Offshoring? It's all about culture

Ask the person sitting next to you, maybe even the people directly affected by the process itself - they will tell you the same thing: offshoring has had a dramatic effect on UK IT.

Many chief information officers (CIOs) have transfered IT processes to the other side of the world, keen to ensure that internal and external service is maintained - and, of course, keen to ensure that costs are reduced.

Manging expectations during offshoring can be an intractable challenge, especially when it comes to in-house staff. Many technology professionals feel offshoring is having a detrimental effect - and prominent complaints include removing development opportunities in the UK and reducing the quality of service.

It is, however, dangerous to stereotype. The failure of large scale sourcing contracts during the last decade-or-so should teach us that strategic approaches to service provision sometimes work; sometimes they do not. But such failures have little (or more likely, nothing) to do with the localised approach of the offshorer.

In fact, offshoring is more likely to inspire cultural growth, particularly in the host population. Anjan Lahiri, head of European operations at outsourcing specialist MindTree, told The Knowledge that it is often forgotten how Western-sponsored offshoring has a deep social impact on Indian cultures. And Lahiri backed up his sentiments with the following facts:

• Just twenty-five years ago, more than 65 per cent of a typical Indian's wage was spent on food - now it is less than 35 per cent.
• At the same time, there has been a huge growth in consumerism: new mobile connections in India are running at 6.5 million per month.
• Offshoring has created a tremendous multiplier effect - one outsourcing job creates a further six jobs in other areas in India, such as teaching and construction.
• Offshoring has also sponsored dramatic changes in the make-up of the workplace and the attitudes of women at work. As much as 35 per cent of Indian IT workers are women.

Such figures make the social impact of offshoring seem impressive, possibly even inspiring. Now, what does the technology professional sitting next to you think...?

Comments

[Mark Brady]

A UK worker losing his job to offshoring or taking a lower paid salary to compete with offshoring, will be spending a higher percentage of his family income on food, will spend less on consumer items like mobile connections, and will be less able to support dependents.
The social impact of offshoring is indeed impressive.
I would ask those thinking of offshoring not to "give up" managing I.T. (as I see it) but to concentrate on it and invest in their local community first.