Microsoft Learning Addresses Offshore Rumor
9/17/2003 -- In an interview with CertCities.com today, Dan Truax, director of Microsoft Certification Business & Product Strategy, addressed a rumor published in InfoWorld's "Notes from the Field" column last week that Microsoft Learning had laid of 30 content producers with plans to move its content development overseas, “possibly to India.”
In a statement issued to CertCities.com yesterday, Microsoft said that the layoffs -- which were made in conjuction with the formation of the new Microsoft Learning group -- affected a number of job types, and actually resulted in a higher employee to management ratio. "This flatter organization exists to empower employees to make decisions and service customers," it read.
In the interview today, Truax confirmed this statement and commented further on the issues raised in the column.
“There are two things that are being mixed and taken out of context [in the InfoWorld article]," he commented.
"One of the reasons that drove [the creation of Microsoft Learning] is that there was a lot of duplication of content, duplication of sales...so it was really important to us to be able to remove that duplication," he stated.
"We have always and continue to have some of the content creation done by partners, and we continue to invest in our partnerships..to create unique custom content," he explained. "With our partner model, [the] primary purpose for [overseas content creation] would be for them to customize to local market to meet international needs, and not our purpose to have content developed to meet our U.S. needs."
He said that such development is not unusual for a world-wide learning provider like Microsoft. "As a global company, if we don't do a good job serving our customers' needs and they're asking for localized content...it's my job to make sure that we’re meeting all of our customers' needs."  -Becky Nagel
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There are 82  user Comments for “Microsoft Learning Addresses Offshore Rumor”
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| 9/17/03: Anand from India says: |
Hey guys cool. If at all your are going to reduce your labour cost definitely noone is going to come over here. And of course you need to work hard. Here we work for atleast 14hrs a day, go for extra computer coaching and really work hard. That is why many prefer indians for their hardwork |
| 9/17/03: Alex from New Jersey says: |
Anand The situation in India is different. You have other constraints, much more severe than our American colleagues. The lifestyle in US is very different and there is an understandable concern of the Americans in general that they need to keep their standard of life. There is in the long run a change for them to make...to become more eficient but the cost of life is different here than in India or other parts of the world. Is easy to say "work hard"...but this is not the only or the real issue here. The social and economical makeup of US is very different, you have to acknowledge that in all honesty. All the best, Alex |
| 9/17/03: Anonymous says: |
if you're working 14 hours a day, that's nothing to be particularly proud of. in fact, it's kind of sad, considering how short life is, and think of all the stuff you're missing out on just to make some extra money. people need to get out of the corporate slave mindset that the more hours they work makes them superior; wake up and realize this is a trap that will eat you away until you're old and gray and its too late to go back and redo it. just some friendly advice! |
| 9/18/03: NetGeek says: |
I guess we are blowing this issue up. Outsourcing has been happening for a long time now. The IT services being moved to Asian countries doesn't really affect the revenue that the big US corporations make. The revenue to cost ratio is very much in favor of the US companies. A few thousand jobs to Asia is not really affecting the larger US population. |
| 9/18/03: Anand from India says: |
Hi Alex i do understand that the socio economic set up of india varies from US. But you see these money hungry corporates are going to make use of all such things to be in the market. You actually have lots of instances when these money minded corporates enjoy our helplessness. Every year MS keeps releasing an OS. They want us to buy it, use it, protect it , learn it, become certified and throw it to the dustbin the next year. But one thing whatever be it unless we the programming community make some change this is always going to be the our state. Today it is the US proffessionals, tommorrow it will be india, day after it will be some other country. Rather than hitting on each of us, I think that we should manage to analyse the crux of the issue and learn to avoid it. I dont think that anyone overhere in india is going to be happy to get a job that has been snatched from someone in the US. Afterall no good human will like to live on the death of another. But these corporates will always be that way. As told by NetGeek a few thousand jobs are not going to matter as long as they are not the jobs cause by layoffs. Thanks Bye |
| 9/18/03: To Anand says: |
I'm surprise to hear someone from India say what you did. Most of the people from your area hate Americans as far as I can tell. I agree that bottom line is the key to everything. Also, what (in American dollars) does 14 hour days pay you over there anyway? Just wondering. Maybe, if we Americans could know exactly what the wage differences vs cost-of-living are in your country, we wouldn't be as disgruntled. |
| 9/18/03: Anonymous says: |
Big business runs America. To them, the Constitution is simply an impediment to their ability to amass a larger fortune. The only reason IT work is being farmed out to other countries is because it is cheaper. That is the driving force behind the Corporate abandonment of America. You can argue quality and speed all you want, but as soon as it is cheaper to program from Russia, India will lose its contracts. As soon as it is cheaper to program from China, Russia will lose its contracts. What they will do after China??? Big business politicians are killing the USA one nickel at a time. |
| 9/18/03: AND? says: |
Like we didn't already know Microsuck is a cash king! Come on, what's knew about any of this. You want change...stop buying Microsuck products...but good luck. It's not like Sun Microsystems isn't doing the exact same thing with Solaris. What about hardware producers like Dell, HP, IBM and Gateway (ofcourse, Gateway won't be around much longer now will it:)) None of these guys have ever produced the majority of their stuff in the US--all their parts are shipped in. So I ask you, is it really the IT developers and programmers at the top controlling it; or does our economy just really lack interest in high-priced non-needed IT equipment and software? |
| 9/18/03: Anonymous says: |
It is a shame that this thread is treating as though India is the ONLY destination for offshoring. india has just become a punching bag for the politicians and media. what the american public sees, hears and made to understand are all from them. Outsourcing, when it happened within the US a few years back when a load of workers got laid off and their work got outsourced to US based companies. Now these guys are now unable to sustain the costs and now are moving it offshore. Its pure economics from one side but put a lot of people out of work AGAIN. |
| 9/18/03: Dumbass above says: |
What is your point? |
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