Response from: Hanns-Oskar Porr

The Dell case is quoted everywhere, but it is done so incorrectly. Dell is an exception, because Dell has always prided itself on customer service. If their outsourcing provider could not work at Dell's high level of quality, naturally they would endanger their reputation and they pulled out. But that is not the case for many other companies. Sadly, as far as customer service is concerned, the quality you get overseas may actually be better than the one you get here... It probably depends on the individual company, but in general, more companies can benefit from doing this than not. For a good discussion, see:
http://www.seinquest.com/content/Wiki.jsp?page=OffshoreOutsourcing

Response from: Roger Kosak

EVERY software product we use that has offshore support is totally unsatisfactory. When the script readers cannot answer the question they hang up. This is not a random occurance, it happens every time. This costs us significant amounts of money to hire a consultant to come in and help with a major problem. In several instances, no fix is possible so we work around.

Response from: Sholl

Culteral differences are one of those quasi-invisible factors which planners sometimes overlook. The examples here focus upon direct customer service. But equally, I have just been reading on the Outsourcing Forum ( http://www.outsourcingforum.net
) a couple of threads which highlight difficulties with direct communication between outsource provider and recipient. I suspect, as in so many areas, the key to minmize the difficulties is extremely detailing agreements: defining as many scenarios as possible. No tan easy solution, but firms need to understand that outsourcing is not always the easy option.