Vendors or Service Providers?

Vendors are also listening. If you scrutinise the latest .Net and WebServices announcements, you will realise that vendors are nowpromoting the outsourcing concept themselves - not merely enabling it.In fact, companies like IBM are pouring millions of dollars inbuilding facilities that allow them to provide outsourcing services,calling it eBusiness on Demand.

"We define it as services that empower our customers to do more withe-business, improve implementation times and reduce capitalexpenditures to advance a business faster and easier," says Lee HanKiat, general manager for e-business hosting, at IBM Global ServicesAsia Pacific.

IBM's motivation is simple: the walls between companies may becomeincreasingly permeable to the flow of information, but they will notfall. Businesses are not suddenly going to shed their corporateclothes and run off to join outsourcing communes.

IBM's goal is to free companies from the costly shackles that tiecompanies to IT, for a fee. "Their dedicated infrastructure andbusiness processes, shared by several departments or locations, can bemanaged by IBM out of their premises or at IBM e-Business HostingCentres," says Lee.