Comments on: Is offshoring ever good?

By: Contact Center Philippines

Contact Center Philippines — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 01:59:06 +0000

It’s scary, but offshoring can work. I know a manager who got a project done by getting bids from programmers all over the world. This project was severely underfunded, and would never have even happened if he hadn’t be able to get it done on the cheap.

His bidding process led to him using some great programmers in Iceland. These guys were billing at about a tenth of what I bill at.

Apparently, when you have a government masquerading as a hedge fund, you end up with a country full of programmers who will code all day for a loaf of bread.

By: Call Center Philippines

Call Center Philippines — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:44:38 +0000

I think this post is brilliant. Offshore outsourcing has been a controversial issue in the business industry for some time now. Many tend to feel there are far more negatives than positives to offshore outsourcing, while others see nothing but the light. It’s a given that like with anything else, there are good and bad things to come from offshoring, and I’ve personally experienced the sting of a company choosing to outsource their work overseas. -Tina-

By: Philippine Call Center

Philippine Call Center — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:57:31 +0000

Nice write-up! you bring up an interesting topic. Just when thousands of manufacturers thought that offshoring a significant portion of their manufacturing and supply operations has given them competitive parity, the game may be changing again. The same factors that made offshoring a sure-fire tactic for reducing costs have shifted dramatically and now are eroding many of those savings. As a result, on-shore and near-shore production is now viable and competitive in many cases.

Regards,
Charlie

By: Call Centers in the Philippines

Call Centers in the Philippines — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 03:04:57 +0000

An insightful and articulate post!

For years now outsourcing work has been a practice of many companies. It is the practice of using outside firms to do work normally performed within a company. Outsourcing made a financial sense to companies that were now able to hire out even their core functions to specialized firms that could do them at significantly lower prices. At one point, companies started outsourcing work to the offshore companies that had the cheapest labor force. The trend rapidly grew and became known as offshoring. – Jaime

By: Eric Reiss

Eric Reiss — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 08:49:03 +0000

The CVS Pharmacy in the United States is now distributing “Danish Style Butter Cookies”. Where are they made? China! Very sad indeed.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:09:02 +0000

As someone who has had a $570 silver Georg Jensen “Victory Bangle” fall apart on him after only 2 years of careful use, only to be refused replacement or repair from Georg Jensen, I can honestly say that it disgusts me to think how little the cost of such an item is for them to make in Thailand. I would imagine they would be better at standing behind their products, knowing that they have taken such price and production quality shortcuts in production.
Georg Jensen is a luxury brand in their marketing only in my experience so far. Their products are made in Thailand, marked up exponentially in price and, should you have a problem with the jewellery, you are told you are welcome to buy a replacement or pay to have it fixed.
I will remove this posting should they ever do the right thing and stand behind the Georg Jensen Victory Bangle quality issue I have experienced. I imagine many other good customers are suffering the same poor Georg Jensen customer service. It’s a shame.
(tudorjd at gmail dot com)

By: Charles Boyung

Charles Boyung — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:43:18 +0000

Mark, I have to disagree with you here. Outsourcing to those firms in countries like India will never work with any form of agile development for the reasons stated by Eric along with any number of other reasons, which I won’t go over here.

As for the quality of software, yes, you can get high quality work from these offshore firms, if you have highly-detailed, never changing design documentation to provide them. For most businesses and projects, this never happens. The rest of the time, the software returned is almost always of highly dubious quality, and that’s only in the few instances where you actually get what was requested.

I also disagree with your statement that you get developers as (or more) intelligent than what you get in the US. Having worked with numerous Indian developers both in India and here, invariably, the more intelligent and definitely better developers are those that are here. Why is this? Because the smart developers in India know it makes a lot more sense to come here to work. They move to the US (or western Europe) and make 10 times the amount of money that they would make in India at one of those firms. They do this for 10 years, and then they and their families are set for life when they decide to move back to India. I know this for a fact because just about every Indian developer that I’ve met in the US has the exact same plan.

By: Eric Reiss

Eric Reiss — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 07:52:30 +0000

Thanks for your candid comments, Mark. I have no problems with the quality of the work carried out in India, the Ukraine, Romania or elsewhere. In fact, the five Indian technical schools put Europe and the U.S. to shame.

My comment relates to the way in which offshoring is carried out and the insistence on piles of documentation. I have personal offshoring experience with all three countries. The problems were of my own creation. And this is why I wrote this post.

That said, I do think that offshoring nations would do well to question the work they are being asked to perform, rather than just “doing what they are told” by their clients.

Thomas Friedman discusses this in his excellent work, “The World Is Flat”. So I’m not just talking through “my” hat, but those of a number of recognized experts.

I’m sorry you took this post so personally (attacking me, the company name, etc.) It rather detracts from your otherwise interesting thoughts.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:29:19 +0000

Most offshoring/outsourcing models don’t allow this, which is why the Ukraine, Romania, and India, are generally awful choices for offshoring of software development.

You have a long way to go in terms of understanding what quality offshoring software products to India brings to the table. You think the biggest companies are fools and you, with your little company with a silly name like Fatdux (whatever that means) is more sensible than the big companies? Offshoring software to India is known to be very high quality. And you should probably learn and appreciate the fact that you get the same, if not better brains in India than halfwits like you, to get the job done.

Next time you make a comment like this, think before you write instead of talking through your hat.