Outsourcing Times

Online College Degrees Becoming More Prevalent in HR Marketplace

Hiring an outsourcing or HR manager is rarely an easy task. One of the first qualifications that you're bound to look at is education. We all know that Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, and the like are consistently ranked atop the US News and World Report's America's Best Colleges. But with the job market the way it is, online degree-granting institutions are becoming more prevalent. The problem is: which are the top online colleges?

The Online Education Database has come to the rescue by publishing their new 2007 Online College Rankings to help sort out the mystery of who's number 1 in the online degree world. And who is number 1? Well, none other than Grand Canyon University.

Outsourcing Is Healthy & Good: Study

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Those who felt that there was a chance the outsourcing industry would die out, may not be too happy with this recent survey by KPMG. According to the study Strategic Evolution, outsourcing is increasing and almost all the organizations that are involved in this practice want to maintain their sourcing level. And quite a few of them even want to increase the sourcing levels. This survey which collated responses from nearly 700 organizations from 32 countries proves that the only path open to this industry goes forward.

Contrary to the belief in certain quarters that outsourcing is creating new problems, most respondents believed that service providers made positive contributions to the success of their organizations. Oh, and it was not only services that had improved. The financial baseline of most firms was also showing an improvement and as they became more lean and mean, their competitiveness increased. Too much good news for a day. What do you say?

Know Your World: India

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Let’s play a game to check your GK. How many of these words make sense to you: Holi, Eid, Bandh, Ambedkar jayanthi, Ugadi? If you are a regular American with not much connection with the outside world, you probably wouldn’t know what most of these terms meant. Well, maybe we’d give you the benefit of doubt and say you know what Eid means.

All these words are associated with India, the India you deal with on a daily basis. Names of festivals, important dates and a general strike as was experienced in Bangalore recently. (Cauvery water dispute, anybody?) Most organizations don’t seem to have an idea about the holiday system within which their Indian counterparts operate.

This attitude doesn’t pertain to India alone. How many of you know about the Philippines, China, Israel or even Russia. Very few. Beginning today, let’s examine some of the important things you need to know about the various countries you deal with.

Getting back to Indian holidays, most people don’t understand the need to exert themselves on this aspect. If you don’t mind losing productive person-hours and reduced employee satisfaction and loyalty, then go ahead and bask in your ignorance.

What most people don’t realize is that you can work around such situations and even use these holidays as a relationship-building and motivational exercise for the Indian teams. So, how do you ensure that you don’t miss this opportunity? A few tips:

• Realize that the country has an overwhelming number of holidays with each state having a different set of holidays. Try to learn the specific holidays of the company and state you deal with.
• Create an Indian holiday calendar and a plan of action for unplanned ad hoc holidays. This will allow you to recalibrate work schedules and avoid losing productive work hours.
• Understand the meaning, and observances of the various holidays. You can ask your Indian colleagues for more information. And don’t forget to greet your Indian colleagues on these occasions. Such gestures are highly appreciated.

Know Your World: India

Let’s play a game to check your GK. How many of these words make sense to you: Holi, Eid, Bandh, Ambedkar jayanthi, Ugadi? If you are a regular American with not much connection with the outside world, you probably wouldn’t know what most of these terms meant. Well, maybe we’d give you the benefit of doubt and say you know what Eid means.

All these words are associated with India, the India you deal with on a daily basis. Names of festivals, important dates and a general strike as was experienced in Bangalore recently. (Cauvery water dispute, anybody?) Most organizations don’t seem to have an idea about the holiday system within which their Indian counterparts operate.

This attitude doesn’t pertain to India alone. How many of you know about the Philippines, China, Israel or even Russia. Very few. Beginning today, let’s examine some of the important things you need to know about the various countries you deal with.

Getting back to Indian holidays, most people don’t understand the need to exert themselves on this aspect. If you don’t mind losing productive person-hours and reduced employee satisfaction and loyalty, then go ahead and bask in your ignorance.

What most people don’t realize is that you can work around such situations and even use these holidays as a relationship-building and motivational exercise for the Indian teams. So, how do you ensure that you don’t miss this opportunity? A few tips:

• Realize that the country has an overwhelming number of holidays with each state having a different set of holidays. Try to learn the specific holidays of the company and state you deal with.
• Create an Indian holiday calendar and a plan of action for unplanned ad hoc holidays. This will allow you to recalibrate work schedules and avoid losing productive work hours.
• Understand the meaning, and observances of the various holidays. You can ask your Indian colleagues for more information. And don’t forget to greet your Indian colleagues on these occasions. Such gestures are highly appreciated.

China: Painful Outsourcing

Are you planning to outsource your manufacturing to India? Hope you are aware of the risks associated with outsourcing to China. You may have to face quality problems, delay in deliveries and worst of all, theft of your intellectual property. Most people believe that all these problems arise because we don’t understand either the language or the way business operates in China.

One businessman recently discovered that even knowledge of both language and business operations modes doesn’t really help. Edward Wu's experience may not be so unique nowadays as an increasing Chinese Americans try to set up base in their home country.

Despite efforts by the Chinese government to rein in counterfeiting, experts say manufacturers there can undercut their clients by producing similar products at cheaper prices in as little as two years. And Chinese American entrepreneurs have less of an advantage than one might expect. While they may initially get a leg up, economic factors soon trump everything else.

Want to know more? Read on…

Air NZ Outsourcing Plan Hits Turbulence

The fear of outsourcing virus seems to have hit New Zealand now. Recently, the union representing 1700 Air New Zealand workers whose jobs are under threat said it planned to go ahead with an Employment Court hearing on the matter. Radionz.co.nz reports:

The Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union says it has been unable to reach agreement with the airline on Tuesday on the company's plans to outsource its passenger and ground services. The two parties have been in two days of talks after an Employment Court hearing on the dispute was adjourned.

Read more: Union to go to court 0ver Air NZ outsourcing plan

Bangalore Struck By Strike

Civil unrest recently shut down Bangalore's tech industry. IBM, Infosys, Wipro, and hundreds more outsourcing and technology companies didn't open their Bangalore facilities Monday due to a labor strike over a court decision on water distribution from a nearby river. Informationweek.com reports:

Bangalore is often compared with the U.S.'s Silicon Valley. The recent spate of civil unrest and business closures, however, are a reminder that the region's tech industry isn't exempt from the turmoil and complex socioeconomic issues facing the rapidly developing country.

Read more: Strike Shuts Down Outsourcing In India

Survive The Outsourcing Trend With This Guide

It is natural to worry about losing your job – especially in present day America. If you are an IT professional, your worst nightmare may just come true today, or maybe tomorrow. So, are you prepared for surviving the outsourcing onslaught?

One of the first things you must realize is that the present situation is not as threatening as it is made out to be. Secondly, you don’t need to await the layoff notice. There are many things you can do to remain competitive in the job market. For instance, learn to hard sell the practical benefits you can deliver instead of talking technical jargon. Another thing you could do to improve your employability is learn more skills. For more information on how to survive the outsourcing trend, you can check the Outsourcing Survival Guide

Let’s Shore It Up

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

There is a lot of technical lingo associated with the outsourcing industry. While most of us are familiar with these terms, I’ve noticed that there is no consistency in how these terms are interpreted. Here are a list of the most common terms in the industry, and their most widely accepted definitions.

• Offshoring: It is sometimes used interchangeably with outsourcing. While this may not be totally wrong, offshoring essentially involves relocating a business process including production/ manufacturing to another country – usually a low-cost alternative. Alternately, it could also mean an organization using the services of another firm that may be located in another country.
• Outsourcing: In outsourcing, a particular internal function of the company is assigned to an outside supplier. For instance call centers in the BPO industry are an outsoured function. Firms outsource to save money, improve quality, and also free their resources for other activities.
• Homeshoring: As the name suggests, if a company decides to transfer some of its work from offices to home-based employees, it is called homeshoring. Homeshoring, which is a good combination of outsourcing and telecommuting only requires that the employee have appropriate telephone and internet facilities to work from home.
• Inshoring: Sometimes, offshoring companies set up offices in the US or Europe. This is done to attract customers who may not have the resources or may not be amenable to offshoring
• Nearshoring: China, India and the Phillipines may still be the destinations of choice for many firms. But increasing number of firms want to get their work done in countries nearer home. For instance, they’d rather prefer getting work done in Canada, or East European countries like Poland, Russia and Rumania.

Why You Need To ‘Know’ India

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Since India is still the flavor of the season, let’s look at the reasons why you should be careful while outsourcing to the country. One of the first things you realize is that the demographics and structure of the country are very different from that of other western countries. It is very important for all levels of management to understand the differences in workforce demographics, diversity categories, and legal frameworks relating to diversity, employment discrimination and equal employment opportunity.

For instance, the workforce in India is largely young. Rapid economic expansion over the past decade has led to a rapid influx of professionals into the already burgeoning workforce.

Meanwhile in America and European countries like England, the average age of the workforce is older. This workforce however represents a much larger and varied section of society than the one in India.

Another problem with India is the lack of enough trained, qualified talent to fill up the jobs coming its way. The much touted education system also does nothing to bridge this gap. In such a scenario, employers in India are finding it increasingly difficult to hold and cultivate the skilled employees they need.

Then there is the issue of legal framework. In western countries, anti-discrimination laws, compliance laws, and mechanisms for redress of violations are taken for granted, India is still way behind. Though the country’s legal eagles are trying hard to catch up with the rest of the world, fact is the legal safeguards, redress mechanisms and monitoring mechanism in India still leaves much to be desired.

These instances just touch the tip of the iceberg and yet they are sufficient to illustrate one point. You just cannot apply generic diversity management and global multicultural team principles to every issue. You have to understand and learn to work around the differences in the country you outsource to. Or you may end up facing unintended negative consequences.

Here’s An Alternative To Offshoring

By Priya Jestin, Staff Writer

Imagine a situation ten years down the line, where there is a huge backlash against jobs being moved offshore, whether to India or any other location. This could lead to many American companies deciding to retain their work in-house or within the United States, for fear of rebuke from customers or stakeholders. What happens to the outsourcing industry then?

According to experts, the offshoring trend cannot stop, but it will definitely slow down. Since the demand will slow down, wages will remain under control. This means India will still be able to retain its cost advantage and will still be the global leader in outsourcing. American companies which may no longer be able to outsource, may look to employ qualified people from other countries including India.

This could lead to large-scale immigrations of qualified people from India, China, Phillipines, and other countries to the United States. Now this makes me wonder. Which is the lesser of the two evils: Sending our jobs out of the country or getting outsiders into the country to do our jobs?

Failed Outsourcing Deal? Blame The People

This is something most of us know and yet it took a global outsourcing survey by KPMG LLC for us to believe that outsourcing is a people business. The survey proves that successful outsourcing isn't about tight contracts and meeting service-level agreements -- it is strictly a people business and is based on relationships between provider and customer.

Overall, some 60% of respondents claimed that problems with their outsourcing provider are almost always people-related. Head of KPMG's IT advisory, Egidio Zarella, said this is because sourcing arrangements are not managed correctly; 79% of survey respondents did not even know the cost of selecting an outsourcing provider.

Want to know more about this survey? Read on