Globalization of IT-Enabled Services: An Irreversible Trend

摘要

It is hard to think of a topic that is more important to the global business community than outsourcing and offshoring is in 2005. Over the past six to seven years, it has been a driving force in literally rewriting the global face of corporate business and creating significant new job opportunities in formerly impoverished parts of the world. As Tom Friedman noted in his recent best seller, "The World is Flat," the origins of offshoring began with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. In a remarkable and not well understood way at the time, this launched the process of bringing nearly three billion people into the global economy who previously had been largely left outside it. Eastern Europe, India and China all became a part of the global capitalistic system, offering many potential new areas of collaboration between countries. Trade barriers were diminished.