This is not an easy post for me to write, and I hope that it won’t be an easy one for you to read.   

Outsourcing is not new news.  We have come to accept it as a fact of life for many manufacturing companies.  We are very familiar with the fact that anytime there is a big project, perhaps software modernization or an ERP install, the bulk of the work is going to be outsourced overseas.  Outsourced firms have the manpower to bring to bear on major projects and so perhaps it makes sense, although frankly everyone seems to spend a fortune on those things no matter what. 

But it seems to me disturbing to hear about entire departments being slashed and their work outsourced on a permanent basis.  And that is exactly what is happening to one company that gets my newsletter.  Of the 13 programmers currently employed, all but three are being let go and their work is being sent to an outsourced team.  

I suppose some people would say ‘that’s just tough’.  Life is a bitch and today’s global economy requires a survival of the fittest attitude.  If it’s cheaper for the company doing the outsourcing then it’s a no brainer.    

And to those people I really can’t say a thing.  I have written this paragraph about six times and every time I come off looking like some old fart in a plaid flannel shirt trying to block them from building that new highway through the valley.  Outsourcing is cheaper, at least in the short run and since the short run is all we care about in business you are left without a stump to stand on argument wise.  But one thing I have learned over the years is – just because we can do something doesn’t always mean we should. 

Part of the aura of outsourcing reflects a general societal shift in the US.  I’m one of the few on my street who shovels his own driveway and cuts his own grass or cleans his own gutters.  We contract out everything, having it done by ‘certified professionals’ thereby leaving us free to do ‘other stuff’.   I’m not sure which came first, business or personal outsourcing, but I think they are related to our desire not to be bothered with stuff.    

But whatever it is, it makes me nervous.  I would have a real problem turning my IT work over to a group I hardly know, a group that has their own standards and ways of doing things.  In theory they are accountable to me but you all know how that would work.  And I would end up dealing not with the programmers but with their ‘fixer’, the guy who triages all customer concerns and explains them away.  You know the guy. 

But even beyond that, I am concerned about the impact of runaway outsourcing on our economy.  Are we giving away our technological leadership (if we even still have that)?  Are we handing the keys to tomorrow’ to someone else, just assuming they will deal fairly with us?   What kind of economy can you build where all we do is use what others have built?   Maybe I am that guy in the red flannel shirt sitting in front of the bulldozer but I can’t help feeling that if knowledge is power then the guy who builds the knowledge is the guy who is going to have the most power.  And that should be us, not someone halfway around the world.   

Outsourcing is not going away.  But maybe it needs to be looked at as something other than just another business tool that can be used to save a few bucks.  It is a double edged sword, one that takes jobs away and, in most cases replaces them with lesser paying jobs.  Ultimately, global economy rhetoric aside, the US economy depends on the U.S. consumer, on their ability to purchase goods and services.  But the current goal of every business in the U.S. is to eliminate anyone who is not making minimum wage or a little above, and to get rid of as many of those people as possible.  Do they actually believe that we can have a functioning economy where everyone is just eking out an existence? 

I don’t see how that makes long term business sense.  But maybe I am the one who is short sighted.  Perhaps I cannot see the big picture, the grand view that will maintain the America I know.  Do you see it?

Tags: AS/400, IBM i, Outsourcing, System i