WP,pg1: Indian outsourcing: from call-center, back-office to higher levels

[DeepModem Mom]

India's New Faces of Outsourcing
High-Level Technicians Lead a Transcontinental Shift in Business Culture
By S. Mitra Kalita
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 11, 2006; Page A01

PUNE, India -- Before he supervised teams, wooed American clients over dinner or sat in a Northern Virginia boardroom alongside U.S. executives, Constancio Fernandes wrote computer code for a living.

That's how it started in the late 1990s -- American businesses ordered up software applications, and Indian programmers such as Fernandes dutifully delivered. But somewhere along the way, Fernandes became more confident and outspoken. He began questioning the Americans and suggesting cheaper, faster ways to run their businesses. They listened.

"Most of the companies in the U.S. used to see Indian companies as sweatshops," said Fernandes, 33, who began as a programmer but is now the director of engineering at Reston-based Approva Corp.'s offices here, supervising product-development teams, tracking projects and improving engineering techniques. "The changes have been phenomenal."

Fernandes represents a generation of Indian workers that is redefining outsourcing from call-center and back-office work into higher-level management and strategy jobs -- areas that Americans workers have often regarded as safe from overseas competition. As they climb higher in the corporate food chain in transnational firms, Indian workers and executives are pushing their U.S. counterparts to take them seriously, taking on greater responsibilities and subtly changing the corporate culture of both countries.

In Pune (pronounced POO-neh or POO-nah), a city on India's west coast, where several Northern Virginia technology firms have established offshore operations over the past decade, the shift has been a welcome one. The unlikely relationship between these two regions, about 8,000 miles apart, underscores how outsourcing has evolved in unexpected ways. In the past, U.S. companies gave the marching orders to workers in India. Now, young Indian developers such as Fernandes and expatriate Indian business leaders are helping India gain a more equal footing....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/10/AR2006011001687.html?sub=AR

[fujiyama]

1. Hehe

Looks like the Indians are getting uppity. The corporations aren't getting the meek mild mannered coding monkeys they were earlier.

This could be good though. With the skills given now, Indian workers should be able to start their own companies and maybe some of the US based ones will come back.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. And they're making mass protests too.

Just heard that workers in one company walked out to protest the firing of just three employees. Who knew that a mono-culture would create the kind of cohesiveness that would make unions unnecessary?

Who knew?

[progressivebydesign]

3. I've cancelled every account with businesses that outsource.

Each time I call somewhere for customer service, etc., and if I have called India.. I finish my biz on the phone and cancel the account, or let the company in question know I will no longer be patronizing them. I make it VERY clear why I'm doing it. I also give kudos regularly to companies that still employ American workers for their call centers and customer service. Everyone here should do the same. I bought a Dell computer through their financing... if I had realized that Dell outsources most everything, I never would have bought it. When I found out, after several extremely frustrating attempts at customer service with someone named "steve" in India who could not understand what I was talking about, and was completely humorless and unpleasant, I paid off my dell acount, cancelled it.. and told them why. I will not support companies that are taking wage earner jobs away from Americans.. simple as that.

[fujiyama]

4. Don't get Dells

Steve Case was a huge donar to repukes and Bush especially.

Aside from the outsourcing issue (and in all honesty you're going to have a very tough time finding a company that doesn't), that's as good as any to not buy their shitty computers.