GPI
Consultancy - a company profile
GPI Consultancy is a
Rotterdam-based consulting company, and was founded in 1994. We are
one of the few independent Dutch consultancy firms in the field of offshoring
(offshore sourcing, offshore outsourcing). Our focus is on promoting offshoring
in The Netherlands and to assist our clients in areas such
as offshore sourcing strategy, country & partner selection, offshore
transition, and cultural training. We work for large and mediumsized fims (both
IT-firms and enduser-organizations). We have an extensive network in The
Netherlands and because of our long-standing research, an in-depth knowledge of
the Dutch market for offshore sourcing. We are familiar with the supply side in
many parts of the world: the IT sector in Central- and Eastern-Europe, Asia,
Latin-America, the Middle-East and Africa.
We have two main
areas of activity: the promotion of offshore IT sourcing in The Netherlands,
and conducting consulting activities in the field of offshoring.
1.
The promotion of offshore IT sourcing
It is
expected that the Dutch offshore market will show an annual growth of around 30%, even
though the advantages of offshoring are not yet widely known: many smaller and
medium-sized companies are not sufficiently informed. In addition, the
knowledge about the IT-opportunities in
countries other than India is limited. In order to
promote offshoring, we conduct several marketing and promotional activities and some
examples are listed:
Organizing
general seminars on offshoring
Since the year 2000, we organize full-day and half-day
seminars on offshoring. Large-scale marketing actions are used to attract
participants. With speakers on different topics, they include Dutch case studies
on a range of nearshore and farshore countries (e.g. India, Czech Republic, Romania, Ukraine, Malta,
Bulgaria, Russia, Bangladesh, Serbia, Malaysia).
An
example is our seminar ‘IT opportunities in India’;
this was our 10th public event and took
place on 12 November 2007 in Amsterdam. It was organized on behalf of the Indian
government organization ESC (Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion
Council). There were around 90 visitors, including a
delegation of Indian IT-companies.
The following public events are currently being prepared by us:
OffshoreNet.nl
- a new Dutch portal on offshore sourcing
A large number of offshore services providers, from a wide range of
countries, are targeting the
Dutch market. It is difficult for potential Dutch users to get an overview of
this broad
supply
of companies. Since there is no specific Dutch portal on offshore
sourcing, we are developing the new
website www.OffshoreNet.nl,
which will contain articles, reports, case studies,
press releases and company
information. Please contact us if you are interested in supplying
material.
Arranging
press coverage / writing articles
In order to promote offshoring, staff of GPI Consultancy is involved in
writing articles in IT and business magazines and in assisting journalists.
Sofar, more than 100 articles in the
Dutch language have been published. We have also been involved in several radio broadcasts and in the first Dutch
TV-production on global software outsourcing. Some of our own examples in the English
language:
Assisting
individual IT companies
GPI
Consultancy also assists individual offshore service providers, in order to
introduce their services to a new group of potential customers. Small-scale
events are co-organized (e.g. an afternoon event, or an IT-Dinner), where we
give a presentation on the advantages of offshoring. Other presentations are
given by the offshore provider, and preferably by one of their Dutch clients. In
order to attract participants, free copies of the
new book: "Offshoring Information Technology - Sourcing and Outsourcing to
a Global Workforce" (see below) are handed out as a
gift to the participants.
Distributing
a book on IT offshoring
Paul Tjia, the founder of GPI Consultancy, wrote a book on international
IT collaboration, together with Professor Erran Carmel
(American University, USA). "Offshoring Information Technology -
Sourcing and Outsourcing to a Global Workforce" contains more than 300 pages and is one of the most detailed
publications available on the subject. As
an American IT-manager commented after reading it: "Had it been
available, it would have positively influenced productivity and performance
in offshore IT work - and saved sleepless nights for many people!" The book
will therefore be a great gift for managers and staff of offshore service
providers and also for the (potential) users of these services. The
book has been reprinted in 2006 and 2007; the
full Table Of Contents is available at: http://www.gpic.nl/book.htm
Organizing
seminars on a specific country
Together with CzechTrade and the
Czech ICT Alliance, GPI Consultancy organized a match-making event in Rotterdam
(23 November 2005). Nine IT companies from the Czech
Republic attended the workshop at Digital Port in the World Trade Centre; with
more than 60 visitors it was the best-visited event of all the foreign events of
the Czech ICT Alliance in 2005. The program can be found at: http://www.czechtradeoffices.com/Global?xml=/news/detail.xml&id-news=9656
A
similar marketing event took place on IT opportunities in Malta (Huizen, 14
April 2005). Previous an unknown software destination, the first IT-company from
Malta has recently established a Dutch office: Crimsonwing is now working
successfully for local clients.
Discussing
the marketing of offshore services
Many offshore countries want to increase their
software and IT exports. "Brazil Outsourcing 2005" was the
first of a series of yearly events and took place in Rio de Janeiro. More
than 100 participants took part in the conference (7 and 8 July 2005). GPI
Consultancy participated at this event and a presentation was given on how
Brazilian service providers could increase exports to the world market. The
program is available at: http://www.braziloutsourcing.com.br
Presentations
on the international marketing of offshore services are also given to individual
IT companies, both in Holland and abroad.
Taking
part in events organized by others
In order to promote
offshoring, GPI Consultancy often takes part in events organized by others. Some
recent examples are:
Organizing
IT study tours
A
Dutch IT business mission took place in May 2006 and
had China as the destination. The goal of the mission was to give the Dutch
participants detailed information about offshoring, and especially about the IT
opportunities in China. The business
delegation visited Chinese IT service providers in Shanghai and Beijing.
The trip had an informal character, with a visit to a university, an
IT-Park and also with some attention to cultural and tourist elements. From
20-27 October 2007, we took part in a unique IT business trip to
North-Korea/China: http://www.gpic.nl/NK-IT-tour.pdf.
For 2008, our first Dutch IT-mission to Latin America (Colombia and Ecuador) is
being planned.
A
large-scale marketing action
was used to attract participants. As
part of the promotional activities, a first seminar
on the IT opportunities in China took place on 4 October 2005 in Amsterdam.
See: http://www.offshorechina.nl/
Organizing
journalist
missions
We have contacts
with a large number of Dutch journalists, and it is possible for us to arrange
press delegations to foreign countries, in order to have articles published
about their offshore potential. An example is Nepal, and a full-page article on its IT
capabilities has been printed in the largest Dutch newspaper De
Telegraaf.
GPI Consultancy can also arrange for press coverage on individual companies (articles can be
written for IT magazines or for business
and general newspapers).
Trade
fair participation (The Netherlands / other countries) 
2.
GPI Consultancy – Offshore
consulting
activities
GPI Consultancy is involved in
a wide range of offshore consulting activities, such as:
Offshore
strategy services
Offshoring begins with an
alignment of the IT strategy to the overall business strategy. The actual
offshore journey starts with developing an offshore strategy and an operational
plan. A feasibility stage could result in the conducting of a low-risk pilot
project. We have been involved in various activities, such as: defining the strategic goals of offshoring; assessing the offshore readiness, in order to decide if the organization
is really ready for offshore; country selection and identification of potential
offshore IT providers; issuing an RFI and RPF and contract negotiations.
Offshore
transition consulting services
The offshore transition is a complex and critical process,
especially if large amounts of IT work have to be transferred offshore. The
focus of GPI Consultancy is on the three main topics in the management processes and structures that lead to successful
transitioning of IT work offshore: change management (overcoming the
inertia and resistance within the organization to a difficult change); knowledge
transfer (developing a knowledge transfer process) and governance (establishing
structures, roles and responsibilities, to ensure that control, coordination and
relationships are functioning smoothly between client and provider in offshore
sourcing).
Cultural
training services
Improving the “cultural
fit’ when working together. We give lectures in workshops: "how to deal
with the Indian business culture" for Dutch and Belgian users of
Indian offshore services. We also conduct workshops: "how to deal with the
Dutch business culture" for the IT staff of foreign offshore providers.
Contact
details
We
can be contacted at:
GPI Consultancy, P.O. Box 26151, 3002 ED Rotterdam, The Netherlands, tel: +31-10-4254172, fax:
+31-10-4254317, E-mail: GPI Consultancy
