Local firms seduced by offshore opportunities
Outsourcing and offshoring. There's a difference.
By Madhusmita Bora, Times Staff Writer
Published December 9, 2007
Outsourcing and offshoring.
There's a difference.
Outsourcing occurs when a company contracts with an outside firm to perform services that were originally assigned to its employees. Offshoring happens when a company contracts with a foreign firm and moves jobs to a foreign country. Offshoring also happens when a company opens a secondary location in another country and transfers work and jobs from the home country to the new location.
In an increasingly flattened world, many companies are delegating jobs and work to lower-cost locations with high-skilled workers.
Here's a look at some Tampa Bay companies and their brush with offshoring:
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About five years ago, Bisk Education, an online learning company, was scouring for high-level tech professionals. "At that time, finding the right caliber of resources in Tampa was cost prohibitive," said Brian Roulstone, chief information and technology officer.
The company settled with an Indian firm with a sales office in Philadelphia.
That partnership continues today.
"The beauty of it is the nearly 12-hour time difference," Roulstone said.
Employees in Tampa can develop a program and in the evening the Indian team can work through the night and test for kinks and deliver it in the morning.
"It's worked out extremely well," Roulstone said.
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Price drove Ybor City-based Harris Echternach Solutions Corp. the offshore way.
"Honestly, that was a major factor," said Justin Echternach, chief information officer of the software design and consulting company. The company saved about 50 percent on the project that it collaborated with an Indian firm.
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Last year, Optimum Path Systems, a company with roots in Dallas and Tampa, moved some of its services to Shanghai, China.
"You have to charge a higher rate to do the same work in the U.S., and customers are not willing to pay that," said Steven Webel, chief operating officer and business partner.
Optimum Path Systems has 12 employees in Shanghai. The company has been able to offer attractive rates to its clients along with high-quality work.
"There are a lot of talented people in foreign countries to do the job," Webel said.