Regional events are in the works to
highlight what is perhaps the most emotional issue in the
economy today: offshoring.
The export of traditionally white-collar jobs to foreign
countries with cheap wages has inspired outcry much like the
shipping of manufacturing jobs overseas did decades ago. At a
time when many technical workers remain out of work, the trend
has angered workers, inspired political opposition and has put
companies on the defensive.
"Unfortunately, this is
inevitable. It's political football, but it's an economic
reality," said Mac Slingerlend, chief executive of CIBER, an
information technology firm based in the Denver Tech Center.
"We have become an expensive society, and this is the reality
the country needs to get used to."
Two regional events hope to shed light on the issue.
The first event, put on by the Westminster-based Colorado
Software and Internet Association, will be held from 5 to 8:30
p.m. Thursday at the Westin Tabor Center in Denver.
"Offshoring — the Good, the Bad and the Ugly," will include
industry leaders and Sen. Deanna Hanna, D-Lakewood, who
sponsored a law to stem offshoring. Cost is $40 for members
and $75 for everyone else.
The second event is co-sponsored by the Leeds School of
Business at the University of Colorado and the American
Electronics Association. That event will be 8 a.m. to noon on
March 25 at the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce in Denver.
Cost is $119.20 for AeA members and CU alumni and $149 for
everyone else.
"This is a very emotional issue, and there's a real need
for education about it," said Greg Jenik, executive director
of Broomfield-based AeA Mountain States.
Jenik said the AeA and Leeds plan an academic approach and
a "balanced event." But perhaps as a sign of the times,
they're having a hard time finding companies who first
explored, then rejected the concept of sending jobs overseas.
Richard Noe, senior vice president of MBS Outsourcing in
Fort Collins, first began outsourcing 20 years ago when he
hired data-entry workers in Jamaica.
"They were paying pennies down there," he said.
Noe's career path led him to MBS, which consults with
companies either considering offshoring or actively sending
jobs overseas.
"Companies are challenged right now. Their shareholders are
demanding better earnings. If they can reduce their costs,
that is fairly significant," Noe said.
He said outsourcing technical jobs in general, which
includes offshoring, can save a firm 20 percent to 30 percent
a year.
Noe, who is speaking at the CSIA event this week, said
evidence shows that companies that offshore grow their
businesses.
"They take those savings and reinvest it in more strategic
ways. It makes them more competitive in the long run," Noe
said.
Slingerlend, who is also on the CSIA panel, said his
company is dealing with the offshoring trend by playing both
defense and offense. He said CIBER is making parts of its
business less vulnerable to foreign jobs. It's also offering
to do information technology work overseas.
"Companies will do things where they can do them the least
expensively," he said.
If a client wants its work done in India, CIBER will make
that work.
"I would rather they go with me than without me,"
Slingerlend said.
Noe said the issue is particularly hard in Colorado.
"We're very high tech, so we really feel the pain," he
said. "We all know someone who has lost their job to
outsourcing. But what we need to do is say it's here to stay.
The key here is to get training to do the new jobs. Don't
train yourself in a position that will go overseas."
Project management and business analysis are growing, he
said, as are the jobs to manage offshore operations.
Forrester Research has said 3.3 million U.S. services
industry jobs and about $136 billion in wages will move
overseas in the next 11 years.
One of the companies with stated plans to increase
offshoring is IBM, which employs about 4,700 in Boulder. Lee
Conrad, the Endicott, N.Y.-based founder of Alliance@IBM, a
pro-union group, said corporations and politicians who say
offshoring is good for the U.S. economy are driven by
short-sighted greed.
"Good for whose economy? When you see millions of our jobs
moving overseas, that is not good for our local, state or
national economies," Conrad said. "These are jobs with good
pay and benefits being shifted out of the country."
He said once an economy loses those jobs, it has an impact
on retail, housing and all the other industries that rely on
an employed population.
But many argue that any measures to force U.S. companies to
keep jobs here could force them to be less competitive in a
global market. U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan
Greenspan warned against politicians' proposed "protectionist
cures" in offshoring.
"We have reason to be confident that new jobs will displace
old ones as they always have," he told Congressional leaders.
But opponents like Conrad say the way to improve the U.S.
economy is to bolster employment at home.
"Stop offshoring. Plain and simple. Stop it right now," he
said.
For more information on these events go to
leeds.colorado.edu/offshoring/ or
www.coloradosoftware.org.
Contact Erika Stutzman at stutzmane@dailycamera.com or
(303) 473-1354.
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