A few weeks ago I talked about how outsourcing wasn’t an effective way of keeping costs down and soon enough many companies that had outsourced jobs would have to return them to the US.
Sure enough, Dell has done exactly that recently taking many call-center jobs from India and moving them back to the United States.
Glenn Reynolds has some more thoughts in the issue of “insourcing”. It’s clear that Dell is finding that the short-term savings that come from outsourcing various projects doesn’t match the long term liabilities it incurs. While it may be cheaper to pay Indians to run your call center, it loses you customers and revenues in the end.
I’m tempted to say “see, I told you so”… actually I will say see I told you so. Outsourcing has never been a particular effective way of cutting costs for high tech firms, and companies such as Dell are starting to realize it.
I’ve been told by the someone in the outsourcing industry that under ideal conditions companies only save up to 30% by outsourching off shore. Again, under ideal conditions.
Has the RNC moved its phone operations back from India yet?
JR,
Why? I haven’t heard of RNC donors complaining.
It isn’t RNC donors that care about outsourcing, Stan.
A:) The RNC never made the decision to outsource any of those jobs, a contractor did.
B:) That contractor no longer provides service to the RNC.
It isn’t RNC donors that care about outsourcing, Stan.
I was referring specifically to RNC’s phone operations. Let’s face it. If customers are fine with it – then why not?
” If customers are fine with it – then why not?”
BECAUSE THE RNC WANTS VOTES FROM PEOPLE NOT CURRENTLY GIVING MONEY TO THE RNC, AND OUTSOURCING OPERATIONS IS A TURN-OFF TO THEM!
Sorry for yelling, but Jeebus, Stan, think for one minute about how a story like that plays in the media and the public. A US political party running ANY aspect of its operations from a foreign country is just bad politickin’. Does the Republican National Committee really want to risk being known as the party of shipping jobs overseas?
BECAUSE THE RNC WANTS VOTES FROM PEOPLE NOT CURRENTLY GIVING MONEY TO THE RNC, AND OUTSOURCING OPERATIONS IS A TURN-OFF TO THEM!
I was look at it from a different perspective. If democrats choose to keep their contribution operations here – that means there’ll be more overhead = less $$$ for them left over. Cool with me.
Sorry for yelling, but Jeebus, Stan, think for one minute about how a story like that plays in the media and the public.
Plays out to whom? A protectionist or a free trader?
“Plays out to whom? A protectionist or a free trader?”
How about to the Americans that used to work the 2+ million jobs we’re missing? Or their friends? Or labor union members that may want to lean Republican but now are afraid to? Oh, and of course the protectionists on both sides of the aisle….
Congrats, but that right there more than makes up the margin by which Bush “won” Florida.
“Plays out to whom? A protectionist or a free trader?”
How about to the Americans that used to work the 2+ million jobs we’re missing? Or their friends? Or labor union members that may want to lean Republican but now are afraid to? Oh, and of course the protectionists on both sides of the aisle….
Congrats, but that right there more than makes up the margin by which Bush “won” Florida.
Double post, sorry.
How about to the Americans that used to work the 2+ million jobs we’re missing?
Jobs are getting created as we are coming out of recession.
Or labor union members that may want to lean Republican but now are afraid to?
Labor unions should be abolished. Are you familiar with the union which does custodial work for NYC schools? ie, guys make up to $90k, yet its in their contract that they don’t have to vaccum carpets or change light bulbs. Sounds reasonable to you?
“Jobs are getting created as we are coming out of recession.”
When we’re into a net positive amount, I’ll grant you the point.
“Labor unions should be abolished.”
See, Stan, it’s thinking like this that would make you a terrible strategist. Moderate voters might agree that unions should be under more restriction, but most don’t, and talking of abolishing the right to organize is about as attractive to moderates as talking of abolishing the right to choose. It’s a stupid political point to make, and it highlights perfectly why the RNC outsourcing was such a bad political move.
Labor unions fought for a national minimum wage. They fought so that contractors wouldn’t be able to force workers to stay overtime without adequate compensation. They worked to protect jobs held by Americans from being given to undocumented immigrants.
Like it or not, you won’t convince the majority of voters that labor unions should go anytime soon, and, last time I checked, the RNC needs the majority of voters on their side in under a year. Likewise, you won’t convince middle America that it’s really a better deal for them if the RNC’s contractors are outsourcing their work to another country. The best you can hope for is that they won’t care. Hope away.
All that is fine. But I am not a politician. I am giving you my personal opinion.
And your personal opinion is not the subject at hand. It’s the politically idiotic mistake of letting the RNC’s telephone operations be outsourced that we’ve been discussing, as a tangent to the original topic of outsourcing in general. Your point in response to my first question on this thread was that the RNC hadn’t made a dumb move (“If customers are fine with it – then why not”?) and I have hopefully shown you that your statement is completely sophomoric and politically moronic. But hey, it’s not like we talk politics here or anything….