On 1 Mar 2007 11:31:12 -0800, in bit.listserv.ibm-main you wrote: >On Mar 1, 2007, at 11:08 AM, Rick Fochtman wrote: > >> -----------------------<snip>--------------------- >> A friend made a very good point that many sysprogs lost their jobs >> in OZ due to outsourcing; like one company had 8 SP, then >> outsourced, & eventually ended up with 2 SP supporting a few sites. >> >> Has this also been a factor in US? >> -----------------------<unsnip>------------------- >> It's a factor, but I'm not sure how great a factor. >------------SNIP------------------------------------ > >The one place I was familiar with(7+ years ago). I heard they have >outsourced to India. Supposedly all their systems staff is being let >go and will be supported out of India. It is too early in the process >to know if it will work or not, IMO. My gut instinct is that it will >not work but I am not in any real position to know. I suspect that >the positions here will be around (although numbers will be smaller) >for some time. What I am really curious about when it falls flat on >its face. > >Ed > Outsourcing means giving up some control. The legal implications and responsibilities when something goes wrong should be the subject of careful negotiation. When the entities are in two different states (United State of America, India or Germany for example) or provinces (Canada for example), the legal issues become somewhat more complex. When the entities are in two different countries, the complications escalate. The Patriot Act in the United States has some Canadians worried about privacy violations (probably correctly) and this concern led to people opposing the outsourcing of some government processing (health care) in British Columbia to a US based company. Outsourcing within the North American Free Trade Act area or within the European Union is probably less risky than between the two entities. My rule of thumb would be "don't outsource to a jurisdiction where the company doing the outsourcing doesn't have a strong physical presence". The strong physical presence gives greater assurance that the company knows local laws and customs (greater, not absolute).
The thing that has baffled me about outsourcing is how do companies actually save money since now the outsourcer includes in its costs marketing expenses and profits. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
