Off-shoring a done deal

Sat through a meeting yesterday that made me realize that the off-shore genie is out of the bottle and it is not going to be put back in.

The off-shore IT service companies, Infosys(INFY), WiPro(WIT), Cognizant(CTSH) along with a few others have had impressive run-ups in their stock price and have high-valuations compared to traditional IT service companies. Their businesses are exploding.

Actually the term "traditional IT service" is obsolete. It is now a given that any significant programming project cannot and will not be delivered in the U.S. without an off-shore component. It is simply no longer possible to be price-competitive without sending work off-shore.

Petitions will not change this. I don't believe it can be legislated.
A linchpin of our workforce is going, going, and will exist only as a portion of what it was.

My only question is will IT compensation in the U.S. fall far enough to be close to the off-shore cost. That would be an even more stunning development.

obsolete. IOW, the entire private sector of the economy will contract mightily over the next decade or so. The Fed's cheap money policy can only prop up things for so long.

Without a strong private sector providing new jobs, new incomes, and new businesses, we're headed for a economic free-fall not seen since the Great Depression.

In the IT industry--Q.C. If these companies cannot get the quality control levels up to what they have now, consistently, they will fall behind other manufacturers who either produce domestically, or out-source in countries where Q.C.--and wages--are higher. This, along with areas of the U.S. where unemployment is high, will combine to slow, and eventually negate, wholesale off-shore out-sourcing. it may take a few years--and more unemployment pain here at home--for that to happen, however.

B-)

Early off-shore projects suffered from disconnect and poor quality. For the most part, work performed in India is of excellent quality as is the work done here by the H1B-holders.

India has done an excellent job building a very technically-able workforce. They are poised to eat our lunch and this will go right to the bottom line of participating corporations.

Especualy when manufacturing in genral is obsolite (or so it is argued.) The only things companies manufacture now, is Buzz.

A Dilbert stripe tuched on this.

Boss: The CEO wants to show the prototype to the stock-holders.
Dilbert (paniking): No! This is our only one!
Boss (walking away with prototype): Sorry, but what the CEO wants, the CEO gets. Oh, by the way. He signed up the project for next weeks trade show.

Dilbert (Comming into bosses office): We need 5 Million to build a new prototype withen 5 days.
Boss: We froze the devlupment budget for the qurter, cost over runs.
Dilbert (Panicking again): Than what will we take to the trade show?
Boss: You engenners are nothing, if not resorsfule.

At the trade show, we see Wally with a card board box over his head with Dilbert talking to a potenchal client.
Dilbert: Of course, this is just the protoype. The Bata will used a blond super model.
Cliant: Make her a red head, then but us down for a thousand.

Oh this may look funny. But for a while, this was an actual trend. My own compnay did this sevral times, taking an emptey project case to sevral trade shows with a power point show giving its "intended feachers".

But more incredibly, they would always come back with orders. Which of course figures promonently in "projections." Of course in time, they alwasy run over budget, not all the promised feachers, can't handel the latest standerd while the standerd it was built for went the way of the dodo. Behind scedual, and pleaged with bugs as a result of poor design.

But by then, there are new "projections" to make things look a lot better.

Corps today are truly built on fantisy.

I think Cooprperations should be penalized for Off Shoring...
IE Tax The crap outta them for additional revenues generated by offshoring....Make it less profitable for them...Its about time the
Suits pay for their evil deeds.

I see a lot of articles by industry leaders telling us that this is inevitable. It is inevitable only if we are complacent sheeple.
This does not affect only IT workers. Companies are offshoring call centers,accounting, financial services, medical transcriptions , architectural services and even the interpretation of radiological scans. If your main job is to work with information, it can be sent offshore. I urge any concerned individuals to get involved. There are many grassroots organizations starting to fight this. I belong to one, RescueAmericanJobs.com.

A previous post mentioned the quality of offshore. My IT dept works with Indian offshore companies, and their quality varies. They can do good work, but it often times has to be redone. Those pushing offshore brag about the superior quality of offshore work, but it just isn't there. It is all about price and getting rid of American workers who they think are paid too much. We'd save even more if the bill/millionaire CEOs were hired offshore.