Offshore IT Development to Include

¶ … offshore IT development to include vital statistics of company experiences, countries used for off-shore development, and the costs and benefits of such. Discuss negatives from both a company and social perspective

The primary benefit of offshore IT development for companies is the cost savings conferred by making use of a less expensive labor force. Nations such as India, China, and the Philippines can offer a highly trained, technologically astute (and in the case of India, English-speaking) workforce at a fraction of the cost. "Software engineers outside of the developed countries are compensated much less than their counterparts in developed countries. The average salary for a software engineer in India is $10,000 per year" (Davies 2009). Some of the finest technological universities in the world are now based in India. The quality of the labor is high, the price is low, and this makes the use of offshore labor too tempting to resist for many companies. Moreover, technology such as email and video conferencing can make connecting with staff members relatively stress-free and easy. For technologically-focused companies, using virtual communication is already part of the company culture, thus little changes by making use of such innovations, in terms of the day-to-day routine of the office. Communicating with India or Indiana 'feels' the same for workers.

However, the use of 'call centers' to troubleshoot technical problems has been criticized in recent years. Customers often complain that they have difficulty communicating with individuals in call centers, even if these individuals are proficient in English. The local 'touch' can be lost, and consumers may shift their dollars to companies that provide a more personal connection. The intricacies of various types of technology are often complicated to convey cross-culturally, and quite often the communication process may be ineffective in terms of helping the consumer. Furthermore, the widespread cultural frustration with outsourced call centers can generate customer hostility as soon as the customer is aware that the individual on the other side of the phone does not fully understand his or her location, language, or culture. Companies wishing to exercise discretion over consumer interactions may not be able to exercise quality control over the training of representatives servicing their valued customers, who are ill-prepared to deal with angry, confused, and technologically illiterate customers. The call center is the 'face' of the IT company and Microsoft in particular has lost customers because of its dependence upon call centers and unhelpful staff, in contrast to the people-friendly personalized 'real world' face of the Apple Store.

Employing individuals abroad to construct the IT application itself can be equally problematic, especially when creating an interface for users who are not well-versed in technology. The offshore IT personnel may not have a clear sense of the culture of the foreign company, and the base of knowledge of the designated users. As a result, the technical manuals may be poorly suited to the needs of the user.