The Evolution of the Internal Offshore Software Development Model at Dell Inc.

Global software development not only enables lower operational costs, but makes it possible for companies to have an organizational branch which can drive standardization across all IT segments. Dell Inc global development services took off in 2001 and since then has expanded to Brazil, two centers in India, and one center in Russia. For six years these centers were to some extent independent, and performed the role of a software development consulting/factory inside Dell. Now, the global development centers have migrated to a business centric model, on which they are no longer a separate structure, but directly bound to the IT segments of each business area. The purpose of this paper is to show the evolution of the internal offshore software development model adopted by Dell and the results achieved by this endeavor.