US Political Climate Now Ripe For Offshoring

A study published last week by Datamonitor predicts a resurgence in the US offshoring market due in part to the post-election US political environment, which now offers relief for companies who have been limiting offshoring to try to avoid public relations controversies. The report predicts that 250,000 new call center positions will be created by 2009 in India and the Philippines alone. Despite this growth, however, the report also indicates that traditional offshoring sectors like call centers will decline in overall market share as the range of industries which utilize offshoring spreads in coming years. CeBit Reports:

Datamonitor predicts that more firms are set to follow the likes of British Airways, Citibank, General Electric and HSBC, all of which have spun off a part or all of their operations to India.

Look Who's Talking at the Drive-Through

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - McDonald's Corp. wants to outsource your neighborhood drive-through. The world's largest fast-food chain said on Thursday it is looking into using remote call centers to take customer orders in an effort to improve service at its drive-throughs.

"If you're in L.A.... and you hear a person with a North Dakota accent taking your order, you'll know what we're up to," McDonald's Chief Executive Jim Skinner told analysts at the Bear Stearns Retail, Restaurants & Apparel Conference in New York. Call center professionals with "very strong communication skills" could help boost order accuracy and ultimately speed up the time it takes customers to get in and out of the drive-throughs, the company said.

Karachi Awakens

By Anthony Mitchell
E-Commerce Times

....Landing in Karachi today is the economic equivalent of visiting a huge spaceship moments before blastoff. You can feel the engines rumbling, the ground shaking, and you only have a few seconds to either jump off or be rocketed into the stratosphere.

What city has the fastest growing stock market in the world? Karachi.

What English language high school consistently tops out the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores? Karachi Grammar School.

What country has the fastest growing cell phone market? Pakistan.

The statistics go on and on.

Reading statistics is no substitute for seeing a place. So I stuffed my American preconceptions into a suitcase and headed out from Seattle.