This page provides links to offshore outsourcing news articles published in July 2004. Please note that over time some links may become broken as the various web sites are updated. We endevour to keep the links up-to-date, but inevitably some broken links will occur.

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You can also read July's News Reviews and Press Releases.

News Archive

29 July 2004 Labor group: Microsoft offshoring work on Longhorn

ZD Net

...it obtained internal Microsoft documents showing that at least two of India's offshore outsourcing companies are working on the operating system dubbed Longhorn...

28 July 2004 A CIO Conversation: Microsoft's Ron Markezich

Search CIO

...Microsoft is obviously a global company that utilizes skilled labor from all over the planet. How do you respond to critics who say offshore outsourcing is killing the middle class and shipping away America's edge?...

28 July 2004 Offshore IT set to grow

VNU Net

...UK firms will spend 15 percent of their IT services budgets on offshore outsourcing within the next five years, according to recent predictions by analyst firm Forrester...

...As the move offshore accelerates, local service providers will suffer, said the firm. This could lead to better deals for those opting to stay with local providers...

27 July 2004 Business: Business to Business: Outsourcing 101

Zongo.com

Article explains the basics of offshore outsourcing, and why outsourcing is such a hot topic at the moment.

27 July 2004 Offshore CAD Outsourcing

Web Pro News

...there is significantly less risk in outsourcing CAD offshore than there is in outsourcing IT development or IT services offshore...

18 July 2004 Africa Can Seize Share of IT Outsourcing Market

CRM Buyer

Africa's Strengths
Chief among the strengths of the African continent...is the fact that English is really strong. "It is a different accent, but it is well understood...

Africa's Weaknesses
There are questions about the stability of certain African governments, which may deter investors from moving to the region. Political instability is currently impacting India's offshore outsourcing niche...

15 July 2004 Managed services tops UK outsourcing poll

Computer Weekly

... it found that 70% of organisations think spending on outsourcing will increase or stay at the current level. Three-fifths of IT decision-makers in private and public organisations are using managed services as part of their IT strategy and 20% less are relying on offshore outsourcing within their organisation...

...Although offshore outsourcing does enable businesses to make short-term financial gains, it is not suited to delivering the service and performance improvements that companies are now looking for...

15 July 2004 Labor group: States, unknowingly, offshore millions

InfoWorld

...U.S. state governments are granting public contracts to foreign outsourcing firms and funneling millions of state taxpayer dollars offshore, in many cases without being aware of it, according to a study released Wednesday by the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (WashTech)...

...However, at least one of the Indian contractors named in the study questions its accuracy...

15 July 2004 Is Canada the solution for offshore outsourcing-wary U.S. companies?

IT Manager's Journal

...Smith said that there would likely be fewer barriers to climb if his company where to choose Canada over some other nations...

..."I would feel much better outsourcing -- if outsourcing proved to offer cost savings and incentives -- to someone in Canada than going, say, off the continent,"...

14 July 2004 Study tracks offshore outsourcing by state governments

Tallahassee Democrat

A union-backed group calls for states to let citizens know how much of their tax dollars are being spent to send work overseas, instead of having either state workers or homegrown companies do it...

13 July 2004 The real risk in Indian offshoring

CNN Money

...According to an article in the Times of India last week, companies like Wipro and Infosys are starting to lose key software developers, project managers and high level executives to leading U.S. tech companies such as IBM, Oracle and Accenture...

...But even if the Indian companies are able to hold off a potential brain drain, there's also the issue of how expensive it will be to do so...

13 July 2004 Outsourcing has got a long way to go yet, say tech execs

Silion.com

...Over 70 per cent of IT execs reckon that companies' spend on outsourcing will go up or at least won't drop. However, 60 per cent have discussed offshore outsourcing within their company and decided that it's not for them...

...he expected BPO to really take off once operational, cultural and sociopolitical problems have been overcome by the BPO suppliers...

12 July 2004 Controversial 'Offshore Outsourcing' Term a Misnomer for Complex Array of Global Sourcing Strategies

Yahoo Finance

...Beyond fears of the US bleeding jobs overseas is a landscape of diverse insourcing and outsourcing initiatives that net out to benefit the US economy...

07 July 2004 Offshore outsourcing to gather pace in next five years

Personnel Today

...In its "Europe's Offshore Outsourcing Plans" report, Forrester predicts that the percentage of firms expecting to move more than one-third of their IT services spend to offshore providers will double between 2005 and 2008...

06 July 2004 Great change in the Indian outsourcing market!

India Infoline

The landscape of the Indian offshore outsourcing market is set to change, according to predictions...

...Consolidation, specialisation and the growth of training companies are some of the key areas that India will be embracing in order to hone their offering and stay ahead of the game in an increasingly competitive market…

06 July 2004 Offshoring Puts Consumers First

eWeek

...To oppose offshoring is to put the providers of a service, for example, computer programming, ahead of the consumers of that service...

...Do consumers care? Online lender E-Loan has been giving home equity consumers a choice as to where their loans will be processed. If handled in India, the loan would be processed two days faster than if handled in the United States. Faced with this trade-off, 86 percent of customers choose to have their loan turned around two days faster via India…

05 July 2004 Offshoring: How to deal with customer backlash

Silicon.com

...the Amicus trade union, which recently merged with financial services union Unifi, has warned of "by any means necessary" strike action in protest at the large numbers of jobs it claims are being moved abroad purely to cut costs...

... "Customer preference must be one of the factors considered when deciding if a service should be offshored," he said. "I have not seen any customer backlash specifically linked to offshore services. Those that I have seen occur when the quality of service drops below the customers' expectation - this happens regardless of where the service is located."...

02 July 2004 L-1 Visa Act To Hurt Outsourcing: Forrester

The Financial Express

...the L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2003 that alters L-1 visa eligibility rules if passed is expected to severely impact offshore outsourcing industry and offshore outsourcing customers in the longer term...

...L-1 visas are popular with offshore outsourcing vendors. The L-1 visa is an intra-company transfer visa that allows companies to transfer employees from a foreign office to the United States...

...The impact to the client (whose vendors use L-1 visas) is that their onsite vendor staff will be much more expensive than in the past, or onsite staff simply won't be available...

...The major changes if the L-1 Visa Reform Act is passed, according to Forrester, is that more work will be done offshore, rather than onshore.

02 July 2004 Audit probes state job outsourcing

Tri-Valley Herald

A Bay Area lawmaker has won approval for an audit of state contracts to find out how much state-funded work is being sent overseas...

..."I'm very concerned about the privacy issues raised by offshoring data operations,"...

01 July 2004 ITAC to assess net impact of outsourcing

it Business.ca

The Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC) has set up a "Wise Persons Committee" to study how many Canadian jobs may be won or lost through offshore outsourcing...

...Canada could lose as many as 75,000 jobs to offshore outsourcing by 2010. On the other hand, said Robert Scott, co-author of that study and a member of ITAC's new committee, Canada could also gain up to 165,000 jobs by attracting outsourcing contracts from the U.S...

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Offshore Outsourcing Press Releases

31 July 2004 $356 billion worth global financial services cost base will be offshored to India

PR Web

...It is anticipated that $356 billion worth global financial services cost base will be offshored to India, over the next five years. Approximately 15% of the $2.34 trillion cost base for the top 100 financial institutions globally. According to this 15% estimation, 2008 will see the migration of over two million jobs out of the 13 million employed in the financial services sector. This is expected to produce a cost saving of around $138 billion for the top 100 financial service firms, a cost saving of approximately $1.4 billion each...

...The outsourcing of functions, such as call centres, claim adjusters, mortgage processors, financial analysts and non-core accountancy functions, is gaining momentum at an accelerated pace within the financial services arena. "This year alone, it is anticipated that outsourcing will have increased up to 40% and will continue to do so at an equivalent rate for the next five years", predicts Edwards...

29 July 2004 Is Offshore Outsourcing Politically Correct?

PR Newswire

...I believe that the liberals need to decide what they really want. It seems to me that if the liberals are truly anti-war, they would support offshore outsourcing and other initiatives that reduce the poverty and marginalization of other countries. Considering the cost of the current war to fight terrorism, efforts to prevent terrorism and related wars would be economically efficient."

19 July 2004 Where to Offshore Outsource?' Dilemma is Addressed in neoIT's Mapping Offshore Markets White Paper

PR News Wire

"Mapping Offshore Markets Update 2004" looks at the issues that need to be considered when selecting an offshore outsourcing location and examines the capabilities of specific countries.

07 July 2004 Global Sourcing Insights Reveals Methods to Effectively Communicate Outsourcing Plans

eMediaWire

Poor communication on a company's offshore outsourcing plans can create political backlash. GSI publishes a white paper to assist companies in developing effective communication for their outsourcing initiative…

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News Reviews

Offshore Outsourcing News Review - July 2004

Consolidation appears to be the message this month. While the detractors of offshore outsourcing continue to decry offshoring, the industry is looking towards what is needed to maintain growth, and deflect its critics.

New markets continue to eye the dominance of the likes of India, and Canada looks to build on some of the American offshoring outcry, by bringing work near-shore.

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