The IT Nerd

There’s been a lot of press in the Canadian media about companies, usually banks such as RBC, who downsize Canadian IT workers and replace them with cheaper imported workers via IT outsourcing firms. The same thing seems to be happening in the United States. But the difference is that they don’t get mad, they sue. Brenda Koehler is a VMware-certified professional network engineer with a master’s degree in information systems and 17 years of experience. You’d think that people would be lining up to hire her. But apparently that’s not the case. In particular Indian outsourcing firm Infosys didn’t hire her for an open position that she was qualified for. Koehler has filed a lawsuit alleging that Infosys ignored her qualifications and eventually hired a Bangladeshi worker to staff a position she was qualified for. On top of that, her lawyers are working to get the lawsuit certified as a class action.

Upon hearing about this, my first thought was that why doesn’t someone do something similar in Canada. I know a ton of skilled IT professionals who have lost their jobs in the last few years, yet Canada imports a ton of people from overseas to fill open IT positions. Clearly that’s the case in the US as well and that’s not right. Governments should tighten the requirements of foreign workers so that they don’t take a job that could be filled by a citizen of that country. But if that doesn’t work, maybe lawsuits will so that the message is sent loud and clear.

There’s a new trend in setting up call centers. Instead of having a huge building of droids agents either in North America or in India (or Egypt for that matter), set them up at home and have them link in to the universe via broadband Internet and VOIP. This trend is known as Homeshoring according to a San Francisco Chronicle article:

“It gives us access to some high-quality labor that wouldn’t work in a call center,” said Andrea Ayers, president for customer management for Convergys Corp., an outsourcing company that is increasing the number of agents who work from home. “This gives us more staffing flexibility, and we can make it work with their lifestyle.”

That’s great. But before you say that this is a good idea, read this:

Home agents often start at $8 to $10 an hour, earning more depending on the skill and knowledge required for specific clients. Besides gas, home-based operators save on car maintenance and the cost of keeping up an office wardrobe.

The thought of some 250 lb soccer mom working for $10 an hour answering my phone call in her jammies is enough to tramuatize me for life. But I can see how this would be popluar in today’s economy.

I guess it gives the term “homework” a whole new meaning.

There’s a very interesting press release that I just noticed today. Apparently the country of Egypt is trying to position itself as a hot destination for outsourcing. Why is that? There’s a bunch of reasons:

“With some unique advantages such as a multilingual workforce (fluent in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Dutch); lower labor costs than in surrounding low-cost regions; time zone proximity with the West; and relative familiarity with Western culture over traditional outsourcing destinations like India and China, Egypt’s IT sector is forecasted to grow from $889 million in 2006 to $1.3 billion in 2011.”

Oh… There’s more:

“The Egyptian government offers tax breaks and other financial incentives to attract international companies to set up call/service center and business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in Egypt. It also supports the training of staff to handle multinational clients and maintain global standardized work ethics.”

Tax breaks and financial incentives are always a good thing. Given the current economic situation in America, I think you’ll see a few companies take advantage of those.

That’s got to suck for India.

The only question I have, will the quality of the staff be as good (or bad depending on your perspective) as India, or better?