Outsourcing Is Climbing Skills Ladder

[barb162]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/16/business/16outsource.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

Outsourcing Is Climbing Skills Ladder

By STEVE LOHR
Published: February 16, 2006
The globalization of work tends to start from the bottom up. The first jobs to be moved abroad are typically simple assembly tasks, followed by manufacturing, and later, skilled work like computer programming. At the end of this progression is the work done by scientists and engineers in research and development laboratories

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The American executives who are planning to send work abroad express concern about what they regard as an incipient erosion of scientific prowess in this country, pointing to the lagging math and science proficiency of American high school students and the reluctance of some college graduates to pursue careers in science and engineering.

"For a company, the reality is that we have a lot of options," Mr. Banholzer of Dow Chemical said. "But my personal worry is that an educated, innovative science and engineering work force is vital to the economy. If that slips, it is going to hurt the United States in the long run."

Some university administrators see the same trend. "This is part of an incredible tectonic shift that is occurring," said A. Richard Newton, dean of the college of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, "and we've got to think about this more profoundly than we have in the past. Berkeley and other leading American universities, he said, are now competing in a global market for talent. His strategy is to become an aggressive acquirer. He is trying to get Tsinghua University in Beijing and some leading technical universities in India to set up satellite schools linked to Berkeley. The university has 90 acres in Richmond, Calif., that he thinks would be an ideal site.

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[FreakinDJ]

1. When will they start

When will they start CEO positions

ans: Not soon enough

[MADem]

2. Now THAT would be just friken desserts!!!!!

Here's Raj--he has an advanced degree in marketing, a Ph.D. in communications, and yet another degree or two in business management!! He'll work a fifteen hour day, not need a $25K shower curtain or $8K umbrella stand to make him feel like a big shot, will eschew the private jet and travel coach, not egage om sexual intercourse with the help, not pad the expense account, and work for a quarter of the pay!!!

I swear, that would be a great subject for a film...something comedic, with a bit of societal portent behind it!!!

[barb162]

6. When the countries getting rich buy our companies

They will replace the American CEOs in a flash

[lovuian]

3. I think if Berkley does this I'll send my kid to India and get

his berkley education for a lot less and he will get in easily...

If Berkeley does this than allow students the same priveledges here in America... as overseas...

it shows me the foreign students were paying these tuitions ... I thought Berkely was for the Californians not India...

[LiberalEsto]

4. They're also outsourcing down the ladder

I heard something about outsourcing MacDonalds order takers overseas.

[ikojo]

5. There was a report on one of the St Louis news

stations last summer about Hardees, who was experimenting with outsourcing the drive up order taker. The customer would drive up as usual and place the order. The person taking the order, according to this report, was in California. The order was then transmitted over the Internet to the restaurant.

I took the experiment to be the first step to moving that job to India or whereever English is widely spoken. It's not like you can understand anyone through the drive up anyway.

http://www.sbtv.com/default.asp?cid=27&uid=96


St. Louis, Missouri motorists had no idea that when they were placing their order at the neighborhood Hardees, a corporate-owned store, they were actually talking to a call center over a thousand miles away in Anaheim, California. After analyzing the trial period with the remote call centers, Hardees may adopt the system and eventually open the jobs to freelance order takers who work from home on their own schedule.

Down the interstate near Cape Giradeau, Missouri drive-thru orders are taken at McDonald’s by a call center in Colorado Springs, Colorado more than 900 miles away.

The call center is run by McDonald’s franchisee, Steven Bigari, who uses computer phone technology known as VOIP to take customer’s orders, display their order on a screen for the customer to check, and then forward the order to the restaurant kitchen. Bigari uses the system in all seven of his drive-thru restaurants and provides the service to some franchisee owned stores in Missouri, Minnesota, and Massachusetts. He hopes to test cell-phone ordering at some of the restaurants this summer.

[barb162]

7. who will be left working?

[area51]

11. "who will be left working?"

American CEOs & not too many others.

Anyone who supports offshoring/inshoring is a traitor to America.

[lectrobyte]

8. I've heard medical tasks such as analyzing X-rays and lab results

are being out sourced as well.

[ikojo]

9. I recall reading an article in the NYT about a hospital

in Boston who uses the Internet to send xrays to India and they are read by a radiologist there. The article said the radiologist in India gets paid approx $35k per year versus what a radiologist in the US is paid.

In the article below notice how corporate America always uses the excuse "a shortage of xxx" to justify sending jobs overseas. When will people have had enough?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6621014/


Spurred by a shortage of U.S. radiologists and an exploding demand for more sophisticated scans to diagnose scores of ailments, doctors at Altoona Hospital and dozens of other American hospitals are finding that offshore outsourcing works even in medicine

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Dr. David Turner, chairman of diagnostic radiology and nuclear medicine at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, believes outsourcing fears are unfounded. With concern about medical errors and malpractice lawsuits, no U.S. hospital would risk hiring untrained, unskilled doctors, he said.

snip

A division of Bangalore-based Wipro Ltd., an Indian technology giant, is doing radiology readings for a handful of U.S. hospitals in a pilot project using 12 Indian doctors who are neither U.S. licensed nor board certified.

snip

He refused to identify the American hospitals involved in the project, saying it was confidential. While Indian radiologists generally make about a tenth of the estimated $350,000 median salary for U.S. radiologists, Sarkar said Wipro is only “testing the waters” and poses no threat to U.S. radiologists.

[sandnsea]

10. Don't forget in-sourcing through Visas

Even jobs that have to be done here aren't safe. They just tell us there's a shortage, expand the Visa programs, and pretty soon doctors, lawyers and accountants won't be guaranteed good paying jobs either.