If you really want to understand the outsourcing reality, read research
reports written for CEOs. The following is from a “Special
Advertising Section” on “Tech Solutions: Software 2004″ in the March 1,
2004 issue of BusinessWeek. According to Fran Karamouzis,
Research Director of the Gartner Group, the most established
information technology research and advisory company:
“By year end 2004, more than 80 percent of U.S. executive boardrooms
will have discussed offshore sourcing and more than 40 percent of U.S.
enterprises will have completed some type of pilot or will be sourcing
IT services through a global delivery model, such as nearshore and
offshore…
“Enterprises will be able to choose between a wide range of global
delivery options from a stable vendor landscape with mature offerings.
“In time, the real-world benefits of the global delivery model will be
achieved and accepted. Once this is achieved, there will be a new
reality adn a steady-state condition in which people tend to forget
about the trials and tribulations of getting there and assume it was
essentially ‘always that way.’”
This article is in the same issue of BusinessWeek that featured an
insightful cover story entitled “Software: Will outsourcing hurt
America’s supremacy?”–a story that contrasted the prospects of new
college grads in India and the United states. On the
“ultrafastrack” career path is Deepa Paranjpe, a highly trained Indian
software engineer thrilled at pay starting at $10,620 a year–pay which
is described as “plenty for a comfortable middle-class life in
India. “Seeking a niche” is Stephen Haberman, who will graduate
with a masters degree in software engineering from Carnegie Mellon
University in June. Last summer “Stephen got a strong signal that
the prospects were dimming for programmers. When his wife, Amy, a
fellow computer-science student..began looking for programming work,
she came back to their suburban apartment disheartened. The only
available jobs, she says, “would have paid interns’ rates.” She
ditched the profession ansd is now writing a Christian-themed
novel.” (Source: BusinessWeek, March 1, 2004, pages 90-94.)
I am not against software outsourcing per se, because I am in principle
in favor of global economic and social development, and outsourcing
helps achieve this. But Americans need to
understand the unvarnished reality of our current situation.
There is no
question that we are moving important jobs offshore, and that we are
dimming the prospects for our own engineers. Unless we take
action to improve the future for U.S. engineers, I believe that fewer
American students will pursue higher education in engineering, propel a
process of American technology decline–and continue to promote global
technology advance.
As I said in my previous post, global development may result in a
safer and more environmentally sustainable world. But I believe
this will only happen if we take efforts to shape
globalization–including applying labor and environmental standards to
our global suppliers. In addition, we need to wake up to the
effects of globalization on our national capabilities in manufacturing
and services, and make sure that we do not allow our companies to be
hollowed out while we sleep.
