[SI-LIST] Re: [OT] Offshore engineering
- From: "Fasig, Jonathan L." <fasig.jonathan@xxxxxxxx>
- To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 12 Nov 2003 15:09:15 -0600
Presumably the lure of offshore labor is lower cost. I saw a quote recently
that addresses this topic.
"It is unwise to pay too much. But, it is worse to pay too little. When
you pay too much, you loose a little money that is all. Whey you pay too
little, you sometimes loose everything, because the thing you bought is not
capable of doing the thing you bought it to do. The common law of business
prohibits paying a little and getting a lot - it cannot be done. If you
deal with the lowest bidder, it is well to add something for the risk you
run and, if you do that, you will have enough money to pay for something
better." (1)
Regarding the question of employing offshore engineering labor, the risks
one must bear include whether offshore courts will enforce your patent and
intellectual property rights, and what happens to the experience and skill
sets you fostered after your design project is done. If one considers the
risks and unintended consequences then the lure of lower cost may be
mitigated.
Regards,
jf
(1) "Right the First Time" by Lee W. Ritchey, page 15, copyright 2003 by
Speeding Edge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jonathan Fasig Email: fasig.jonathan@xxxxxxxx
Mayo Foundation
4001 41st Street NW
MSC Sn 2-132 Phone: (507) 538-5464
Rochester, MN 55901 Fax: (507) 284-9171
-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Euredjian [mailto:martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, November 11, 2003 2:21 PM
To: si-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [SI-LIST] [OT] Offshore engineering
My apologies for the OT post. If it's seriously irrelevant please don't
respond so that the thread does not consume list bandwidth.
A current thread initiated by a vendor posting and ad touched upon a painful
sore which is the migration of all sorts of jobs from call center to
engineering to countries like India and China. This is a subject I continue
to attempt to understand as the game unfolds. I can't say that I have a
grasp for what the end-game will be or where we are going, I just know that
I have to pay attention to it.
As a small business that's expanding and facing the need to hire engineers
soon, I have to look at the marketplace and consider what's going on.
Offshore engineering sure feels like an unavoidable element of remaning
competitive. If other companies in your field choose to go that route, how
can you possibly compete while paying 10x the wages locally?
I guess I'm looking for wisdom from someone who understands where this is
going. I want to hire from and support my local engineering talent pool. I
don't think that, as a country, we can afford the wreck that this offshore
business might leave behind. However, I'm not sure what we can do about it.
And, BTW, "country" here might not necesarily apply to the US alone, as I'm
sure this is an issue in countries like UK, Germany, France, etc.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Martin Euredjian
eCinema Systems, Inc.
voice: 661-305-9320
fax: 661-775-4876
martin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ecinema@xxxxxxxx
www.ecinemasys.com
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