IBM

All the new moves in Service Delivery are coming from IBM, whether you like them or not.

Working for IBM, you will be at the forefront of offshoring, bestshoring, and all that jazz.

IBM does exactly what the big shareholders want and expect, and in that fashion, they can persistently show good results in the share price.

There's no initiative left. There's no creativity left.

The problem is, without these, it's just no fun at all. It's difficult to make a mistake since everything you do is dictated by some document or other. Even then, there are elements of George Orwell's 1984 in it, since even the documented right thing is likely to be superseded at any time by The New Truth.

This continual re-invention of the wheel means that any experience you gain at IBM is likely to be useless in 'the real world'. The reason for this is that IBM's IT is so idiosyncratic; it no longer bears any relation to the way other companies work. It's become more like Fawlty Towers than the driving, forward-thinking, growing entity it was and should be.

1. Develop a methodology and stick to it.

2. Pay enormous attention to the direct communication between the customer and those staff in India, Pakistan, Thailand, Burma, and Somalia doing the actual work. This is your biggest problem with offshoring.

3. Watch out! Customers are on to you. They see the issues in (2) and they don't want it.