CIO Magazine On Offshore IT

lpq wrote to us with a reference to the cover article from this month's CIO Magazine that talks about the off-shore movement of IT from its traditional bulwarks to the developing world. A selection from the article:" Think again. There are real costs associated with shipping your IT department (or a portion of it) overseas. Our Special Report covers the Backlash from a growing political storm as well as the Hidden Costs you should be aware of before you join the stampede overseas. "

Offshore IT work is fine by me

[stratjakt]

After Isabel hits on thursday, I'm gonna be living offshore.

You know, because my house is going to get blown away and swept into the chesapeake bay, you insensitive clod.

Re:More proof that common sense isn't common

[Serapth]

Sadly... I think thats the problem... Most MBA programs forget to include Spotting the Obvious 101.

Actually... I would love to see them add just one more course to the MBA programs...
Just Because Im Educated, Doesnt Make Me Smart: A Case Study of MBA Graduates

The Stampede Overseas

[Hayzeus]

And my move to Bangalore was all set, $10/month budget and all. Damn.

Bitter?

[darkmayo]

Why bother shipping IT overseas when you can ship the exec's job over seas.. they are the ones that don't do anything and get paid way to much for it.

Yes...

[Channard]

The Atlanteans are receiving call-centre training as we speak.

Re:More proof that common sense isn't common

[B3ryllium]

Reminds me of the recent FedEx commercial.

"We're short on staff, you'll have to handle the shipping."

"But ... I have an MBA."

"Don't worry, it's easy."

"No, you don't understand, I have an MBA."

"Ohhhh, you have an MBA. In that case, I'll have to show you how to do it."

At least you have a job

[Anonymous Coward]

I became redundant when my department that they no longer needed a Turbo Pascal developer for 16-bit Windows 3.11 applications. I feel especially wronged by this offshore outsourcing.

What should I do?

Re:Americans

[grub]

Actually, last study showed Americans work harder (or more) than anyone else on earth.

Yes, in fact Office Space [imdb.com] is a documentary...

CIO Magazine on offshore IT

[woverly]

As a nation with an MBA President, we should be prepared to outsource everything but our "core competencies". What are America's "core competencies"?

1. litigation
2. consumption
3. entertainment
4. warefare

This change will not change until we start outsourcing the two political parties.

Re:Bitter?

[Mikey-San]

The problem is that these overseas workers are full of productivity.

Executives aren't.

At least if jobs are sent overseas, the people being paid to work, not sit on their asses. ;-)

. . . Though, if we sent executives' jobs overseas, perhaps the overseas workers would send them back. I mean, that's what OUR executives are doing now, right?

Re:At least you have a job

[Anonymous Coward]

Try learning Java and make all your projects open-source. This way you will benefit from the vast experience of the Open Source developer community and there will be times you won't even need to write one single line of code.

In our organization we've made many IT initiatives Open Source and as a project manager, I only have to check at sourceforge.org every now and then to see the progress. I'm sure that the statistical analysis package will be completed on time, although I'm not sure what "KDE only" and "Ogg Vorbis support" means and how they fit into the online reporting strategy we've requested when we released this project as open source.

I'm sure it will be fine.

Outsourcing is good, stupid.

[$criptah]

I do not have problems with it as long as we outsource management along with the other workforce at 1:1 ratio.

Re:Screw free trade

[MulluskO]

Agreed, lassiz faire [google.com] capitalism in the United States would utterly devastate the middle class.
Regulation is needed. Pure forms of either capitalism or socialism are foolishly idealistic and sure to fail.

Re:Marketing Hyperbole

[Esion Modnar]

A power saw that won't saw your arm off isn't much of a power saw

How true! I bought a power saw once, tried to saw my arm off, and not a scratch. So I took it right back and told the people at the store to give me one that could saw my arm off.

Re:Bad Comparison

[pubjames]

"A good American programmer will push back and say, What you're asking for doesn't make sense, you idiot,"

Overheard in offices all over America:

Programmer: This doesn't make sense, you idiot!

Pointy Haired Boss: Doesn't it? You're a professional and I trust your judgement. Do whatever you think is best. Thanks for pointing out my lack of understanding.

Re:Yes...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't that be Atlantisians? Atlanteans would be from Atlanta.

Re:The fault in our economic system

[garrulous]

When robots become common, corporation should not be allowed to own them to do work, and each person should be allowed 1

Well you better hand over all those Lego Mindstorm kits.

Re:this is a good quote!

[Bendebecker]

"john ashcroft is a tool of the devil"
I thought John Ashcroft was the devil!

Re:More proof that common sense isn't common

[caudron]

Just Because Im Educated, Doesnt Make Me Smart: A Case Study of MBA Graduates

If we're talking about MBA grads, can we just say "Just because we have a degree doesn't mean we're educated" and be done with it? ;-)

-Tom

Re:The company I work for just announced..

[Anonymous Coward]

The profit margin with slavery is not 100%. You still need to feed your slaves and hire guards so they don't run away. If your slaves are technically minded, keeping them in their pens can be a challenge; so that it is rare to get more than 90-95% margin.

Re:It was *always* about money savings...

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Judging by how most American cars are mostly made in Canada and Mexico, you can see how affective Labor was in imparting change. Or rather, preventing change.

I for one am planning on starting a new industry: replacing CxO's with software. The smarts don't have to be that sophisticated. At present CEO/CIO/CFO's are random number generators with single register math. Imagine what could be done with a modern processor that can track more than one factor, and some memory to gauge progress and effectiveness.

Of course, computers don't need to be paid. They just run the world for kicks.

Re:It was *always* about money savings...

[TrekCycling]

Great idea, sparky. The problem isn't that the terms of competition are unfair. The problem is that we're whiners. I vow today to begin competing. For starters, I will begin by declaring bankruptcy on my student loans, my cars and my mortgage. I will then move into a house made of bricks and dog-crap. When that is finished I will stop eating out, turn off all unnecessary services (who needs power when you live in a dog-crap and brick house?) and begin competing on a level playing field. Once a few million of us do this, won't this country be a grand place to live?

Re:You get what you pay for.

[sql*kitten]

The project was $270k over budget and a year late. That's the cost of three senior programmers at $90k per year for a full year.

To be fair, it's actually 3 ordinary programmers at $45k per year. Factor in taxes, benefits, rent, equipment, utilities, subsidized canteen/vending machines and you will find that annual salary is less than half of what it costs to employ someone.

Why can't management understand THAT side of the equation?

If you, the super-smart engineer, don't understand the cost of employing someone, why expect your PHBs to understand either?