Offshore Tech Trend Continues, With Or Without IBM
Whether or not International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) jumps on board, the offshore bandwagon continues to roll through the technology industry.
Executives at Big Blue reportedly discussed accelerating efforts to move white-collar jobs from the U.S. to overseas locations where labor costs are cheaper, The New York Times reported Tuesday. The paper cited a tape of a March conference call in which IBM's director for global employee relations said its competitors are moving jobs offshore, "and we have to do it."
IBM spokesman Joseph Stunkard declined to comment on the tape. But IBM's purported interest in offshore work highlights a trend that's spread throughout the information-technology industry in recent years. Companies like Electronic Data Systems Corp. (EDS), Accenture Ltd. (ACN) and others are expanding IT operations in India, China and elsewhere, where workers earn a fraction of what their U.S. counterparts make.
Stunkard did say that IBM's U.S. work force is growing and will continue to do so. He cited high-end consulting as one area where IBM would hire U.S. workers.
IBM employs about 315,000 workers worldwide, with roughly 150,000 in the U.S. Last year IBM laid off more than 15,000 workers, many of them in the U.S.
Stunkard said IBM is committed to building business overseas, from which the majority of IBM's sales are derived. "This is far beyond wages," he said. "This is about attracting and retaining top talent wherever they may be in the world, including the U.S."
But critics say the offshore trend amounts to taking well-paying jobs from American workers. Lee Conrad, who is trying to organize IBM workers for the Communications Workers of America labor union, said he fears jobs that pay more than $60,000 annually to IBM workers in the U.S. will be shifted to India, where IT workers make as little as $6,000 a year.
"What we're going to be seeing is a devastating effect on IBM employees and their families and communities," Conrad said.
Conrad's group, Alliance@IBM, is holding meetings of IBM workers and contacting politicians in an effort to stem the tide. Some lawmakers have proposed bans on government contracts to firms that use offshore labor.
IBM has been coy about its offshore plans, but some rivals have been more explicit about their own plans. Electronic Data Systems has predicted it will have 20,000 employees providing offshore IT services in various countries by the end of 2004. Accenture has said it plans to have 2,500 workers in India by 2004, up from the recent level of 1,000. Unisys Corp. (UIS) and BearingPoint Inc. (BE) also have said they would expand offshore operations. Some of these companies have laid off U.S. workers in recent years.
Some firms are almost entirely based on the offshore model. Wipro Ltd. (WIT) and Infosys Technologies Ltd. (INFY) are based in India and provide services to U.S. companies. Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. (CTSH) is based in Teaneck, N.J., but has most operations in India. Companies ranging from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM) to Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO) are among the customers of Indian IT-services firms.
Employment in India's IT services and software industries jumped 24% to about 650,000 in March from a year earlier, according to Nasscom, an Indian trade group. Besides the pay issue, India's work force is attractive to U.S. companies because many workers are well educated and English-speaking.
The offshore specialists have put pressure on the more established U.S. IT-services firms. Under competitive pressure to offer lower prices to clients, American firms say they've had little choice but to move some IT work offshore.
Robert Pryor, head of North American outsourcing for Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (F.CEY), said virtually all prospective clients he has met with in the past year have asked for offshore operations to be included in deals.
Cap Gemini now has about 1,000 workers in India and about 500 in other parts of Asia. Pryor expects those levels to roughly triple in the next six to 12 months.
Pryor said the offshore boom has been spurred by the weakened economy, which has forced companies to look for cost cuts wherever possible.
美国IT业劲吹海外拓展风
无论国际商业机器公司(International Business Machines Corp., IBM)是否加入其间，向海外市场拓展业务的潮流将继续横扫信息技术产业。
《纽约时报》(New York Times)周二报导，有传闻称IBM的管理人士曾讨论加快将白领工作职位从美国本土向劳动力成本更为低廉的海外地区转移的进程。报导援引IBM在今年3月份召开的一次电话会议的录音带作为证。在这次会议上，IBM全球雇员关系部门主管称，由于IBM的竞争对手正在将工作机会向海外转移，因而IBM采取这种做法纯属无奈。
IBM发言人约瑟夫?斯顿卡德(Joseph Stunkard)拒绝就录音带发表评论。但IBM有意拓展海外工作市场的传言，凸现了近年来席卷信息技术产业的一股潮流。电子资讯系统(Electronic Data Systems Corp., EDS)、Accenture Ltd. (ACN)和其他信息技术企业，目前正在印度、中国以及其他国家和地区拓展自己的信息技术业务，这些国家和地区员工的薪酬只有他们美国同行的几分之一。
斯顿卡德确实说过，IBM在美国本土的员工人数目前呈上升势头，并且这种势头还将持续。他还将高端咨询作为IBM将雇佣美国雇员的一个领域提了出来。
IBM在世界各地的员工大约有31.5万名，其中美国本土的员工约为15万名。去年，IBM裁员超过1.5万人，多数是美国本土的员工。
斯顿卡德说，IBM承诺扩大海外业务，而IBM销售额中的大部分也正是来源于海外市场。他说，这根本不是工资高低的问题，而是吸引和留住世界各个国家和地区顶级人才的问题，包括美国的人才在内。
但批评家们认为，向海外发展的趋势，等于是从美国员工手中夺走了报酬优厚的工作。美国电讯工人协会(Communications Workers of America)的李?康拉德(Lee Conrad)说，他担心，向美国IBM员工每年支付6万美元以上的工作将转移到印度，在那里，信息技术从业人员的年薪只有区区6,000美元。
康拉德说，这将对IBM的雇员及其家人和所在的团体造成毁灭性的后果。 康拉德执掌的工会组织Alliance@IBM目前正在召集IBM员工会议，并与政界人士进行接触，以求阻止这一潮流。一些立法者已经提议颁布禁令，禁止将政府合约发与那些雇佣海外员工的企业。
IBM一直对其海外发展计划含糊其词，但一些竞争对手则对自己的计划态度鲜明。电子资讯系统预计，到2004年底以前，该公司在世界各国提供海外信息技术服务的员工将达到2万名。Accenture透露，计划在2004年以前，将公司在印度的员工人数从目前的1,000人提高至2,500人。优利系统(Unisys Corp., UIS)和毕博(Bearingpoint Inc., BE)也表示将拓展其海外业务。这些企业中有一些近年来已在美国地区进行了裁员。
还有一些企业则基本上已经完全植根于海外业务模式。Wipro Ltd. (WIT)和Infosys Technologies Ltd. (INFY)的总部均设在印度，都向美国企业提供服务。尽管Cognizant Technologies Solutions Corp. (CTSH)的总部设在新泽西州蒂奈克，但其多数业务都在印度。从摩根大通公司(J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., JPM)到思科系统(Cisco Systems Inc., CSCO)等众多公司目前都是印度信息技术服务企业的客户。
据印度贸易团体Nasscom提供的数据，3月份印度信息技术服务和软件产业的从业人员达到65万名左右，较上年同期跃升了24%。除工资因素以外，印度雇员吸引美国企业之处还在于，多数人员都受过良好的教育，都会说英语。
海外的专业人员已经对更为成熟的美国信息技术服务企业形成了压力。这些美国企业称，迫于降价的竞争压力，他们别无选择，只能将一些信息技术工作移至海外。
凯捷安永(Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, F.CEY)北美外包业务负责人罗伯特?普赖尔(Robert Pryor)说，过去1年中他所遇到的几乎所有潜在的客户，都要求将海外业务条款加入双方的协议之中。
凯捷安永目前在印度的员工人数大约有1,000人，在亚洲其他国家和地区的员工人数大约500人。普赖尔预计，这些数据在今后6-12个月中将增长大约2倍。
普赖尔说，经济疲软迫使企业千方百计地削减成本，从而刺激了海外业务的繁荣。
