Tuesday, October 14, 2003
The all-new outsourcing trend
(Via John L) The WSJ published a very interesting story yesterday on a new outsourcing trend in India -- back-office work for firms in countries like Finland, Norway and Sweden. The catch? Indians might be good with English, but the number of Indians who can speak Finnish and Swedish fluently is rather limited and certainly not enough to man back-office operations. So, what's going on?
As it turns out, an entirely new form of "adventure" tourism. These jobs are being pitched to young Finns and Swedes as a way to see the world, ala Peace Corps or the Foreign Legion, where they work for much less than they would at home, but still manage to lead a better life style, thanks to the lower cost of living in India. Effectively, London-based eBookers PLC is shipping both the call-center jobs and the workers to India.
The work itself is standard customer-service fare, including answering e-mails and phone calls from Europeans back home about travel arrangements and flight times. The Europeans in New Delhi, whose work day is shifted by a few hours to be in sync with their home market, say that apart from flickering lights and non-Nordic colleagues, there are few clues in the office that they are abroad.
On weekends, though, they travel around India or dance to Hindi pop in New Delhi discos. "In Finland, life can sometimes be boring. But not here," says Anne-Maarit Laitinen, 26, the Finnish team leader in New Delhi.The workers say their lower wages stretch fairly far because the cost of living is so low in India. Lasse Rantala, 25, among the first Finns to sign up, stayed for a year and now works for ebookers in Helsinki. He says he saved some money in India, but more importantly, "It was something else than just to study and stay in cold Finland."
Ahhhh, so that's what it's really about. Escaping the cold. Is this a sustainable trend or a fad? eBookers seems to think its a viable niche.
Ebookers, which trades on the London Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market and had more than $450 million in sales last year, won't say exactly how much money it's saving through the program. But the company says it is coming out well ahead, even after paying for perks like round-trip plane tickets for Europeans who stay on for 12 months and transportation to and from the office each day.
The WSJ has its doubts.
The call-center trek will never approach the scale of conventional job outsourcing to India, in which local English speakers field calls from American and British consumers or do technical tasks and research for companies abroad. Technology-outsourcing experts say Europeans with advanced skills are unlikely to agree to the pay, while the brisk turnover of young, low-skilled expat workers offsets part of the savings by imposing added recruiting and training costs.
As it turns out, an entirely new form of "adventure" tourism. These jobs are being pitched to young Finns and Swedes as a way to see the world, ala Peace Corps or the Foreign Legion, where they work for much less than they would at home, but still manage to lead a better life style, thanks to the lower cost of living in India. Effectively, London-based eBookers PLC is shipping both the call-center jobs and the workers to India.
The work itself is standard customer-service fare, including answering e-mails and phone calls from Europeans back home about travel arrangements and flight times. The Europeans in New Delhi, whose work day is shifted by a few hours to be in sync with their home market, say that apart from flickering lights and non-Nordic colleagues, there are few clues in the office that they are abroad.
On weekends, though, they travel around India or dance to Hindi pop in New Delhi discos. "In Finland, life can sometimes be boring. But not here," says Anne-Maarit Laitinen, 26, the Finnish team leader in New Delhi.The workers say their lower wages stretch fairly far because the cost of living is so low in India. Lasse Rantala, 25, among the first Finns to sign up, stayed for a year and now works for ebookers in Helsinki. He says he saved some money in India, but more importantly, "It was something else than just to study and stay in cold Finland."
Ahhhh, so that's what it's really about. Escaping the cold. Is this a sustainable trend or a fad? eBookers seems to think its a viable niche.
Ebookers, which trades on the London Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market and had more than $450 million in sales last year, won't say exactly how much money it's saving through the program. But the company says it is coming out well ahead, even after paying for perks like round-trip plane tickets for Europeans who stay on for 12 months and transportation to and from the office each day.
The WSJ has its doubts.
The call-center trek will never approach the scale of conventional job outsourcing to India, in which local English speakers field calls from American and British consumers or do technical tasks and research for companies abroad. Technology-outsourcing experts say Europeans with advanced skills are unlikely to agree to the pay, while the brisk turnover of young, low-skilled expat workers offsets part of the savings by imposing added recruiting and training costs.
