Pathetic
With pathetic results commonplace in corporate IT projects, it is no wonder that companies are looking offshore as a way to do better. In my opinion, it won't help improve results much but it will reduce the costs of the failures. It seems that the ability to use IT effectively follows a sort of power law, with a relatively small group able to do things well (say Wal-Mart), a second group of solid competence (maybe CapitalOne?) and the unwashed masses who just kind of stumble along. The difference seems to be leadership and the status of IT in the organization. No doubt the folks at the top of the heap could effectively outsorce to anywhere in the world. But, will it really help those at the bottom? The real measure of success should be the cost/benefit of the projects, so you have to look at both sides of the equation and you can't improve the benefit without improving the leadership.