IT workers hit hardest by offshore outsourcing, survey finds

Jobs most at risk for offshore outsourcing are computer programming, development

As many as 8% of IT workers have been displaced by offshore outsourcing, either through job loss or an involuntary transfer to a new job by their employer, which is twice the rate of workers in other occupations, according to a study based on data collected from some 10,000 people, which may be the largest survey of its kind.

The survey, conducted by researchers at the New York University Stern School of Business and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, also backs up the long-standing view that IT employees in purely technical jobs -- computer programmers and software developers who have little customer interaction -- are at the most risk from offshore outsourcing.

The broad conclusions are unlikely to surprise many high-tech workers, but what may make this offshore outsourcing study unique is its breadth: some 6,700 workers across a variety of occupations and more than 3,000 hiring managers and human resources professionals were surveyed.

There has been a dearth of data about the impact of offshore outsourcing on U.S. workers, and its authors, Prasanna Tambe of the Stern School and Lorin Hitt of Wharton, said their work is the first to pin down offshore outsourcing's impact by occupation.

The job site Careerbuilder.com funded the research, which looked at a spectrum of occupations, including technology, and published initial data from the survey in April. But the 44-page paper, posted this week on the Social Science Research Network (registration required) analyzes what the data is saying about the fate of high-tech workers who have been directly affected by offshore outsourcing.

Tambe, an assistant professor of information, operations and management sciences at NYU, said the data isn't a forecast of how extensive offshore outsourcing will be, but instead tries to fill in the gaps of the theoretical work on offshore outsourcing and address the dearth of data on this topic.

But the impact of offshore outsourcing on IT jobs may just be a sign of how this trend will unfold across a broad range of occupations. "I think [IT] is definitely ahead of the curve, but I think that gap will probably close in the future," Tambe said.

The base rate of offshoring across all industries is just over 15%, but some 40% of all tech and telecommunications companies are doing some type of offshore work, according to the research.

By occupation, more than 30% of the survey respondents said they are offshoring computer programming and software development jobs, but only about half, or 15.5%, reported offshoring systems analysts, who typically interact more with others in a business.

Among employees, across all occupations, slightly more than 4% of workers were displaced because of offshore outsourcing, half the rate of IT workers. The survey's 8% figure for IT displacement represents the percentage of workers who have ever been affected by offshore outsourcing, a rate that implies an annual offshoring-related displacement of 1% to 2% per year for IT workers, according to the study.

Of those displaced by offshore outsourcing, 70% lost their jobs, with older workers more likely to be displaced.

The researchers don't predict what future displacement rates may be, but they say that as offshoring grows, tech workers without jobs that don't require interpersonal skills, are being replaced more rapidly.

IT workers concerned about displacement "can focus on further developing these interpersonal skills, or may find more robust long-term careers in IT professions that involve significant face-to-face interaction such as those involving cross-organizational process change or hands-on support functions," the report's authors wrote.

Since IT workers have been more severely affected than other types of workers, Tambe and Hitt argue that policy-makers could focus on tech workers to provide help, including job training and government compensation to offset wage losses. Educational institutions will have to react as well, with "increased emphasis on the development of interpersonal and management skills within the IT curriculum."

Source:- computerworld.com/

IT can open door to manpower export

Let's take the instance of the voter list and national identity card project। A voter sits in front of a computer. His fingerprint, signature and picture are taken in a computer. Then the software is doing the rest automatically. The voter's personal information is sent to a specific place where the data is being preserved. Since made and preserved by software, it will be possible to prevent illegal use or misuse of the person's identity card. The task of the voter list and the national ID project is going on in full swing. Two Bangladeshi companies have developed the database software being used in this gigantic project.

According to IT experts, software is a set of serially placed programme's in computer's language aiming to resolve problems, which activates the hardware by creating a relation between computer hardware and user। Due to the influence of suitable software, the computer becomes mathematically intelligent. System software and application software are made as products meaning software has an unlimited commercial utility.

Computer Usage Corporation (CUG), a US-based organisation, began software use in 1955 as a service-providing sector. Then this has become the fast changing sector. People have gradually become dependent on it. Everything, from I-pod to laptop and computers to businesses, is run by software.

New software is being used in many ways like bringing newness in business, atomising offices and industries, and producing different products. With software, information is readily available everywhere. It has been possible to time-consuming works in a short time. So, the software industry is expanding very fast. Though challenging, this new industry is creating various types of employment's too.

There is a bright prospect for Bangladesh in this software industry. By virtue of this flourishing industry, the country too is forwarding to e-commerce-based economy keeping pace with the world. Lakhs of unemployed youths are getting opportunity to work both at home and abroad.

Manual Islam, 30, is one of them. After his graduation in software programming from India's Pune University, Manual is now working as an assistant director in Development and Research Network, a private organisation.

Nurul Absar also works in the same organization as web application developer. Though working in software section now, his field of study at university was different. He completed master's in statistics from Sylhet Shahjalal University of Science and Technology. Later, he had a post-graduate diploma in information technology from the same university. "Software is now such an industry where self-employment is possible after necessary training. This is why employment is rapidly expanding in this industry," says Absar.

According to a recent joint research by Bangladesh Export Promotion Bureau and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), software is the most promising export sector in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) is a leading IT organisation as it has been working since 1997 for its development. As of June 2007, the number of BASIS members was 245.

On the present state of Bangladesh's software industry, BASIS programme manager Shariar Shams says, "At present, there are over 4,500 registered software companies in the country where about 5,000 professionals are working। Besides, from June 2006 to May 2007, 1,839 job advertisements have been published in newspapers and on the Internet. This figure is 7 percent higher than June 2005 to May 2006.

He also says the demand for Bangladeshi software has increased significantly. A huge quantity of quality software is being produced in the country. The demand for software in the local market is worth over Tk 300 crore. About the performance of BASIS, Shams says his organisation regularly exports software to 30 countries. In the first eight months of2006-2007 fiscal, BASIS exported software worth about Tk 2 crore that is about 26 percent higher compared to the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Bangladesh Economic Survey-2007 states the country is exporting software and IT enabled services to 30 countries, including the USA, Japan, Canada, Australia and different European states. Over 50 software firms and IT companies are involved in the export प्रोसेस

The survey also says some of the organisations that use Bangladeshi software are Nokia, Japan Airlines, the World Bank, US Postal and US Agriculture Department. An ICT incubator centre has been established in Dhaka city's Karwan Bazar for flourishing the software industry. Currently, 48 organisations are working at the centre. From this incubator, an amount of Tk 4.27 crore was earned in the last two years through export.

A Commerce Ministry reports on 'Export of Computer Software from Bangladesh: Problems and Prospects' says there are many positive aspects of Bangladesh's software। Every year, a huge number of students are receiving degrees and training on computer-related subjects from different government and private universities. Many Bangladeshi students are also studying abroad. Besides, IT -educated manpower is available in Bangladesh at much lower cost than the developed countries and even neighbouring India.

There are also many problems in the software industry of the country. Saqibul Hasan, an engineer of ICT research-related firm Centre for Artificial Intelligence Research and Development, says, "In our country, it's not being possible to create enough manpower for lack of IT institutions. This is the main problem. Besides, lack of information is another aspect. For instance, many people with the highest degrees in Computer Science don't even know that software can be made sitting at home. There are many works available on line for professionally skilled software developers."

Enamul Haque, project manager of Daffodil Software Ltd, points out another problem the industry is now facing। "Software industry is electricity dependent. But, we never get uninterrupted power supply. For this, software developers face problem in delivering the orders. It also affects the efforts to create skilled manpower in the IT sector."

BASIS executive director TIM Nurul Kabir says despite many problems, Bangladesh's software sector is moving ahead contributing to the national development. About the prospects of software industry in Bangladesh, eminent economist Dr Atiur Rahman says, "This sector will create huge employment opportunities. It will be possible to export trained manpower meeting local demand."

According to experts, the main problems that are hindering development of the industry include absence of duty-free facility in case of software export-import, problems relating to necessary infrastmcture and marketing, reluctance of government offices in using software, lack of IT-based educational institutions, inadequacy of teachers and labs, lack of planning and government support, reluctance of banks to provide loans and absence of software-related laws.

If the existing problems could be resolved, this export-oriented industry can open up a new horizon of prospects for national development

source=http://nation.ittefaq.com/

Microsoft looks to tackle software piracy

Kolkata, May 23 Microsoft has adopted a three-pronged approach to tackle the problem of software piracy, which accounted for losses of $48 billion globally in 2007.

Microsoft’s approach comprises education, engineering and enforcement. “Our endeavour is to work with customers, businesses and partners to drive awareness of piracy as an issue, and to educate them on how they can work on minimising this menace. Access to original software is one of the most critical elements to reduce piracy in India and we have taken the initiative to provide original software online and telephonically,” Mr Vipul Sant, Director of Microsoft India, stated in response to a questionnaire from Business Line.

According to him, India lost over $2 billion in 2007 to software piracy, a substantial increase from $367 million in 2003. In India alone, a 10 per cent reduction in software piracy would generate 44,000 jobs, $200 million in tax revenue and $3.1 billion in economic growth.

A KPMG Software License Compliance Survey 2007 states that companies lose a significant amount of revenue due to unlicensed use of their products. Thirty-four per cent of those polled in this regard said losses on this score amounted to 10 per cent of their revenue, while 21 per cent of the respondents felt the losses could well go up to 20 per cent of revenue. The survey also points out that managing software licence compliance is a low-risk, high-reward endeavour.

Mr Sant felt a large number of home PC users use counterfeit software simply because they are unable to distinguish between original and pirated software. He underscored the need to educate customers on the risks associated with the use of pirated software.

With regard to enforcement, Mr Sant said that though India has stringent laws to curb software piracy, there were gaps in implementing them appropriately. Strong intellectual property rights protection was critical to the growth of the software industry, he has stated.

He disagreed with the view that lowering the price of original software would help the industry address the issue appropriately।

source=http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/

Local IT services set to break $4bn as outsourcing grows

Johannesburg - The local information technology (IT) services market is expected to exceed $4 billion (R31 billion) this year, representing a year-on-year increase of more than 11 percent, according to the latest report by research firm IDC.

The growth is fuelled by economic expansion, the adoption of open-source software, government projects such as the e-government that is meant to provide technology access to rural areas, technology upgrade cycles, preparations for the 2010 soccer World Cup, deregulation, and growth in the small and medium business market.

Many firms are outsourcing non-core operations such as IT to companies such as Business Connexion, GijimaAst and IBM to save money and focus on the core business.

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