Dream Weaver

Anyone else getting web development offers from India?

I keep getting loads of emails from companies offering web outsourcing in India. Usually for about 10p a day

Doing me nut in now

stevencotton

Far too many companies are outsourcing to India (mine included, most of the backoffice operation is in Delhi) because of the cheap overheads. In my opinion the gains are only short term, the quality of work is lower and the cultural differences are so different as to make co-operation a nightmare Trouble is my place can hire ten Indians for the price of me, so why wouldn't they?

Steve.

GaryK

Yep its all we need with the current poor contract and perm IT market but thats the trouble, all about price at the end of the day, $15 per hour as opposed to £30-£50 too many companies will jump because of price and nothing else. That said I think there are alot of competent guys there but 'business' language can be a problem.

It needs a major player to catch a cold from doing it to bring it back over here IMHO.

Gary

swan

Steve, not necessarily true. I'm sure there are shady organisations taking advantage of the situation but organisations like Tata do work for Microsoft and many other large companies around the world. They charge a premium but supposedly deliver top notch work in (relatively) short periods of time. They used to (not sure if they still do) work 24h a day - 8 hour shifts with a 1h handover to the next developer.

chiark

DW,

I'd avoid doing it on the scale that you're thinking of, the overheads in management are going to make it not cost effective.

We use a significant amount of offshore development, and it works. However, it does need management and a good understanding of culture and work differences.

Cheers,
Nick.

stevencotton

Swan,

I didn't once mention anything about people taking advantage, our Indian operation is part of our company, not outsourced, and the guys there work for exactly the same company that I do

Steve.

Dream Weaver

Nick

I'm not contemplating using them, I cant even commit myself to employing someone here, never mind India.

Just wondered if anyone else had seen them, as they appear to be arriving more frequently now.

DW

krankyd

Yeah, at the bank where I work we outsourse a load off development work to india.

Basically, it's cheap ****. Not really worth the effort, IMHO.

They save 1 million by getting 200 developers for the price of 20 in the UK, but then they spend more than 1million on keeping on contractors (like myself) because we know more about programming basic unix and proper methodology than the developers do?

I mean, run a service as a daemon, or from inetd. NOT FROM BLOODY BOTH!!!

I KID YOU NOT!

waste of money and time. The sheer time difference makes problems, since they are half way through the day by the time you get in at 9. If you have a problem at 5:30, it's like nearly midnight, and can you get someone on the phone?

It's OK if you like cheap and cheerfull. You woundn't think that the world's largest bank likes cheap and cheerfull, would you? Remember this when you log into your internet account next time.....

ptholt

I've had several experiences of this over the last two years, Russia was another country doing similar things, both are quoting outrageously cheap prices to get contracts but then when specs change or amendments are needed the rates leap back up to london prices but still have the logistical problems.

Have seen plenty of test managers jobs (my job) who's test team is in India, and i've worked with large groups at CSC brought over specifically on price like the chap mentioned above they decided to name tables and columns etc with odd naming conventions that made no sense and also meant the management were affraid to loose them as a re-write would be a nightmare!

They were all qualified to the hilt but most had very little practical knowledge (kinda like the mcp/mcse booms many years ago) BUT the problem is from talking with a friend at a city bank how now use india for all dev and testing they can hire a grad with blue chip qualifications for £8k a year.............

That means they can afford to get a few of them for what they would pay here in the uk, as far as IT boom and contracting here in the uk in the words of a fave song of mine 'its the end of the world as we know it'

Apparently the technology parks have to be seen to be beleived with just about most household computer companies opening up in India making it something along the lines of the new silicon valley.



[Edited by ptholt - 1/29/2003 10:26:45 PM]