions
Integration,
including visits
Fulfilling work for
Offshore Team
Build Expertise
Explicitly
Effective
Leadership
1. Sharing the Big Picture X X
2. Leading as Farming X
Effective
Management
3. Adopting a “Program” Lens X X
4. Infusing Meetings with
“Conversation”
X
5. Leveraging Workforce Diversity X X
Capacity
Building
6. Teaching SMEs to Teach X X
7. Publishing and transferring
knowledge
X
10IT Offshoring with Intention
Virtual teaming practices improve:
• Attrition
• Offshore effective rates
• Onshore customer satisfaction
Source: 2008-9 McKinsey Survey of Global Offshoring and Outsourcing Industry

11. Discussion
11IT Offshoring with Intention

12. Appendix
IT Offshoring with Intention 12

13. 1. Sharing the Big Picture
• Sets direction
– Share the broad vision of the program (“clarity of vision”), including
challenges and opportunities
– Ensures that the global team has a clear understanding of team objectives
(Near term and long term)
• Shares the strategy for working with offshore team(s), including outsourcers
– Intended value proposition
• Demonstrates the significance of the specific work being done offshore
– How is this work valuable to company‟s objectives
• Big Picture as “professional context”
– Performance compared to outsourcers (common metrics)
• Result:
– Shared sense of urgency
– Accelerates professional development, proactivity, innovation
– Enhances employee engagement
13IT Offshoring with Intention

14. 2. Leading as Farming
• Tomato Farmers
– Hands on managing
– Mentoring cum
managing
– Manager models,
acculturates
– Task mastery
– Team-member
development
• Corn farmers
– Hands off managing
– Mentoring separate from
managing
– Engagement in strategy
– Improvisation
14IT Offshoring with Intention
Should correspond to topic, not geography (for both US and India managers
“Leaving the comfort zones”)

15. 3. Adopting a “Program” Lens
• Visual image of related projects
– interdependencies within, across operations, other functions,
customer buying processes
– Identify and mitigate shared risks
• Broad understanding of the program / product / function
– Customer objective (criticality, usage, priorites)
– System objective (capacity, feature impacts, queue prioritization,
standards)
– Workstream shared milestones & interdependencies
• Daily interactions about deliverables and cross-impacts
– Example: DAT Reviews
• Result:
– Know impact of actions on other workstreams
– Proactivity, creativity
15IT Offshoring with Intention

16. 4. Infusing Meetings with “Conversation”
• Leveraging conversation/ facilitation skills
– Sense-Making; Joint interpretations
• Regular “pause”
– Scheduled part of meetings
– In person/virtual (travel needed)
– Synchronous/Asynchronous
– Climate for risk-taking, participation
• Result
– Improved understanding
– Team confidence
– Team belongingness
– Effective networks
16IT Offshoring with Intention

17. 5. Leveraging Workforce Diversity
• Cognitive Diversity
– Tech & Cust Expertise
– Conceptual models
– Networks
– Comms/Learning
• Motivational Diversity
– Incentive response
– “Triggers” and
interests
– Capacity/endurance
17IT Offshoring with Intention
• Result:
• Better sense-making , innovation (from convention into creativity)
• Balance of over-exuberance with sobriety
• Greater interchangeability of resources
“Collections of people with diverse perspectives and heuristics outperform
collections of people who rely on homogeneous perspectives and heuristics.”
Scott Page, The Difference (2007)

18. 6. Teaching SMEs to Teach
• Capability building as management priority
– Shadowing, mentoring
– Job rotations into US by Hi-Pos
– “Teaching” in SME‟s Devel. plan, responsibilities
• Reflection / Storytelling, Documentation, Extrapolation,
Proactivity, Domain expertise
– Indian engagement leader in US
• Access to SMEs
• Translation (helped SMEs parse questions)
• Result:
– Greater capacity
– Engaged and motivated SMEs
18IT Offshoring with Intention

19. 7. Publishing and Transferring Knowledge
• Having KM disciplines/
consistency
– Content
• About the project
(Go-to for information about
workstreams, queues, clients)
• About the team
– KM Processes
• Tacit knowledge processes (e.g., Communities of practice, knowledge-
jams/elicitations)
• Collaboration using social media
• Result of easy access to knowledge
– Greater efficiency (reusing knowledge), greater consistency
19IT Offshoring with Intention

20. Deep Dive: Conversation
20
Interact
Ownership
Presence
Sense-making
Depth/Context
Act!
Stewardship
Retention
Interpretation
Application
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Dialogue Principles*
1.Voice
2.Respect
3.Suspension
4.Listening
Isaacs, William, Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together (1999), adapted by K Pugh
IT Offshoring with Intention

21. McKinsey on “Outsourcing” Innovation
21IT Offshoring with Intention