I've seen alot of talk about IT jobs being sent overseas. I've also seen alot of discussion about why outsorucing work is good and why it is something that companies will be forced to do to stay competitive.
Inevitably, someone mentions the fact that many other industries have been sent overseas and no one complained. People also mention the fact that US IT folks are spoiled, fat, and lazy. And the biggie, that everyone seems to mention is that by sending more work overseas it will raise up the standard of living in other countries so more people can afford the products.
I actually agree with many of the arguments for outsourcing jobs to other companies, however, I feel that there are several things about the IT industry that make the outsourcing of jobs to cheaper countries a bad idea.
The reasons: 1. Tech support, network administration, system administration, etc are jobs that ( I hope I don't offend anyone ) aren't rocket science and probably would save companies $$ if outsourced overseas. However, language barriers, schedule problems, and cultural differences make the human interaction that these jobs always end up requiring usually end up making hiring an overseas workforce more expensive in the long run. 2. Software development, with all of the advanced APIs, and black box middleware out there, is becoming more and more like manual labor. A developer plugs and chugs working stuff together with thin shims of logic. Unfortunately, gathering requirements, being able to discuss the needs of clients/customers and adapt in real time, and knowing how to plug and chug the APIs and middleware are things that are critical in finishing a project on time and on budget. I've seen many companies have teams spread across the globe but not have everyone on the same page. Suddenly, all those cheap developers are producing code that creates more problems, or requires exensive modification or reworking by the developers stateside. Of course, as software development methodologies ( remember software development is still relatively new ) become more mature -- this will chnge as well. But culture, language, time differences, and not being able to walk down the hall and bonk someone on the head are all things that I believe are intrinsic to successful software development.
I could go on and on but I'm beginning to get tired of typing so I'll end with reason 3 ( a biggie IMHO ):
3. The products of the IT industry are expensive. Hardware is tangible, and requires extensive resources to produce, software, transparent systems, and knowledge are intangible but are valuable nontheless and require an abundance of time and $$ to get right. Unlike other industries, the IT industy isn't so good at pricing their products. Most companies look at their competitors and are forced to price their products similarly. Other companies seemingly pick prices out of thin air for their products. Although, IT companies spend alot to make their products and profit margins are often thin, there are also many premium products are grabbed up by early adopters. Those early adopters, along with refining of the production of products allow the price of products to eventually decrease so that companies can recoup their costs.
A big problem I see with the overseas outsourcing of IT jobs is that many of those fat and lazy US IT folks will no longer have jobs. So they will no longer be able to afford the latest wiz bang products. The US IT guy making 40-120K a year has been replaced by the Indian IT guy making 700 a month, or the Chinese IT guy making 500 a month. So now sits US company X, with a product that he developed with a team consisting of a few US "leads", a team of guys in India doing the GUI, and a team of guys in China doing the protocol code. The project was initially going to come in under budget, but because of timing, miscommunication, and the fact that company X had to bring in more US engineers to get stuff done at crunch time the project costs about the same as it would have if they had used a sma
From what I understand Nintendo's reasoning for suing Imagine is somewhat founded. The strategy guide in question contains scans seemingly lifted DIRECTLY from Nintendo's own Pokemon strategy guide. Art used in Imagine's strategy guide also consists of images lifted directly from Pokemon trading cards. The DailyRadar site states "we are just doing what every other publication does, why is Nintendo suing us?" Nintendo is suing because other publications don't lift directly from Nintendo--they perform their own screen grabs... I guess the courts will decide if lifting photos directly from someone else's publication is fair use or not.
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Actually, the original X-Box is not black, it's a very dark green.
I've seen alot of talk about IT jobs being sent overseas. I've also seen alot of discussion about why outsorucing work is good and why it is something that companies will be forced to do to stay competitive.
Inevitably, someone mentions the fact that many other industries have been sent overseas and no one complained. People also mention the fact that US IT folks are spoiled, fat, and lazy. And the biggie, that everyone seems to mention is that by sending more work overseas it will raise up the standard of living in other countries so more people can afford the products.
I actually agree with many of the arguments for outsourcing jobs to other companies, however, I feel that there are several things about the IT industry that make the outsourcing of jobs to cheaper countries a bad idea.
The reasons:
1. Tech support, network administration, system administration, etc are jobs that ( I hope I don't offend anyone ) aren't rocket science and probably would save companies $$ if outsourced overseas. However, language barriers, schedule problems, and cultural differences make the human interaction that these jobs always end up requiring usually end up making hiring an overseas workforce more expensive in the long run.
2. Software development, with all of the advanced APIs, and black box middleware out there, is becoming more and more like manual labor. A developer plugs and chugs working stuff together with thin shims of logic. Unfortunately, gathering requirements, being able to discuss the needs of clients/customers and adapt in real time, and knowing how to plug and chug the APIs and middleware are things that are critical in finishing a project on time and on budget. I've seen many companies have teams spread across the globe but not have everyone on the same page. Suddenly, all those cheap developers are producing code that creates more problems, or requires exensive modification or reworking by the developers stateside. Of course, as software development methodologies ( remember software development is still relatively new ) become more mature -- this will chnge as well. But culture, language, time differences, and not being able to walk down the hall and bonk someone on the head are all things that I believe are intrinsic to successful software development.
I could go on and on but I'm beginning to get tired of typing so I'll end with reason 3 ( a biggie IMHO ):
3. The products of the IT industry are expensive. Hardware is tangible, and requires extensive resources to produce, software, transparent systems, and knowledge are intangible but are valuable nontheless and require an abundance of time and $$ to get right. Unlike other industries, the IT industy isn't so good at pricing their products. Most companies look at their competitors and are forced to price their products similarly. Other companies seemingly pick prices out of thin air for their products. Although, IT companies spend alot to make their products and profit margins are often thin, there are also many premium products are grabbed up by early adopters. Those early adopters, along with refining of the production of products allow the price of products to eventually decrease so that companies can recoup their costs.
A big problem I see with the overseas outsourcing of IT jobs is that many of those fat and lazy US IT folks will no longer have jobs. So they will no longer be able to afford the latest wiz bang products. The US IT guy making 40-120K a year has been replaced by the Indian IT guy making 700 a month, or the Chinese IT guy making 500 a month. So now sits US company X, with a product that he developed with a team consisting of a few US "leads", a team of guys in India doing the GUI, and a team of guys in China doing the protocol code. The project was initially going to come in under budget, but because of timing, miscommunication, and the fact that company X had to bring in more US engineers to get stuff done at crunch time the project costs about the same as it would have if they had used a sma
From what I understand Nintendo's reasoning for suing Imagine is somewhat founded. The strategy guide in question contains scans seemingly lifted DIRECTLY from Nintendo's own Pokemon strategy guide. Art used in Imagine's strategy guide also consists of images lifted directly from Pokemon trading cards. The DailyRadar site states "we are just doing what every other publication does, why is Nintendo suing us?" Nintendo is suing because other publications don't lift directly from Nintendo--they perform their own screen grabs... I guess the courts will decide if lifting photos directly from someone else's publication is fair use or not.