Companies That Offshore
Offshore outsourcing is a potent option for companies that require access to niche talent. It can also help lower cost of labor, increase revenue, and increase company competitiveness.
But companies that offshore must be aware of the potential risks that come with. Moving design offshore along with manufacturing can deprive a business of its engineering and design capabilities.
Telstra
Telstra has come a long way since its humble beginnings as a small, government-owned business. Today it is a huge privatised telecommunications company with operations across the globe. It is also the biggest provider of fixed line telephone service in Australia.
The company's success can be attributed to its innovative solutions and strong investment strategy. In the beginning, when resources were limited, the company sunk heavily in the latest technology and realized that the telecommunications industry had huge growth potential. This was a smart move because it enabled the company to connect Australian cities both domestically and internationally. The company also was a pioneer in the use of mobile phones, which enabled people to stay in touch with their loved ones wherever they were.
In the 1990s, the company was faced with many challenges, such as regulation and competition from rival companies. It refused to be passive and came up with a plan to adapt to these changes. It invested $200 billion in infrastructure and heavily invested in it. It also came up with a new idea and launched BigPond, a high-speed internet service for customers.
It also reduced its workforce and outsourced a few of its tasks, which led to savings in costs. Additionally, it introduced an organizational structure that broke up roles into functional groups instead of a traditional hierarchy. This allowed senior managers to gain more control over their areas of expertise.
Recently, the company announced that it would bring its call centres back to Australia and that by 2021, all of its consumer and small business calls will be answered in Australia. This is a major improvement for Telstra, and it is likely to have a positive impact on its customers. The company will still operate offshore call centers for its largest international customers.
GE
General Electric (GE) was established by Thomas Edison in 1892 and quickly became one of the most successful American companies. In the 1980s, GE bought several large companies, including Employer's Reinsurance and Kidder Peabody. In this period, GE's revenue rose from $5 billion to $70 billion. However, despite these successes many analysts have wondered whether the growth of GE was sustainable.
GE focuses its efforts on industrial technology as well as renewable energy, services and power. It has also invested into additive machines, 3D printers which can be used to create products and parts. The finance division of GE also offers commercial lending and leasing.
The GE washer-dryer is the top-selling product of the company. It has been used in American homes for over 80 years. It was the first machine to automatically wash and tumble dry clothes. It was a revolutionary invention in households. In addition to its appliances, GE also manufactures aircraft engines, medical equipment, and power turbines. In the near future, GE is planning to expand its digital business which includes cybersecurity software for commercial use and technologies from Wurldtech.
GE also offshoring its major business processes to India where wages are cheaper than in the US. In 2004, GE Capital International Services, its offshoring company that is owned by GE employed over 12,000 workers. In 2005, GE sold its stake in GECIS and transformed it into a standalone BPO known as Genpact. Genpact employs 20,000 employees and GE remains a major customer. The company recently diversified by buying the maker of the Osprey Drone. GE has also made significant investments in the wind sector, with a deal to provide 87 Haliade-14 MW wind turbines from Dogger Bank C.
IBM
International Business Machines (IBM) is one of the largest technology companies, headquartered in Armonk, New York. The company provides hardware, software, and services for the IT industry. Additionally, it provides financing options to help clients purchasing IT systems and software. It also runs research labs throughout the world. The company's pioneering research goes back to the 1880s, when Julius E. Pitrat invented the computing scale, and Alexander Dey created the dial recorder. Herman Hollerith also created an instrument for tabulating.
The corporate vision declaration of the company demonstrates its commitment towards leadership in the marketplace and industry for information technology. The corporate vision statement declares that it will provide quality service by combining technological expertise with business model innovation. It also puts a high priority on customer satisfaction as well as value creation as it is essential to its success in the long term.
In recent years, IBM has expanded its services division and rebranded itself as an cognitive solutions and cloud computing platform company. IBM's software portfolio includes analytics-related products such as Cognos, SPSS and SPSS. It also provides IT infrastructure software, such as the IBM WebSphere application server and MQ messaging middleware. It also provides security and mobile applications which includes the IBM Verse business email offering and the IBM QRadar security intelligence platform.
In recent years, IBM's hardware sales have decreased due to a shift in corporate IT expenses from on-premises facilities to central providers like Amazon Web Services. IBM has focused on its business consulting and services business and has made several acquisitions to expand their reach in these areas. The company has also invested heavily in cloud computing and has a global presence.
Accenture
Accenture is a leading provider of management consulting outsourcing, technology and management consulting around the globe. Accenture has a range of strengths that give it a competitive advantage, including extensive industry knowledge and expertise and innovative technology solutions, strong partnerships with leading technology vendors, and global reach and scale.
Marketing procurement, supply chains as well as learning and management of human resources and finance are all a part of the company's operations. Accenture is also present in more than 120 countries. In addition to its core services, Accenture offers a number of other specializations. For instance, it provides SAP S/4HANA development and speed-tracking customer journeys to digital businesses. It also offers security and IT consultancy services.
In the past, businesses have outsourced a few production functions to lower costs and increase competitiveness. In the industry of clothing for instance, a lot of production functions have been outsourced to Asian countries. In recent years, however, more companies have shifted their focus from production of goods to services. This has resulted in an increasing demand for professionals with experience in IT and digital services. The benefit is that these skills are transferable across industries.
Accenture offers a variety of clients and is expanding its presence in key markets. Accenture's client list includes 91 Fortune Global 100 companies and more than three quarters of the Fortune Global 500. Accenture collaborates with companies such as Apple, Google, Oracle and others to develop new technologies. For instance, Accenture has partnered with SAP to develop an intelligent platform solution that helps upstream oil and gas companies to reduce the complexity of their operations by using market standards. A group of major oil companies, including BP and Equinor, is testing this solution. This partnership shows how companies are shifting away from traditional outsourcing and instead focusing on innovations and services.
Microsoft
Microsoft is a renowned publisher of operating systems and applications for personal computers. The most well-known products of Microsoft include its Windows software line, Office suite and Internet Explorer browser. But the company has also faced accusations of monopoly and anti-competitive behaviour. In the 1990s, it set up the foundation of a network of offshore entities to transfer intellectual properties and cut down on tax payments.
When a customer buys Office in Seattle however, the profits don't travel the short distance to Microsoft's headquarters in nearby Redmond. Instead, the money starts a long trek beginning with a sales subsidiary in Nevada that doesn't have to pay taxes on corporate income. Then, it crosses the Atlantic to a Bermudan company and is finally taxed at the island's zero-percent rate.
From there, the money is transferred to a Puerto Rican company that accounts for research expenses and then passes a small portion to an Irish firm. The company has employed similar structures in other countries like Britain and Germany. The software giant has saved billions of taxes through this arrangement.
The software giant is facing a legal challenge from Congress to alter its offshore strategy. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations stated that the company, together with other technology companies, utilize offshore units and tax loopholes in order to avoid the payment of taxes. The committee is investigating allegations that tech firms, such as Alphabet, the parent company of Google, and Apple have been evading taxes by transferring billions of dollars in profits to low tax jurisdictions.
The partnership between SSE Renewables, Avanade and the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure is a part of a larger plan to improve the impact of wind farms on the environment. The partnership will create digital tools that will better assess the impacts of wind farms on the local ecosystem. The tools will be utilized in aquariums to enhance the identification of wildlife and monitoring of abundance.