Forget outsourcing, it's all about co-learning these days

Whenever we hear about an engagement involving a service provider, the immediate reaction is “How many people are being laid off?” and “What are the expected savings?” We need to move away from that attitude with some of the new wave of engagements we are seeing in this economy

We’re operating in an world where firms need to focus on what they’re really good at, and ensuring they can deliver their wares to market faster, smarter and at lower cost. This means firms need to embrace the skills and talent they need to make it possible, and forge partnerships with other firms to maximize their opportunity and market efficacy.

One prime example of this is the new partnership between UK-based industrials magnate Invensys and leading IT-BPO service provider Cognizant. Invensys wants to focus on on its core competency of product definition and architecture and developing its industrial automation platform, with Cognizant being its technology partner for product development.

This engagement proves especially convenient, as the majority of Invensys’ R&D staff work in the same building as Cognizant’s facility in Hyderabad, India. Cognizant will immediately hire …

This engagement proves especially convenient, as the majority of Invensys’ R&D staff work in the same building as Cognizant’s facility in Hyderabad, India. Cognizant will immediately hire 400 of them, with a further 100 being added in the coming months.

Invensys benefits from Cognizant’s processes, tools and estimation methods and increased talent capacity, and Cognizant can come-up-to-speed faster as a serious technology and BPO services provider in the manufacturing space. This deal also frees up money for Invensys to hire onshore and offshore people in product management and consulting in its core business of control and automation.

Invensys can now focus more on the customer-interaction side, with Cognizant as an execution engine. Invensys will also be able to leverage Cognizant 2.0’s knowledge management tool, which has been active for 3 years’ now, where its practitioners can access process maps, industry solution templates and pre-packaged application accelerators. Moreover, they get to collaborate with experts across Cognizant’s global enterprise.

Invensys can focus on where it’s best, and Cognizant can make a surge into the manufacturing industry. Invensys will learn from Cognizant’s technology skills and Cognizant from Invensys’ manufacturing process and operations prowess. Jobs are not lost, and existing employees are going to enhance their careers with new industry and technology knowledge. If this partnership works, both firms will end up creating more jobs to support their expanding business portfolios.

Outsourcing? Sounds more like a co-learning exercise to me.