CSC

[#1]

I was just reading about Matt and Dean's visit to India. It's called:
Globalisation is really happening.
They have a lot of call centres in India, I believe, and I felt this sort of cold shiver go down my back while reading the blog. Anyone ever had the joy of speaking to a BT CSC when trying to resolve a problem? I have.
I was just hoping that their visit was purely a holiday jaunt. I'm sure it was. 

[#2]

I can assure you our CSC will not be moving to India.
Dean and Matt were out there talking to developers, but I'm sure you'll hear more about that on the blog soon.

[#3]

Quote from: Mand

I can assure you our CSC will not be moving to India.

<joke>
No, they are moving to Africa 
</joke>
Chilly

[#4]

[quote=Mand]Dean and Matt were out there talking to developers, but I'm sure you'll hear more about that on the blog soon.
Ooh, but that implies Dev and Test might ..
Sure I'll be told I am wrong, but I've seen it before

[#5]

Fear not, our moves into India (and Eastern Europe) are solely for ramping up our Software Development team. We'll not be
I'll be blogging the plans in further detail later today, so look out for my post.
Regardless of how successful my plans to expand our software development team in India is, there are absolutely no plans to take our customer support centre to India.
On that note, in the 2 trips I've made to India this year it was interesting to see the many "accent neutralisation" courses available for Indian speaker to attend. The courses are in response to the criticisms that have been raised to the many UK based companies that use call centres out there.
To be honest, with some of the heavy Yorkshire accents we get around our office in Sheffield at times I think I might be recommending we do the same over here!
Matt Grest
Head of Future Development
PlusNet

[#6]

...and here's my blog post on the topic:

Matt Grest
Head of Future Development
PlusNet
edit: fixed the huge link for ya Matt
Mand

[#7]

Yup as I suspected - someone's worked out the Maths and realised Development costs are far cheaper, so you'll see how successfully stuff can be outsourced, and if it is, probably make people redundant from Sheffield in the future.
I wonder if the PHP vacancies have been removed from the staff sigs yet *goes to look*
On a more serious note, sorry for the sarcasm (before I get told off), I know that's a rather bleak and pessimistic way of looking at things - but I just know how management work

[#8]

Quote from: Alex

I know that's a rather bleak and pessimistic way of looking at things - but I just know how management work

Alex, I'm quite happy for you to come to our offices and meet with me and the team and see just how "management" does work at PlusNet. 
Read my blog on this topic; that's exactly the state of affairs right now with no spin or marketing in sight...
Matt Grest
Head of Future Development
PlusNet

[#9]

Yep I did have a scan over it (you posted your link as I was typing my post)
Sorry I was a little harsh in my last post - it wasn't meant as a dig at PlusNet or management there, I was just generalising about companies in general when they 'outsouce'.
I think maybe 'cynical' is my middle name

[#10]

Quote from: Alex

I was just generalising about companies in general when they 'outsouce'.

You can see what Matt was getting at though.  He specifically 'headed off at the pass' comments about generic outsourcing, be it India, eastern Europe or whatever.
For me this seems a positive step because the person that wins in all of this is the customer.  We keep the strategy and core team here in Sheffield, and we can turn over projects faster to get the new products and functionality out to the customer while improving what we already have.
Also as an aside, global working (outsourcing or not) is a great and interesting technical challenge.  I've successfully done this, and you get exposure to scenarios you'd never normally face.
Example:  India's Internet connectivity has notorious latency issues (as I believe lots of their infrastructure goes round the bottom of Africa).  You then have to take this into account with latency sensitive applications such as VoIP, Storage Replication and such.
Then as Matt touched upon you have the timezone differences.  Not everyone lives in GMT, PST and so on so you have to find a middle ground where you can store up the things you need to talk about and get them sorted in a particular slice of time.  Videoconferencing and IM helps immensely with this kind of thing.
Anyway, that's my 2P
-- Gricey
PS:  Most technical people are cynical, pragmatic, etc... it's in our blood

[#11]

Quote from: Alex

Sorry I was a little harsh in my last post - it wasn't meant as a dig at PlusNet or management there, I was just generalising about companies in general when they 'outsouce'. I think maybe 'cynical' is my middle name

Ah, but this is not 'outsourcing', it's globalisation.
Our challenge is to make sure you see the benefits of this as soon as possible, in the way of extra services or improved features. Then there will be no need for cynicism, even if it is your middle name.
We're all certainly looking forward to the first project from the guys over in India, which is a new meeting and planning tool, and will make our working days much easier.