Outsourcing Development Work to India
I. Introduction
Globalization has had a major impact on the way business is conducted. Companies are increasingly turning to offshore software development outlets for design management. Anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of all Fortune 500 companies are already outsourcing to India and the amount of work done there for U.S. companies is expected to more than double this year according to Forrester Research. This paper will take a look at some of the arguments for and against outsourcing IT development to India. Most importantly this paper will take a look at ethical standpoints taken on outsourcing. But first, we'll take a look at the history of outsourcing to India.
II. History
…show more content…
Indian companies started evolving their Y2K outsourcing relationships into projects for software development and maintenance. This ultimately lead to the dedicated offshore center model. This is how the model evolved through the late 1980s to the 1990s to the early 21st century.
II. Pros
According to the Commerce Department "The value of US exports of legal work, computer programming, telecommunications, banking, engineering, management consulting and other private services jumped to $131.01 billion in 2003, up $8.42 billion from the previous year" So why is everyone jumping on the bandwagon? Some of the driving forces will be addressed below.
There are many reasons that companies provide for the determining factor for outsourcing. Some of these reasons include reducing costs, compensating for missing skill sets, improving quality, increasing productivity, avoiding tying up internal IT resources, expanding global capability, improving time to market, and allowing rapid response in resource demand. Savings from outsourcing have allowed reinvestment into onsite projects .
An economic take on the benefits of outsourcing is that export services, insurers, for instance, generate jobs and rely on outsourcing for competitive edge. Economists say export services could potentially lose some competitive edge if they could not use foreign suppliers for call centers or other back-office operations. Foreigners are
Because many businesses in the US have more often began outsourcing different business products instead of doing them in-house, it is important to understand why outsourcing may be the best option. Although many tie outsourcing to foreign markets, outsourcing can include both foreign and domestic markets. By entering into a contractual agreement, outsourcing allows organizations to pay for services they need. This gives the option for a business to get professionals to perform services for them that the business may not have the staff for. Outsourcing provides a cost saving-strategy that is usually more affordable. Ultimately,
Cost Advantage: The job can be completed at a lower cost than the company may incur and with better quality at the same time. For example, the wages in India is a fraction of the same work done in other western countries. The cost savings is approximately 60 percent when outsource in India. In addition, the higher quality service ensures the company benefits from the high quality work can be done at a low price.
Efficiency of a company turns on being able to produce in the shortest amount of time while maintaining quality. Thus, outsourcing allows a company to be efficient where in-house the same task could not be accomplished in a reasonable amount of time.
Companies are increasingly outsourcing the management of information technology (IT) for reasons that include concern for cost and quality, lagging IT performance, supplier pressure, access to special technical and application skills, and other financial factors. The outsourcing solution is acceptable to large and small firms alike because strategic alliances are now more common and the IT environment is changing rapidly.
The fourth advantage to outsourcing is that it can help develop internal staff. As I stated in the advantage above, outsourcing projects help meet performance peaks, but it can also assist in completing projects that are nearing the end of its requirements. What this does is allow the company staff to focus on new initiatives that
There are many benefits of outsourcing that companies and countries seize to take advantage of. The biggest benefit is reduced costs of infrastructure and labor. According to the OneNeck IT Solutions, “The attraction to overseas outsourcing has traditionally been reduced costs. By moving support services to India or China, for
One effect of outsourcing is that it economically benefits American firms both domestically and abroad, and these benefits are the reason outsourcing is so prevalent in today’s world.
The only means for the IT companies to maintain business and to have minimal losses was to transfer their services overseas to India. Nonetheless, many of the people who had lost their IT jobs saw this as a disadvantage since they were the ones who had to either find another job that matched their skills or had to obtain new skills. Along with this, they, along with the majority of the workforce, saw outsourcing as something harmful to the American economy and that it caused increase in cost (Easterls, 166). These outlooks are not necessarily true, however.
In an increasingly globalize society, it is nothing new to hear about product development and assembly going abroad. Factory jobs have been moved to other nations for decades, and more recently, customer call centers are being relocated to foreign nations. With the current downturn in the economy, people are looking to at this situation in an increasingly negative way. Not all work that moved abroad ended in satisfaction, yet the trend appears to be spreading to new jobs and industries. With the growing population of college educated in foreign nations, software development jobs are shipping overseas. With many incentives associated with outsourcing to various countries versus keeping jobs in the country,
Furthermore, the U.S. economy may also benefit if companies reinvest the extra profits gained from outsourcing for expansion in the U.S. This creates more jobs at home, but again, this is a long term effect of outsourcing and depends on how successful that business is overseas.
Imagine third world countries poverty stricken and hungry! Outsourcing in these areas helps spark the economy across the globe. By outsourcing jobs here it helps others less fortunate in these types of regions, have more and there by having the ability to spend back, making more jobs available to Americans. Outsourcing
Outsourcing Work. Outsourcing means just what it says - going "out" to find a "source" to undertake the work. The most obvious advantage of outsourcing appeared to be the cost savings that would come with not having to purchase additional equipment or work space and not having to add to the employee headcount. However, it was noted that some organisations are now doing more themselves in order to develop or preserve their expertise and self-sufficiency.
There is no doubt that the primary benefit of offshoring is the cost savings. The ITAA estimates that outsourcing currently saves U.S. companies about $7 billion and that by 2008 the number will climb to $20 billion. The savings from offshoring varies. In the same survey cited above, over forty percent surveyed said they were saving as much as twenty percent or more. Nearly the same number are saving from ten to twenty percent.
Because outsourcing transfers a lot of American labor overseas, it is often heavily criticized by a lot of working class Americans. Many see the practice of outsourcing as immoral because companies are sacrificing the welfare of its workers simply to increase profits. The negative effects of outsourcing within the United States can be seen in many industries such as manufacturing, information technology services, research and development, and call centers. Cumulatively, all these industries provide millions of jobs, some well-compensated, to Americans. In the 21st century, however, Americans are increasingly pursuing high-skill employment so some of the low-skill jobs in
“Today, Indian outsourcing is one of the best ways for CIOs to cut application development and maintenance costs, and deal effectively with the peaks and valleys of software demands.” (Yeo). Outsourcing to India is still focused primarily on highly technological aspects, but is not limited there. They are known for creative development in the pharmaceutical field, and have recently developed an unsurpassed medication for adult ADHD. Their superior IT assistance is not limited to companies, they offer many websites for individuals seeking help with programming. In mid 2007, U.S. outsourcing to India reached $4.9 billion. Although technologically advanced, they still lag in economic prosperity and therefore still don’t expect the type of compensation that Americans do. “They