This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Java Buzz by Michael Cote. Original Post: Offshoring News Notes: Doubt for the Long-Term Feed Title: Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc. Feed URL: https://cote.io/feed/ Feed Description: Using Java to get to the ideal state. Latest Java Buzz Posts Latest Java Buzz Posts by Michael Cote Latest Posts From Cote's Weblog: Coding, Austin, etc.

Recently, one interesting thread in the off-shoring "story" has been that of companies taking a more cautionary approach. The main question here is "do the obvious short term gains cause long term damage?"

This month's CIO deals almost exclusively with this question, e.g.,

• From "U.S. Stays on Top":

  "Offshore outsourcing ultimately represents a certain loss of control," says Travis. "It is very dependent on the ability to manage relationships, and you always give up some agility." When CIOs outsource development to India, for example, it's much harder to make changes to projects. "Anything beyond the scope of the project is impossible, unless you want to pour more money into it," says Travis."

  The same article also makes the positions that (a.) IT jobs will become more of a 50/50 split between business and technology, and, (b.) innovation and creativity will be kept onshore; both ideas, esp. the second, are off-shoring cliches by now. As one interviewee notes, several old-generation IT people won't like this: they're prefer to be a Bowie rather than a Swiss Army Knife

• The execs could end up getting off-shored themselves if today's off-shore providers become international companies with people world-wide and complete bid'ness competence...access to American capital though is, perhaps, another story.
• In an interview, Lester Thurow notes that once the world's economies level out (if that ever happens), the savings difference between American and off-shore labor could be canceled out. This is an attractive idea, but this didn't seem to happen with manufacturing: perhaps there's something different in this case.
• Follow the ideas in the Lester Thurow interview this "memo from the future" speculates about off-shoring prices rising and other "accounting tricks" making the long-term gains next to nil.
• And, as a Reuter's story reminds us, there's an unknown degree of political backlash possible in reaction to "that sucking sound."

Also, recently, Lehman Brothers moved it's help desk back to America:

Lehman's top IT executives disclosed some details of the change last month after analyst Louis Miscioscia, wrote in a research report that, "in terms of helpdesk, Indian firms could not provide the level of quality and services Lehman needs."

However, it looks like, overall, Lehman will be sending more, non-help desk work overseas.

In the same story, however, The Register notes that earlier stories of Dell moving back their help-desks may not be quite correct...or maybe it's just confusing back-talk from a Dell exec. On the other side of the story, see this article from the Calcutta Telegraph.