Outsourcing Is About Value, Not Costs
Many companies do not see a significant value in keeping jobs in the country. They find it difficult to quantify talent of their in-house technology workers.
If you are going to pay a premium for talent and get little perceived or realized value in return, why not send the work overseas? Companies sometimes find that their in-house staffs are not providing value. By sending the jobs overseas, they still receive little value, but the bottom line is protected.
The objective for technology professionals is to better define their value. This is a common theme throughout this book. Value to the business is what makes technology appealing, not the rote tasks associated with technology maintenance or even implementation.
Such tasks have to occur and are critical, but they are not quite as critical in the overall scheme of things. Executive management is looking for ways to drive profits. For many companies, technology is a necessary evil and has little strategic value. If your company has this perspective, your job will always be less secure. Your ability to create value will become your greatest source of job security.
If you are a technology professional, or you aspire to be one, you need to quickly see where you stand in the value chain of your organization. Initially, while you develop your skills, you will be pretty low on that chain. However, the quicker you adopt a value-driven mindset, the quicker you will find your career advancing.
Companies outsource primarily when the IT function in question is perceived as more of a cost than a strategic value. If you are a producer, it is less likely that a company will want to let you go. Even if particular functions are outsourced, highly productive employees stand a much better chance of being placed in another role within the organization.
You might also find that your company outsources to create a second shifteffectively increasing the length of its workday without paying a premium for overtime or after-hours talent. Once again, your ability to provide a greater strategic value should be the silver bullet of security that you strive to attain.
This is less about working harder, per se. It involves your ability to see smarter, more effective ways to perform your tasks. In addition, it involves becoming better at determining company needs and then delivering value-rich solutions. This has always been the case. Outsourcing has merely accented the need to adopt this strategy.