Outsourcing Good or Evil?

Is outsourcing technical support good or evil? Leo seems to think that the two most important questions are:

1. 1. Can I communicate with the person?
2. 2. Is the person competent?

Well, yeah I would tend to agree with Leo that these are the two most germane questions, but Leo tends to downplay (or not fully explore) the complexity associated with question number 1. How we communicate with people has to do with social context and trust, both of which have a deep cultural component associated with them. If the accent and the "rhythm" of the dialog makes a conversation difficult (even when both parties are making a concerted effort and trying to be fair) then both social context and trust is negatively impacted and what results is a severe case of cognitive dissonance.

This phenomenon has little to do with latent racism and nationalism, but everything to do with the nature of human communications. Add to this the fact that these conversations are generally about complex technical concepts, which are often extremely difficult even when both parties are speaking "American English" and you have the recipe for an unhappy consumer experience. In the rush to outsource these and other services, companies often (almost always) fail to consider the price paid for ineffective communications, which means that the cost savings from outsourcing are often grossly overstated.

Comments

[Interested Party]

Years ago I was approached by management for my thoughts regarding outsourcing of technical support to a foreign company (I won't say who or where). My thoughts regarding the matter centered on the key point of intellectual property. Prior to the war in the middle east there was less to be concerned about regarding the exportation of intellectual property than there is right now.

Any monkey can code.. a phrase that resonates with and is offensive to technical programming support, is central to the impetus for outsourcing. Not to mention the almighty profit margin. However, the most important contributions that IT personnel make in an organization are not the bits and bytes of the computing environment but their knowledge of how the organization works. This understanding and knowledge of the business and its competitive advantage, often overlooked by young programmers and business people alike, is the source of value-add from support personnel.

So, when an organization is thinking about outsourcing, cultural differences, and bang for the buck. Think hard. You may never get back what you gave away. Sacrificing intellectual collateral for a few bucks may not be a wise decision.

We live in a global society, yes, and we should evaluate new opportunities to raise the bar approaching these new methods with open minds. But we should also remember that it is the culture of America that has made us strong. How quickly we can adapt to this global business environment remains to be seen.