Outsourcing - Harder workers and Better results vs. American Protectionism and the "Current State of Unemployment"

President Obama recently visited India and did not visit the cities that President Bush did, namely the IT hubs Bangalore and Hyderabad. Obama visits India Furthermore, in a related article, India's National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda rebutted arguments that India robbed American jobs by stating that outsourcing job training to India could reduce costs to American companies while retaining American workers.  I believe that emotions are running high with the current level of unemployment and that President Obama is cognoscente of this fact.  That being said, I also believe both fiscally and economically that jobs should go to the hardest workers, in this instance, India's.  I'm saying "the current state of unemployment" as a tongue in cheek phrase.  I for one believe that many of America's unemployed and disinterested workers simply refused to do real work.  Having worked in the agricultural industry and worked night shifts cleaning warehouses, I understand the frustrations that many of American workers have.  However i do not agree that unemployment is a better alternative to labor intensive jobs.  That, I attribute to a bloated sense of  entitlement that only unemployment checks can bring.  Americans have high standards of living and low job skills, whilst many of India's workers have comparably lower standards of living to American workers with those same high job skills.  For a company, employing those who will yield the greatest value for the lowest pay is fiscally sound.  The left has never settled with this fact but neither have they settled with progress in economic terms.  I believe that Obama has found himself stuck in between a corner and a rock in this instance.  He has realized for the first time that America's workers are spoiled and that India's workers have much to offer.  Whether Obama will allow those who wish to contribute to America or not is his choice and from a liberal point of view he should, he is a descendent of immigrants and one would think he'd retain that perspective.  For the time period, it does not look like he wishes to lose more American jobs to overseas competition and I find it highly ironic for someone in his position to take the stance he is.  

Outsourcing from the other side

In 2008, I completed a summer internship in Hyderabad, India with a pharmaceutical company called Dr. Reddy's. In my free time, I wanted to learn more about the working culture of Indian people my age.  I had one idea from my internship but, I wanted to learn more about outsourcing as well.  So, I read a book called one night @ the call center by Chetan Bhagat. The book is 289 pages long and details out the events of one night at the Connexions Call Center in Delhi, India.  Through the book, I got a glimpse of what outsourcing is like. We see it as a cheap(er) alternative than paying someone stateside to do the same job, they saw it as just a job.  That job is starting to grow wings.  Due to a unique economic situation IT outsourcing to India is getting more expensive. It is a prime example of the digital economy flattening the world. Companies are looking for the best employees and paying more to get them.  We're seeing a fundamental change in the industry structure as it moves away from the low-cost model.  I can't predict what this will do to the industry, but I fear it could dampen the persona of India as a destination for outsourcing.  That being said, I am happy to hear that call center employees are getting paid more, I'm sure everyone has a story about a service call, hopefully it's about to get better!

P.S. A shout out to Pslaw he also references these premium call center employees as seen in "outsourced".


The Pricey Side of India's Low-Cost Outsourcing 

The handshake: Its the real thing.

Yahoo Executives Departure
Yahoo has recently seen a mass exodus of top level employees.  It presents an opportunity for a shift in power with the internet search giant.  The unique thing about this is the competitive nature of the company that caused a top level employee to leave her job.  Ms. Schneider secured a deal for Yahoo in 2006 selling newspaper ads.  Her performance didn't meet expectations so she is leaving the company.  What i read into this is that Ms. Schneider is making money for Yahoo, but all I'm hearing is "not good enough" and "she needs to go".  I realize that IT companies may not need personnel that possess above average "people skills" but i do think that securing a major contract for a company is valuable.  It qualifies as an asset for the company and assets are what keep the company moving forward.  My point in all of this is that sometimes people get wrapped up in thinking that IT is the future and that businesses will forever be changed with newer and more efficient business processes.  I must stop them and remind them that human to human interaction is unparalleled and will never be able to be reproduced by technology.  Ms. Schneider was a valuable asset that Yahoo may or may not have been wise in letting go, but the real nugget of truth here is in recognizing that IT would never have come about without the human capital necessary to create it.  So all you entrepreneurs and business people go and utilize IT to its fullest potential but never, never forget that there is nothing that can replace a handshake over a good business deal simply put, it's the real thing.

Finally, some real action being taken against the spam epidemic

Google Sues 'Rogue' Pharmacies We've all seen spam, mail order medicines on the cheap etc... Finally Google is stepping up to the plate and going toe to toe with these pests of cyberspace.  There is much debate on censorship on the internet and I believe we've yet to see to what extent that goes.  Just looking at the regulation of TV and Films i would suggest it is a reasonable suggestion that the internet will face something similar in the coming years.  Regardless of how or if it happens, at least we have Google on our side!

Google plans to start selling music

Just when I thought google had done everything I find them pursuing yet another avenue; a music service. Report: Google Music To Combine Cloud, Downloads I find myself surprised that google would target such a volitile market.  Music sales have suffered terribly since the advent of digital music.  From p2p illegal downloads, internet radio, or even purchases on itunes or other digital music vendors, the fact remains that customers are no longer willing to pay $20 for an album.  The music industry is being forced to become more efficient. 

Now we hear that google wants to enter into this market and I wonder if it will work or not? They intend to utilize the cloud to store your purchased music, then offer to let you to download it to your hard drive should you desire to.  This has the potential benefit of freeing up bandwidth that is often hogged by file sharing users downloading that same music.  Think of a hybrid pandora/itunes where you pay the songs you want access too but you never need to download them. Will the public accept this?  Do we need yet another vendor in the digital music market?  Itunes is a top dog in this industry but did you know about others such as amazon.com, rapsody.com, napster.com and even mp3.walmart.com also offer the same songs.  On a side note, Barnes and Noble offers music but you have to wait for a CD in the mail (not a good use of technology in my opinion).

With all this in mind, do you think google is barking up the wrong tree, or will google music take over and reduce itunes to a small percentage of the market like rhapsody or napster?  My 2 cents says that google is an ambitious company that has tackled a lot of things, not all have worked out but they do have the advantage of virtually limitless file storage and great access to users .  They have the potential to save users a lot of bandwidth and gigabites of storage.

Do political differences play a role in the IT Industry?

Here's an article that I ran across, French start-up bringing open-source BPM to U.S., that made me question to what degree is IT susceptible to global politics. This article caught my eye because we've just been introduced to BPMs in class.  Here's a real life example only this time, its from France and its not proprietary.  Sounds great doesn't it.  But what kind of barriers exist?  We've learned that IT can enable users to communicate virtually effectively bypassing many cultural hick-ups.  Can it bypass language barriers? Furthermore, what kind of stigma would an american company have from using an open source BPM suite made in France, and not in the US?  Would you care?  What if a free BPM suite were the key to growing your company?  Would you utilize it?  I'd like to think that IT transcends its country of origin and that we are all a part of a globally connected community but is it possible that we aren't really as connected as we think? Let me know what you think.

Ideas for the future of the mobile market

My response comes from Dr. Schwartz's question regarding mobiles.  First I'll argue that our definitions are dated. Second, I'll suggest a utopian proposal for the future finance of these communication devices, and third I'll argue which direction the mobile market is headed.

First I'd like to point out that with the evolution of mobile electronic communication comes all the terminologies.  First came the "car phones" then the "bag phones" etc... The term "cell phone" is no longer suitable.  Just today, I used my Iphone to have a conversation with a friend 500 miles away, check my bank account and my credit cards, check my email, copy a business card, get directions, check my facebook etc...  The iconic "cell phone" has morphed into a portable access point to our virtual world.

Now I'll propose a future means of finance for mobile access points. Through the use of wifi hotspots and tower triangulation, you can trace your location and report it whichever programs you choose to, (think facebook).  This is a rather big brother notion, but what if that technology could allow everyone could have a mobile phone for free?  You could choose to have no phone bill again, the caveat being that network provider could, based upon your location, shopping habits etc... flash an advertisement on your mobile screen.  For those who would prefer their privacy and ad free phones would pay a fee comparable to what they pay now. It's a similar principle used by Pandora and many of the free tools you use on the internet.  What do you think?

Finally, I want to address the android's entry into the mobile market as well as Apple's foray into the world of open source. I am guessing everyone is familiar with the term open source.  If not, google it (this is an IT class after all!) I point out open source because it is rapidly being chosen by consumers in the mobile market and I believe it all comes down to one reason: customization. The android is as you may have known an open source operating system.  This means the android allows the consumer to change their phone however they want to and not be concerned with violating their contract. Has anyone tried jailbreaking their *phone?  Hard as it may be to believe, Apple benefited from open source as well.  This is one of the reasons for the explosion of apple's app market.  The genius of is is that apple makes money selling apps they never paid to create.  Many of the apps creators are paid on commission, this some might argue promotes innovation and creativity. 

To put it all into one idea, the mobile market is trending towards free and customizable devices providing single source access to all of your communication needs.