Fluor Corporation was required to cut operating costs, and in particular, the budget for IT operation was to remain fixed in absolute dollar terms for the next several years. However demand for IT services continued to grow within the company. In addition, the impending Y2K conversion and testing would require more resources to be able to meet the deadline. As a consequence, the company looked offshore to gain more value for its IT budget and elected to use LST services.

To begin with the company adopted a prudent approach, rather than moving sizeable application systems and work process to offshore. A set of selection criteria were put in place to determine the most suitable application system for offshore development, maintenance and support.

The project was timely, as the company’s Y2K preparation was also just beginning. The Y2K assessment, conversion and testing for each application was then used to provide the knowledge transfer necessary to allow LST to move the application maintenance and support offshore. After an application was Y2K ready, LST continued to provide the maintenance and support, as well as production support.

The strategy remains today, even after the Y2K conversion, with LST providing the maintenance and support for an increasing number of application systems, both old and new.