Microsoft News Tracker

Paula Rooney at InformationWeek - Microsoft’s Oasis Pushes More App Dev Offshore:

Microsoft is pushing more of its internal application development work offshore as part of a project called Oasis.
Oasis aims to hand over more of its internal systems development and business application development work to a handful of global systems integrators including Infosys, Wipro, Tata, EDS and BearingPoint, said sources familiar with the plan.

Partners that currently engage in application development work for Microsoft’s IT group must now go through a new process, sources said. Oasis, however, has no impact on Microsoft’s product development efforts or partners that develop products with Microsoft, sources said. “The initiative is being pushed by Microsoft’s internal IT organization,” said one source familiar with the Oasis project. “The IT group is pushing business units to work through key partners to ensure privacy and security standards are met and Microsoft is getting the best cost deal.”

A Microsoft spokesman indicates that the “offshoring” aspect is secondary to the procedure change.