MetLife Weighs Offshore Options

Successful offshore IT outsourcing projects are leading some companies to consider moving entire business processes offshore. Mukesh Mehta, VP for information technology at insurance company MetLife Inc., says that although his company has no plans to outsource business-process management, "many companies are starting to do this, and I suspect we will, too."

Mehta says the cost savings offered by offshore outsourcing are too attractive to ignore for most IT-related activities. The company is working with Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., which has helped MetLife upgrade its human-resource systems remotely from Indian data centers. Mehta says MetLife saved about 30% in costs by moving the project offshore. MetLife began working with Cognizant last year, and now the latter has 350 staffers working on the MetLife account.

Mehta says that if MetLife should move significantly more work offshore, it might look for additional partners to minimize risk. "On the other hand, I don't believe you should have a dozen partners because then it's not a real relationship," he says.

Analysts say that if business remains weak, it's likely more companies will move work offshore. Says Forrester Research analyst John McCarthy, "They won't be able to afford not to."