Re: Outsourcing "trend" -- MIDRANGE-NONTECH

I think that outsourcing to India will prove to be a "fad" ... something that is fashionable for a short time, but whose popularity evaporates. This was a predictable follow-up to the advent of the Internet and the glut in telecommunications capacity world-wide. Today, in my opinion, the pendulum has reached it's extreme and is starting to return to the middle.

Sure, you used to be able to hire a programmer / help desk tech in Bangalore for peanuts, but the boom has triggered a wave of job hopping ... projects are suffering ... programmer wages are skyrocketing there ... sounds like the USA in the late 1990's!

Outsourcing, in the long run, will be a viable strategy for large corporations who can totally spec a system in writing and have huge projects that keep the interest of the outsourcing firms. Americans are too used to doing things verbally without the discipline of firm written specs (especially in all but the largest companies). That is a formula for disaster in systems development!

Small and Medium sized businesses, the heart of the AS/400 community, are especially "spontaneous" in their systems development initiatives.

I'm just waiting for a rash of intellectual property lawsuits from software companies who outsource overseas ... IP and business ethics are viewed differently there ... it's difficult enough to sue someone in a different region of the USA ... try to sue a foreign firm ... good luck!!!

There will be a series of changes that will come from this: - generic programmer salaries will be held in check (coders are becoming commodities) - business knowledge and the ability to create precise written systems designs will have increasing value - companies like IBM and Accenture will increase their presence in large company IT budgets ... at the expense of USA-based programmer salaries

If you are concerned about your position being outsourced away, consider: - working for a small or medium sized business - working for a company (like mine) whose "staff value proposition" is based on understanding the value of "local talent" - ensuring that you are viewed as more than a commodity coder (and delivering that value every day ... NOT JUST "GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS") - ensuring that you know your company's business processes, can design precisely, and can put those designs in writing?

' just my $.02 ...

John

John Myers
Strategic Business Systems, Inc.
17 S. Franklin Turnpike, Ramsey, NJ 07446  USA
E-mail: mailto:jmyers@xxxxxxxxxx   Phone: +1 (201) 327-1780 x131
Web:    http://www.sbsusa.com      Fax:   +1 (201) 934-5684

At 09:41 AM 4/22/2004, you wrote:

This was in our local paper this morning:

http://www.indystar.com/articles/5/140262-9565-092.html

Chuck