Offshoring Information Technology: Sourcing and Outsourcing to a Global Workforce

Book Description

The decision to source software development to an overseas firm (offshoring) is looked at frequently in simple economic terms - it's cheaper, and skilled labor is easier to find. In practice, however, offshoring is fraught with difficulties. As well as the considerable challenge of controlling projects at a distance, there are differences in culture, language, business methods, politics, and many other issues to contend with. Nevertheless, as many firms have discovered, the benefits of getting it right are too great to ignore. This book explains everything you need to know to put offshoring into practice, avoid the pitfalls, and develop effective working relationships. It covers a comprehensive range of the important offshoring issues: from ROI to strategy, from SLA to culture, from country comparisons to provider marketing. Written for CTOs, CIOs, consultants, and other IT executives, this book is also an excellent introduction to sourcing for business students.

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The decision to outsource software development to an overseas firm (offshoring) is frequently looked at in simple economic terms - it's cheaper and skilled labour is easier to find. In practice, however, offshoring is fraught with difficulties. As well as the considerable challenge of controlling projects at a distance, there are differences in culture, language, business methods, politics and many other issues to contend with. Nevertheless, as many firms have discovered, the benefits of getting it right are too great to ignore. This book explains everything you need to know to put offshoring into practice, avoid the pitfalls and develop effective working relationships. Split into three parts: offshoring fundamentals; management competencies; and a section on broader issues including a unique look at the viewpoint of an outsourcing provider. Written for CTOs, CIOs, consultants and other IT executives, this book is also an excellent introduction to outsourcing for business and MIS students.

Customer Reviews:

Great book!.......2007-10-05

Best off shore book out there... great info...lays it out pretty straight. Easy to understand and follow.

An excellent introductory volume and roadmap.......2007-05-01

This volume is well-written, lucid and easy to follow. The authors have done an excellent job in providing an explanatory framework for offshoring, as well as giving a realistic look at potential costs and benefits. Their list of suggestions and guidelines is comprehensive. The book avoids the trap of becoming overly technical and steers clear of being specific to any particular country or industry. I was pleasantly surprised to find chapters on such important topics as country-specific legal pitfalls, privacy rights issues, and how to sell the idea of offshoring inside a company resistant to the idea. The authors livened up their material with numerous case studies to illustrate key points. The level of detail they provided on how to write a solid Service Level Agreement (SLA) was also impressive.

Overall this was an excellent volume, and the only two objections that I have are both minor. First, the book could benefit from a small amount of updating; some of the data, especially in Part I of book, dates from 2001-2003. In any other discipline, that would still be considered fairly recent. However in technology, that verges on being stale. In addition, that was the period of the global downturn in IT. The authors' data would be obviously impacted by that global economic event. To be clear: I do not believe that any of the authors' points would be reversed by updating the data. On the contrary, I expect that current data would only strengthen their points, as the trends they identified have only accelerated since the book's first publication. Second, as noted earlier the authors provided several cases of companies who tried offshoring and either failed, or suffered setbacks. Given the fact that offshoring is not the cure-all for every company, it would have also been useful to see a couple of case studies of companies who investigated the offshoring option but decided against it. It is just as important to understand why a company declines to offshore, as it is to understand why they would undertake to do so.

This is a book that I wish I had read before working on several offshoring/outsourcing projects for former employers. It is highly recommended for anyone who is contemplating the offshore option, or who has recently been put in charge of making such an option successful.

Useful reference for IT Professionals.......2006-04-17

"All things being equal, any manager would prefer to manage a co-located team rather than a distributed team," how true. Authors Erran Carmel and Paul Tija believe that IT managers need to feel as comfortable with managing distributed teams as they are with co-located teams. They intend their book, Offshoring Information Technology, to act as a primer for IT professionals, students and teachers in business and technology programs as well as policy makers and analysts in and around governments. That is a lot of end parties to satisfy, so does this book hit the mark.

Erran Carmel had previously authored, "Global Software Development Teams", in 1999, and has deeply focused on the topic of developing software with global teams for years. It is obvious that a researcher was one of the co-authors, as very accurate listing of references are made, more than you usually see in many of these books on offshoring. These references provide another list of papers and publications that the reader can use for further research. The book makes excellent use of cross-referencing between topics, which also adds to its usage as a good reference tool.

Right off I like the preface in which the authors define the terms offshoring and outsourcing. Since I agree there are many strange definitions leading everyone to think outsourcing means offshoring, this needed to be included. The offshore stage model, previously defined by one of the authors in a research paper, puts the offshoring numbers in to perspective by dividing it in to stages and the number of Fortune 1000 companies currently using the offshoring model. These numbers may be surprising to some, as the actual usage is much smaller than is played up in the media.

The book is full of case studies, most of them fairly interesting. The case study in chapter 9 is meant to show the difference between working in a low-content country versus a high-context country like India. I, along with I believe many practitioners, will look on this case study and say that Christina (not her real name) was not a good manager, no matter where she was working, if they thought dumping a bunch of new work on a team was not going to impact the schedule. Low-content or high-content country aside, the project manager made too many assumptions and may not be the experienced project manager that she thought she was. I think others will see the same when they read it. Another real life case study gives an example of one company trying to do a comparison between countries; what do we learn from it, price wins out over quality in the end, which in reality is often the case.

The emphasis on knowledge transfer is exceptional. This area is often glossed over in many offshoring books. Chapter 7 which is dedicated to managing the offshore transition defines different ways of undertaking knowledge transfer. One of the ways that they describe is to have the developers work in different positions, i.e. put them in to the user's position, so they understand why the user works the way they do. They state that this is new. I started out in banking twenty years ago and this is how I started out, working the user positions of the applications which I was then to develop and maintain, so I do not think this concept is new. But perhaps the authors mean this is new for offshore outsourcing. In all though this section on knowledge transfer is valuable and looks at all of the different types of transfer: skills, process, domain and work and cultural norms. Good emphasis on the fact that the easiest one to achieve is skills transfer, but the other ones are more difficult to achieve. For example it is more difficult to have someone work on dispute resolutions app for credit card processing, when they do not understand how credit card processing works.

Chapter 8 on overcoming distance and time emphasizes and outlines virtual team management. Much of the information presented is included in many books on virtual team management, but as this book is a primer for IT managers, it has a place in this book. Readers will find the suggestions on iteration development; formalizing the iterations and frequency of iterations particularly helpful in a real situation. I whole heartedly agree that this is what builds trust. If you have frequent deliverables, and the remote team meets those frequent deliverables, i.e. they do what they say they are going to do, trust is built. The authors also define the range of deliverables and that it can be anything: plans, outlines, prototypes, simulations, design reviews, test results, software code reviews, module integration and documents. Again I wholeheartedly agree. This will be an area that many IT managers may have to get used to because at first to some it seems like "make work", when in fact all of what is delivered from the offshore is and should be useful for fulfilling the project.

There are a few situations where puzzling statements are used such as the quote on pg. 28, just before a section on IT-enabled services. The quote refers to E-loan and its well-documented offering to its clients of a couple of years ago. At the time E-loan offered the users of their loan service to Press 1 if they wanted their loan processed in 1 day in an Indian center, or to press 2 if they wanted their loan processed in the US which included the statement that the processing may then take longer. In March of 2004, this was written up by many Indian firms as admittance by a US company that Indians are faster. It seems strange that the authors use this statement with no no explanation; for example was it really an admittance that Indians are faster or did it really mean E-loan had 4 times as many processors in India versus the number in the US, thus accounting for how loans could be processed faster there. Or were they working round the clock in India versus only one shift in the US, another reason for the difference. In other areas the authors go to great lengths to explain issues which are reported in the press, such as how offshore labor rates are reported in detail and what they really mean versus the actual total cost of ownership.

The book contains an excellent discussion on the different types of risk, very detailed, to a level not usually defined. Only one area, contractual risk, seemed to be lacking. The authors state that a buyer can mitigate contractual risk by signing a contract with a US company, if you are a US buyer, or with a UK company if you are a UK buyer, i.e. with a company which is also domiciled in your location versus in the offshore location only. The authors also refer to the chapter on Legal issues of offshoring where contractual risk will be further defined. In that chapter, however, only mention to reduce contractual risk is to work with providers who can provide a combination of onshore/offshore resources, thus enabling a buyer to access the provider's onshore resources if necessary. They seem to fail to mention one of the bigger issues; if the contract does go awry, even if you are dealing with the big Indian players, most of the assets that of that vendor are located in the offshore location. If any case, you will have to bring suit against that vendor in their home country. Large buyers already seem to be aware of this based on both outsourcing and vertical conferences I have attended over the last couple of years.

There were two areas where I thought more emphasis could have been made, if this is a book is really meant to assist IT professionals. One of these areas is helping the IT manager assess their own offshore readiness; how do they feel about the process, are they ready to change how they work, are they ready to manage by not walking around? The second area of missed opportunity is assisting IT professionals in defining what could be a new role for them in the global environment, for example by working in and/or managing the offshore office which is responsible for managing the onshore and offshore outsourcing for a client.

Offshoring Information Technology is an informative and educational book for IT managers looking to define their place in the offshoring world. The details provided on the offshoring process and through the case studies will make it easy for an IT professional to determine where they may need to gain additional knowledge to move their career forward. The book will be most useful and most familiar to those IT professionals currently working in or with large scale enterprises as most case studies and examples such as in total cost of ownership and the governance areas, use examples from large enterprises. This book is highly recommended for IT professionals who are looking at career development as well as those persons who are in a position to help their countries promote their outsourcing capabilities.

Valuable Strategic Perspective.......2005-10-19

This book does an excellent job of linking offshoring to a company's business strategy. Many companies are pursuing offshoring to take advantage of lower wages in other countries. Chapter 5 shows how cost reduction can be strategic, and the other potential non-cost-based advantages of offshoring. Its treatment is also balanced, showing the downsides, costs, and risks of offshoring as well as the benefits. And it talks about choices companies have in implementing an offshore strategy.

I am Executive Director of a research center on process management, and we have done research in this area. I know and respect Erran Carmel, the author, and Peter Schumacher, who co-authored Chapter 5. Peter's work is grounded in consulting that he has done at the Value Leadership Group, which advises companies on how to think beyond cost cutting and view offshore as an opportunity to build unique competitive advantage.

Useful and comprehensive.......2005-08-04

This is a rather comprehensive look of why software
development gets offshored and of how to do it right
should you decide to try it yourself. The authors are
an academic and a consultant, making the book an
appealing blend of evidence-based theory and practical
advice. The focus is primarily on software
development, with some attention paid to such
IT-enabled services as call centers.

The two most appealing things about the book are its
maintenance of a practical tone and its
comprehensiveness in identifying the many things you
need to get right to get offshoring to work right. For
example, international projects tend to get into
serious difficulty if the customer is unwilling or
unable to provide sufficiently detailed specifications
to bring task ambiguity down to the level that can
survive the communications problems caused by distance
and cultural differences.

The authors put a lot of effort into explaining why
some countries have been successful at growing an
offshoring business and others not. This insight is
valuable for companies into offshoring for the long
haul, as you need to understand how wage rates and
technology depth wax and wane over time.

The book also has a number of chapters written by
specialists in such important ancillary areas as
international contacts and managing cultural
differences. All in all, a very useful book.

Global Sourcing Logistics: How to Manage Risk And Gain Competitive Advantage in a Worldwide Marketplace

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Global Sourcing Logistics: How to Manage Risk And Gain Competitive Advantage in a Worldwide Marketplace
Thomas A. Cook
Manufacturer: AMACOM/American Management Association
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Binding: Hardcover

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Global Sourcing: Opportunities for the Future China, India, Eastern Europe How to Benefit from the Potential of International Procurement
Global Logistics: New Directions in Supply Chain Management
The Incredible Payback: Innovative Sourcing Solutions That Deliver Extraordinary Results
Lean Supply Chain Management: A Handbook for Strategic Procurement
The Sourcing Solution: A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Successful Purchasing Program

ASIN: 0814408923

Book Description

More than ever, global sourcing is an economic necessity for companies large and small, and in every industry. But with advantages in price and terms come new risks that businesses must approach effectively lest their supply chain -- and ultimately the whole enterprise -- be undermined.

Global Sourcing Logistics offers businesses a blueprint for creating standard operating procedures for managing the risks of their inbound supply chains. Filled with hands-on solutions to the challenges of global commerce, the book covers:

* reasons to (or not to) source globally
* measuring the risks versus those of other sourcing alternatives
* how to reduce landed costs
* compliance management and new Customs and Homeland Security issues
* insurance, liability, and loss control
* and much more

A must-have resource for all sourcing, supply chain, risk management, and import/export professionals, the book features tools for creating a comprehensive program to ensure competitive advantage while avoiding the pitfalls that can undermine even powerful businesses and seasoned supply chain veterans.

Birnbaums Global Guide To Material Sourcing
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Good Outline to the Process

Birnbaums Global Guide To Material Sourcing

Manufacturer: Fashiondex
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Birnbaums Global Guide to Winning the Great Garment War

Complete Guide to Size Specification and Technical Design: Spiral

Fashion Production Terms (Language of Fashion Series)

The International Dictionary of Fashion Apparel Terminology in 8 Languages

Quality Assurance for Textiles and Apparel

ASIN: 0974101133

Product Description

The global garment industry is moving from product supplier to service provider. Is your company on the leading edge, or are you falling behind? How can your factory move from being just one more garment maker to be becoming an irreplaceable asset in your customers supply chain? How can you the importer reduce costs and at the same time gain greater speed-to-market by transferring the processes to your overseas supplier? 70% of FOB price is material: How do you find the materials you need, for the delivery you need, and at the price you want? The quota phase out has changed the garment industry forever. To remain competitive, factories will have to provide more services and customers will have to reduce their overheads by pushing the process to the factory. Whether you are a retailer, importer, factory or agent, unless youve read this book, you are falling behind.

Customer Reviews:

Good Outline to the Process.......2007-02-14

I thought this book was excellent for those wanting to get a little insight into the industry and how the Sourcing process operates. Some of the realities, both obvious and not so obvious are illustrated clearly with good examples throughout the book. This is a good complimentary book as a follow-up book to his surviving the garment war!

Global Sourcing of Business and IT Services

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Global Sourcing of Business and IT Services
Leslie P. Willcocks , and Mary C. Lacity
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
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Binding: Hardcover

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Information Systems Outsourcing: Enduring Themes, New Perspectives and Global Challenges
The Outsourcing Handbook: How to Implement a Successful Outsourcing Process
Change Management

ASIN: 0230006590
Release Date: 2006-11-28

Book Description

This book is a reality check on the trends in global sourcing of information technology and business services. While the vision of global sourcing networks that are agile, effective and cost efficient is available it requires an immense amount of trial and error and detailed management. Written by two internationally recognized academics in the field, with expert contributions, it covers IT outsourcing, offshoring, business process outsourcing and netsourcing and includes cases and commentaries on best practices.

Global Sourcing & Purchasing Post 9/11: New Logistics Compliance Requirements And Best Practices

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Highly Recommended for Businesses Interested In Global Sourcing
Definitive Advice for Global Sourcing
A Definitive Work on a Critical Business Topic...

Global Sourcing & Purchasing Post 9/11: New Logistics Compliance Requirements And Best Practices
Michael Assaf , Cynthia Bonincontro , and Stephen Johnsen
Manufacturer: J. Ross Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Strategic Supply Chain Management
The Purchasing Machine: How the Top Ten Companies Use Best Practices to Manage Their Supply Chains

ASIN: 1932159398

Product Description

The events of September 11, 2001 forever changed the dynamics of importing or exporting products into the United States. This privilege, which can be revoked for non-compliance, has been made dramatically more complex and expensive by the numerous new rules, regulations, laws and requirements of various agencies. Procurers of foreign merchandise have had to revisit current U.S. Customs rules and regulations, reevaluate their companys existing import procedures, and consider further stabilizing and strengthening their Customs compliance. Global Sourcing & Purchasing Post 9/11 provides sound and innovative purchasing, logistics and supply chain management techniques for acquiring customers, increasing competitive advantage, reducing costs, and improving end-to-end supply chain performance while ensuring required compliance.

Key Features:

Provides comprehensive importer and foreign entity guidelines for achieving cost savings, improving delivery turnaround time, securing compliance, building product classifications and optimizing trade for reduced or eliminated duties
Explains how to set up a purchasing cost analysis program for quick evaluation and obtain cost savings via currency hedging and a forward currency contract, and provides activity-based costing information to help firms manage and benchmark logistics costs
Discusses various levels of automation, from document imaging to full automation of the compliance process, including how RFID smart labels can improve your supply chain, and presents innovative ways of achieving JIT inventory for imported merchandise
Covers global e-sourcing systems, applications, processes, and best supply chain practices as well as new electronic procurement standardizations to analyze requirements, identify gaps and improve the interoperability of Internet-based e-procurement systems
Reviews compliance with post 9/11 customs and security requirements for global trade and outlines processes and time lines for ready-to-market regulated product registrations
Offers downloadable slides that provide a high-level overview of the importance of an integrated logistics compliance system, a U.S. Customs 2005 Harmonized Tariff Schedule and a list of helpful websites for regulatory product information and government forms required for U.S. clearance

Customer Reviews:

Highly Recommended for Businesses Interested In Global Sourcing.......2006-03-27

This book would be a valuable resource for businesses seeking a good discussion of global sourcing and purchasing issues in today's environment. Written by three authors with significant practical experience in the global sourcing of goods ranging from raw materials to equipment and pharmaceuticals, the authors provide a well-organized examination of the many issues involved in global sourcing and purchasing.

This book has several major strengths. The authors' principal message comes through very clearly: it takes careful planning to make global sourcing a success, especially in the post-9/11 era. The methodology employed by the authors is also very effective-they walk the reader through the issues from the point of view of a typical manager, and provide concrete examples of the issues that the manager will likely face in the importing process.

Of course, compliance and logistical factors in the global sourcing environment are the major focus of the book, especially emphasizing the changed nature of this environment in the post-9/11 world. Individual chapters focus on topics such as transportation, US Customs issues, other U.S. government agency regulations applicable to imports and, of course, the security issues which have received so much attention since the events of 9/11. The book contains a good discussion of these issues and the main players that are involved in each area.

In addition, the authors do a very good job of challenging the manager to think through the involvement of the many internal players in the company -from legal department to marketing-which will have an important role to play if the global sourcing process is to be successful. The book also has a strong focus on controlling the costs and fees through proper planning.

Finally, recommendations are also included regarding methods to ensure that the company's planning and compliance processes remain up to date.

In terms of possible improvements to this book, several of the chapters would benefit by the inclusion of specific references to key internet resources. Several chapters do already include a number of website references, and additional internet sources are listed in material made available through the publisher's website listed at the end of each chapter. However, a more consistent referencing of key websites within the text of each chapter might be a valuable addition.

Definitive Advice for Global Sourcing.......2006-01-10

This book is the most comprehensive text I have seen for sourcing professionals, who must deal on a global basis. The authors have used their extensive experiences and offer sound advice on how to cope with all of the changes brought on by the 9-11 events - across a variety of industries. Using many case examples and first-hnd experiences, they describe in a step-by-step manner what is involved in not just getting the best global prices, but how to make certain the goods are shipped in a timely and high quality manner. Moving product across borders has never been easy, but this book offers a current view and solid techniques for optimizing such efforts. It is recommended reading for any buyer seeking global sources without the grief associated with entering into such territory.

A Definitive Work on a Critical Business Topic..........2005-09-23

"The subject of importing or exporting products into the United States is a highly-complex topic, sometimes handed off to outside third-parties to advise and manage. And yet, this area is so fundamental to the well-being of many companies that it deserves to be better understood by your own organization, regardless of whether you employ third-party help or not. Just consider this: failure to comply with the relevant laws and regulations can result in your company's trade privileges being revoked - dramatically affecting your ability to conduct business.

"Global Sourcing and Purchasing Post 9/11 is the definitive work on this subject, covering the topic comprehensively and in an easy-to-understand manner. The authors clearly demonstrate their extensive depth of expertise in this field. This book is a must-read not only for import/export professionals, but also procurement/supply management professionals, and other professionals seeking to understand this complex and vital area."

Robert A. Rudzki
President, Greybeard Advisors LLC

Global Sourcing: Opportunities for the Future China, India, Eastern Europe How to Benefit from the Potential of International Procurement

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Global Sourcing: Opportunities for the Future China, India, Eastern Europe How to Benefit from the Potential of International Procurement
Gerd Kerkhoff
Manufacturer: Wiley
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Binding: Hardcover

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Sourcing in China: Strategies, Methods and Experiences
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Lean Supply Chain Management: A Handbook for Strategic Procurement
Global Sourcing & Purchasing Post 9/11: New Logistics Compliance Requirements And Best Practices

ASIN: 3527502327

Book Description

The political and economic opening up of India, China, Turkey and the eastern European states have led to a change in competition on the world's markets. These countries are already considered attractive procurement markets, especially by European companies.
However, global sourcing can mean hidden costs for those who are unaware of the international markets and their modes of operation.
In this book, Gerd Kerkhoff proves that companies can still be successful in their global sourcing - despite the risks involved. He shows which goods and services are suited to global sourcing and introduces the key procurement markets and their strengths. Concrete examples illustrate how international buying can be successfully planned.

Ethical Sourcing in the Global Food System

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Ethical Sourcing in the Global Food System

Manufacturer: Earthscan Publications Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1844071995

Book Description

* Can ethical sourcing genuinely address the problems facing workers and producers in developing countries? * Detailed case studies explore fair and ethical trade systems in diverse countries and sectors, allowing a balanced analysis of this global phenomenon * A wealth of analysis and discussion from the foremost academics and practitioners working in ethical sourcing Ethical sourcing, both through fair trade and ethical trade, is increasingly entering the mainstream of food retailing. Large supermarkets have come under pressure to improve the returns to small producers and conditions of employment within their supply chains. But how effective is ethical sourcing? Can it genuinely address the problems facing workers and producers in developing countries? Is it a new form of northern protectionism, or can Southern initiatives be developed to advance the monitoring and verification effectiveness of ethical sourcing? How can the rights and participation of workers and small producers be enhanced, given the power and dominance of large supermarkets within the global food chain?

This book brings together a range of academics and practitioners working on issues of ethical sourcing in the global food chain. It critically explores the opportunities and challenges of ethical sourcing in the global food system by combining analysis and case studies that examine a range of approaches. It explores whether ethical sourcing is a cosmetic northern initiative, or it can genuinely help to improve the conditions of small producers and workers in developing countries.

Global Sourcing (The Purchasing Excellence Series)

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definitive guide
Global sourcing made silly!

Global Sourcing (The Purchasing Excellence Series)
Lee Krotseng
Manufacturer: PT Publications Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0945456425

Customer Reviews:

definitive guide.......2005-09-26

You will find a guide in this book about how to find the supplies you need to run your company. The book progresses through internal and external considerations when selecting supply sources. The author also shows you how to indentify sources and engage in the bidding process. Also provides what to look for in Early Supplier Involvement programs.
It was written by an experienced practitioner that is for sure.
I would have liked a more extensive list of resources , however there is some included here .

Global sourcing made silly!.......2001-03-12

The title of this book and the sponsorship by the Purchasing Magazine create relatively lofty expectations. Unfortunately none of the expectations are met. This book reads like a poor high school project, offers no real discussion of "global" elements of sourcing, and provides virtually no insights to sourcing managers.

Global Sourcing Strategy: R&D, Manufacturing, and Marketing Interfaces

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Good for Rethinking Your Sourcing Strategy
Great Insights into Procurement Issues
A Seminal Work on Global Sourcing

Global Sourcing Strategy: R&D, Manufacturing, and Marketing Interfaces

Manufacturer: Quorum Books
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0899306675

Book Description

This unique book explores the complex issue of how successful multinational firms manage interfaces of R&D, manufacturing, and marketing on a global basis, emphasizing the linkages among them in the value chain. The author calls this interface issue "global sourcing." The major objective of the book is to investigate the market performance of various global sourcing strategies employed by multinational firms. In particular, successful Japanese cases are scrutinized to better understand the nature of global competition being shaped by Japanese firms. Based on his extensive theoretical and empirical research, the author provides practical and normative guidelines for managing new product design and development, manufacturing, and marketing around the world. These include proactive product standardization, emphasis on both product and manufacturing process innovations, integrated procurement of major components, and marketing on a global basis. The book is divided into two parts. Part I investigates European and Japanese multinational firms' sourcing strategies and related management issues that facilitate development of their sourcing strategies. Part II examines whether practical and normative implications gleaned from the experiences of European and Japanese firms equally apply to successful U.S. multinational firms. Although the European and Japanese data and the U.S. data are not directly comparable, similar findings warrant generalilzability of the performance implications of various sourcing strategies. Finally, based on research findings, the author offers long-term implications for emerging issues, including the role of product design as a competitive weapon and emerging strategic alliances for new product development on a global basis.

Customer Reviews:

Good for Rethinking Your Sourcing Strategy.......2000-04-22

...It is refreshing to read this 1992 book in2000. Eight years is a long time, and many concepts de jour haveappeared and cluttered our thought on sourcing/procurement/outsourcing/insourcing/offshoring/supply chain management/ or whatever terms come across your mind. This book is a no-nonsense, yet easy-to-read, academic book. I have been reading Kotabe's work over the years. After reading this book, read his article that appeared in the Nov. 98 issue of the Academy of Management Executive. I'm sure you will rethink the whole issue of sourcing strategy.---A comment from one strategist gainfully employed by a US auto manufacturer. END

Great Insights into Procurement Issues.......2000-04-11

Having read this book a while ago, I fully concur with a "Reader from New York". Unlike more recent books on sourcing/outsourcing, there are no hypes in this book. You can get a very straightforward, impartial view. Sure will recommend it for anyone working in this area, practitioners and academics alike.

A Seminal Work on Global Sourcing.......2000-01-23

Global sourcing has become a buzzword in recenty years, thanks to increased outsourcing activities. I purchased this book (published in 1992) in January, 2000. Kotabe examined sourcing issues from an "in-house sourcing" rather than an "outsourcing" point of view. In a way, it is a very refreshing viewpoint as he talks of benefits and costs (long-term risks) of certain in-house sourcing vs. outsourcing. A lot of us who are in charge of "outsourcing" for the sake of being contemporary in our business thinking (and deeds) tend to ignore some fundamental weaknesses of outsourcing that Kotabe points out. Although this is a research book, it has had me do some deep thinking on our corporate sourcing strategy. You can get a lot of food for thought. It got to be a must reading for strategists in charge of sourcing/outsourcing/procurement/supply chain management, whatever you call our jobs.

Global sourcing und Kooperationen als Alternativen zur vertikalen Integration (Schriften zur Unternehmensplanung)

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Global sourcing und Kooperationen als Alternativen zur vertikalen Integration (Schriften zur Unternehmensplanung)
Markus Goltenboth
Manufacturer: P. Lang
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3631330944

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