Ranganathan, Krishnan, & Glickman (2007) looked at how a billion-dollar travel retail company (GlobShop) outsourced its IT activities especially after the September 11th, 2011 attacks. Unfortunately, as a result of outsourcing, the company had reduced its workforce by over 50%.

“Duty” is a term used to describe a variety of taxes imposed on goods. Duty-free shopping allows tourists to purchase goods at lower prices. In the 1950’s, GlobShop sold foreign cars and liquor, and with the growth of global travel, GlobShop began to expand worldwide.

Drawbacks occurred with the Gulf War of 1990 as well as economic recessions. Therefore, the company would have to find a way to lift itself back up. Soon IT operation at GlobShop was decentralized and each region had its own IT division that catered to the local needs.

To follow was a major IT reorganization that would pave the way for significant cost savings. After studying the problems and issues, Rogers (CIO) of GlobShop proposed an approach for reorganization. The idea was to bring together the ten regional IT units into one global IT unit, with all the IT operations dispersed in two centres: one in Asia and one in the USA.

Highlights of the new reorganization included:
- Centralized global IT budget
- Streamlined IT governance
- Consolidation and standardization

Also as a part of reorganization, GlobShop cut its IT costs by outsourcing a part of application and maintenance. They hired an Indian vendor (ISS)-Indo Systems Solutions for on-site maintenance and enhancements of the merchandising system.

As a result of the 9/11 events in New York, air travel was severely affected and with less people traveling, major airport retailers like GlobShop were hit hard. Off-shoring was a solution to this drawback.

The off-shoring effort was to be implemented as a part of its overall IT reorganization. The