Tech companies outsource almost everything

Some 49% of tech companies send work overseas, according to a soon-to-be-released survey of 100 tech CFOs by the consulting firm BDO Seidman, reports The Wall Street Journal.

The companies surveyed have revenue ranging from $100 million to $15 billion, so the sample is pretty representative of the entire industry. (It's also more evidence that this survey claiming only 6% of companies send tech work offshore is off target.)

Of the 49% of tech companies that send work offshore, 51% outsource IT services and programming. An additional 49% outsource research and development. When coding jobs started to move offshore en masse five or so years ago, the prevailing wisdom was that businesses would only outsource low-end work like basic programming, and that high-end work, such as R&D, would always stay home.

IBM believes local businesses are mature enough in their use of IT to appreciate the value of outsourcing, says The Inquirer.

James Velasquez, IBM Philippines country manager, said the company now wants to market its services business to local customers.

IBM currently has around 7 000 workers in the Philippines, most of whom are doing business process outsourcing (BPO) work for global IBM customers. IBM's local delivery centres provide customer support, finance and accounting and applications maintenance.

CCID Consulting, a research, consulting and IT outsourcing service provider in China, recently analysed the new continent of Dell's direct sales-distribution, according to Earth Times.

Dell walks out of direct sales via the cooperation between Dell and Gome. It is not easy to lay effective dealers network for Dell. If Dell would like to get rid off the disadvantage of its former direct sales and build perfect distribution architecture, Dell will need to develop its partners in depth.

Distribution will become the new continent of Dell's direct sales.