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The
next president’s agenda, outsourcing and local jobs
The
impact of the US presidential election on the outsourcing
issue remains a subject of heated debate. Mohan Babu focuses
on the far-reaching consequences of the next president’s IT
agenda
The
impact of the US presidential election on the outsourcing
issue remains a subject of heated debate. Mohan Babu focuses
on the far-reaching consequences of the next president’s IT
agenda
There
is a tremendous amount of buzz about offshore IT Outsourcing
(ITO) and sourcing of business processes a.k.a BPO. It is
not really news that although most companies sourcing and
receiving work across the globe are playing a low-key game,
the issue is a hot button nevertheless: Especially given the
fact that this is an election year in the US. A recent cover
story in the popular CIO magazine talks succinctly about the
implication of how “the next president’s IT agenda will have
a profound impact on IT and the way corporates do business.”
While this is not the only article, and not the only magazine
talking about the trends on election-technology nexus, the
audience of the magazine is definitely the “C” level executives
most IT companies dream of targeting.
The
article in CIO magazine titled “The Next President’s IT Agenda”
talks about five facets:
- Critical
infrastructure
- Jobs
- Privacy
- Corporate
Governance
- Information
Technology
The
suggestions in the article may border on hypothesizing different
scenarios; however the article clarifies “what the next president
does will have a profound impact on IT and the way corporations
do business. Here are the decisions he needs to make on critical
infrastructure, jobs, privacy, corporate governance and the
future of IT.” For instance, national security has been on
the radar screen of policy makers in Washington for a while
and the government is beginning to take a closer look at cyber-security
since a tremendous amount of critical data—public and private—now
passes through the Internet. Privacy has also been a hot-trigger
issue and is a corollary to the increasing focus on security,
especially since there is greater scrutiny of individuals’
information and data passing through public systems. Corporate
governance too has got a shot in the arm recently with the
passage of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, leading IT executives scurrying
for viable technology solutions to address the requirement
for increased diligence for financial reporting. The writer
goes on to talk about the US government’s ‘power as the largest
IT consumer on the planet’ that can, in a subtle way, drive
the direction of IT and adoption of best practices.
Given
that outsourcing has been a really capricious issue this year,
many in the US are relating the stagnant job market—especially
for high-tech workers—to the fact that companies are increasingly
outsourcing high-tech positions offshore. Though the offshoring
camp is equally divided between those for and against, even
the proponents of sourcing realise that jobs in native lands
are a very sensitive issue. The next president will have his
job cut out (pun intended)—to ensure that the economy not
only rebounds fast but also leads to a substantial increase
in domestic jobs.
In
all, this rhetoric about outsourcing and job loss, the fact
that lost jobs are not really synonymous with outsourcing
is getting lost. The fact remains that there could be several
other factors in the economy that could lead to a propping
up of employment in different sectors; however opponents of
global sourcing continue to use job loss as a key platform
to make their point.
The
reader of this column, perhaps a manager at an Indian, Irish,
Chinese or multinational software company, is probably extrapolating
what these trends means to him/her, in the context of projects
they manage. Even a cursory look at the list suggested in
The Next President’s IT Agenda should give an idea of the
opportunities that could open up based on the decision the
incoming president takes. However, addressing the ‘opportunity’
of creating jobs in local economies will have to be on the
top of such lists.
Given
the sensitivities of some of the issues being discussed, it
won’t be surprising to see stronger alliances emerge between
companies in India and the West. Such alliances or partnerships
could be a win-win way of not only addressing the technical
challenges of sourcing, and addressing security concerns,
but also a means of providing more jobs in home countries.
Scenarios one could think of may include setup of joint ‘near
shore’ or ‘proximity’ development centers employing local
managers, coordinators and experts in global delivery. Such
new opportunities could address both the issues of sourcing:
the need to have local-faces manage local operations, and
to create jobs in host countries.
Isn’t
this a win-win—lowering costs in home countries, while expanding
global opportunities that globalisation is supposed to usher
in?
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