It should be no surprise that software companies are looking for ways to cut cost and one method to do that is to offshore jobs to Indian programmers. This movement may seem perfectly normal compared to the likes of Nike, but Michael Bean argues these companies are making the wrong move. His main argument is that companies should not offshore their main assets, i.e. programming because they are putting their assets on the line and the process does not allow the company to be innovative.
I have to disagree with Mr. Bean because I am sure there are innovative people in India and you can outsource your main products with care. There are a lot of dangers with outsourcing since the company has less control over the outsourced group. Even though the labor may be cheaper, they is always the possibility that the QA isn't as high as America's so the cost to make up for the failures may make outsourcing more expensive.
Posted by dreamnid at January 7, 2004 01:30 AM | TrackBack