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UTOPIA - The Answer To Outsourcing?
by The Wise One
This week’s BusinessWeek magazine includes an editorial that recommends the widespread adoption of broadband as a way to offset the negative short-term effects of offshore outsourcing. “Making superfast broadband available to every American is the sine qua non of moving to the next level of the IT evolution.” This could be a good argument to make for UTOPIA here in Utah where a lot of jobs are being moved to Bangalore and Bangladesh. The latest Utah Economic and Business Review predicts that “technology and offshore outsourcing will continue to threaten Utah’s back office/call center sector.” This job sector saw tremendous growth in the 90’s but is pulling way back now. I’ve experienced this phenomenon myself just last week, when I called Delta Airlines to discuss an upcoming itinerary, and the gentleman who answered the phone sounded like I had just awakened him, and spoke in such a thick accent I could hardly understand him. In the background were other heavily-accented voices. I assumed they were in India.
I think I will add this issue to my list of hot-buttons to consider come election time. Does anybody know where the current crop of candidates for Governor stand on UTOPIA?
By the way, this same editorial in BusinessWeek finally answered the question in my mind, at least, why the President’s Council of Economic Advisors Chairman and Allen Greenspan too both recently came out with the opinion that in the long term, offshore outsourcing is not such a bad thing (which, at face value, appears to be a horrendous thing to say). It’s because, just like the outsourcing of chips and other electronic components to the Far East in the 90’s resulted in lower costs for computers and telecommunications equipment, outsourcing software development to India will generate growth by making complex software more available, especially to small businesses who can’t afford to buy Oracle Financials or SAP.
Posted by windley on February 26, 2004 09:09 AM
