What types of US software projects are most likely to be actually
implemented in countries with cheap labor, such as India and China?
What kind of work is more likely to be done by US programmers?

---

Request for Question Clarification by answerguru-ga on 19 Feb 2003 08:16 PST

Hi Gremlin,

Would you accept an answer that comes from personal experience within
an organization? The 'likelihood' of this sort of thing does seem to
vary by company :)

answerguru-ga

---

Clarification of Question by gremlin-ga on 19 Feb 2003 09:38 PST

Personal experience would be interesting as a comment, but, for the
answer, I'd really prefer documentation of the general trends.

Hello gremlin-ga,

You asked a very interesting question that deserves a lot of research
to fully address. I’ve collected a few resources to get you started.
You ask what kinds of projects are likely to be outsourced. Software
development and business process management are both increasingly sent
to India. Call centers are the most obvious service that is largely
being sent offshore. China in the past has been focused on
manufacturing processes but they’re also moving into call centers and
other business processes. As their English competency increases, they
will probably take on more and more software development projects as
well.

I hope the links I’ve listed below will help you with getting an
overview of the issues you raised in your question. Please post
additional questions if you want more in-depth research. There are
many interesting issues to explore.

czh


http://www.savitr.com/remote_development_india_it_outsourcing_why_india.html
Offshore Development -- Remote Development India - Why?
The tendency to out source is being driven by a combination of cost
and speed. Indian companies are out sourcers of choice for many U.S
and European Corporations.Many MNCs also have research and design
subsidiaries in India, where IT workforce is perceived as well
educated but inexpensive. The availability of low-cost, skilled
English speaking manpower in India is likley to remain a compelling
factor for, IT outsourcing and Remote Development services.
***** This article gives you some recent market research statistics
from Giga, Forrester and McKinsey & Co. regarding outsourcing to
India. It also gives a good review for the reasons why India is often
preferred for outsourcing initiatives.

http://www.offshoreis.com/Data_entry.htm
Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES)
ITES refers to services delivered over telecom networks or the
Internet to a range of business areas and verticals.  Technology is
used essentially as a tool/enabler to provide these services, and most
of these functions tend to be human-intensive.
Due to their human-intensive nature, these processes and services are
outsourced in order to derive a cost advantage without sacrificing
quality and efficiency.
***** This site offers a long list of likely business process
activities and products that are likely to be outsourced to India.

http://www.e-isn.com/services.htm
India Software Network is a network of leading IT companies & software
technology parks in India. We have hundreds of IT companies, mainly
software development companies, in our network. ….
We also have associates in our network who provide IT enabled services
whereby you may outsource some of the following functions to the
appropriate company in the ISN network: Call centers, Medical
Transcription, Back office operations, Revenue Accounting, Insurance
claims processing, legal database, Content development, Animation,
Payroll & Human resources, Logistics management.

http://www.corbettassociates.com/content/10/32/91/
The 2003 China-America Outsourcing
Business Development Summit
October 18-20 2003
Beijing, China

Outsourcing in China
China has long been recognized as a manufacturing source and as
contract manufacturing has developed into outsourced manufacturing
services, China has continued to be part of this evolution. …
Other segments of the outsourcing industry are beginning to develop in
China as well – in particular information technology services and call
centers.  According to Gartner, China has 200,000 IT professionals in
the software outsourcing business today, is adding 50,000 per year,
and will be third largest source of offshore IT outsourcing sometime
between 2007 and 2010.

http://www4.gartner.com/pages/story.php.id.2358.s.8.jsp
China and India Can Both Win at Software Development
The Chinese software and application development service market is
emerging, but with major IT resource problems. Will India overcome
China's challenges and reap the benefits? Synergies and challenges
exist for both countries.
***** This page highlights Gartner’s research products on the emerging
trends for Chinese and Indian IT outsourcing.

SEARCH STRATEGY
outsourcing india
outsourcing china

---

Request for Answer Clarification by gremlin-ga on 25 Feb 2003 14:22 PST

All of the sources you found are from the websites of corporations
involved in outsourcing. I'm concerned that they have a
pro-outsourcing bias. Can you find a couple more neutral sources (news
sites or something) so I can fact check what the companies are saying?

---

Clarification of Answer by czh-ga on 25 Feb 2003 16:10 PST

Hello gremlin-ga,

It’s not just outsourcing company bias. The trend is very real. I did
a quick check with Google News search and found lots of articles.
Check it out.

czh

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=outsourcing+india+china
search for <outsourcing India China> 


http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2003/03-10-2003/vo19no05_jobs.htm
Your Job May Be Next!
Millions of U.S. jobs, as well as thousands of independent businesses,
face extinction under policies that favor importing cheap labor and
exporting production.

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/985849.htm
China augments IT services spending 
According to a study, China's increased spending on IT services makes
it second to India as the fastest-growing consumer.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1035778088629&call_pageid=968350072197&col=969048863851
`Outsourcing' climbs up the job ladder
It began as a way to harness cheap overseas labour And it's evolved --
can an out-sourced CEO be far off?
APARITA BHANDARI

http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/feb/24spec1.htm
Brighter horizons for India Inc?

http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/business.cfm?id=225852003
Calling out around the world...

If you think software projects are implemented in other countries
because of 'cheap labor' then countries like Somalia, Uganda, South
America are best places. India & China are traditional and ethical
countries they work not just to earn, but to build great societies. If
you have a negative mentality and wanna show with your $4 then
probably think sometime how did you able to spend this $4; before
asking these kind of questions.

I am not trying to attack Indian or Chinese programmers. What I meant
by "cheap labor" was that programmers in these countries are paid less
than similarly skilled people would be in the US. Many companies are
outsourcing to these countries because they offer the combination of
low cost and an educated work force. This is an economic reality. It
makes sense. I do not oppose the phenomena, I'm simply trying to learn
more about it. I apologize if the words I used to describe it offended
you.

gremlin-ga,

Please bear in mind that anyone logging in to this service may post
comments to a Google Answers question. Some of those who do, such as
harshamaster-ga, do so in a confrontational or offensive manner. Such
a comment, as in this case, is wholly uncharacteristic of an actual
Google Answers researcher. Researchers, who can be distinguished by
their colored, underlined nicknames, are typically far more polite and
appreciative of GA customers than harshamaster.

Your question is perfectly reasonable and you owe no apology to
anyone.

ericynot-ga
Google Answers Researcher

I suspect that any kind of programming task that is independent of the
English language would by do-able in a developing country. (It's much
easier to train people in programming skills than to make them fluent
in English.) For example, implementing a tax-preparation product would
probably not be a good project for foreign programmers, not just
because of all the English involved, but because of the lack of
knowledge foreigners would have of the American tax system. On the
other hand, I think that data processing tasks, such as
paper-to-digital document conversion, would be a great idea for a
business in a developing country. That sort of thing doesn't require
computer programming skills or excellent English -- only computer
literacy -- and it's the kind of thing that would be quite expensive
to pay for in the U.S. due to the high cost of labor. Of course, the
real trick is finding businesses in the U.S. that have a need for this
and are comfortable with sending their documents half-way around the
world for conversion. (Because I'd like to get an answer as well,
perhaps we could make some arrangement where you raise the price of
your question and I'll pay you the difference.)

vocaro,
I think we may be asking slightly different questions. By "software
projects" I meant "computer programming projects", not just "projects
using a computer". Paper-to-digital conversion wouldn't be included,
because it's a typing and proofreading job, not a programming job.
If you're still interested in combining forces to answer the question,
let me know how much you want to pay, and we can figure something out.

I think Google editors shoud limit comments to only approved Google
Researchers.  "Outside" people tend to under rate most researchers.

There is one reason for so much outsourcing in India, and that is
their colonial legacy.  Most "skilled" indians know english from the
British Legacy almost half of their population speaks Hindu or
English.  Programming is then so much easier.  You should try
searching for countries with recent 1900īs colonial legacy...

FYI, the subject lines of a few related questions I've asked recently are:
wages of programmers in different countries 
open source in asia 
Programming jobs moving from US to India?