India to Outsource to Idaho?
Tim Mitchell over at HP alerted me to an article by Ken Dey I missed about Indian companies that are starting to outsource there outsourced work back to the states. One possible target is Idaho.
India is Outsourcing Outsourcing
Wipro, one of India’s largest technology services companies, said last month that it was opening a software development center in Atlanta that would hire 500 programmers in three years. In a poetic reflection of outsourcing’s new face, Wipro’s chairman, Azim Premji, told Wall Street analysts earlier this year that he was considering hubs in Idaho and Virginia, in addition to Georgia, to take advantage of American “states which are less developed.” (India’s per capita income is less than $1,000 a year.)
I had mixed reactions to this:
First was “Who are you calling less developed?”
Second was “This could provide good ‘entry level’ IT jobs locally?”
One of the big problems we have in Idaho is that we have a lot IT jobs to fill but they are all mid level and above positions. There is no place for entry level IT people to gain experience. This could fill a gap that we currently have.
There is actually a business (or at least a rep)here in Boise doing this as we speak. I met the Boise person a couple of weeks ago and I don’t have the entire picture of their efforts but growing “outposts” is on the menu. This would fit with what I am seeing and hearing on a national basis. Tech support centers are finding homes in what would seem to be unlikely places.