Offshoring and localization projects, Part II

Are localization projects, jobs and expertise going offshore, never to return?

Well, frankly, those of us in the industry were offshoring long before it was fashionable. Our projects have been globally distributed, multi-time-zone, polyglot undertakings for a long time, and so the recent hue and cry (in the U.S., anyway) strikes us as inapplicable, the kind of thing that auto workers and steel unions should worry about.

Renato Beninatto of Common Sense Advisory writes, "Don and I just came back from China where we visited several LSPs and several offshore development companies. To answer your question, I wouldn't say that LSPs [language service providers] are losing work to offshore companies. Some LSPs are moving some of their back-office and testing labs offshore, and Chinese LSPs are using language services to upsell testing services. The language part of the business does not seem to have been affected. We will be publishing soon a report on our findings in China. Stay tuned."

The furor also strikes Paul Samuelson, economics writer for Newsweek Magazine, as overblown:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18699042/site/newsweek/
though for different reasons and for different industries.

Still, offshoring is beginning to feel like the new "inconvenient truth." There's no doubt that Indian and Chinese LSPs are gathering steam, and there are almost certainly instances in which prominent, traditional LSPs are losing business to them (see Part IV).

At the same time, though, the pie is getting bigger. The developing world is demanding more content and software in its own languages, and it will require more LSPs to meet that demand. "All boats rise in a high tide," I quoted eruditely to my 14-year-old son last week.

"Except for the ones with holes in them," he sagely countered.

If you're worried about your localization career-boat not rising in the incoming tide, figure out how to get the holes fixed.