Free with purchase
In recent entires on sourcing, we have looked at how sourcing offshore can be successful. But, in considering where to source products and services, we believe it is time to look again at risk. As I was reading the paper this morning, I saw an article in the local paper about the infestation of devices like iPods with viruses. Then when I read my email, my daily feed from MIT Technology Review gave more detail than the paper – (MIT Technology Review). The latest threat of viruses in devices leads to a concern that we all should be aware of. Certainly one of the risks of doing offshore development has always been the protection of Intellectual Property, now it appears that the stability of the development environment is at risk.
This latest threat though is more concerning than IP and piracy. Certainly, it causes anyone to wonder – in a country growing as fast as China or India is, what is the evolution of the control mechanism in place to prevent this infestation of viruses into the environments in which our code is being written in and what is the secondary infection potential for files being sent to us by our “trusted providers”. I spent a lot of time in retail – but I am not interested in “free with purchase” in this case.
I remember an article that I read three years ago in a news magazine. It was when people were first starting to talk about the “China” Cost. The article pointed out two facts that surprised me – more Chinese were being added to the work force every year due to migration to the cities than were in the US work force. That got my attention at the time. The other statistic that I saw was that the span of control of management in China was in the hundreds of people. I wondered at the time – how long can this last? Well, if the trends in the quality of products being produced is any indication – not much longer. As workers begin to get paid more, and their ego grows with that money, the need for supervision increases – not decreases. Is this being done?
It would seem that the whole idea of offshore creation of goods and services is beginning to look a lot like the sub-prime investments. Three years ago they were both great ideas. But how sustainable were either of them? What is the effect of the offshore work product in areas like corporate IT governance? We have always been concerned about copy right violations and the pirating of software, now it appears that there are other concerns as well.
I am not an alarmist – but I have gotten very conservative over time in my approach to business and technology – and as a result we have built our company – as many companies in America are now finally doing - around sustainability. In looking at sourcing solutions, it might be self-serving on our part to ask it – but how sustainable is this notion of offshore development? The dollar is in free fall – maybe we in America should begin to look at developing solutions for “our” offshore.
Fred Geiger
www.dharacg.com
This latest threat though is more concerning than IP and piracy. Certainly, it causes anyone to wonder – in a country growing as fast as China or India is, what is the evolution of the control mechanism in place to prevent this infestation of viruses into the environments in which our code is being written in and what is the secondary infection potential for files being sent to us by our “trusted providers”. I spent a lot of time in retail – but I am not interested in “free with purchase” in this case.
I remember an article that I read three years ago in a news magazine. It was when people were first starting to talk about the “China” Cost. The article pointed out two facts that surprised me – more Chinese were being added to the work force every year due to migration to the cities than were in the US work force. That got my attention at the time. The other statistic that I saw was that the span of control of management in China was in the hundreds of people. I wondered at the time – how long can this last? Well, if the trends in the quality of products being produced is any indication – not much longer. As workers begin to get paid more, and their ego grows with that money, the need for supervision increases – not decreases. Is this being done?
It would seem that the whole idea of offshore creation of goods and services is beginning to look a lot like the sub-prime investments. Three years ago they were both great ideas. But how sustainable were either of them? What is the effect of the offshore work product in areas like corporate IT governance? We have always been concerned about copy right violations and the pirating of software, now it appears that there are other concerns as well.
I am not an alarmist – but I have gotten very conservative over time in my approach to business and technology – and as a result we have built our company – as many companies in America are now finally doing - around sustainability. In looking at sourcing solutions, it might be self-serving on our part to ask it – but how sustainable is this notion of offshore development? The dollar is in free fall – maybe we in America should begin to look at developing solutions for “our” offshore.
Fred Geiger
www.dharacg.com
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