Companies That Offshore
Offshore outsourcing can be an effective tool for businesses to find the best talent in their niche. It can also help reduce costs for labor, boost revenues and boost competitiveness of the company.
But companies that offshore must be aware of the risks associated with. Moving design offshore along with manufacturing can deprive a firm of its engineering and design capabilities.
Telstra
Telstra has come a long way from its humble beginnings as an unassuming government-owned company. Today it is a huge private telecommunications business that operates all over the world. It is also Australia's largest fixed-line telephony company.
The company's success can be attributed to its innovative solutions and strong investment strategy. When offshore company consultant were scarce in the early years, the company invested heavily into new technology and recognized that the telecommunications sector was a great growth area. This was a great decision as 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 allowed people to keep connected to their loved loved ones wherever they were.
During the 90s, the company was faced with major challenges, such as deregulation and competition from rival companies. However, it was not content to be in a rut and devised aggressive plans to respond to these changes. It poured $200 billion into infrastructure and heavily invested in it. It also came up with a new idea and launched BigPond which is a high-speed internet service for consumers.
It also reduced its workforce and outsourced a few of its tasks, which led to savings in costs. In addition, it implemented an organizational structure that divided roles into functional groups rather than an traditional hierarchy. This gave superior managers to exercise greater control over their area of expertise.
Recently, Telstra announced that it will be bringing its call centres back to Australia and that by 2021, all its consumer and small business calls will be answered in the country. Telstra has made a major move forward, and it will have a positive effect on its customers. However Telstra will continue to run offshore call centers for its larger international business customers.
GE
General Electric (GE) was founded by Thomas Edison in 1892 and quickly became one of the most successful American companies. In the 1980s GE bought several large companies such as Employer's Reinsurance and Kidder Peabody. In this period, GE's revenue rose from $5 billion to $70 billion. Despite these successes analysts have been unsure if GE's success is sustainable.
Presently, GE is focusing on industrial technology and services such as medical, renewable energy, and power. It has also invested in additive machines, also known as 3-D printers, which can be used to design new products and components. Additionally the financial arm of GE provides commercial credit and leasing.
The company's most popular product is the GE washer and dryer, which has been used in American homes for more than 80 years. It was the first machine to wash and tumble dry clothes. This was a groundbreaking invention for households. GE manufactures not just appliances, but also medical devices, aircraft engines, and generators of power. GE plans to expand its digital business in the near future. This includes commercial software from Wurldtech and cybersecurity technologies.
GE also offshoring its most important business processes to India where wages are lower than those in the US. Its captive offshoring company, GE Capital International Services (GECIS) employed 12,000 workers in 2004. In 2005, GE spun off its stake in GECIS to create Genpact, a BPO company named Genpact. GE remains a big client of Genpact which has a staff of around 20,000 employees. The company has recently diversified its business by purchasing the manufacturer of the Osprey drone. GE has also made significant investments in the wind sector with a contract to provide 87 Haliade-14MW wind turbines from Dogger Bank C.
IBM
International Business Machines is one of the largest technology companies around the globe, with its headquarters in Armonk, New York. The company provides hardware, software, and services to the IT industry. It also offers financing to help its clients acquire IT systems and software. Additionally, it runs research labs across the globe. The company's innovative research began in the 1880s, when Julius E. Pitrat invented the computing scale and Alexander Dey created the dial recorder. Herman Hollerith also created the tabulating device.
The corporate vision statement of the company is a reflection of its commitment towards leadership in the market and industry for information technology. It states that the company will provide top-quality services by creating business models that combine technological expertise and industry knowledge. It also focuses on customer satisfaction and value creation, which is crucial element to its long-term success.
In recent years, IBM expanded its services business. It also rebranded itself as cloud computing platform and a cognitive solutions company. The company's software lineup includes analytics-related offerings, such as Cognos and SPSS. It also offers IT infrastructure software, such as the IBM WebSphere application server and MQ messaging middleware. It also provides mobile and security software such as the IBM Verse business email offering and the IBM QRadar security intelligence platform.
In recent years, the company's hardware sales have decreased due to a shift in corporate IT spending from on-premises facilities to central providers like Amazon Web Services. In the meantime, IBM has focused on its services and business consulting businesses, and has made a number of acquisitions to increase its presence in these areas. IBM has also made significant investments in cloud computing and has a global presence.
Accenture
Accenture is a top provider of management consulting outsourcing, technology and management consulting across the globe. Accenture has a range of strengths that provide it with a competitive advantage that include extensive industry expertise and knowledge of cutting-edge technology solutions, strong partnerships with leading technology vendors and a global scale and reach.
Marketing procurement, supply chains, learning and management of human resources and finance are all a part of the company's operations. It also has a presence in more than 120 countries. Accenture also provides a range of specific services in addition to its primary offerings. For instance, it offers SAP S/4HANA development and fast-tracking customer journeys to digital businesses. It also offers IT and security consulting services.
In the past, companies have outsourced some production functions in order to reduce costs and improve competitiveness. In the garment industry, for example, many production functions have been outsourced Asian countries. But recently increasing numbers of companies are focusing on providing services instead of product manufacturing. This shift has resulted in a growing need for professionals who have experience in IT and digital services. The benefit is that these skills are transferable across different industries.
Accenture has many clients and is growing in the most important markets. Its client base includes 91 of the Fortune Global 100 and more than three-quarters of the Fortune Global 500. Accenture also collaborates with companies such as Apple, Google, and Oracle to develop new technologies. For example, Accenture has partnered with SAP to create an intelligent platform solution that helps upstream oil and gas companies to reduce complexity by using market standards. The solution is currently being tested by a consortium of major oil and gas companies including BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Equinor. This partnership shows how companies are moving past traditional outsourcing to focus on services and innovation.
Microsoft
Microsoft is one of the world's most successful producers of operating systems and application software for personal computers. The most well-known products are the Windows series of software as well as the Office suite, and the Internet Explorer web browser. However, the company has faced accusations of monopoly and anti-competitive behaviour. In the 1990s it set up a complex network of offshore entities to transfer intellectual property and reduce taxes.
If a client purchases Office in Seattle, the profit doesn't take the short route to Microsoft's headquarters in nearby Redmond. The money begins an extended journey, first going through a Nevada sales subsidiary, which does not tax corporate income. Then, it crosses the Atlantic to an Bermudan company and is finally taxed at Bermuda's zero-percent rate.
Then, the money goes to a Puerto Rican company that accounts for research costs and passes a small portion to an Irish firm. The company has utilized structures similar to this in other countries such as Britain and Germany. The software giant has saved billions of dollars in tax due to this arrangement.
Congress is now suing the software giant to change its offshore policy. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations has said that the company, along with other tech companies employ offshore units and loopholes to avoid paying taxes. The panel is investigating allegations of tax evasion by tech firms, including Google owner Alphabet and Apple who have shifted billions in profits to low-tax jurisdictions.
The partnership between SSE Renewables, Avanade and the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure is a part of a larger project to reduce the impact of wind farms on the environment. The collaboration will develop digital instruments to better monitor the impact of wind farms on the local ecosystem. The tools will be used in aquariums to enhance wildlife identification and abundance monitoring.