With globalization, businesses are now able to distribute work around the world. In other words, businesses can now select locations and personnel from around the world that are more cost-effective, more capable, and more efficient to perform tasks that were previously completed in-house or domestically. One way to achieve this is through "outsourcing. Outsourcing is used in both tangible operations, such as manufacturing, and intangible operations, such as services. The information technology (IT) industry is no exception, and increasingly, the manufacturing of electronic products and software programming work are also outsourced. Outsourcing has many advantages for companies, but it also poses a number of problems for the outsourced parties. In this article, we will look at the issue of outsourcing, focusing on the intangible tasks in the IT industry, which we call IT services.

Application in a smartphone (Photo: HeikoAL /) pixabay)

Digitization and Outsourcing

Outsourcing, also known as "outsourcing," can be broadly categorized according to where the work is outsourced. Outsourcing to a neighboring country is called "nearshoring," and outsourcing to a country far away is called "offshoring.callThe term "outsourcing" is used in this article. This article deals mainly with nearshoring and offshoring, where the outsourced business crosses borders, and the term "outsourcing" will be used hereafter.

To begin with, outsourcing is a way to grow your business.ITWidely used in a variety of industries, not just industry.introductionIT companies outsource their operations.Objective.Reducing costs as abigbut there are other things to do with IT services, such as delegating them to more highly skilled people, allowing the company's own employees to focus more on the core business operations, and increasing efficiency by dividing up the workload.

The IT industry includes hardware, software, telecommunications, Internet, information processing, and many others.fieldThere are Outsourcing is used in all fields, but outsourcing such as the manufacture of hardware products involves the physical movement of goods. In other fields, outsourcing often involves data entry, programming, etc., which do not require physical movement of goods, and can be exchanged via the Internet. Therefore, costs associated with outsourcing can be kept low. This has allowed the global spread of the Internet and theuseThe market for outsourcing of IT services in the IT industry has been growing year by year.US$56 billionIn 2017, whereas it wasUS$137.2 billionThe cost of outsourcing is expected to increase to5% eachThe number is expected to increase.

A hackathon (a short, intensive software development event) in Kenya (Photo: Erik (HASH) Hersman / Flickr [CC BY 2.0])

of outsourced IT services.concrete exampleThe following are some of the services that the company provides: development and updating of applications used on PCs and smartphones, maintenance and support related to applications, database management, network operation and monitoring, and telephone and online support related to products and services sold.

So where are these outsourced operations outsourced from and to? There are many companies that outsource work, but most are located in high-income countries, especially the U.S., U.K., Spain, and Australia, which are the world's leading companies that outsource work.many countriesThe first is.

On the consignment side, individuals and companies in India and China, which have large populations and focus on IT technology-related education.numerousThe company has been a major player in the industry in recent years. In recent years, however, othercountriesThere has also been an increase in outsourcing to Asian countries other than India and China, most of them in the Philippines, where wages are low, and in Eastern Europe, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, etc.numerousThe countries in Eastern European countries are often chosen as outsourcing destinations due to the aspect that, although wages are higher than in Asia, there is an abundance of human resources who can handle a variety of programming languagesnumerousIt appears so. In South America, Brazil and Argentina are often chosen as outsourcing destinations because of the small time difference from the U.S. and Canada, where there are many companies that outsource their operations.reasonThe company is in the process of becoming a

In addition, regional characteristics are not the only reason why a consignee is chosen. In some cases, the use of a common language in communication between the client and the consignee, and between the consignee's clients and the consignee's clients, is important. People from countries where English is widely spoken, such as India, the Philippines, and South Africa, are fluent in English, which lowers the language barrier for English-speaking companies and clients. In other languages, Spain may find it easier to outsource to South American countries where Spanish is the official language, and France may find it easier to outsource to countries such as Morocco and Tunisia, where there are many French speakers. Although most of the countries listed so far are low-income countries, there are also high-income countries where outsourcing is possible.

Next, let's look at how outsourcing is done and the form of outsourcing. Outsourcingfigurevary. Broadly speaking, there are two types of cases: workers contract directly with firms as sole proprietors, and contractors contract with firms. For each case, there are several more patterns. In the former case, there is a pattern in which the intermediary acts as an intermediary between the worker and the company. For example, even when a direct contract is concluded between an individual employer and a company, there are cases where an intermediary acts as an intermediary and introduces the work, or where the work is requested through an online platform. In the latter case, some patterns involve the distribution of work to workers belonging to the contractor, while others involve a multi-step pattern in which work is further outsourced to another contractor.

Programming code (Photo: Godfrey_atima /) pixabay)

Work to be outsourced

So what kind of work is actually outsourced? Here, we are told that there are a particularly large number ofbusinessThe first is,call centeroperators. Call center operator operations can be divided into two categories: those who answer calls from customers and those who make calls to customers. The former is the so-called "inquiry window" for purchasing or using products and services, and in recent years, the number of such calls is increasing, not only over the phone, but also on line. The latter conducts sales and market research on products and services. These services can be performed anywhere there is a telephone line or Internet connection (IP phone), so there is no need to have a department in charge within a company or to be located in Japan. Therefore, they are outsourced to companies in countries where the same language as that of the client is spoken.

Second.Programming servicesIt is. Programming is a necessary skill in fields ranging from the development and production of information terminal operating systems, games, and smartphone applications to the control of factory machinery and data analysis. The company outsourcing the work designs the objective and then outsources the work required for it, either as a whole or in parts by breaking down the work. Developing applications for online shopping.ExampleIn the case of a software application, the application design is broken down into the functions required to create the application, such as customer order functions, inventory control functions, etc., and the programming for each of these functions is outsourced to the programmer. People in positions such as programmers and software developers who perform these tasksa number ofare more than 10 million throughout Asia, especially in India and China. Outside of Asia, there are many in Eastern Europe, with an estimated 200,000 programmers and software developers in Ukraine and 300,000 in Poland.

Third.Content ModerationIt is. Content moderation is the process of monitoring comments, photos, and videos posted on social media and removing inappropriate content. Inappropriate content" can be anything that violates the laws of the country or the rules of social media, pornography, animal abuse, violence, hate speech, and so on. The demand for moderation services has increased with the growth of content on social media due to the proliferation of information devices such as smartphones and computers and the popularity of social media. Software and artificial intelligence (AI) that performs moderationDevelopment/Implementationis also being done, but it is not always possible to clearly discern whether it is inappropriate or not. There is also the difficulty of distinguishing between a naked photograph and a work of art, between hate speech and criticism of hate speech, and cultural nuances may also determine what is appropriate or inappropriate. Therefore, for the most part, it relies on human judgment. Facebook alone, which operates a social media15,000 peoplemoderator for the company's operations. The company further30,000 peopleHe stated that a moderator of the

Effects of learning AI and checking its operation (Photo: Ars Electronica / Flickr [])CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

The fourth example of how outsourcing is likely to take place in the IT industry is for AI.data entryAI has a variety ofFeatureFor an AI to learn, it needs a large amount of data input before it can acquire its capabilities. For example, in order for an AI to recognize an image of a dog, the program must first learn to reliably recognize the dog's appearance. To do this, we need to label images of various dog breeds, images of dogs from multiple angles, and images that appear to show dogs as either showing a dog or not showing a dog, and have the AI memorize this data. This allows the AI to recognize dogs as much as possible, without exception. Even after performing this labeling process on 50 million photos, AI can only accurately identify a limited number of objects.dataThe platform Amazon Mechanical Turk, provided by the IT company Amazon, has a large amount of data and input work by humans,Approximately 500,000 peopleof contract workers, and 15,000 to 20,000 of them perform data entry work each month.

Thus, IT services outsourced can be highly skilled, such as programming, or unskilled, such as call center operators, content moderators, and data entry, which can be done with a common language and short-term training.

Outsourcing Issues

So what are the problems with outsourcing operations such as those described above to foreign countries? The main purpose of outsourcing is to secure low-wage workers and reduce costs. If a company's objective in outsourcing is to reduce costs, problems such as low wages may arise. There are two possible cases of low wages: the first is when wages are not sufficient to make a living, i.e., wages are not commensurate with the nature of the work and the number of hours worked.

Call center for customer service in India (Photo: Marquet B.(ILO) / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

In the Philippines, a call center outsourced by the U.S. telecommunications company A.T.& T., has been receiving calls of up to $3,000 per hour.2 U.S. dollarsOnly a few are paid. In addition, some Amazon Mechanical Turk workers work four to five hours a day for two months.US$700I work eight hours a day.25 U.S. dollarsSome people say they only get Others allege that the IT company Google illegally paid thousands of temporary workers in dozens of countries less than they were owed.caseThere are also

The other problem is the wage gap that occurs between workers who are outsourced and those who work for the client company. Even if they perform similar work with equal skills and experience, there is a large income gap between the two. Skilled technicians in software development requiring programming skillshourly wagecompare, wages in the U.S., Canada, and other countries are around US$60, while in Eastern Europe, wages in Ukraine, Russia, and Poland are only around US$20. Even lower are countries in Asia and Africa, with wages around US$10 in India, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and less than US$10 in Egypt and Nigeria.

The reason for this situation is the imbalance between the company and the workers. In situations where job opportunities are limited, it is difficult for workers to voice their opinions about low wages and poor working conditions, or to demand better treatment because of these conditions. As a result, there are many workers who are forced to work in IT service provision despite low wages and unfair treatment. Such problems occur not only in the structure of outsourcing from high-income countries to low-income countries, but also in the outsourcing of IT services from high-income countries to high-income countries. In addition, it is difficult for workers in this situation to form solidarity with each other and organize labor unions to demand better treatment from the companies. This is because the nature of many jobs does not necessarily require workers to gather in one place to work, and there is little interaction between workers.how to look at something (e.g. noh, train schedule)There is a

Working on a computer (Photo: Jeremy SALMON / Flickr [CC BY-ND 2.0]

The labor standards set by the outsourcing company and the systems and regulations of the country to which the outsourcing company belongs do not apply to workers who are outsourced outside of their home country. Therefore, for example, there is a difference in wages between a worker of the outsourcing company and a worker contracted to do the same work outside of the country. In addition, two problems arise in terms of the form of employment.question (e.g. on a test)and inadequate benefits such as paid leave, imposing unrealistic quotas or extremely short deadlines, and inadequate consideration and compensation for mental and physical strain. For example,Content Moderatorare likely to have mental strain due to viewing large amounts of "inappropriate" videos and images, but most work environments do not have health-conscious daily time or quantity limits, nor do they provide counseling or professional guidance. Furthermore, continuing to work as they do may result in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other traumatic injuries, for which no treatment is provided. In fact, Facebook, which employs a large number of content moderators, was censured in 2018 for failing to take steps to prevent or compensate content moderators for emotional stress and mental trauma.Sued.The following is a list of the most common problems with the

The second concerns precarious working conditions.question (e.g. on a test)In the case of a Whether you are a sole proprietor or working through a contractor, if you rely heavily on outsourced work, there is a possibility that your contract will be terminated or you will be laid off if your work is eliminated or reduced. Therefore, there is no guarantee of long-term employment, and even if long-term employment is possible, there is little possibility of career advancement because long-term contracts are not a prerequisite for long-term employment. The lack of career advancement means that there is no prospect for improvement in wages, work environment, or other working conditions. In fact, in South Africacall centerMany young people are stuck with low wages and are always at risk of poverty in

How to Address the Problem

So far, we have discussed outsourcing and its problems in IT services. As we have already mentioned, with the spread of the Internet, outsourcing is expected to continue to increase as the market for the IT industry expands; for IT services alone, the global outsourcing market will be worth US$937.6 billion by 2027.predictionThere are also

Wires and plugs for network connection (Photo: Public domain / Piqsels)

Such an increase in the size of the market cannot be welcomed unreservedly only in terms of the development of the industry. It will also mean an increase in the exploitation of the many workers involved in the IT industry, unless measures are taken to address the problems that are currently being caused. In order to improve this situation, measures need to be taken on a global scale. Here, we will explore the possibilities of measures based on the four actors involved in outsourcing: companies, governments, workers, and consumers.

The first possible solution is for the companies that outsource the work, which are the most important parties in the exploitation, to set just compensation and conditions for the workers they outsource. However, if these companies set just compensation and conditions, the negative aspects for the companies, such as increased costs, are significant. As long as the motivation for these companies to outsource some of their operations in the first place is to reduce costs, it is difficult to believe that the companies will willingly work to solve the problem.

Therefore, the second possible approach is that of national governments. Governments can establish regulations and penalties for companies that outsource work, guarantee minimum wages and establish labor standards to protect workers' rights. In the country of the outsourcing company, restrictions can be placed on the company if the company is located in the home country, even if the labor is not actually performed in the home country. As already mentioned, companies that outsource work are often located in high-income countries, such as the U.S., the U.K., Spain, and Australia.concentrationThe situation in these countries alone would be greatly improved if systems for outsourcing were established in these countries. Therefore, the situation would be greatly improved if these countries alone could establish a system for outsourcing.how to look at something (e.g. noh, train schedule)There are In addition, the government of the outsourcing country can also put in place labor-related systems to protect its own workers. In fact, in India, a law to protect workers whose work is outsourced from companies in other countries was passed in 2021 by thechangeThe new law will include clarification of labor and wage standards and expansion of the scope of application.

The third is unity among the workers themselves. While it may be difficult for an individual worker to improve his or her situation, it may be possible to improve the situation if they unite. In fact, 10,000 content moderators united to file a lawsuit against a large corporation, promising to improve their working conditions.ExampleThe case is the first of its kind in the world. In this case, Facebook content moderators banded together and sued the company for not compensating them for mental illness, and the company promised to pay a settlement and provide mental health care for the content moderators. This example shows that worker solidarity may lead to improved working conditions. Other online cooperatives for freelancers in the Philippines include the Philippine Online Professional Services (FOPSCo)" have been established to help workers unite and protect their rights on their own. An organization that promotes such activities online, the Platform Cooperative Collective (Platform Cooperativism ConsortiumThe "Mutual Aid Association (MAA)" also exists, and is expected to expand internationally in the future.

Technology Summit with the United Kingdom in India (Photo: British High Commission, New Delhi / Flickr [CC BY-NC-ND 2.0])

Finally, let us look at what consumers can do to benefit from the IT industry's exploitation of these workers. We have mentioned the countries, companies, and workers involved in outsourcing, but let us not forget that it is the consumers who are using the products and services completed through the series of processes.fair trade movementConsumers can use their purchasing decisions based on whether or not a product is produced and manufactured in a fair and equitable process, as in the case of the "Fair and Equitable Process" (see Figure 1). If they are not, they can protest or otherwise express their opposition to the company that produces or manufactures them. It may also be possible to appeal to IT companies that provide digital services.

IT services will be perceived as an integral part of hardware products such as smartphones and PCs, which are the medium for using them, and consumers may be less aware that they are "using" them compared to hardware products that have substance and are at hand. Many of these products are available free of charge, and consumers will use them more passively. Therefore, they are likely to forget that many people are involved in the process of completion and management for use. Therefore, it will be necessary to keep a conscious eye and spotlight on them.

Writer: Minami Ono

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