Plugging into Offshore Outsourcing of Software Development: a Multiple Case Study

This paper explores the practice and trends of offshore outsourcing of systems development in two countries; namely, Finland and India. In particular, it deliberates upon the driving forces and obstacles of the offshore outsourcing. The viewpoints of the participating companies were researched using a multiple case study method. The findings indicate that the imperative for engaging in offshore outsourcing systems development and the obstacles encountered do not depart from similar findings in information systems (IS) literature. However, a novel finding of this present study is the use of a software house (broker) on the Finnish side that acts a buffer for other local firms with little or no experience in offshore outsourcing. On the other hand, the Indian software house in this study engages in offshore systems development with their Finnish counterparts for reasons espoused in IS literature. Furthermore, the role of trust, the nature of the project outsourced and the importance of selecting the right partners are considered vital to the success of the arrangement. The implication of the study is that it enhances our knowledge of cross-cultural outsourcing in systems development, which may be useful to practitioners and academics alike.