Outsourcing
David Fishman

Asia, the Sub-continent of India, South America, “far” North America, the world has been “Americanized,” even “McDonalised.” The economic power and reach of the US consumer is unmatched by any other single countries consumer base. We are the “Romans” of the modern day. Through technology both telephonic and internet based our nationally developed and historically successful commerce engines can become globally reflected and successful abroad at half the cost. Once all commerce completed by Americans was facilitated through other American citizens. It is doubtful that you can go a month and not spend at least some time on the phone with a foreign resident working on a program for an American firm. (Some of us cannot go 3 hours!) Clearly the steel, mechanical and textile industries were the first to move off shore and gain cost benefits while keeping production levels the same as they would have been in the United States. With the advent of the internet and its amazing ability to bridge the gap of millions of miles all companies often regardless of economic strength have begun to feel the affect and power of outsourcing of projects.

Many of the internets direct marketing firms are backed or supported by off shore call centers or software development teams, individuals, and companies. The most common jobs outsourced are support, data entry or sales programs. Some argue, ''to be competitive and to maintain and improve American living standards, we have to move up the technology food chain,'' said Craig R. Barrett, the chief executive of Intel.

“Forrester reports 3.3 million services jobs moving offshore between 2000 and 2015. The projections show that half of the 3.3 million jobs are in traditional office services, like bill processing, order handling and the like. Only 14 percent of the total are in computer services, according to Forrester. “

”But even the larger number of 3.3 million needs to be put in perspective. The United States has more than 130 million employed workers, about 70 percent of them in the services sector.”

Internet Advertising is a service and may one day start utilizing firms who are abroad even to augment our own specific business. But for certain we are helping produce sales that will be supported or completed through outsource jobs. Often the success of a campaign is based on a CPA model which can be drastically affected by where the completion of the sale occurs. Thus we must not pretend this trend is not deeply affecting how we do business and it is important to choose not only the right companies to work with but the correct lawmakers to govern how we can do business.

There is a raging political debate about outsourcing of jobs that often hits home to those of us with friends and families out of work. It is not only a central topic among business executives but has become a household political issue. We as facilitators of commerce, the small privately held business’s, have choices that must be influenced beyond the basic profit scheme we may choose to employ. The long term and short term decisions we make will not only drastically affect our bottom line but will affect the economic future of the United States. Internet marketing is a great deal like day time TV. We are not loved nor often respected, yet we are used or viewed by millions and the dollars pumped into this respective industry are astounding. It is not clear weather this trend will leave a positive imprint on the internet advertising industry or not.

In one view outsourcing will take away jobs from Americans doing a disservice to each and every American as well as harming our overall economy. However, there is another view; Outsourcing will create a more productive American economy. It will cut costs while increasing production allowing for the creation of new segments of the economy. Will we as internet marketers be quick and nimble enough to see these waves and catch them in time to capitalize and corner our verticals? We must remember that we use the backbones of the largest companies in the world to drive our commerce, weather that is AOL, Microsoft, Intel, Citibank etc….These companies make technology changes and decisions which affect our own companies abilities to conduct commerce. When outsourcing can change the entire overall picture of a fortune 500 company it will most definitely change the way we each conduct business.

http://www.neoit.com/gen/news-events/news-contents/Dec_03_NYT_Offshore_Jobs_In_Technology.html