OFFICIAL NEWS
Microsoft moves U.S. jobs to India
Story Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
July 2, 2003, 5:35 PM PT
Microsoft is starting to shift U.S.-based jobs to India as it seeks to lower technical support and development costs, the company said Wednesday.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, long seen as a growing company immune to job losses, is now considering cutbacks in the United States while increasing staff in India, which turns out tens of thousands of English-speaking software engineers each year.
"With lots of English-speaking talent, we were thinking of a better way to tap into that," said S. Somasegar, Microsoft's vice president of Windows engineering services.
Boosting employee ranks in India became a priority for Microsoft after its Chairman Bill Gates announced, during a visit to India in November, that the company would invest $400 million there over three years.
So far, Microsoft has about 200 engineers developing software in Hyderabad, the south India city where, five years ago, it opened its first product development center outside the United States.
Microsoft, whose Windows operating system and Office desktop software run on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers, is recruiting people for a customer support center being launched in Bangalore as part of a pilot program.
Initially, Microsoft is hiring 150 people, but industry sources said the center could easily be scaled up to at least 1,000 people in about two years, if the pilot plan is successful.
"To meet the needs of our customers worldwide, we expect to continue to invest in a technical work force in India to assist us with our expanding product development, information technology and customer support functions," a representative of Microsoft in India said.
The software giant is betting on India's vast pool of low-cost technical workers and engineers who can be hired for roughly one-fifth what their counterparts earn in the United States.
Somasegar said Microsoft could increase the number of software developers in India to as much as 500 by 2005. However, it is still evaluating whether to expand its support staff there.
That's a key question for Microsoft employees who work in product and technical support at several U.S. locations.
Last week, Microsoft cut 161 jobs from its consulting services business. On Tuesday, unionized workers warned that Microsoft was planning to cut at least 800 employees from a facility in Texas.
The software company, which is also advertising aggressively for jobs in Bangalore, did not comment on the Communications Workers of America report.
"There may be some impact to U.S. sites, but no decision has been made at this time," said Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake.
India is of strategic importance to the company as the nation's booming $9.5 billion-a-year software services export industry emerges as a key battleground in the tussle between Windows and its rival Linux operating systems.
Story Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Microsoft moves U.S. jobs to India
Story Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
July 2, 2003, 5:35 PM PT
Microsoft is starting to shift U.S.-based jobs to India as it seeks to lower technical support and development costs, the company said Wednesday.
The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant, long seen as a growing company immune to job losses, is now considering cutbacks in the United States while increasing staff in India, which turns out tens of thousands of English-speaking software engineers each year.
"With lots of English-speaking talent, we were thinking of a better way to tap into that," said S. Somasegar, Microsoft's vice president of Windows engineering services.
Boosting employee ranks in India became a priority for Microsoft after its Chairman Bill Gates announced, during a visit to India in November, that the company would invest $400 million there over three years.
So far, Microsoft has about 200 engineers developing software in Hyderabad, the south India city where, five years ago, it opened its first product development center outside the United States.
Microsoft, whose Windows operating system and Office desktop software run on more than 90 percent of the world's personal computers, is recruiting people for a customer support center being launched in Bangalore as part of a pilot program.
Initially, Microsoft is hiring 150 people, but industry sources said the center could easily be scaled up to at least 1,000 people in about two years, if the pilot plan is successful.
"To meet the needs of our customers worldwide, we expect to continue to invest in a technical work force in India to assist us with our expanding product development, information technology and customer support functions," a representative of Microsoft in India said.
The software giant is betting on India's vast pool of low-cost technical workers and engineers who can be hired for roughly one-fifth what their counterparts earn in the United States.
Somasegar said Microsoft could increase the number of software developers in India to as much as 500 by 2005. However, it is still evaluating whether to expand its support staff there.
That's a key question for Microsoft employees who work in product and technical support at several U.S. locations.
Last week, Microsoft cut 161 jobs from its consulting services business. On Tuesday, unionized workers warned that Microsoft was planning to cut at least 800 employees from a facility in Texas.
The software company, which is also advertising aggressively for jobs in Bangalore, did not comment on the Communications Workers of America report.
"There may be some impact to U.S. sites, but no decision has been made at this time," said Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake.
India is of strategic importance to the company as the nation's booming $9.5 billion-a-year software services export industry emerges as a key battleground in the tussle between Windows and its rival Linux operating systems.
Story Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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