Outsourcing

 Profits Over Service
 

posted by by andy Wendt 02/26/2007

Anyone who has been on the phone with Tech Support at any point in the last five years has surely noticed the trend of large companies to outsource their Technical Support Service to off shore firms. 

Of course being an IT Consultant I have often recommended outsourcing to clients in specific situations such as for short term projects where an organization like The Tech Army can be of great service.

Also just to be clear there is nothing inherently deficient with the potential technical ability of anyone simply because they are working off shore.

However it’s becoming pretty clear that many of the people on the other end of the phone should not be considered Technicians and that we are being done a great disservice not by them but by the large mega corporations that that have subcontracted them for the sole purpose of improving their bottom line.

Specifically I came to admit this to myself after a call from my Brother-In-Law Saturday. He told me he could no longer connect to the internet through his DSL service. Think large phone company, three letters, and no need to buy a vowel. After being on the phone with their “Tech Support” for 90 minutes he gave up and called me.

Now it should be pointed out, as it is necessary to understand the degree to which we are all being taken advantage of, that I am an IT Consultant and not a Technician. The fact that I have worked in the IT field for 20 years no more makes me a Technician than 20 years in Law Enforcement for my Brother-In-Law makes him a Lawyer.

So Saturday I found myself sitting in front of my Brother-In-Laws computers struggling to remember the basics of Internet connectivity. However after I would say no more than 10 minutes it was easy to find a few incorrect entries under the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties. Once I found the right tab it was just took a few clicks to put things back to what I would say were most likely the default settings and presto the Internet was back.

The next few minutes were spent chatting with my Brother-In-Law  as to how in the world that could have taken 90 minutes with the ISP’s own Tech Support Department and not be fixed.

That answer is simple: When it comes to many misguided large firms their off shore, script reading, low cost and poorly trained support staffs are not really there to solve your problems. They are there because they save their employer money and your customer service experience and your business is in the grand scheme of their bottom line not all that significant.

Andy Wendt
Network and Security Consultant
Helping Businesses Manage Technology
Toll Free: 877-422-1907 x226
andy@csn1.com

Andy Wendt is an IT Consultant and a Technology Writer for CSN1 Technologies.