Patriotic Alternative to Offshoring

We no longer hear the pre-presidential-election rhetoric about offshoring American jobs (famously Kerry’s colorful epithet:“Benedict Arnold CEOs.”)

And as long as the labor market stats are looking fairly good, with emerging shortages in certain skill areas, this issue will likely remain below the media radar.

It is, however, a real business issue for companies whose competitors are — or may be — realizing significant cost savings through offshoring, and who thus feel compelled to consider going this route themselves.

Now a new All-American trend: “rural outsourcing.”

Taking advantage of local pockets of unemployment and substantially lower cost of living and labor costs in parts of rural America, some companies are “going rural.”

“If a company is just looking for low costs, there are many alternatives offshore,” says the owner of a company called Rural Sourcing.

“But if you take into consideration the total cost of working with different languages, cultures and time zones, this is another option,” she says. Rural Sourcing’s rates range from $38 to $48 per hour, compared with $18 to $30 per hour for companies in India.

Rural Sourcing’s website proclaims:

Rural Sourcing Inc. (RSI) was established to provide information technology services/outsourcing at 30% – 50% lower costs than most domestic based IT consulting firms.
Using the global outsourcing model that has shown employees can produce high-quality work regardless of their address, RSI offers a talented technology employee population located in rural regions of the U.S.

Workforce Management: “Going Rural: A U.S. Alternative to Offshoring,” by Jessica Marquez