Silicon Valley, CA - Chris, a 28 year old computer programmer for Dell is riding high. His 80 thousand dollar per year salary and care-free work environment have liberated him monetarily and mentally from the grueling day-to-day grind of "real life". Chris was a computer science major who lives and breathes coding and couldn't imagine himself doing anything else.

Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India - Kavita, a 34 year old mother of 2, has recently graduated from college with an engineering degree. She now works for Hexaware Technologies, a US based information technology company that thrives on outsourcing. The 11 thousand dollar per year salary she is making is 22 times the per capita annual income in India.

The Conflict:

Our friend Chris has been informed that after 5 years of hard work and dedication, his position is being "transferred". For the price of his 80 thousand dollar salary, 7 new jobs can be outsource to India. He has been directed to train Kavita, mentioned above, for 3 months before his position is terminated at the company. Kavita will be performing the exact same duties as Chris, but with two major exceptions. One, her feet will never touch American soil, and two, her salary will be the U.S. equivalent of a manager at Burger King; quite a steal for her new employer.

This soggy melodrama is happening thousands of times over at US computer technology companies who are taking advantage of offshore hiring, or outsourcing. The methodology is the same as industrial plants who move there facilities to Mexico, paying their workers just several dollars per hour. Twice the man power at half the rate is making a lot of companies a lot of money, including overseas firms who provide and train workers to be outsourcers. 1 out of 10 U.S. technology jobs goes to India, and in the next 15 years it is estimated that 3 million white-collar jobs will do the same. Over half of the Fortune 500 companies have outsourced jobs to India and one of the main reasons is that almost everyone there speaks English. India has hundreds of thousands of well educated, English speaking 20-somethings, all eager to provide technical support and customer service to IT giants from across the sea.

The impacts of outsourcing are mind boggling and are enough to make any technology company salivate and any common worker quiver. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this new trend is the prospect of it affecting non-technical industries. Financial advising, graphic design and research are just a few industries that do not require physical presence to be a part of, thus making them prone to the cubical machine we call outsourcing.

OUTSOURCING FACTS

In an attempt to reduce costs, the world's 100 largest financial-services companies say they expect to transfer about $356 billion of their operations and 2 million jobs offshore over the next five years

Offshore outsourcing services are expected to save companies approximately $1.4 billion each by 2008, according to a report from Deloitte Research, an arm of Deloitte Consulting, a global management-consulting firm.

Many companies report saving up to 40 percent in cost by moving work to areas where salaries and other variables are much lower.

Learn more about this author, Allen Greer.
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