Review and Critique of a Magazine Article

¶ … Offshoring IT: Beyond the usual suspects" by Karl Flinders (January 19, 2016), Computer

This paper provides a summary of the title article together with a detailed conclusion concerning the contribution the article makes to the topic of offshoring information technology (IT) services. In addition, an evaluation concerning the authoritativeness of the article including the qualifications of the author, the scholarly nature of the publication, the use of citations and reference sources within the article, the intended audience of the article, and the overall format and style of writing of the article. Finally, the paper concludes with an assessment concerning whether this article should or should not be considered to be authoritative according to formal academic considerations.

In this article, Flinders draws on authoritative sources to make the point that growing number of businesses of all types and sizes are electing to outsource their IT needs, with India, China and Malaysia, respectively, being the locations of choice for the majority. Notwithstanding the market share that is enjoyed by China and Malaysia, though, India still remains the leader in the IT outsourcing industry by far, and Flinders makes the point that it will take a great deal of resources and time to reverse this market dominance.

There are some signs that there is emerging competition from Eastern European countries, however, that may eventually derail India's domination of the IT outsourcing industry, with Poland, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine modeling the way for other former satellites of the Soviet Union. Likewise, a number of countries in Africa and the Middle East are also jumping on the IT outsourcing bandwagon, including most especially the African nations of Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Mauritius, Tunisia), Morocco and Senegal and the Middle Eastern nations of Jordan and Israel.

To his credit, Flinders provide hyperlinks for all of the authoritative (primary) sources he cites in this article, including the following:

The A.T. Kearney Global Services Location Index;

Peter Schumacher, director at business consultancy The Value Leadership Group; and,

Jerry Marshall, director at Transcend Support, Palestine;

In addition, the author provides a series of hyperlinks to other information concerning IT offshoring trends as follows:

The government in China is attempting to develop an IT services industry through tax cuts, financial support and reducing bureaucracy.

The Philippines challenges India as a destination for outsourcing in Tholons Top 100 report.

Low-cost, highly skilled IT labor and a relatively close proximity to the UK is making Eastern Europe an increasingly attractive destination for UK businesses.