All about Indian Outsourcing...
August 12, 2006 12:47 AM Subscribe
Please offer up numbers on India's workers and the English-speaking jobs that they're performing.
So I'll be giving a presentation in a day or two that was inspired by this episode of "30 Days", about outsourced and English-speaking jobs in India.
In particular, I need to know:
1. How many Indians are currently working English-speaking customer service-type jobs (in India, not Indians abroad).
2. What portion of viable (read "livable") Indian jobs are insourced from outside of the country.
3. How many Indians are projected to be employed in such jobs in the next two years? Five years? Ten years?
4. What portion of Indians holding such jobs can be expected to own cellular phones?
5. What portion of Indian population at large owns cell phones?
6. What kind of disposable income would an Indian professional working one of the above jobs be expected to have? Could he/she afford a daily Starbucks coffee? (Yes, I know that probably only Americans will go to an Indian Starbucks, but that's not the question.)
7. Do you know of any other relevant numbers regarding population, Indian professionals, Indian spending habits, etc...that I may have forgotten to ask for?
8. Finally, what other countries seem to be going where India currently is with outsourcing and serving English-speaking customers? Africa? China? Any numbers on these?
I know this is a huge, multi-faceted question, so I intend to be generous with best answers.
APPRECIATED: Numbers, citations, hyperlinks, first-hand knowledge and experience.
NOT APPRECIATED: Arguments about outsourcing, complaints about service received from outsourced workers, racial derails, and all manner of trolling and/or flaming. Such comments will be deleted en masse.
Sincerest thanks, hive mind. You know I love you.
So I'll be giving a presentation in a day or two that was inspired by this episode of "30 Days", about outsourced and English-speaking jobs in India.
In particular, I need to know:
1. How many Indians are currently working English-speaking customer service-type jobs (in India, not Indians abroad).
2. What portion of viable (read "livable") Indian jobs are insourced from outside of the country.
3. How many Indians are projected to be employed in such jobs in the next two years? Five years? Ten years?
4. What portion of Indians holding such jobs can be expected to own cellular phones?
5. What portion of Indian population at large owns cell phones?
6. What kind of disposable income would an Indian professional working one of the above jobs be expected to have? Could he/she afford a daily Starbucks coffee? (Yes, I know that probably only Americans will go to an Indian Starbucks, but that's not the question.)
7. Do you know of any other relevant numbers regarding population, Indian professionals, Indian spending habits, etc...that I may have forgotten to ask for?
8. Finally, what other countries seem to be going where India currently is with outsourcing and serving English-speaking customers? Africa? China? Any numbers on these?
I know this is a huge, multi-faceted question, so I intend to be generous with best answers.
APPRECIATED: Numbers, citations, hyperlinks, first-hand knowledge and experience.
NOT APPRECIATED: Arguments about outsourcing, complaints about service received from outsourced workers, racial derails, and all manner of trolling and/or flaming. Such comments will be deleted en masse.
Sincerest thanks, hive mind. You know I love you.
This post was deleted for the following reason: "this is a huge, multi-faceted question" please stick to one question a week like everyone else.
Response by poster: Shhhhhhh....
Well, that's an oops. It's late here in Utah.
Thanks for the reminder.
posted by SlyBevel at 12:57 AM on August 12, 2006
Well, that's an oops. It's late here in Utah.
Thanks for the reminder.
posted by SlyBevel at 12:57 AM on August 12, 2006
Best answer: Wow great and timely question! For me at least.
I'm doing my MBA dissertation on outsourcing. I'm looking at the topic from a little bit different angle than you seem to be, specifically Management challenges, as the primary focus on most research focuses on jobs lost in the domestic economy, etc. I can give you a few citations that might help you get the specific information you need. I'll try to focus on on-line sources, but it may not always be possible. If you've got LexisNexis or access to a Uni library, you can prolly pick up the non-internet available info. Otherwise email me and I'lll try to help.
Wood wrote a very seminal book that I've cited; get that and you'll have a feeling why outsourcing is inevitable.
In terms of India, they are experiencing rapid wage inflation in some sectors, as much as 40% pa by some sources. I've run teams based in India, and had to put contractural obligations in place requiring the vendor to keep staff on for one year as perviously folks were leaving for increases of 10-20% after three months.
In India at least you've got a relatively small number of the 500K pa Software Engineering graduates that speak acceptable English. Of those an even smaller number are capable of actually doing the job, and that's where the raging wage inflation starts.
What's going on now with the outsourcing of services jobs is pretty much what happened with the auto and manufacturing industries in the 60s and 70s, just driven by other technology (e.g., cheap communication as opposed to cheap transport).
I have to apologise for not precisely answering your questions; if you hit up the sources (McKinsey in particular is solid and internet available) you can probably find the details you seek.
Best of luck!
posted by Mutant at 1:11 AM on August 12, 2006
I'm doing my MBA dissertation on outsourcing. I'm looking at the topic from a little bit different angle than you seem to be, specifically Management challenges, as the primary focus on most research focuses on jobs lost in the domestic economy, etc. I can give you a few citations that might help you get the specific information you need. I'll try to focus on on-line sources, but it may not always be possible. If you've got LexisNexis or access to a Uni library, you can prolly pick up the non-internet available info. Otherwise email me and I'lll try to help.
- DeHaven, T., September 29th 2004, ‘There They Go Again : The Truth About Exporting Jobs’, NTU Policy Paper No. 115, [online]. Available from: http://www.ntu.org/main/press_papers.php?PressID=645&org_name=NTU [Accessed 9th July 2005]
- Drezner, D., W., May 1st 2004, ‘The Outsourcing Bogeyman’, Foreign Affairs, p 22
- Engardio, P., Bernstein, A., Kripalani, M., February 3rd, 2003, ‘The New Global Job Shift’, BusinessWeek, No 3818, p 50
- Epstein, G., 2003, ‘Job Flight: Is it Real?’, Barrons, p 26
- Frauenheim, E., April 14th 2003, ‘Economist: Tougher times for techies’, News.com [online]. Available from: http://news.com.com/Economist+Tougher+times+for+techies/2100-1022_3-996666.html [Accessed 24th July 2005]
- Gincel, R., July 4th 2005, ‘Staying on top in the global IT job market’, InfoWorld, Vol. 27, Issue 27
- Goodwin, B., January 11th 2005, ‘Demand for IT staff with business skills to increase’, Computer Weekly
- Hall, J. A., Leidtka, S. L., 2005, ‘Financial Performance, CEO Compensation, and Large-Scale Information Technology Outsourcing Decisions’, Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. 23, No. 1, pp 193-221
- Hirschheim R, Lacity M, 1995, ‘Information Systems Outsourcing, Myths, Metaphors and Realities’, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, West Sussex
- Hufbauer, G., C., Greico, P., L., E., June 7th 2005, ‘The Payoff from Globalization’, The Washington Post, p A 23
- King, J., 2003, ‘IT’s Global Itinerary : Offshore outsourcing is inevitable’, Computerworld, (September 15th 2003)
- McKinsey Global Institute, 2003, ‘Offshoring : is it a win win game?’, San Francisco, California, USA, McKinsey & Company
- McKinsey Global Institute, July 2004, ‘Exploding the myths of offshoring’, San Francisco, California, USA, McKinsey & Company, p 4
- McKinsey Global Institute, June 2005, ‘The Emerging Global Labor Market’, San Francisco, California, USA, McKinsey & Company
- Tripathi, S., March 1st 2004, ‘Outsourcing – the Myths and the Facts’, The Wall Street Journal Europe, p A7
- Wood, A., 1993, North-South trade, employment and inequality: changing fortunes in a skill-driven world, New York, NY, USA, Oxford University Press
Wood wrote a very seminal book that I've cited; get that and you'll have a feeling why outsourcing is inevitable.
In terms of India, they are experiencing rapid wage inflation in some sectors, as much as 40% pa by some sources. I've run teams based in India, and had to put contractural obligations in place requiring the vendor to keep staff on for one year as perviously folks were leaving for increases of 10-20% after three months.
In India at least you've got a relatively small number of the 500K pa Software Engineering graduates that speak acceptable English. Of those an even smaller number are capable of actually doing the job, and that's where the raging wage inflation starts.
What's going on now with the outsourcing of services jobs is pretty much what happened with the auto and manufacturing industries in the 60s and 70s, just driven by other technology (e.g., cheap communication as opposed to cheap transport).
I have to apologise for not precisely answering your questions; if you hit up the sources (McKinsey in particular is solid and internet available) you can probably find the details you seek.
Best of luck!
posted by Mutant at 1:11 AM on August 12, 2006
Best answer: Perhaps NASSCOM can offer some answers.
Over here, pretty much every middle-class person has a cellphone, so I'd say that some 90%+ people in the outsourcing sector would have them. Last I remember, there were some 100 million mobile phone subscribers in the country.
Beginning salaries are now about Rs. 8-10000 per month. Goes up to 20000+ for people with about 2-3 years work experience. Average Starbucks-style coffee is about Rs. 40 per cup.
This is all I can offer right now. Darn, you asked too many questions. (Some Googling has answers too.)
posted by madman at 1:41 AM on August 12, 2006
Over here, pretty much every middle-class person has a cellphone, so I'd say that some 90%+ people in the outsourcing sector would have them. Last I remember, there were some 100 million mobile phone subscribers in the country.
Beginning salaries are now about Rs. 8-10000 per month. Goes up to 20000+ for people with about 2-3 years work experience. Average Starbucks-style coffee is about Rs. 40 per cup.
This is all I can offer right now. Darn, you asked too many questions. (Some Googling has answers too.)
posted by madman at 1:41 AM on August 12, 2006
Is there A question here? This is unbelievably broad.
posted by mkultra at 6:58 AM on August 12, 2006
posted by mkultra at 6:58 AM on August 12, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by delmoi at 12:52 AM on August 12, 2006