Offshore Lore- Myths and facts of white-collar outsourcing

Reason ^ | July 30, 2003 | Jeff Taylor

[FreedomPoster]

Done right/reasonably, it's a good way to look at what you're doing and figure out some common sense ways to make it better.

Done wrong, it's a horrible hell of studies and process changes to try to improve some poorly conceived "key process indicator" measurement.

[philosofy123]

The Republicans support of big business and management against the working stiffs brings in an explanation of why there are people who still vote Democrat. I wish the screaming patriotic Republicans would spend more effort worrying about the American jobs, American product. Not with protectionist policies, but with policies that nurture, and enhances the viability of American workers/product.

[Mr. Bird]

I tend to be migrating towards health care, health care billing, electronic medical record, etc.

You should look into PACS (Picture Archiving and Communication Systems), which is the electronic archiving and routing of health care imaging services. HUGE opportunities there, and very interesting stuff.

[ninenot]

factory workers who assemble parts all day.

Don't be too quick to judge...

If you've ever SEEN the inside of a high-production, close-tolerance factory lately, you might understand that those "factory workers" actually have more than motor skills.

Understanding the machine's 'go/no-go' signs (and understanding what to do about them, and when) are requirements.

Understanding the maintenance and upkeep of machines are requirements.

Understanding that the engineering drawings and reality are not necessarily congruent is a requirement.

"Nuts onto bolts" exists--but is less a part of manufacturing than you may suspect.

[ninenot]

And the difficulty of developing good software increases as the distance between the programmer and the end user increases.

There are two other very important issues which have to do with this comment: 1) "protecting the business," (ensuring that the overall business entity remains viable---using a sense of what the business IS to guide your work..) and 2) SECURITY.

There will be some serious incidents overseas which eventually will convince US firms that it's better to have the manufacturing/coding right here in the USA.

They haven't happened, yet.

[LizardQueen]

Sorry - I should've been more specific and/or used a different example.

My father worked for a toy company for years - they had mentally handicapped people on the assembly line who stood there and put the eyeballs onto the dolls face (then the machine would come down and push them into the head).

That's the kind of repetitious, scripted, and no-too-mentally-taxing kind of work that upper management seems to think we do.

LQ

[ninenot]

Albert Einstein once said, "Great Spirits have always met violent opposition from mediocre minds"

Obviously a whiner.

[VOA]

bump

[Tokhtamish]

Most of my career has been in banking/finance. I am focussing myself towards both money transfer and fixed income securities valuation.

In financial services you have to be a subject matter expert. There are tons of coders.

[toothless]

"what the heck GW-BASIC was"

Gee Wizz.

[ninenot]

Nothin like an old-fashun straight BAL linear on a 3090 watercooled.

[discostu]

Already is. The "early adopters" of the Indian programmers who blazed this trail 6 years ago are moving resources back (or have gone under, shows what a great move that was). For whatever reason word isn't spreading very quickly in the industry, either that or it's ego and companies are insisting they will succeed where others fail. Either way in a few years the trend will be reversing.

[Tokhtamish]

For there to be a continuous feedback loop between IT and the users there must be proximity and continuity.

But for the moment the bean counters rule corporate culture. The same reason Hollywood only makes stupid FX sequels is the motive behind outsourcing.

[LizardQueen]

Nothin like an old-fashun straight BAL linear on a 3090 watercooled.

LOL, that's what I cut my tech teeth on.

And can you disassemble the instruction out of the dump using a 370 reference card? :::lol:::

LQ

[BubbaBasher]

Try competing with 12 year olds for web development projects! These kids and the other newbies have no concept of change control, test plans, human factors testing, data flow analysis or other critical skills that are needed for a successful projects. All the manager sees is a bargain basement price and a quick turn-around.

[harpseal]

Maybe an IT union is necessary.

I for one do nott see an IT Union as a good thing. Historically Unions have not done well for their members during economic downturns and they tend to get dominated by very anti-business types who put more roadblocks in the way of advancement tahn anything else. I prefer the profssional association model personally if we need an organization which I remain unconvinced of the need for such a formal organization.

[samuel_adams_us]

Whiner?? Considering Albert Einstein had more smarts in his left butt cheek than you do in your whole family tree, I would say I trust his statement more.

[discostu]

I'm not sure about that "except in software companies". Goal #1 when a company gets past 100 people seems to be to deny they're a software company. They make up all kinds of new words just to avoid words like "software" or "program". For instance I work for a "communications solution providor" whatever the hell that is.

Other than that you're right on the money.

[discostu]

Outsorcing was going strong under Clinton too, but since the economy looked good nobody gave a damn, it's only when the shine comes off the economy that people start worrying about things like this. If we get back up to 4% growth nobody will care again.

[FreedomPoster]

>>They haven't happened, yet.

Or we just haven't heard about them, as they've been hushed up. I imagine they could cause a serious confidence/stock value slide.