« April 23, 2004 | Main | May 23, 2004 »
Michael Faulkner, Sr. VP, The
May 4, 2004
Michael Faulkner, Sr. VP, The DMA spoke on American protectionism and Legislation. We are in a global economy and worldwide outsourcing is part of life. We have two sides to this issue and the Antagonists are unions, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, protectionists, political opportunists, etc.
What is Washington doing about this? 4 Senate bills and 3 house bills have been introduced and states are being more aggressive. One thing we keep hearing is that legislation will force you to tell your customers on the phone in the first 30 seconds that you are calling from (Bangladesh, India, etc). Apparently John Kerry has proposed such legislation as well as the option to be connected to a US citizen.
Millions of jobs are destroyed each year in the US due to productivity, technology and other reasons. This is generally offset by job creation. Creative destruction has allowed us to change from farming to other industries in the US. One million plus new jobs are created each year. This is not a new phenomenon.
Over one million immigrants come to the US each year looking for economic opportunity. Department of Labor predicts a labor shortage in 2007! Protectionist measures are terrible for GNP. Much of Europe has over 10% unemployment partly because of their protectionist nature. A German law keep non-citizens out of the country by forcing them to leave Germany if they lose their job.
We need to move people into higher paying jobs. On the downside, changes do hurt people. People do lose jobs when industrys close and downsize. Our national policy needs to focus on what is good for America, not just a few industries.
Outsourcing lowers costs which means lower prices on products and services. As the middle class grows in India and other countries, we need competitive prices to sell our products there. The money saved and made by outsourcing need to be put back into retraining of American workers.
We need better training, especially math and science. The US is ranked around 30th in the world in math and science. China is graduating 700k engineers in a year as opposed to 50k in the US.
We really dont know how many jobs are being offshored. How do we legislate a problem we cant measure? The government is proposing isolationism which has always been a dismal failure.
Self-regulation should deal with offshoring issues, not the government. The DMA is opposed to proactive announcements of country origin on phone calls. They dont oppose a reactive response to a question about where the call is coming from. Honesty must prevail.
Other interesting points:
The white house is using the term worldwide sourcing to refer to outsourcing. My friends in the PR community tell me they are telling their offshore outsourcing clients to use the term worldsourcing.
California has recently passed a bill not allowing companies to outsource beyond the state of California.
The state of NJ outsourced jobs to a firm in AZ who outsourced once again to India. State politicians went crazy when they found out. They pulled the jobs back. The law of unintended consequences cam in to play and since the price now went up 30%, they cut the money out of welfare meaning people are now losing out on welfare services.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: Michael Faulkner, Sr. VP, The
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
GCOSS Summary Part 3
May 4, 2004
Michael Faulkner, Sr. VP, The DMA spoke on American protectionism and Legislation. We are in a global economy and worldwide outsourcing is part of life. We have two sides to this issue and the Antagonists are unions, Lou Dobbs, Pat Buchanan, protectionists, political opportunists, etc.
What is Washington doing about this? 4 Senate bills and 3 house bills have been introduced and states are being more aggressive. One thing we keep hearing is that legislation will force you to tell your customers on the phone in the first 30 seconds that you are calling from (Bangladesh, India, etc). Apparently John Kerry has proposed such legislation as well as the option to be connected to a US citizen.
Millions of jobs are destroyed each year in the US due to productivity, technology and other reasons. This is generally offset by job creation. Creative destruction has allowed us to change from farming to other industries in the US. One million plus new jobs are created each year. This is not a new phenomenon.
Over one million immigrants come to the US each year looking for economic opportunity. Department of Labor predicts a labor shortage in 2007! Protectionist measures are terrible for GNP. Much of Europe has over 10% unemployment partly because of their protectionist nature. A German law keep non-citizens out of the country by forcing them to leave Germany if they lose their job.
We need to move people into higher paying jobs. On the downside, changes do hurt people. People do lose jobs when industrys close and downsize. Our national policy needs to focus on what is good for America, not just a few industries.
Outsourcing lowers costs which means lower prices on products and services. As the middle class grows in India and other countries, we need competitive prices to sell our products there. The money saved and made by outsourcing need to be put back into retraining of American workers.
We need better training, especially math and science. The US is ranked around 30th in the world in math and science. China is graduating 700k engineers in a year as opposed to 50k in the US.
We really dont know how many jobs are being offshored. How do we legislate a problem we cant measure? The government is proposing isolationism which has always been a dismal failure.
Self-regulation should deal with offshoring issues, not the government. The DMA is opposed to proactive announcements of country origin on phone calls. They dont oppose a reactive response to a question about where the call is coming from. Honesty must prevail.
Other interesting points:
The white house is using the term worldwide sourcing to refer to outsourcing. My friends in the PR community tell me they are telling their offshore outsourcing clients to use the term worldsourcing.
California has recently passed a bill not allowing companies to outsource beyond the state of California.
The state of NJ outsourced jobs to a firm in AZ who outsourced once again to India. State politicians went crazy when they found out. They pulled the jobs back. The law of unintended consequences cam in to play and since the price now went up 30%, they cut the money out of welfare meaning people are now losing out on welfare services.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: GCOSS Summary Part 3
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
David Yohos keynote was dramatic
May 4, 2004
David Yohos keynote was dramatic and wonderful as always. Highlights include thanking Tim Searcy for a great job he has done for the industry (via the ATA American teleservices Industry). Yoho went on to say, we need ethics committees in outsourcing companies. We need to start thinking more carefully about how we do business. For example, if you steal agents from another company for money (bribing them), you will lose those agents just as quickly.
Ethics and morals are crucial. We need to focus more on these things. Further thoughts -- the old companies have been colluding for years, basically killing us all at the pump. Airlines do the same, if not worse. The government doesnt care They go after telemarketing because it gets votes quickly and telemarketers are not organized to have a voice in Washington.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: David Yohos keynote was dramatic
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
GCOSS Summary Part 2
May 4, 2004
David Yohos keynote was dramatic and wonderful as always. Highlights include thanking Tim Searcy for a great job he has done for the industry (via the ATA American teleservices Industry). Yoho went on to say, we need ethics committees in outsourcing companies. We need to start thinking more carefully about how we do business. For example, if you steal agents from another company for money (bribing them), you will lose those agents just as quickly.
Ethics and morals are crucial. We need to focus more on these things. Further thoughts -- the old companies have been colluding for years, basically killing us all at the pump. Airlines do the same, if not worse. The government doesnt care They go after telemarketing because it gets votes quickly and telemarketers are not organized to have a voice in Washington.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: GCOSS Summary Part 2
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
I am here at TMCs
May 4, 2004
I am here at TMCs Global Call Center Outsourcing Summit or GCCOS for short, where the worlds most influential outsourcers gather. A few themes are worth sharing. First of all, business to business outsourcing is doing very well. Consumer outsourcing is down a bit. Everyone is surprised how little corporate America cares about the new do-not-call legislation. It doesnt seem to be an issue anymore. Word is that we will soon see some super high-profile cases brought against major companies by the FTC. I wonder if this will have any influence on other companies. Compliance was a huge issue for a while but has faded substantially as of late. A few high-profile cases in a row may change the whole industry and its priorities. I will keep you posted.
On another note, TMC is hiring like crazy once again. If you can exhibits or ads, drop me a line. Demand in VoIP is amazing, our Internet telephony Magazine is up 200% year over year in ad dollars, something unheard in publishing.
All of our VoIP related shows are scheduled to sell out as well, no matter how large we make the venue.
If you are a relationship-driven salesperson who under promises and over-delivers and want a chance to sell the industrys best products, please drop me a line. The same goes for editors. If you want to work for a leading-edge publisher on leading edge topics. If you love technology and staying on the edge and reporting on it, let me know.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: I am here at TMCs
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
I am here at TMCs
May 4, 2004
I am here at TMCs Global Call Center Outsourcing Summit or GCCOS for short, where the worlds most influential outsourcers gather. A few themes are worth sharing. First of all, business to business outsourcing is doing very well. Consumer outsourcing is down a bit. Everyone is surprised how little corporate America cares about the new do-not-call legislation. It doesnt seem to be an issue anymore. Word is that we will soon see some super high-profile cases brought against major companies by the FTC. I wonder if this will have any influence on other companies. Compliance was a huge issue for a while but has faded substantially as of late. A few high-profile cases in a row may change the whole industry and its priorities. I will keep you posted.
On another note, TMC is hiring like crazy once again. If you can exhibits or ads, drop me a line. Demand in VoIP is amazing, our Internet telephony Magazine is up 200% year over year in ad dollars, something unheard in publishing.
All of our VoIP related shows are scheduled to sell out as well, no matter how large we make the venue.
If you are a relationship-driven salesperson who under promises and over-delivers and want a chance to sell the industrys best products, please drop me a line. The same goes for editors. If you want to work for a leading-edge publisher on leading edge topics. If you love technology and staying on the edge and reporting on it, let me know.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: I am here at TMCs
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl
GCCOS Update and TMC Is Growing
May 4, 2004
I am here at TMCs Global Call Center Outsourcing Summit or GCCOS for short, where the worlds most influential outsourcers gather. A few themes are worth sharing. First of all, business to business outsourcing is doing very well. Consumer outsourcing is down a bit. Everyone is surprised how little corporate America cares about the new do-not-call legislation. It doesnt seem to be an issue anymore. Word is that we will soon see some super high-profile cases brought against major companies by the FTC. I wonder if this will have any influence on other companies. Compliance was a huge issue for a while but has faded substantially as of late. A few high-profile cases in a row may change the whole industry and its priorities. I will keep you posted.
On another note, TMC is hiring like crazy once again. If you can exhibits or ads, drop me a line. Demand in VoIP is amazing, our Internet telephony Magazine is up 200% year over year in ad dollars, something unheard in publishing.
All of our VoIP related shows are scheduled to sell out as well, no matter how large we make the venue.
If you are a relationship-driven salesperson who under promises and over-delivers and want a chance to sell the industrys best products, please drop me a line. The same goes for editors. If you want to work for a leading-edge publisher on leading edge topics. If you love technology and staying on the edge and reporting on it, let me know.
Link this |
Email this |
Leave comment
Trackback URL: GCCOS Update and TMC Is Growing
Technorati
Del.icio.us
BoingBoing
Slashdot
Digg
Spurl
Furl