Outsourcing and the Technology Profession.

I spoke with an evangelist with Microsoft today and asked him how he saw outsourcing to other countries progressing in our industry. He said Microsoft even outsources to India and China and that they are seeing a great deal of this. He also said that senior architects tend to be the most insulated (but even then you must wonder). This  is something that should obviously concern all of us. Personally, I am a senior architect type person so I have had good luck staying gainfully employed as an independent consultant. But I do worry if this will be the case in 2-5 years. What does everyone else out there think?

-Mathew Nolton

 

2 Comments

  • Our company is doing this very thing. Most of the execs only see the bottom line, which is all that matters for them, however at level where products get developed, supported and produced, we are experiencing problems with quality and logistics where services are now offshore, but operations need to be co-operative between the 2 units (ie. local and offshore).

    My personal opinion (which is probably extensively lacking in business acumen) is that this will happen in a big way for a couple of years because of the "cost savings". Then this shift will bounce back again when a lot of situations become untenable and/or bad for business. The curve will eventually even out, but initially, the big shift will occur.

  • The economics of it merits considerations by all executives. The obvious concern for me personally is how it will affect my ability to earn a living. At first, the shocking piece was that Microsoft is also outsourcing much of their work. But if you consider that Microsoft is now a global company its merely a matter of emphasis as opposed to off-shoring. They have been cultivating this knowledge around the world for so long that it was just a matter of time before this day arrived.



    I saw it several years ago when I was the CTO of a small company. A salesman for a company from India was going to be able to redo and convert one of out database application from oracle to sqlserver and do it for $10 per man hour. I recommended it...How could I not at that price. Even if they only got it half right I was still ahead of the game.



    -Mathew Nolton

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