Offshore business process outsourcing to India: Two Australian SME case studies

Abstract

The Australian economy currently faces labour and skill shortages and an aging work force, a legacy of ineffective education and training practices plus a strong economy. As a result, Australian medium and large firms require a global sourcing strategy in order to continue to grow and create value for shareholders. A significant source of expert labour is India and offshore business process outsourcing (BPO) by Australian firms to India increasingly requires systematic analysis by Australian managers (Barrett, 2007). In this paper we present a brief history of BPO in India and discuss two case studies of small to medium sized Australian organizations which have chosen to offshore significant parts of their operation to Bangalore, India. The research results may be of interest to Australian managers, government policy makers, academics in business and information systems management and their counterparts in India. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.