"When you go in, you have to go into it in the spirit of partnership," says Charlie Cortese, managing director and head of outsourcing for Lehman Brothers. That's the bottom line when it comes to a successful offshore-outsourcing relationship, he says. Cortese should know. Early this year Lehman Brothers struck a three-year outsourcing deal with India-based service providers Wipro and TCS. Despite a rigorous due-diligence period of pilot programs and vendor reviews, the real work had just begun for the investment bank. A common misconception is that once the service providers are chosen and the contract is complete, the bulk of the work is done, notes Dushyant Shahrawat, a senior analyst with TowerGroup, a Needham, Mass.-based financial-technology consultancy. Although correctly choosing a vendor and developing a solid contract is critical, the importance of the institution's role after the first phase is often underemphasized. "In reality, much of the effort begins after initiating the project," says Shahrawat.
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