Outsourcing jobs overseas, a practice also known as offshoring, is certain to become a hot political topic over the next few years as more American companies set up operations outside of the United States. To many economists, the practice is healthy for the world economy, and is a natural outgrowth of free trade and globalization. To others, offshoring equates to the loss of American jobs, and is a fast way to send a country's workers to the unemployment line.

While offshoring appeals to many companies trying to trim overhead, it can create headaches. For example, customers seeking ongoing product service and support are often forced to deal with non-domestic workers--ones that have neither the language skills nor the product familiarity to provide the needed assistance. The result is consumer fatigue and dissatisfaction.

When a company removes customer service from its core business, it is logical that the quality of the service will suffer. Having support functions handled from so far away dilutes customer service and insulates the company from its responsibilities to its customers.

Like it or not, outsourcing is here to stay. Forrester Research projects that by 2005, nearly 600,000 U.S. jobs--including many customer service and tech support positions--will move offshore; by 2015, that figure could reach 3.3 million.

(June, 2004)