Budget conscious Microsoft sneaks overseas

In the world of high technology, "only the paranoid survive".

Microsoft has made it exceedingly clear that it has every intension of being around for a long - long time.

How else can you explain the recent announcement from CEO Steve Ballmer? Last July, in an annual email to all 56,000 company employees, it was explained that the very healthy company intended to introduce $1 billion dollars worth of cost saving measures, in part by reducing company benefits.

Not part of this announcement was an explanation of the company's new global sourcing strategy - which includes contracts with famous Indian outsourcers such as Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, and Tata Consultancy Services.

Needless to say, these recent events in Redmond is leaving some of the natives restless.

However, companies that are smart will pay attention to what Microsoft is doing. This ultra aggressive giant is setting the bar in the technology industry. Any company that hopes to compete effectively against it must have a strategy for producing value at a reasonable cost. In many cases, this will involve development of an offshoring strategy.

related stories, by category: