[ale] Indian outsourcing

[Alan Stewart]

Stuffed Crust wrote:

> But back to my original question -- what's next? The traditional answer
>
>is "creativity" and "innovation".  To which I answer -- how are we going 
>to do that?  And, more pressing, why would anyone else need us?
>
Maybe it's a cycle - we all go back to the farm now. :-))

>By outsourcing something, you implicitly state that it's not important
>enough to you to know what the details are.  You implicitly state that
>it's not important that your people are the ones that learn from the
>trenches.  You implicitly state that you don't care that there won't be
>anyone coming up in the ranks that really knows the ins and outs of what
>you rcompany really *does*.  You implicitly state that it's not
>important that you're training a competitor who in the long run, won't
>need you.
>
Those points all apply whether the contractor is located in your country 
or outside of your country.

I don't think outsourcing IT to India will decimate the American IT 
industry. I think there's still going to be a plenty of need for IT 
people work in small- to medium-sized businesses where the ability to be 
flexible and provide a personal touch are valued. What's going overseas 
are call centers and large software development and maintenance tasks.

With or without outsourcing IT to foreign countries the marker for IT 
workers is going to shrink in the U.S., over time. As better, more 
sophisticated, more standardized software and hardware is developed, the 
need for IT workers will be less. I have just eliminated three semi-IT 
jobs in my company with newer, better software.

Fourteen years ago, in the 1990 recession, I was laid off - I was an 
intern architect acting as the firm's CAD manager. The firm shrank from 
150 architects to 50 architects. I switched professions. (I had already 
wanted to do it, the layoff gave me the kick in the kester I need to 
force me to do it.) There was a short-term income loss, as I had little 
qualification for working as a software developer, but it paid off in 
the end.

---

D. Alan Stewart
Senior Software Developer
Layton Graphics, Inc.
155 Woolco Drive
Marietta, GA 30065
Voice: 770/973-4312
Fax: 800/367-8192
http://www.layton-graphics.com