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Unsurprisingly, the work was outsourced to an Indian company, "Tech Mahindra". Nothing against Indians as a people, but Indian outsourcing companies are known
by CapacitorSet 9y ago
Unsurprisingly, the work was outsourced to an Indian company, "Tech Mahindra".
Nothing against Indians as a people, but Indian outsourcing companies are known for the terrible product quality.
- us0r 9y agoMy problem is the tax payer is paying $195 an hour and the Indian guy is maybe getting $5? Nevermind the tax payer getting ripped off, it just seems wrong.
- linkmotif 9y agoAlso totally a waste practically because you get no product.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- ehnto 9y agoI just don't understand why public works should ever go outside of the local economy, globalisation or not. I don't just want my tax dollars to give me a new thing, I want that new thing to be built in my state. If we don't have the skillset then let that money stimulate growth there. Recently our government outsourced some naval ship building outside the country at the last moment after having expressed they were going to have them locally built. The reason for the switch was cost. To shave a million or two off the price of a many hundred million dollar project they decided to completely remove our local economy from the benefactors. Private projects? Do what you like. Global times. But a governments role is to grow the economy and welfare of its people, public works are excellent ways to stimulate that.
- mc32 9y agoOr local universities[1]. I think they had their then current staff train their replacements --what gall. Now, imagine if the faculty president thought "hmm, I bet we can save a bunch if we do remote teaching. We'll get super large interactive displays in every classroom and we'll have faculty in [some country] teach our students. We'll save millions!" [1]http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/UCSF-to-outsource-dozens-of-tech-jobs-to-India-10414432.php http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/UCSF-to-outsource...
- acct1771 9y agoAnyone who's ever seen a University budget can see why they'd never do that. Slippery slope, if you outsource/fully digitize the teachers...administration comes next.
- caseysoftware 9y agoThe easy work around is to open a "local" office or wholly owned subsidiary that they run the contract through. It happens all the time with "minority-owned, female led small businesses" to win government contracts. All the Beltway Bandits (DC consulting companies) know how to play the game, to what degree they play it is the only question. It's unfortunate that they game the system but the rules are set up to encourage it.
- photojosh 9y agoAustralia? We also have a local train manufacturing industry. But end up buying from China...
- gaius 9y agoThe UK is the leader in this field sadly. One of the very few things we are still “good” at is destroying our own economy for short term gain.
- peoplewindow 9y agoHardly. Crossrail is the largest construction project in Europe and most contracts went to UK firms, most staff were trained on-site in the UK at a specially built tunnelling academy and so on.
- gaius 9y agoWell that’s a step in the right direction but look at all the public sector IT work going to outsourcing companies who promptly offshore it.
- peoplewindow 9y agoCan you be more specific? I'm sure it happens a lot, but if the product is delivered successfully then no problem, right? UK unemployment is very low despite massive uncontrolled immigration from very tech savvy populations, so there's not exactly large pools of unemployed domestic software engineers for governments to tap.
- icebraining 9y agoIf we don't have the skillset then let that money stimulate growth there. For one-off projects, all you're doing is spending a bunch of money training people, who will then mostly likely move to places where there are long-term jobs. Investing in the creation of new industries might be a good endeavor for a government, but it should be dictated by a strategy, not by its occasional needs.
- Nitramp 9y agoThe argument is that picking the most efficient solution regardless of where it is sourced from is actually the best way to increase the welfare of your local {economy,state,nation}. Trying to artificially prop up the local economy seems attractive in the short term, but ultimately leads to inefficiency and exactly the excesses the NYT post above cites in the context of metro construction. For a longer argument, see Adam Smith, "The Wealth of Nations" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations).
- t1o5 9y agoThe question you should ask is why wasn't the contract given to an American software company ?
- RandomTisk 9y ago"Contractor Did Not Provide Personnel Proficient in English DMV represents the contractor is not meeting the RFP requirements for proficient communication. In the RFP response, the contractor represented all project personnel will be proficient in communicating, speaking, and reading English. DMV had to edit project documentation and meeting minutes provided by the contractor for grammar and spelling because they were not written in a clear manner and were not useable. Consequently, required project documentation and meeting minutes have not been completed timely. " This tells me everything. In my experience nothing turns a project into a slow moving trainwreck more quickly than poor communication. The ambiguity and confusion it creates saps all morale and clarity of purpose out of everyone.
- nicodjimenez 9y agoWho can even imagine the levels of incompetence in this.