This is a subject of interest to me, also, and I archived a couple
of net-based stories. One of them is "mad as hell" (opinion)
called "The high price of overseas outsourcing" written by Larry
Lange and appearing on TechWeb 10 January 2003.
The 3-million-job-by-2015 estimate appears to have come from
Forrester Research, or else they independently came up with it.
Quoting from the article,
"And what began as loading off the scut work is now moving up
the food chain--so that even more (and more-experienced) IT pros
will be affected. And the feds don't seem to mind, judging from the
comments of Bush IT czar Mark Forman: "We don't care if it's
built overseas or in the U.S. as long as it's built to the same high
standards."
"It's hard to ignore...the advantages of doing this" [outsourcing],
a Gartner research director admits. "So, if you can get it to work,
it can be beneficial."
If you can get it to work.
Fact is, this just may not work, at least not in the near term. The
language barriers alone are mind-boggling; I can't even read the
menus at fancy French, Italian or even Spanish restaurants--and
now you're telling me a 500-page contract on a mission-critical project
outsourced to China could be discerned by an IS manager drawing
up the specs?
But there are other major obstacles. Pricing differences, confidentiality,
and intellectual property issues, and the unavailability of NAFTA
'treaty national' visas come to mind. And what about the political
stability of the country in which the outsourcer does business? What
about security?
Quality control? (The article goes on to discuss need for training
in QC issues, relationship management and foreign customs.
The lack of business-process depth is discussed, creating projects
that lack added-value, innovation or insights.
Another issue discussed in the article is human-rights and working
conditions. The CEO of the US-based outsourcing firm Intelegy,
Vail Dutto, toured 20 sites in India and "found that most were not
air-conditioned". Gartner Group found that sites in the Philippines
"pushed employees [who lack personal transportation] to work
late-night hours".
[end of quoted or referenced material]
So there you have it. The official position of your OWN GOVERNMENT
is that your economic future is not important. I wonder if there is any
other industrialized nation that seems to have so little regard for its own
citizens, for the enrichment of big corporations that have no national
allegiances...corporations that have a working, successful business
model even before all this began. Maybe just not 'successful' enough
for the personal egos of those at the top.
And a personal note. I spent a few weeks in South India (Tamil Nadu
state) in February, 3 years ago, when the daytime temp reaches about 95 F.
During the summer, it gets to over 120 F often. And as far as the QC issues,
I'll just say that, I believe there are serious questions that need to be
looked at. Sweatshop --indeed!
And when these managers get to the Asian countries, they will encounter
many nationals who will tell you anything, to please you. They will smile
and be happy and pleasant. But getting the details of anything that is
a problem, or is somehow 'bad news' will be very difficult. And the
Westerner
has to bend over backwards to avoid doing anything critical of the national,
that
would cause him to 'lose face' --even if the national has caused the
problem.
May we all live in 'interesting times'.
> At 07:03 PM 7/22/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> >"During the call, I.B.M's top employee relations executives said that
> >three million service jobs were expected to shift to foreign workers
> >by 2015 and that I.B.M. should move some of its jobs now done in the
> >United States, including software design jobs, to India and other
> >countries."
> >
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