Social unrest disrupts India's tech outsourcers

It seems that sending work offshore to India isn't as great as it was once cracked up to be. The costs are going up, and the quality of work might be a little dubious.

Now it looks like companies that have outsourced work to India have another concern: social unrest. Many of the largest Indian tech industry companies were forced to close this past Monday for a general strike over water resources. This points out the risks of doing business in countries with occasional political, religious and economic strife.

Although Bangalore is sometimes called Indian's Silicon Valley, this latest incident reminds us that the business of even well known tech companies like Wipro, Infosys, IBM and others is susceptible to the general unrest in many parts of India.

I'm not against having work done in regions of the world that can deliver a good quality product or service at a reasonable price, and that includes India. Wipro, Infosys, et. al. have every right to compete for global business. I just want outsourcing managers to understand all the conditions before they sign the outsourcing agreement. Some forces go beyond the control of their business partners.

• General discussions
• India
• outsourcing