During the past couple of weeks, there were a number of reports in the media on reverse-offshoring. Many of them took off from Reuters’ writeup “GM to open third U.S. tech center, hire 1,000 people” The article described General Motors' plans to open a third U.S. information technology center as "part of its plan to bring that work in-house and improve the automaker's efficiency and productivity."
A few writers took the story further. For example
GM reverse-sourcing a thousand jobs to centers in the US is certainly significant for the company and will provide much needed boost to communities and local economies where the jobs are coming to. The news is also significant since offshoring firms wrote their playbook based on learnings from early contracts at sourcing pioneers like GM and GE. Interestingly, In 1984, General Motors agreed to buy EDS for $2.5 billion. In 1996, GM spun off EDS again as an independent company, and then became one of its largest clients. (Wiki)
Just as industry watchers try to analyze the context of these media reports, comes earnings report by industry bell weather and my former employer, Infosys. As Forbes headline chimes “Infosys FY Q3 Top Estimates; Outsourcing Not Dead”
Bottomline: Just as one swallow does not a summer make, General Motor’s decision on sourcing, while making an interesting headline is perhaps a drop in the backdrop of global offshoring ocean.
A few writers took the story further. For example
- NPR story “Outsourcing Reverses As Indian Companies Hire In U.S.”
- Bloomberg news “Outsourcing Turns Inside-Out as Indians Open U.S. Centers”
GM reverse-sourcing a thousand jobs to centers in the US is certainly significant for the company and will provide much needed boost to communities and local economies where the jobs are coming to. The news is also significant since offshoring firms wrote their playbook based on learnings from early contracts at sourcing pioneers like GM and GE. Interestingly, In 1984, General Motors agreed to buy EDS for $2.5 billion. In 1996, GM spun off EDS again as an independent company, and then became one of its largest clients. (Wiki)
Just as industry watchers try to analyze the context of these media reports, comes earnings report by industry bell weather and my former employer, Infosys. As Forbes headline chimes “Infosys FY Q3 Top Estimates; Outsourcing Not Dead”
Bottomline: Just as one swallow does not a summer make, General Motor’s decision on sourcing, while making an interesting headline is perhaps a drop in the backdrop of global offshoring ocean.
Cant agree more Mohan. I remember a conversation I had with my account manager some time back in the midst of the economic crisis when our account was fast dwindling. He remarked, quite sensibly, that cutting off some jobs is an economic imperative which will see natural reversal in due course but to speak of a shift in geography is stretching it too far simply coz there were just not enough manpower in these countries to help themselves.
ReplyDeleteOffshoring is here to stay for sure. Unless there is a new business model that takes birth!
Issam,
ReplyDeleteYou are right. Many in the industry have been talking about new business models to take place that will mitigate the need for offshoring or for that matter migration of masses of professionals across continents.
Are we there yet? Perhaps not. I wish we had a crystal ball to see the emergence of newer models! :-)
Many business today outsource their works to save some labor cost.
ReplyDeletephilippines outsourcing