Outsourcing (offshoring) as a political issue...

Apparently the Democratic candidates know that outsourcing jobs overseas is a hot topic in middle America. India has taken notice of Hillary Clinton's newfound vocal opposition to offshore outsourcing, although I couldn't find any American press coverage. I will assume that India is paying attention because it will, of course, affect their economy as well.

Here's what was said in recent rallies:

Barack Obama: "We've got to stop giving tax breaks to companies that are shipping jobs overseas and invest those tax breaks in companies that are investing here in the United States of America."

Hillary Clinton "... we are going to rid the tax code of these loopholes and giveaways. We're going to stop giving a penny of your money to anybody who ships a job out of Texas, Ohio or anywhere else to another country."

Telephone Outsourcing

Here's a cute clip from a Youtuber who's obviously tired of calling customer service and getting somebody overseas. She must feel strongly enough about it - she created a video. (It's Sunday, watch it, have a little fun. )

Offshoring clinical trials - welcome to 2008

It almost seems like an ethical nightmare when companies are considering offshoring so many vitally American business processes, such as when the Orlando Sentinel wanted to send our journalism overseas.

What about offshoring clinical trials? I am sure that there are many ethics involved in that one. I'm not a doctor, I'll admit, but I did once work in a company that marketed clinical research trials to American doctors. I signed a confidentiality on that one, but from my short-lived perspective, many pharmaceutical companies were, well, desperate to get doctors to test their products on patients. It wasn't pretty and I was relieved when that temporary assignment was over.

Does this scare anybody else? 10% of the trials listed at Clinicaltrials.org, out of the 50,000 of clinical trials currently underway - are being tried outside North America, typically in western Europe and Japan. On top of that, ClinicalTrials.org is the website that our government uses to do clinical testing. Creepy, anyone? There's a really long article about the trend of companies like GlaxoSmithKline transfer of clinical trials overseas at the Financial Times, but you have to register to get access to it. It's interesting to note that some big corporations don't see it as a problem - in fact, they may even see it as a solution to the prying eyes of the FDA and the regulations that slow down the drug approval process... Which they view as an unnecessary evil...

Offshoring the NEWS?

If you haven't heard the controversy, here's a story about it. Basically, the Miami Herald was going to ship its copyediting and other pre-production processes overseas in an effort to save some cash.

When are we send too much offshore? How would you feel about your daily being print and run in a country overseas?

Shouldn't American news be American news?

Outsourcing, Offshoring and Homeshoring

A new study by Brown-Wilson Group came out today regarding people's political preferences and beliefs about offshoring and outsourcing, revealing that offshore outsourcing would be a key decision factor in selecting their 2008 presidential candidate.

"Of the 3,000 Democrats, more than half (55%) of voters see offshore outsourcing as unpatriotic, a significant decrease from October 2004 when 93.9% of voting Democrats felt offshoring was anti-American. In the Super Tuesday collection of states, 84% of Democrats believe offshore outsourcing is unpatriotic. Less than 7.9% of Republicans viewed offshoring as unpatriotic in 2004 and 6.5% in 2008."

People apparently have a bit of difficulty defining the difference between offshoring and outsourcing. (Homesourcing and homeshoring are not words that are actually used in the article, which may be a part of the confusion.)

If you're unsure about the differences between these terms, here's the difference:

Outsourcing is the act of paying somebody, who does not work as a W-2 employee for your business, to complete a task. Virtual assistants, home-based telemarketers, and countless other contractors fulfill this task.

Offshoring is the act of moving these same types of functions overseas, to foreign workers, in countries where the labor is typically less expensive.

Homeshoring or homesourcing is the act of outsourcing these types of functions within your own country, typically to telecommuting personnel or independent contractors.

It's a shame that the word "homeshoring" is not used in these study results. Especially since the press release mentions public dissatisfaction with the views of the candidates. Homeshoring creates options for a whole other workforce, is environmentally friendly, and is considered to be an economical alternative that can help companies grow their businesses.

It would be really cool to hear some of the current presidential candidates give some praise to companies like LiveOps, Working Solutions, and Alpine Access. They're truly innovative businesses that are helping Americans keep their jobs no matter what their physical constraints. Homeshoring is one of the "most patriotic" outsourcing models around. When is the media and the government going to sit up and take notice? It would be nice to hear about tax breaks for some of these innovative employers.

Global outsourcing to grow 8.1 % in 2008

But we're not sure if that's a good thing. Gartner says that it's mostly outsourcing to India and other countries. However, as companies becoming dissatisfied with the negative consequences of outsourcing, expect homeshoring to take off even more.

Many of the comopanies we've profiled plan on hiring additional workers in 2008, and we're sure that's a trend that will continue for a while.