Outsource Bulgaria

Outsourcing certain IT functions is one thing, outsourcing local journalism seems quite another. This ad has been generating a media storm:

We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.

Here’s the gist of the story from Yahoo News:

Outsourcing first claimed manufacturing jobs, then hit services such as technical support, airline reservations and tax preparation. Now comes the next frontier: local journalism.

James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com, acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.

Admittedly, this story sounds like it’s Dilbert on outsourcing. I heard the interview he did for BBC and frankly he made his point clear: he feels someone in India will do a better job at watching the local counsel meetings (they’re streamed online) and then summarizing them.

The journalist at BBC who was doing the interview didn’t feel too comfortable with the concept though … I bet he was seeing headlines: BBC outsources news gathering to India!

World of Warcraft has been a million-dollar business for Blizzard but it’s a million-dollar business for companies who sell WoW gold, accounts, and more.

Game outsourcing has been here ever since Ultima Online came out more than a decade ago. Diablo 2 item trading was quite a big business but recently eBay banned the auctions of virtual goods.

BBC has an article on the implications of game outsourcing, here’s a few quotes:

Qin Shen, who works for a company called Ucdao.com, says: “Many white collar workers want to improve their character on their own, but they do not have much time. They need to go to work in the day and they don’t have the energy to improve at night, so they need someone else to play for them.”

But to say this is hugely controversial among the game’s community is putting it mildly. I posted a message on one website asking for people who buy gold to get in touch – and got a number of quite hostile responses.

Eventually, I did find someone who had bought gold.

“I have a life outside of the game that’s certainly much more important, so the few precious hours I do get to play on my game I don’t want to spend doing the same thing over and over again to get in-game money, when I could just buy that and do the stuff in-game that I actually enjoy,” he said.

Ubisoft might be expanding their Bulgarian operations but this isn’t the game outsourcing I’m talking about.

A new wave of game outsourcing has sprung - mainly on the back of MMOs and has risen to prominence with Blizzard’s blockbuster MMO – World of Warcraft.

The game has claimed seven million lives so far and a whole cottage industry has emerged that delivers simple services and virtual items to the players.

The bulk of the people who procure the items are based in China. In fact, this is the way many people in China are able to pay for the game – by acquiring items and gold and then selling them for real money.

The phenomenon has become so wide spread that Chinese “farmers” are subject of abuse on many servers. The main reason for the special attitude towards “farmers” comes from the fact that they would indiscriminantly collect any rare resources they can lay their hands on – leaving other players empty handed waiting for a re-spawn.

While this isn’t traditional outsourcing, it follows the same model. Looking at it, there might be a niche for an European player in this hot virtual items market.

I haven’t heard of Bulgarian farmers though… maybe it’s just a matter of time before some of us return to our agrarian roots!

On his Dilbert blog, Scott Adams has a solution that will greatly improve the USA government’s decision-making process while making it cheaper. (Dilbert cartoon on outsourcing here.)

The solution? Outsource the government to India!

Here’s how the idea was born:

It’s common knowledge that all major government decisions in the United States are made via a process that Thomas Jefferson described in the constitution as “lobbyists bribing weasels.” Voters attempt to solve this problem by electing the weasels who do the best job lying about their intentions to change the system. So far, this hasn’t worked.

That’s why we need to outsource the important decisions to India. I’m sure a consulting firm in India could help the United States come up with a coherent energy policy, a plan for universal health care, a cure for global warming, and an anti-terrorism plan.

In addition to his musings, Scott has a special Q&A session that is a must-read.

Ernst & Young has published its survey on direct foreigh investment in the region. Bulgaria ranks second.

Distribution of investments (number of)

• Romania – 40%
• Bulgaria – 25%
• Turkey – 20%
• Serbia – 9%
• Greece – 4%

The survey also asked investors which factors need to be improved. Here’s the investor wishlist:

• Infrastructure – logistics & telco
• Political stability
• Following EU standards
• Simplifying administration
• Quality of life

Admittedly, outsourcing attracts only a small part of the direct investments but my guess is the investor wishlist is almost 100% identical regardless of sector.
 

There are many instances where people prefer to outsource work, rather than do it themselves. Popular authors outsource their work to professional writers, major corporations outsource some of their work such as data entry and maintenance to companies who specialize in these types of jobs, magazine publishers outsource some of their graphics and photography works to professional freelance workers and other companies that specialize in working with graphics and the internet has become one of the most popular places for outsourcing work.
Continue reading ‘Outsourcing Your Graphic Design Projects’

Thomas Friedman travels to India to see in person how outsourcing in India works.

It’s a 45-minute video so take your time!

In areas of China and the Asia Pacific, most of software outsourcing projects are accounted at a fixed rate, and this contract mode brings a mistaken concept to firms that it will cause inconvenience but have no effect on project investment because of this project delay. Continue reading ‘Software Outsourcing Project on Schedule’

It was only a matter of time before Outsourcing 2.0 was coined (even Hollywood has adopted the version numbers with the latest installment of Die Hard being Die Hard 4.0).

Frank J. Casale, Founder & CEO of The Outsourcing Institute, has published a white paper defining what he believes are the drivers behind Outsourcing 2.0. To quote directly:

There are three centrifugal forces driving outsourcing today: universal pain in all dimensions of  outsourcing; changes in who is outsourcing and how it is done; and, the corresponding Web 2.0 movement that is created a strong tail wind that’s helping to propel outsourcing into its next iteration.

I specifically like two points that Frank is making:

1. The rise of do-it-yourself companies who go after outsourcing bypassing middlemen and focusing on a very specific activity that could be done BETTER, not necessarily cheaper.
2. Web 2.0 and its influence on software development: agile development, user input, etc.

The CIO Weblog has a Global Outsourcing Guide (PDF) that covers most of the top outsourcing locations.

Here’s the entry on Bulgaria, if you decide to fast-forward to it:

Oh, in case you’re wondering, the average salary is estimated to be in the $5,000 – $10,000 range. Pretty much dead on accurate.