Outsourcing: Was Release Date for FrameMaker 8?

[Gillian Flato]

>>Outsourcing is not an evil. It's evolution, and was bound to happen as
other countries break into the tech sphere. Balance will eventually be
met, as with anything. The trick is not how to keep jobs in higher-pay
regions, but how to deliver greater value.

From a business standpoint, sure, it's about value but is there really
value in outsourcing, or is it just cheaper? 

I did a contract at a company that had outsourced its Tech Writing to
India but after seeing how poorly the Indians wrote English, they
brought TW back to America. 

Another company I worked at outsourced QA to Russia, bragging to us how
they saved 50%. But guess what! The Russians took twice as long to do
anything and many times, the quality was not as good, so there went
there 50% savings. Not to mention the low morale around the office by
the Americans who saw their jobs going overseas. Many people spent more
time gossiping about whose job was going next than doing work. Many
other people around the office were just pissed all the time, thereby
lowering their productivity, and others left, thereby screwing the
company since they were needed.

For the government, it's a bad deal. They lose a lot of tax base when
workers are laid off and don't pay as much in taxes, not to mention the
loss in unemployment dollars they have to shell out.

So I don't think it is such a great thing.

-Gillian


-----Original Message-----
From: framers-bounces+gflato=nanometrics.com at lists.frameusers.com
[mailto:framers-bounces+gflato=nanometrics.com at lists.frameusers.com] On
Behalf Of Bill Swallow
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2006 10:33 AM
To: tarage at bellsouth.net
Cc: Framers
Subject: Re: RE: Release Date for FrameMaker 8?

Not entirely correct re: outsourcing.

There are many examples of companies cancelling their outsourced labor
and bringing the work back into their home offices (I haven't the time
or desire to cite, but there have been several articles in trade
magazines over the past few months that attest to this). As with
anything, if the benefit isn't there, the plan is aborted.

I believe, though, that the FM work isn't "outsourced" but is actually
housed by Adobe India - this is a very different thing, and I can see
logic in this.

Costs of workers is only a factor if the workers can deliver and if
the communication is good.

Outsourcing is not an evil. It's evolution, and was bound to happen as
other countries break into the tech sphere. Balance will eventually be
met, as with anything. The trick is not how to keep jobs in higher-pay
regions, but how to deliver greater value.

Bill

On 5/16/06, tarage at bellsouth.net <tarage at bellsouth.net> wrote:
>
> Don't expect Adobe to bring back any jobs. Once the outsourcing bug
hits, those jobs are lost forever. On one hand, I understand Adobe's
reasoning -- the cost of a worker in the U.S or Canada is much higher
than a worker elsewhere. On the other hand, that's one more job that's
gone overseas, so the business profits at the expense of the host
nation. I'm a bit more partial to my country than I am to any particular
business that operates out of it.

-- 
Bill Swallow
HATT List Owner
WWP-Users List Owner
Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter
http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
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