JP Morgan, Bournemouth and the vanishing back office

...(cont) which is why NGOs which are trying to get Africa computer literate are moving in the right direction. Whilst it is unoubtedly essential that short term aid (medecine, water etc.) is desparately needed in countries such as Somalia, I believe that communictations and technology will be the long term solution to the development of nations which are often relatively infertile and lacking in the natural resources which have historically been the building blocks for the development of economies. It is now possible to leapfrog the primary and secondary industries, and move straight into the service industry. That said, the governance and legal infrastructure which are prerequesite to the development of global business is often sadly lacking in many African nations. Zimbabwe is one which may have the potential for change, with the partial appointment of the MDC party. Many finance professionals have left the country in recent years, either to neighbouring South Africa or Europe. With a potential for change, and economic and political stability, many of these migrants may well return and the country can get on with pulling itself out of economic meltdown and poverty.

We undoubtedly live in a changing world in which only the strong will survive. That applies to mulitinationals, who are obliged by circumstance to follow the trend of offshoring in order to remain competetive, as well as indivuals. The workers who retain their jobs in centers such as Bournemouth (and Brighton in the case of Amex) will be the ones who have the necessary competencies and skills to prove themselves worthy of their position. These middle office locations will remain, but they will be smaller, and more concentrated centres of excellence, whilst the routine data processing will be shipped out. Overpaid school leavers at places like this can't really begrudge the company giving their job to someone in another country who is better qualified and who will do a better job at a lower cost. Although it is entirely right that organisations need to think very carefully about the real cost / benefit, and manage their offshoring carefully.

Ian is right to say that the entire axis of the global economy is shifting. The development of communication and internet communications has been the key to the economic development of countries such as India... (cont)

I agree with the majority; the suicidal move of transferring back office support to India will undoubtably cause a huge loss in clientèle as the quality of support offered by these centres is dramatically poor compared to say, Bournemouth. I am particularly interested in the outcome of this as I have offers to work at the "doomed" Bournemouth office. I do hope the senior executives see the benefit of maintaining a British support field, rather than, as previously mentioned, 'shaving pennies'. If they really wanted to save money perhaps they could annually rotate and volunteer one years salary to the company?..

The cost cutting will boost profits and hence shareholder value in the short term - good for the CEO and his fellow executives (they can all give themselves a pat on the back), but not the support staff who will lose their jobs - then when it fails to deliver customer service and long term profits they will kick the CEO out with a 'golden parachute'. So why would he care, when he's sunning himself on his yacht with 80 million in the bank.

It's just another case of corporate greed that benefits the few, but not the actual workers.

Richard Branson has his priorites right - customers, staff and then shareholders and not the other way around.

our part of team have relocated to mumbai already, everyday we have to communicate with them. We feel very difficult to communicate with them, we can't understand what they are saying and they cannot accept our comments, sometimes they do wrong but never correct it, their character is very strong and not easy going, they speak the english not same as us, can't understand what they are saying, at the end, we use email to communicate.

I know that the company wants to cut costs, but did they think the quality and the language is the big problem.

If I receive a call from a company (telephone company) a seller, I will cut the line immediately, I don't like their voice and the selling point.

Pls take a consideration and think about it before you move the job to mumbai, may be you will loss your reputation and the client relationships

thanks for reading my comments