Offshoring describes the relocation of business processes from one country to another. This includes any business process such as production, manufacturing, or services. It is sometimes considered related to outsourcing, subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company.
#22677
Send Jobs to India? Some Find It's Not Always Best
Even as the prospect of high-skilled American jobs moving to low-wage countries like India ignites hot political debate, some entrepreneurs are finding that India's vaunted high-technology work force is not always as effective as advertised.
Porter, Eduardo. New York Times, The (2004). Careers>TC>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#27210
Stop Whining About Outsourcing!
I’m sick of hearing all the whining about how outsourcing is going to migrate all IT jobs to the country with the lowest wages.
Patterson, David. Queue (2005). Careers>Unemployment>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#28874
Writing is a culturally situated activity. When writing is outsourced to other cultures, because of a lack of knowledge of the users' culture and also because of influences from the writer's local culture, those doing the writing and designing, despite various strategies adopted for overcoming the disadvantage of not knowing the users' culture, may not know how to culturally situate writing. It is, therefore, important that bicultural people, who know the users' culture, as well as the culture of those doing the outsourced work, give writing teams feedback about the users' culture. Doing so can make outsourced writing more culturally situated.
Jeyeraj, Joseph. IEEE PCS (2005). Articles>Language>Localization>Offshoring
#27402
What is KPO (Knowledge Process Outsourcing)?
The next wave in the evolving dynamic outsourcing markets is here. The emerging Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) is the process where businesses outsource high end knowledge or judgment services such as investment banking research, sales and marketing research, IP/patent research, R&D, legal research and case writing and even animation design. A provider must have an educated, skilled work force able to think independently and provoke their own free thought behind any research criteria. KPO involves a high degree of execution risk as providers look to create and combine complex levels of process, technology, and services. The business processes will require domain expertise and high-end talent such as MBAs, engineers, doctors, lawyers, accountants and other highly skilled professionals. KPO will move outsourcing up the value chain from simply executing commodity processes to carrying out processes with advanced analytical and technical skills and more decision making.
Larkey, Adam. Outsourcing Institute, The (2006). Articles>Knowledge Management>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#22261
When Help Is Half a World Away
I've heard from a multitude of readers annoyed by language difficulties when their calls go to offshore service reps. They say that offshore techs often seem to be reading from a script instead of listening to details, or that they seem ill-informed about products or company policies. And many complain that calls to far-flung tech support centers often get disconnected.
Kandra, Anne. PC World (2004). Articles>Documentation>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#20783
Who Wins and Who Loses as Jobs Move Overseas?
The outsourcing of jobs to China and India is not new, but lately it has earned a chilling new adjective: professional. Advances in communications technology have enabled white-collar jobs to be shipped from the United States and Europe as never before, and the outcry from workers who once considered themselves invulnerable is creating a potent political force.
Kinetz, Erika. New York Times, The (2003). Careers>TC>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#22437
Do you ever find yourself causally picking up the phone to call your subject matter expert over in India? No, neither do I, and at least half my subject experts are in India. Another group is in Egypt, a few are in Russia, one is in Japan, and some are on the eastern U.S. seaboard. (And yes, there are a few in Oregon too?but I walk down the hall to ask them questions.) So how do you get information when your developers are many time zones away?
Lizak, Samantha. STC Williamette Valley (2004). Careers>Collaboration>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#33363
Designing for Offshore Development
One of the most significant realities about offshore developers is that they will build exactly what you tell them to build. This is both good and bad news. The good news is that they are likely to take your specification very seriously--not merely as a suggestion or starting point from which to improvise. The bad news, of course, is that if you don't clearly plan and articulate every aspect of your product from user interface and product behavior to business logic and algorithms, developers are forced to rely on their own experience and judgement to determine an appropriate solution to an unforeseen problem or vaguely documented feature. The reality with offshore resources, however, is that they are very unlikely to have that experience.
Cronin, Dave. Cooper Journal (2004). Articles>Management>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#33599
In support of the IEEE Professional Communication Society's 50th anniversary conference, this paper suggests ways in which the technical communication profession can ensure its sustainability throughout the next 50 years of business evolution. This paper seeks to present a compelling argument directed at conventionally-employed technical communicators that a paradigm shift towards consulting employment is in their best interest - and in the technical communication profession's best interest. Because of exposure to many and varied companies and methodologies, technical communication consultants tend to have more wide-ranging and current skills that they can offer to companies over their peers who work in conventional employment arrangements. For this argument, this paper will look at how technical communicator consultants can make significant contributions to business by comparing the attributes of technical communication consultants to the attributes of the untouchables defined and discussed in The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, the maverick analysis of the globalization phenomenon by Thomas L. Friedman.
Davy, D. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2007). Careers>Consulting>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#34386
Should I Hire a Good American Writer Or an Excellent Writer From Another Country?
When seeking freelance copywriters, many buyers specify that their only interest is in writers who speak English as a native language. Frequently buyers will request writers from a particular country such as the USA, the UK, Canada or Australia. This overlooks the fact that English is spoken as a first or second language in many countries. In fact, except for Mandarin Chinese, English is the most spoken language in the world.
Rashid, Saman. Technical Communication Center (2009). Careers>Management>Writing>Offshoring
#34697
Outsourcing vs. Offshoring, and How U.S.-Based Technical Writers Can Stay Competitive
A reluctance to learn new skills holds you back and complaining about potential employers raising the bar hurts us all.
Your Writing Dept Blog (2009). Careers>Management>Outsourcing>Offshoring
#35279
Are Daily Rates for Technical Writers Collapsing?
My concern for US writers is that they fail to grasp the momentum that counties like India have established and the high quality of university graduates they are now producing. In the next 10-15 years, IT jobs which can be replicated offshore/offsite to lower costs will be embraced more aggressively. US companies have little choice but to do this.
Walsh, Ivan. I Heart Tech Docs (2009). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing>Offshoring
