ask a question of a vendor. First there is the long, long delay before the phone gets answered. And then there is the accent.

Are the service reps and techies smart? Yes, they are. Are they smarter than Americans? It depends on the person. But they are always cheaper. Do they do the job? Usually. Depends on how well they’ve been trained and managed. They certainly know what to say, how to say it, how to answer questions.

But what about brand management? Do they give the identical service that the company espouses in-house

Outsourcing seems to be the new-new thing and approximately 50% of our major corporations are doing it. What are the costs? The benefits? And what skills need to be managed in order to make it work optimally?

Let’s get a clear understanding of what we mean by outsourcing: it’s the shifting of easily codified jobs - such as help desk support, call centers, system maintenance, and programming jobs – to countries that can manage them more cheaply.

While this function is allegedly freeing up our people from some of the mundane tasks of our workplaces, it’s bringing with it an entirely new set of problems: how do we manage people across continents; how do we know our brand is being maintained when we have no direct control over managing foreign employees; how do we restructure our workspaces once our lower level jobs are farmed out.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS OF OUTSOURCING?

John Ribeiro in a recent article in Darwin, states: “According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)… outsourcing to India has saved the U.S. banking industry $6 billion to $8 billion.”

Indeed, I’ve heard it said that the only reason American companies are outsourcing work is to save money. Let’s take a brief look at the pros and cons of the financials for a moment:

Cost savings: mainly in the area of salaries and management time.

Additional expenditures: vendor selection (legal, travel, time), exchange rates, training, time lag issues, client retention, management or techie retraining.

One of the costs I’ve heard discussed is the human cost: that company employees get resentful when their job descriptions get changed, and have a period of time where they suffer resistance. Eventually, they do come ‘round to recognizing that they are being given higher-value tasks in place of their old work – assuming that they even desire new tasks and don’t end up quitting. There don’t seem to be any figures available on this cost.

But there is an additional, unspoken cost. Our relationship with the end customer.

We’ve all dealt with service people from India when we call to ask a question of a vendor. First there is the long, long delay before the phone gets answered. And then there is the accent.

Are the service reps and techies smart? Yes, they are. Are they smarter than Americans? It depends on the person. But they are always cheaper. Do they do the job? Usually. Depends on how well they’ve been trained and managed. They certainly know what to say, how to say it, how to answer questions.

But what about brand management? Do they give the identical service that the company espouses in-house

tasks of our workplaces, it’s bringing with it an entirely new set of problems: how do we manage people across continents; how do we know our brand is being maintained when we have no direct control over managing foreign employees; how do we restructure our workspaces once our lower level jobs are farmed out.

WHAT ARE THE COSTS OF OUTSOURCING?

John Ribeiro in a recent article in Darwin, states: “According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM)… outsourcing to India has saved the U.S. banking industry $6 billion to $8 billion.”

Indeed, I’ve heard it said that the only reason American companies are outsourcing work is to save money. Let’s take a brief look at the pros and cons of the financials for a moment:

Cost savings: mainly in the area of salaries and management time.

Additional expenditures: vendor selection (legal, travel, time), exchange rates, training, time lag issues, client retention, management or techie retraining.

One of the costs I’ve heard discussed is the human cost: that company employees get resentful when their job descriptions get changed, and have a period of time where they suffer resistance. Eventually, they do come ‘round to recognizing that they are being given higher-value tasks in place of their old work – assuming that they even desire new tasks and don’t end up quitting. There don’t seem to be any figures available on this cost.

But there is an additional, unspoken cost. Our relationship with the end customer.

We’ve all dealt with service people from India when we call to ask a question of a vendor. First there is the long, long delay before the phone gets answered. And then there is the accent.

Are the service reps and techies smart? Yes, they are. Are they smarter than Americans? It depends on the person. But they are always cheaper. Do they do the job? Usually. Depends on how well they’ve been trained and managed. They certainly know what to say, how to say it, how to answer questions.

But what about brand management? Do they give the identical service that the company espouses in-house

ng industry $6 billion to $8 billion.”

Indeed, I’ve heard it said that the only reason American companies are outsourcing work is to save money. Let’s take a brief look at the pros and cons of the financials for a moment:

Cost savings: mainly in the area of salaries and management time.

Additional expenditures: vendor selection (legal, travel, time), exchange rates, training, time lag issues, client retention, management or techie retraining.

One of the costs I’ve heard discussed is the human cost: that company employees get resentful when their job descriptions get changed, and have a period of time where they suffer resistance. Eventually, they do come ‘round to recognizing that they are being given higher-value tasks in place of their old work – assuming that they even desire new tasks and don’t end up quitting. There don’t seem to be any figures available on this cost.

But there is an additional, unspoken cost. Our relationship with the end customer.

We’ve all dealt with service people from India when we call to ask a question of a vendor. First there is the long, long delay before the phone gets answered. And then there is the accent.

Are the service reps and techies smart? Yes, they are. Are they smarter than Americans? It depends on the person. But they are always cheaper. Do they do the job? Usually. Depends on how well they’ve been trained and managed. They certainly know what to say, how to say it, how to answer questions.

But what about brand management? Do they give the identical service that the company espouses in-house

that company employees get resentful when their job descriptions get changed, and have a period of time where they suffer resistance. Eventually, they do come ‘round to recognizing that they are being given higher-value tasks in place of their old work – assuming that they even desire new tasks and don’t end up quitting. There don’t seem to be any figures available on this cost.

But there is an additional, unspoken cost. Our relationship with the end customer.

We’ve all dealt with service people from India when we call to ask a question of a vendor. First there is the long, long delay before the phone gets answered. And then there is the accent.

Are the service reps and techies smart? Yes, they are. Are they smarter than Americans? It depends on the person. But they are always cheaper. Do they do the job? Usually. Depends on how well they’ve been trained and managed. They certainly know what to say, how to say it, how to answer questions.

But what about brand management? Do they give the identical service that the company espouses in-house

ask a question of a vendor. First there is the long, long delay before the phone gets answered. And then there is the accent.

Are the service reps and techies smart? Yes, they are. Are they smarter than Americans? It depends on the person. But they are always cheaper. Do they do the job? Usually. Depends on how well they’ve been trained and managed. They certainly know what to say, how to say it, how to answer questions.

But what about brand management? Do they give the identical service that the company espouses in-house (or, um, in-States)? The answer here is, generally, ‘no’ and deserves further discussion.

HOW DO OUTSOURCED REPS DELIVER BRAND AMBASSADORSHIP Because lower-level jobs are being filled by people who speak English as a second language, AND who have not had the appreciation of ‘service’ instilled in them since birth, these foreign reps will, at best, do a technically good job. Say what you want: we Americans are raised understanding that we must serve customers and must be served by vendors. People in India are raised to believe they are a replenishable commodity.

Unless trained to do so, the foreign workers will NOT carry the company standard, and in a problem situation, may run. I’ve had several people hang up on me when it became clear that my problem was more complex than they could manage.

Do I shrug, and say, “Oh well. He was Indian. He didn’t know any better.” Or do I say, “Why isn’t ABC Company giving me the service they promise on their ads?”

Every single person who works in a company – Every. Single. Person. – is a company’s Brand Ambassador. That means, those young Indian people living in Bangalore (I’ve been there. Outside of the pollution in the city, it’s lovely. Smells like sandalwood throughout the villages.) or wherever, must act exactly like the people you have in the States. If you don’t, you are not managing your brand appropriately.

And therein lies the largest problem created by Outsourcing (other than taking jobs away from an already depleted workforce here in the States): how do American managers effectively communicate with the foreign providers who are answering our phones and doing our programming? How do we make sure that the way we treat customers here in the States is the same way we treat customers in Malaysia, or wherever?

What is our brand? And how do we manage the brand over time and through space?

We need to create a new way to transfer skills and beliefs across continents in order to ensure that our brand is represented effectively in every client interaction. Every client interaction.

BELIEF AND SKILLS TRANSFER For some reason, some compan