This was just icing on the cake... Poor code, poor management, high turnover, etc., etc.

The U.S. executive bozos who shipped all the work offshore should be forced to disgorge any comp they received for the past 10 years...

Where I used to work (laid off recently, thank you very much, along with 1,500 other U.S. citizens in my firm while no one in India contingent was let go), the executives did and continue to misrepresent the costs associated with having code written in India. They always focused on the cost differences between a code jock in India and one in the USA, which was about 1/3 the cost. Only problem: they forgot to account for the 3:1 staff requirement to turn out the same code as the U.S. guys, failed to factor in the 25 - 30% annual turnover / re-ramp and learning curve costs created by the turnover, and omitted the USA-based "clean up" costs that should have been attributed to the India cost centers, along with the numerous junket costs that U.S. exec's made to India to always 'kick the tires.'

All in all, the U.S. based guys on the floor figured when all said and done, the India code, after all the above adjustments were made, ran about 25% to 35% more than if the code had been 100% written in the U.S.

The fact that they have crooked executives just like we do is just icing on the cake...

This isn't about "India versus the United States."

This is about data and business intelligence being the nervous system of today's business, and about whether the spreadsheet-jockey MBAs who run American business are ever going to get smart and look past the "hourly rate" cell in their spreasheets and consider the big picture: YOU DON'T OUTSOURCE YOUR NERVOUS SYSTEM!

As someone who's recently been outsourced, but doing exactly the same job, let me tell you, our focus has changed from "We're all on the same team - we need to do as much as we possibly can to help the company," to "We're not doing it unless they (the former employer) PAY for it - no exceptions," as well as the ever-popular "If it's not in the contract's SLA, we just don't care."

Seriously, that's life on the other side.

How does it feel to have former champions of the company now plotting, on an hourly basis, against you?

Put THAT in a spreadsheet cell!

Yes, Satyam scandal has vastly reduced my trust in outsourcing arrangements. The risks are too many and isn't worth pinching pennies.

Not shaken a bit. I have no faith in outsourcing -- have never seen it done well, and as others point out, costs are not better either. Only thing that makes it look good (to bean counters) is that it turns "fixed" costs into variable.

I never had any trust in offshore outsourcing.

As with the lies of the Bush regime and the collapse of the 'free market' financial system, reality is finally starting to rear its head in the IT world.

The Benedict Arnold IT execs belong in jail. Because offshore outsourcing is FRAUD, any way you look at it.

Outsourcing should never be mixed with offshoring. The two are very different and it is only incidental that a lot of outsourcing involves offshoring as well. Offshoring also involves setting up branch offices. Reality is bitter - fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Whether it is outsourcing, or offshoring, or getting married, or finding an employee, one needs to get the right partner, AND one needs to work on the relationship. Most people do not. That is why more than half the marriages end up in divorce, large percentages of outsourcing, offshoring and finding employees do not succeed. Hence high turnover in companies.

It is all about recognizing and working on the importance of relationships, not trying to fit square pegs in round holes and so on.

This too will pass, and hopefully some have learned lessons.