Outsourcing to India: Is the United States benefiting from it?
I. Introduction “Did you hear the news? No, what happened? We are shipping all of the IT jobs to India …” Water cooler conversations are beginning to sound more and more like this. Outsourcing of jobs has become a major concern for employees at large corporations (technical or financial). The economic drought that the United States faced in 2000 to late 2001 led to numerous cost-cutting measures, but none more effective than that of outsourcing. The outsourcing of jobs is now a necessity in the United States, so companies are forced to send jobs to places such as India to keep costs down, all the while trying to balance the advantages and disadvantages of the move.
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Other services that are currently being outsourced fall under the category of business process outsourcing (BPO) which includes payroll, billing, accounting, telemarketing and call centers. At this rate, almost every corporation will have main operations being done in a foreign country with management staying in the United States.
When should you outsource? If you are losing focus on your core business because you are too busy handling operations or if you are facing a time, money or human resource crisis, outsourcing is a solution[2]. Outsourcing can also allow you to be the first one in your market to gain that important edge to put you over the top. However, the main reason for outsourcing is that a mission-critical project needs to be finished, but there is a lack of specialized personnel to finish the project. Outsourcing is not done only to save money, but because the specialization is necessary for certain products.
Where should you outsource? When companies are thinking of where to outsource, the first answer is India. This is because India has an abundance of technically skills people who are in need of employment. Corporations such as Intel, IBM, Cisco, Amazon, and Dell have already seen the benefits of outsourcing to India. The most common place to outsource is Bangalore, which is often called the Silicon
Approach of outsourcing should be followed when there is a lack of expertise required for the development of that project. Outsourcing comes with huge number of
Because many businesses in the US have more often began outsourcing different business products instead of doing them in-house, it is important to understand why outsourcing may be the best option. Although many tie outsourcing to foreign markets, outsourcing can include both foreign and domestic markets. By entering into a contractual agreement, outsourcing allows organizations to pay for services they need. This gives the option for a business to get professionals to perform services for them that the business may not have the staff for. Outsourcing provides a cost saving-strategy that is usually more affordable. Ultimately,
After analyzing all these risks and criteria Id like to present some points to demonstrate why we should go for outsourcing:
The vendors are investing in their employees by various training programs on different technologies. This gives a chance for the vendor to provide the outsourcing services to a company with the help of the well trained employees who are ready to work on the projects. Before outsourcing some of its products and services to a third part vendor, the company has to analyze all the factors that might result from the outsourcing decision, the advantages and disadvantages of the company both in short term and long term due to outsourcing. According to Aubuchon, outsourcing some of its products can be a good thing for a company and the judgment to outsource the services must not only based on the cost factor, but the company has to take all other significant factors into consideration (Aubuchon, 2014).
The first and foremost thing to do is to consider before outsourcing is business profitability. Some of the factors to consider regarding this
The outsourcing of non-core business and services has risen in recent years. The top benefactor of this rise has been India. Corporations have found a profusion of well-trained, English-speaking workers to cram into call centers and customer service jobs. This is even happening in high-skill positions like hospital X-rays technicians also. India is seen as the pioneer in outsourcing jobs
American companies trust in foreign labor to produce goods, but they are neglecting the American public with jobs, and properly made goods. With cheap labor American CEO’s can save money and make a better profit. Dr. Ron and Anil Hira explain the upcoming danger American jobs will face in the future “nearly one in nine of all U.S. jobs-are vulnerable to being outsourced” (Ron Hira Ph.D and Dr. Anil Hira 2). Business owners can make an impact on this problem by creating more work for U.S. citizens. Outsourcing will put more money in the pockets of wealthy CEO’s and in turn will create an even larger imbalance between the classes. The problem can be weakened once government regulations limit the amount of jobs that are outsourced, but also
· Choose the right location: The type of work being outsourced will influence the location. India has gained a reputation for software development. Between 2003 and 2004 it has seen over a 30% growth in software and IT service exports, and by the year ending in March, 2004, Indian companies have earned $12.5 billion in technology exports. But India is not the only source of reliable but inexpensive labor. Countries such as China, the Philippines, Romania, Argentina, and even Ghana and Ireland are all centers for offshore operations of various
The first process is called BPO or business process outsourcing. Business process outsourcing is when a particular task is outsourced. This can include anything from manufacturing to marketing, or call centers for phone companies like Verizon. The second process of outsourcing is Knowledge process outsourcing or KPO. This process involves higher level work of the foreign worker and requires a higher level of research to make decisions. Examples of KPO are pharmaceutical development, legal services and Data analysis. Another method of outsourcing is Information technology outsourcing or ITO which is related to wok using technology and the internet. These processes have aided the job loss of the middle class in the
With a large English-speaking population, American companies do not have to worry about any barrier language barriers with regards training and negotiation. In addition, India also has a large population of unskilled workers who can work either manufacturing, or the call centers. Perhaps the most important benefit of outsourcing to India is its lack of regulation which allows companies to compensate workers far below the value of the work they are doing. Because of these reasons, essentially any company which requires call centers and manufacturing bases see India as a viable
There are challenges that come with IT outsourcing in India and the biggest one being there are competitive revivals that exists due to low switching costs. The biggest competitor currently to India is China. China has been investing a lot of money into its country to grow this industry since it has seen the positive impacts on India. One of the ways China is attracting companies to move to China is that its government is offering significant tax incentives (KPMG, 2016). Some of the other countries that are competing with India are Ireland, The Philippines, Poland and Malaysia. There are improvements that India needs to focus on and two of these improvements are making sure they have good infrastructure; and keeping costs low for companies who are looking to move to China where it might be cheaper to have established their business processing. Though there are challenges and competitors for India, the future for India looks strong as well as room for growth. One of the areas that India is focusing on is domestic growth and making it a priority to increase the
Outsourcing refers to hiring an outside, independent firm to perform a business function that internal employees might otherwise perform. Many organizations outsource jobs to specialized service companies, which frequently operate abroad. The outsourcing trend stands to continue; the latest wave of outsourcing impacts the information technology field. IT outsourcing includes data center operations, desktop and help desk support, software development, e-commerce outsourcing, software applications services, network operations and disaster recovery.2
“Today, Indian outsourcing is one of the best ways for CIOs to cut application development and maintenance costs, and deal effectively with the peaks and valleys of software demands.” (Yeo). Outsourcing to India is still focused primarily on highly technological aspects, but is not limited there. They are known for creative development in the pharmaceutical field, and have recently developed an unsurpassed medication for adult ADHD. Their superior IT assistance is not limited to companies, they offer many websites for individuals seeking help with programming. In mid 2007, U.S. outsourcing to India reached $4.9 billion. Although technologically advanced, they still lag in economic prosperity and therefore still don’t expect the type of compensation that Americans do. “They
In the rapidly evolving global marketplace we live in today, companies and organization have to deliver their goods and services at faster rate and at a higher quality of service than ever before. An organization also has to be able to quickly diversify its services in order to meet the changing needs of its clients and customers. To meet these needs always requires the adaptation of new skills and abilities to provide newer and improved goods and services. In essence, organizations need to develop according to the demands of its clientele and needs the capital, talent and human resources to do so. Again, the speed at which organizations need to evolve to meet its demands often leads to the procurement of resources outside the organization. “The speed with which firms need to respond to the market and the call for diverse products are forcing businesses to invest in forming strategic business alliances” (Doz & Hamel, 1998). Almost every business organization today has enlisted the aid of an outside entity to perform one or many of its daily business function. Functions such as payroll services, health and benefit administration, talent acquisition, and human resource management that were handled in-house, are now outsources to outside specialized agencies. Additionally, companies have even sought to move their business hubs overseas for financial advantages. The factors that determine the benefits of outsourcing on either a specific project or business function as a whole
Offshoring or offshore outsourcing is the relocation of a business process from one country to another. For example, a business in the US could outsource work to a contractor within the US which is outsourcing. If the business instead outsources the work to a foreign contractor like in India or the Philippines, it is called “Offshoring”. While outsourcing is used to access contractors with advanced skills locally for short term projects or to speed-up the projects for completion, offshoring is used basically to reduce the cost than in-house staff for a task or a process. Firms offshore anything that could be from simple customer care to more critical operations like research and development (R&D), total information technology (IT) management, and new product development. Even though these may seem like core competencies, some firms still outsource them, so