The year: 1991. Nortel Networks was growing rapidly and could not find enough skilled resources in the United States and Canada to meet its "significant requirements for product development," says Jag Sharma, vice president of global procurement. The global telecommunications equipment company solved this problem in a revolutionary new way: it looked to India for help.
Nortel was among the first American companies "who saw the potential for leveraging global partners," observes Sanjay Gupta, senior vice president for telecom solutions at Wipro.
Nortel selected Wipro Ltd. because the supplier had the specialized knowledge to design, develop, test, and deploy telecom software and hardware. "They had a skilled engineering resource pool that they managed professionally. That gave us the confidence they would come through and deliver," says Sharma.
Back then, Sharma reports there were "a few people who were a little bit concerned" about sending the work offshore. There was a "slight hesitation about the risks we would be taking going to India," recalls Sharma. "But there were people at Nortel who understood what Wipro could offer."
Sixteen years later, the doubts seem to have been laid to rest.
Source: Outsourcing Journal, http://www.outsourcing-journal.com