Whether an insurer is looking to outsource systems development, IT maintenance, or business processes, and whether its vendor is located next door or offshore, going out of house can deliver a jolt to the system of an IT department. There are important steps a carrier needs to take to minimize cultural problems and maximize outsourcings effectiveness.
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Even if your company never has done any outsourcing at all, you probably can intuit cultural differences will come up in an offshore outsourcing arrangement. You also likely already know some cultural faux pas: pocketing the business card of a Japanese associate without giving it careful review or suggesting a steak dinner to visiting staff from India, for example.
Yet often, companies still are stunned by the magnitude of cultural issues that can arise in offshore outsourcing, according to Stephanie Moore, analyst at Forrester Research. [Cultural challenges] definitely can threaten projects, she says, and big cultural miscues can jeopardize an entire outsourcing relationship.
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