Summary - What's This India Business? Offshoring, Outsourcing & the Global Services Revolution by Paul Davies

Before I read this book, I was against U.S. companies outsourcing parts of their operations to India. I did not understand where the advantage would be by taking U.S. jobs and supporting another country's economy instead of our own.

This book talked about how a company should focus its efforts on what they do best and analyze the parts of their operations that they could outsource to save money. For example, human resource administration, accounting, payroll administration, customer service and, most popular, IT services.

It also explained that the companies that do not participate in this global service revolution will miss out on the competitive advantage through missed cost savings, driven by productivity improvements, as well as lower wage rates, quality services and access to a flexible, dynamic, highly educated workforce.

The Indians are very capable IT professionals. They also focus on Mathematics. Call center jobs carry status in India. The responsiveness, customer care and general focus on the work are also much higher. It is certainly not a low-quality alternative.

Microsoft does virtually nothing for itself except IT research and development. US Delta airlines decided to outsource some of its reservation processes to India, including general sales calls, frequent flyer services and baggage sales calls. It claims that this has not only reduced costs, but also improved service, quality and productivity.

This book definitely opened my eyes to a new alternative and why it is so important for a company to analyze its operations and efficiency to be competitive.