Information Age: News, analysis & insight for IT & business leaders

 

AstraZeneca signs five year outsourcing deal with Infosys

15 December 2008  

Mega-deal announced as new research suggests IT will be hardest hit by offshoring in the coming years

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has signed a multi-million dollar, five-year outsourcing deal with Infosys. The deal will be seen as both an endorsement of the Indian IT industry's viability in a downturn and a confirmation of the UK IT sector's worst fears.

The deal forms part of an operational transformation initiative that will begin in the UK, and that will see the Indian IT outsourcer provide application management services for many of AstraZeneca’s key business departments.

"The combination of Infosys’s outsourcing expertise, technology leadership and proven record in rationalising and standardising business process were all contributing factors to our decision,” said Richard Williams, Global CIO at AstraZeneca, in a statement.

AstraZeneca’s announcement lends weight to the argument that a tough economic climate will lead Western businesses to expand their use of offshore IT outsourcing.

Offshore future

The deal coincides with a newly published report from business advisory firm The Hackett Group, which found that offshore outsourcing is set to balloon. According to the report, nearly 400,000 back-office jobs, including IT, HR and finance, are expected to be outsourced offshore in the next two years – almost half the current total (850,000) already offshored.

The report, which was conducted during the past 30 days, meaning it canvassed opinion after the financial catastrophes of October and early November, also found that one in four IT workers will be stationed offshore by 2010, more than in HR and finance.

The IT department has already been the hardest hit by the recession, the report found. Just under a third (31%) of the Global 1,000 companies surveyed said they had either cut IT staff or frozen hiring in the IT deparment – more than in any other department.

Further reading

Infosys – The human pyramid
The Indian IT pioneer is grappling with the challenge of changing from service provider to an innovative business partner

Cultural dimensions in offshore outsourcing
Understanding cultural differences is vital for successful offshore outsourcing

Find more stories in the IT Services Briefing Room


Comments 

There are currently no comments on this article

People who read this also read...

Platform Computing - Category winner

Since 1992, Platform has established a reputation as an industry leader in High Performance Computing (HPC) management software, bringing the most powerful commercial HPC solutions to leading global enterprises.

Oracle customers to testify in Sun antitrust hearing

Vodafone and the NHS among clients drafted in to bolster Sun Microsystems acquisition bid

 
Advertisement

White Papers

Read article

Developing ios Solutions for Business

Whitepapers

Quickly develop and deploy custom iPad and iPhone solutions. With FileMaker Pro, iPad and iPhone solutions can be prototyped and completed in hours or days versus weeks or months. No iOS application programming or design experience is required.

Read article

IDC Spotlight: Access Control and Certification

Whitepapers

Read this brief for best practices on managing user access compliance.

Read article

GPS World

Whitepapers

Is the PREMIER global media brand serving the exploding world of positioning and navigation for OEM, commercial and consumer applications.

More
div class="banner">