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Workplace

O Canada

New York Times: Like many software outsourcing companies, Keane often sends work to its employees in India. But at the same time, Keane, which is based in Boston, is expanding its base of software developers in its original, and much closer, outsourcing location: Canada.

Interesting take on our northern neighbor's quiet emergence as a popular destination for outsourced U.S. jobs -- especially for call centers. I was particularly struck by the quote from Keane's managing director for Canada saying American customers have fewer qualms about moving jobs because "they tend to view Canada as the next … Read more

A U.S. brain drain?

Hate to give one and all a case of post-Thanksgiving indigestion but you have reason for stomach upset.

Computerworld: "Educators and IT industry executives are warning that a crisis is looming in the IT job market. Only this time, it's not that there are too many job hunters seeking too few positions. To the contrary, they say that the U.S. isn't producing IT experts in the quantity and quality that it needs to remain the leader of the global IT market."

Also, read the insightful op-ed column by Harvard's Joseph Nye in this morning'… Read more

Dell: Expanding India operations

San Jose Mercury News: Dell to boost its operations in India

"India is the fastest growing market in Asia Pacific and from that standpoint it's a very critical market for Dell," said Paul-Henri Ferrand, vice president and general manager for South Asia at Dell Asia.

Gartner: Offshore IT spending to hit $50 billion

When Gartner next week announces its annual IT predictions, the noted research outfit will also make a headline or two by predicting that offshore spending on IT services will reach $50 billion by 2007.

That's the sort of `whoa brother' number that should make policy makers sit up and notice. Like so many issues, offshore outsourcing was politicized to the point of trivialization during the presidential election season. Neither George Bush nor John Kerry ever engaged business and labor leaders in a serious dialogue. But if the Gartner figures are on target, both sides have a urgent interest in … Read more

Raise a glass of Scotch

The Scotsman: Ireland: The new outsourcing mecca?

India hasn't anything to worry about but U.S. firms have long been adding jobs in Ireland for the same reason they've opened up branches in places like Bangalore: They can tap a less expensive, English-speaking work force. Of course one should note that when it comes to Scotland, there's the extra bonus of being within a bar stool's reach of the greatest whiskey this side of heaven.

Outsource that reporter!

The Independent: Reuters journalists are said to be close to striking over the outsourcing of reporting jobs to India

The Independent writes that Reuters' London office is on the verge of mutiny over the company's decision to outsource jobs to India. Truth be told, journalists do sometimes see conspiracies where none exist. But in this instance, the suspicion that management wants to relocate all the bureau's reporting jobs is not fired purely by paranoia.

Reuters has been on a cost-cutting jihad for quite some time now. The only difference is that reporters currently occupy some of the jobs … Read more

Gov. doesn't know how many jobs lost to outsourcing

Wall Street Journal: Job losses from outsourcing prove hard for U.S. to quantify

"In its latest report, published last week, the Bureau of Labor Statistics could say only that 16,091 workers were laid off because of job relocations in the third quarter. It couldn't say how many jobs had shifted within the U.S. or were shipped overseas."

Your government tax dollars at work, folks.

Cities versus cities

Here's a thought: Whereas the competition to woo U.S. outsourcing business has until now been between countries, the new scenario will more likely see the likes of Bangalore competing with Manila.

So says Atul Vashistha, CEO of neoIT, whose San Ramon, Calif. consultancy just finished a survey of the most desirable locations for outsourcing in India. The big surprise was that New Delhi dropped from its perch as a top IT outsourcing destination in the early 1990??s to finish number twenty out of a possible twenty seven.

The top five finishers were Gurgaon, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and … Read more

The next evolution of offshore outsourcing

Came across an interesting piece in the Times of India this morning that raised a stimulating question about the future of outsourcing: How do big companies improve the performance of the operations they've already shipped overseas?

At a certain point, it's got to be about a lot more than squeezing a few more cents in cost savings. So it is that some former bigwigs from the likes of Ernst & Young, BankOne International and Citicorp have linked up to start an IT consultancy in India. The idea here being to help mature outsourcing ventures better manage their organizations. … Read more