news.com.com/2010-1022-5106494.html
However, the bottom line still remains: The offshore outsourcing of technology jobs will continue to happen, as long as the United States remains a free-market economy. American corporations simply cannot ignore the offshore cost arbitrage if they want to remain competitive. However, there are a number of steps IT workers can take to ensure that they not only survive this offshore movement but that they also succeed in this new business climate. This is a tough environment, where IT professionals have to make a key decision: Find a role to play on the offshore bandwagon or fight against the movement of business abroad. The survivors will be those who embrace offshore operations as yet another opportunity to expand their professional skill set and position themselves as offshore management leaders. Business leaders are learning that moving key United States functions offshore is not necessarily a slam dunk. Offshoring can often lead to lower-quality goods and services, loss of control, and cost overruns. The cultural, communications, and time-distance gaps between offshore and United States operations can also strain internal operations and hurt customer support or supply chain relationships with partners. Unless this gap is bridged, offshore outsourcing will produce inconsistent results. This creates a business risk United States IT workers can help their companies avoid, because they understand their companies business and customers better. So, rather than wait for the offshoring trend to affect them, IT professionals should start positioning themselves to become offshore managers, coordinators and leaders. They should seek active involvement in offshore or hybrid on-site/offshore projects. This involvement can be at many levels: project planning and design, deal closure, program management, project leadership, technical design, business development and production acceptance testing. And if active projects are not available, they should volunteer to set up a simple pilot project that can help gain valuable offshoring experience. IT professionals can either stick their heads in the sand or step up to the challenge.
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