Much of the work being done through offshore outsourcing is in IT, and that is what most of the general public is familiar with. The media has extensively covered the fact that often times a company's 24-hour help lines or 411 operators are actually working in a country on the other side of the world. But there is a wide range of activities that can benefit from this practice.
There are labor advantages, and other advantages--huge advantages to rethinking how businesses execute their processes given the technology that's available. It's not just IT. This is important for a wide range of areas including the medical industry.
An article I read the author Subramani talks about the 24-hour clock in today's business world and how important it is for companies to take advantage of the complementary time zones that exist. "For example, after doctors see a patient, they typically pick up a tape recorder and take notes. Local workers pick up the tapes, transcribe the notes, and return them within one to two days. Instead, that doctor could send his notes as a digital file when he leaves work at 5 p.m. to an Indian worker who, in that part of the world, is just coming into work. By the time the doctor returns the next morning his notes are transcribed."
Subramani's example raises a point about outsourcing that is often at the root of questions today If someone in India is transcribing the doctor's notes, doesn't that take away a job from someone in the United States?
It's hard to say how many jobs have gone overseas because United States companies are not required to maintain such statistics. Forrester Research estimates that the current number ranges anywhere from 12,000 to 20,000 jobs a month. Add that to the 2 million jobs that have already gone overseas since 1983 and it sounds pretty significant.
But in a global economy, U.S. businesses must remain competitive. Some