Outsourcing to Rural America

andy753421 writes "Wired is running an article about 'Rural Sourcing, an IT company that outsources not to India or Mexico, but rural America.' The company targets IT workers in rural location due to lower costs of living, 'The company charges $35 to $50 per hour for IT expertise, which may cost around $100 in New York City. While this is no match for outsourcing rates in India, clients benefit from local accents and similar time zones -- not to mention the absence of stigma sometimes attached to farming jobs out to foreign countries.' The article also points out several other innovative attempts at outsourcing such as Lakota Express and Seacode, which was previously covered on slashdot."

Comments

Damn straight!

[porkThreeWays]

There is just a level of service provided by my fellow americans that can not compete. Mostly it has to do with language. The Indians can speak great english. They even teach them american accents. However, they generally don't understand slang terms. They won't ever deviate from their scripts. You can be 95% the way there to solving a problem yourself, and the second you get on the phone with them they make you start over. I cancelled my bellsouth account 4 times with an Indian call center and it never got properly cancelled. I forced them to put me on the phone with an American and it was done in 2 minutes.

It also seems the companies they work for just don't trust them. They rarely have any authority to do anything major to my account. They will transfer you 3-4 times to their superiors until you reach a level where they can maybe do what you need. And if there's an accounting screwup? Forget it. I have never run into a situtation where an Indian has the authority to credit my account.

wah wah wah, porkThreeWays, you're a racist. It has nothing to do with race. It has everything to do with communication. I worked at a call center here in Florida once (oddly enough, for Bellsouth). I ran into some of the deepest southern accents working those phones. And I would get complaint after complaint that they couldn't understand the Indian they were on the phone with for a half hour. There's just no substitute for localization. It's the same reason other countries despise us putting a McDonald's in their country. You can not assume everyone's adopted a global culture. Putting hamburgers into a country where cows are sacred is just as bad as putting an Indian on the phone in a country with such varying accents.

Finally-Commen Sense

[sycodon]

This has been a sore point for me for decades.

Corporate America has insisted on locating in the most expensive locations for the "presitge" and then bitch and moan about the cost of workers. The technology and bandwidth have been around for years to establish satellite offices in low costs areas anywhere in America, but the Suits were just to stupid to see it.

This is probably because some high priced consultant didn't tell them to do it. So now, someone had the simple idea of calling it "Outsourcing" and the empty headed Suits all now think it's the thing to do.

I swear...all you have to do is look at GM and the dumbass decisions the made about Building and selling giant trucks. Then they act surprised and panic when what everyone knew would happen, happens...people stopped buying them. What's even worse...they've been there and done that before...can we say "That 70's Market?"

I't really very simple...most corporate leaders can't think any further ahead than their own...