NEWS: "Homesourcing" Could Replace "Outsourcing"

GEEK: "Homesourcing" Could Replace "Outsourcing"

As expertly demonstrated by this cartoon tech support rant*** many computer companies have noticed a problem with outsourcing their support call centers to foreign lands. After numerous complaints from customers, companies like Dell have brought their tech support back to North America.

In order for these companies to keep their support costs low, however, companies are turning to "homesourcing" (or "homeshoring". Your next tech support call may be answered by a homesourced employee sitting on their couch in pajamas and bunny slippers.

With homesourcing, companies don't have to provide expensive office space, cubicles, or free coffee. Workers don't have to shower, get dressed, or commute. Callers get tech support workers who speak English as a first language and who understand American slang and are familiar with American expectations.

The only people this doesn't benefit is the newly-trained workers at the call centers in India. But hey, they don't have to worry, either. 15% of US tech jobs will be headed their way by 2010, and they'll be waiting with the skills.

*** WARNING: The linked-to cartoon is Not Work Safe and Not Politically Correct. If you're easily offended, don't watch it. If you are offended by an Indian man in a turban speaking with an accent, don't bitch about it to me.

how dare you include that baster squirl!!!!!!!!


on another note... whose idea was it to outsource amarican tech support calls to india?

cool

I heart racism!

lol point its not racism thats driving it, its having your mobo short and having peron on other line only understand 1 in 5 words of what you are saying

Demanding competent tech support that speaks English as a first language is racist?

Being pissed off when that doesn't happen is racist?



[Edited on Dec 27, 2004 by Shalome]

The video is funny, but there are tech support people in this country who are toolbags as well. Good thing I know what I'm doing and don't have to talk to them anymore.

No, but that cartoon is.

I used to work at a call center who handled bellsouth dsl calls. we had good benifits and were paid decent, (8.50 plus flex time) but the biggist problem was not the system problems but incompetence in other call centers. yeah I'm talking about you Call Tech and TAG. Fuck both of you.
anyway they sent the whole thing to the phillipines and I think it is doing ok.
as long as the pay stays good homesourceing is good.
But how about some decent paying jobs that don't involve kissing ass to someone who refuses to read instuctions. fucking ID-10.T errors.

Erm.. correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the "I demand to do less work and easier work for more pay!" mentality in the US what got us outsourcing in the first place?

Shit, I completely misread the title to mean that they would soon be outsourcing jobs to gay workers. "Homosourcing"

Need glasses.

I'm shocked at how much non-tech support is being done in other countries. For example, before I bought my car, I went to MyFICO.com to get my credit score, so I could see what interest rate I could hope to get on a loan. I couldn't get my credit score directly; I got a message that I had to call them to verify information. This was due to a fraud alert I put on my credit report after some dickweed got my credit card number and treated themselves to a cell phone. Anyway. I called, and I got a rep in India.

This bothers me, that financial information is going overseas. I mean, I suppose international phone lines are secure, but what recourse would there be if someone at that call center decided to abscond with my credit info? There have already been cases of medical records shipped to India for processing being stolen, and the companies outsourcing there not being able to do shit because Indian privacy laws are lacking.

Well not really. sure there are lazy people especially in the coporate world but the call center jobs are staffed by (at least in my experince) hard working people who care about getting paid. and that means working within the parameters set by the client and monitored by three differnt monitoring services.

what got us outsourceing was captalism and globolasation. Now I'm no commie but in the old days you need a cheaper labor force you import them. I cite the influx of irish, italians, eastern europeans, germans etc and I also cite upton Sinclair's the jungle. cheap labor means good profits.

But now with our international transportation infrastructure instead of paying to import labor you can go to where labor is and save on factory construction and you don't have to worry about those pesky OSHA laws.
So china can make our wax lips for much cheaper than a domestic factory could.
and with tech jobs or telecommunications you just need an educated english speaking labor force. all you need is a building and phone/net access. very cheap. and all the indian programmers and sys admins who came to the us to work can go back home and work in an enviroment with low cost of living and good indian food.

so, no it was not a worker mentality that forced the change but market forces.

I work for a huge consulting firm that has centers in India for computer programming... I'm good friends with alot of the programmers I met from there... but I am against the practice as well.

Editied: most call center problems are PEBKAC any way (Problem exists between keyboard anc chair)

[Edited on Dec 27, 2004 by Sebilrazen]

it has nothing todo with race but language and service. some centres in India simply do not understand their customers- the same problem would happen if the centres were in Poland, Russia or even in the USA where there are still cultural differences that would make communication difficutl.

There is enough real racism without the knee jerk cry of "racism"

Homesourcing has been done for several years by home shopping and telephone psychics, it's about time Dell caught up to the wireless revolution...

You've obviously never worked tech support. If you're lucky enough to work for a company that handles it's tech support in-house (several Canadian ISPs do this, as well as IBM and Dell, for example) the pay can be pretty good. If you work for a company that does outsourcing for call centres (as is most often the case), the money drops off dramatically. In Edmonton, Convergys pays several dollars an hour less than the in-house call centres in the area. And the issues we deal with are often just as theseeman describes. Almost everything I deal with, the user brought it on themselves either directly or through negligence (how many people still don't have an antivirus program?) You are dealing with complex issues with people on the other side of the phone who don't know what they're doing and don't want to know what they're doing (willfully ignorant). It's a stressful job that we don't get paid enough for. I'm considering going back to doing manual labour soon. At least then I don't have to deal with stupid users, AND I'll get paid more.

"What we have here, is failure to communicate."

Seriously, this has nothing to do with racism. It's about communication, or lack there of. This has happened to me where the person on the recieving end of my call had some issues with the english language. I was still patient and curtious, but none the less it was still a bit frustrating.

I've obviously never worked tech support? Heh.. oh, just from 1996-2002, and in every IT position I've held after that, I still handle willfully-ignorant end user problems on a daily basis. Yes, it's stressful, but waitressing was far more stressful for me -- and paid worse.

And anyway, my point was not that tech support is easy, but that the $25-$30 an hour that tech support used to make before the dot-com bubble burst was unwarrented. You're 22. You probably never got to actually experience the absolutely ridiculous salaries of the late 90s. My point was that salary expectations for entry-level positions (and yes, tech support IS an entry-level position) have been seriously skewed by the dot-com bubble.

I will probably never see that kind of salary again. I've got no CS degree and can't get hired because I can't get past the HR monkeys despite my experience and resume, and I can't afford to go back to school right now. *shrug*


[Edited on Dec 27, 2004 by Shalome]

I can agree with that, but would you say $10/h is warranted given the high stress levels, and the fact that a guy with a grade 9 education can make more by driving a forklift? In my area, call centres are about the only IT-related job you can get, meaning there are a lot of university and technical institute grads (such as myself) who spent a ton on their education only to get fuck all. It is skilled labour, and it would be nice if we were paid accordingly.

Yay! So, how do I go about finding one of these jobs? (I don't care if it pays 10 cents per minute. so long as I don't have to dress up for anybody and attempt office talk during my lunch break)

That guy with the grade 9 education driving the forklift will be making pretty much the same salary his entire life.

The grads with IT degrees who spent a ton of money on their educations are working tech support as an entry-level stepping-stone job. They have skills and opportunities for advancement. Their investment in their education will pay off eventually. That's how skilled labor works.

Patience, young Jedi.

[Edited on Dec 27, 2004 by Shalome]

When i made the racism comment, i wasn't talking about the issue of outsourcing, but the cartoon link that is included in the story. I don't even know why it is there...