February 28, 2004
Outsource Outrage
I have stopped being open-minded for the moment about outsourcing and offshoring. When I open my mind again, I'll point first to Bob Cringely and start from there. For the time being, I have noticed that my particular niche of the IT business requires a lot of hands-on management. So I'm going to pretend that the ethics don't concern me and profit from the protectionist sentiment.
I am genuinely convinced, according both to my experience and commentary, that offshoring of software development is very difficult and is really a 'get what you pay for' deal. There are a lot of functions that can be offshored, and I think that if it were done logically, you would find some of the reverse of things being done now. Operations should be offshored - basically anything you would send to an ASP to manage, not building new things. Customer support, well I think that whole industry is lacking in the genuine common touch. Call Centers should be in Montana, not Mumbai. Why isn't there a Congressman hooked up with this?
Anyone who asks to offshore software development is asking for political trouble as well as quality control and management headaches. While I might not agree with some of the political sentiment, I don't mind that people get those headaches.
By the way, I want to say big up to Sprint PCS, because it is clear to my ears as well as personal conversations that they've hired a bunch of CSRs from the 'hood.
Posted by mbowen at February 28, 2004 02:20 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.visioncircle.org/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1559
Comments
software development, like most other engineering disciplines, requires systematic thinking and rigorous application of logic. where in Indian society are these traits prevalent ? America if nothing else is far more logical than any other country/society existant; we have fewer rituals and traditions to get in the way of a problem's solution. if Indian programmers are capable of writing quality software, then where is the commercial proof of this. i.e. operating systems, business applications, games, etc ? there is a reason that America leads the world in software development -- because we inculcate the necessary thinking patterns (at least in some people) from an early age.
Posted by: chris at March 2, 2004 06:18 PM