Offshoring

Verizon, one of the leading names in communication is set to enter the world of offshoring providing through the 8.5 billion dollars worth acquisition of long distance carrier MCI.

Verizon remarked that they would enter the offshoring market through a management service in which the targeted market are business customers that are tired of leaving their IT-related functions to incapabe outsourcing firms and offshore management companies. Managed services are defined as a set of responsibilities which are transferred to a third party such as a carrier or an outsourcing firm by a corporation. Most of the services included in this industry includes network management/data management which is needed to complete its responsibility for a firm’s computing infrastructure.

Verizon said that it would make use of the skills that they have acquired through the acquisition in order to support the core IT resources of firms. The decision to outsource was brought about by the said acquisition and the growing demand for IT-specific offshoring skills. MCI, the acquired firm which is a long-distance telecommunications service provider had a strong background of network support for large corporations and government agencies. Through the experience of the acquired firm, Verizon is confident that they would be able to provide the quality service that these firms need in their decision to join the offshoring trend.

Rick Dyer, the IT director of the firm regarding IT solutions product management that they aims to target firms that needs to outsource specific IT functions and not every core business functions. The IT directos was also quoted stating that: we are taking managed services down-market a bit. We are managing the operating system but letting the customer manage the applications.

Thoughts and Insights

Through the jumping of Verizon in the offshoring market, IT offshoring would never be the same again. I guess that when the chance for offshoring was brought about because of the acquisition, Verizon did not decline the chance to expand their business and to prove that they have what it takes to make it big in the Offshoring market. This is a big chance for Verizon because their specialty lies on IT functions, something that is quite in demand and critical to handle. If Verizon would be able to hold its own for the first few months of their operation then the only left direction to tackle would be the road to success.

As we all know, offshoring seems to be the number one business strategy that firms could think about whenever they want to implement cost-cutting strategies but at the same time still maintain the quality of work that they produce.

In the article entitled Report offers tips to protect your job from offshoring, it talks about the report done by Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) which focuses on the effect of offshoring in terms of employment as well as some tips which could help people from developing countries to be abreast with the growing competition.

Here are some of the results of the study:

Offshoring statistics
• offshoring could affect an estimate of 12-14 million jobs in the U.S.
• offshoring could cause annual losses of 200,000 and 300,000 jobs
• jobs that are subjected to offshoring could include call centers and business processing ones
• 61% – rate of UK firms implementing offshoring work
• 20% – rate of U.S. companies implementing offshoring work
• 15% – rate of German firms implementing offshoring work
• 5% – rate of European firms implementing offshoring work
• 30% – toral rate of the world’s 1,000 largest companies implementing offshoring work

Aside from the statistics mentioned, the report also included tips which could help people in securing their jobs as the offshoring trend continues. These tips include:

• having a good educational background
• learning globally used technologies
• development of teamwork and communication skills
• honing and training one’s skills

These tips are considered important because high-skilled workers are now transferred and most of it are being relocated to developing countries. In order to take advantage of these opportunities, job applicants and students alike should have the basic knowledge needed to fulfill the said job.

Thoughts and Insights

Offshoring is something that you either hate or love. For people that feels hate towards this word, you need to know that this business strategy would indeed stay in the business world and the best thing that you could do is to cope with it. On the other hand, for those people that feels only love for this business strategy, well, you better do something about this love. Though offshoring offers job in developing countries, one should take note that only quality workers are eligible to apply for this position because they are the only ones worthy of such. Students should be able to study their lessons as well because these things are needed to ensure that you are qualified for the job.