TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:RE: Union of the Snake From:"Pete Sanborn" <psanborn2 -at- earthlink -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 31 Oct 2001 19:28:47 -0500
John Gilger asks:
"How hard is it to move a high tech firm (software, especially) off-shore?"
Good question. It actually depends on the type of company it is, whether or
not they can get State Department blessing to move offshore, whether or not
they can stand the interruption in their business while they get relocated
and ramped up somewhere else (I'd bet a minimum of 6 months on that, alone)
and, finally, whether or not they are willing to sell products which may
well have lower standards of quality than when they were manufactured in the
USA.
Like John, a lot of CEOs and board members also don't want to live in
Singapore or Mexico, so they have to consider the affect such a move has on
them, their family and their career.
Oh, and from the standpoint of technical documentation produced in Singapore
or Mexico? It, generally, makes the worst examples of bad documentation
developed here look like sheer brilliance.
Most employers are only willing to ship a portion of their company offshore
(such as an assembly plant, for example). Sometimes, though, doing that
isn't the panacea they thought it would be. One company I worked at years
ago started shipping some of its assembly work to Mexico. The quality of
the work was so poor, most of it had to be re-done when it came back to us
and the contract was soon cancelled.
Ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances.
Regards,
Pete Sanborn
-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-techwr-l-81537 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
[mailto:bounce-techwr-l-81537 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com]On Behalf Of Gilger.John
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2001 6:39 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Union of the Snake
Andrew opined: "Many high-tech firms are quite bluntly not interested in
the
politics of unions and won't much care to hire a pack of unionist."
==========================
A couple of things to think about: How hard is it to move a high tech
firm (software, especially) off-shore?
How many good, American, union jobs have been moved off-shore?
I'm not quite ready to move to Singapore or Mexico. Although they are
both great vacation spots and it might be an interesting experience to
live and work there, I'm not ready to bet the farm on it.
John Gilger
Senior Technical Writer
Acres Gaming, Inc.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Announcing new options for IPCC 01, October 24-27 in Santa Fe,
New Mexico: attend the entire event or select a single day.
For details and online registration, visit http://ieeepcs.org/2001
Your monthly sponsorship message here reaches more than
5000 technical writers, providing 2,500,000+ monthly impressions.
Contact Eric (ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com) for details and availability.
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
