Global it Outsourcing Decisions: Contract Structure, Negotiations, and Global Deal Teams

Abstract

For the last 10 years, IBM Global Services has been engaged in the negotiation and execution of national, multinational, and global contracts as a worldwide service provider for the information technology (IT) industry. While each engagement is unique in its own right, global engagements involving a customer located in more than one country present the most significant business challenges. Cross border communications, service delivery, and billing, as well as the legal and administrative concerns inherent to such deals, can entail staggering risks for both parties. Accordingly, successful engagements are contingent upon swift navigation of a highly intricate context of contending factors. Intensive familiarization with these factors has afforded a means for better anticipating their associated pitfalls and vagaries. This paper will explore the challenges of contract structuring, skill deployment, and communication methodology as they pertain to global IT outsourcing engagements. In the process, the paper will propose how global deal teams can be applied to engagements systematically to promote efficient decisionmaking and engender more valuable outcomes.