Fraud hobbles Indian outsourcing strategies

[OhioChick]

January 15, 2009 - 9:00 A.M.


Both IT vendors and corporate users have flocked to Indian outsourcers to take advantage of the labor cost savings and the available expertise. That rush to save cash and find talent will undoubtedly slow down with the revelations last week that Satyam Computer Services Ltd. has been cooking its books for years.

Already scathing commentaries are being exchanged online. Some argue all outsourcing IT operations in India, such as those that write SaaS application code, manage data centers remotely or run cloud-based systems, are rife with fraud. Others with equal vehemence call such accusations racist. Neither position is correct.

Virtually all countries have crooked capitalists. With more capitalists among us, the U.S. undoubtedly has more than most. However, if Satyam were an isolated case of Indian fraud, those calling critics of Indian outsourcing racially biased would have more credibility. There is rich recent history of fraud on the sub-continent.

Back in 2002 KPMG published a special report on fraud in India, revealing that more than half of the companies surveyed had been victims of fraud emanating there. Indian call center workers have been reported to have charged goods from Americans' credit cards. And Google points to India as the center for massive AdSense click fraud.

As Rajesh K. Pillania of the Management Development Institute put it in an academic paper published last summer, "India is widely recognized as one of the most corrupted countr among the major global economies."

More: http://blogs.computerworld.com/fraud_hobbles_indian_outsourcing_strategies

[Azlady]

1. No surprises here! n/t

[ihavenobias]

4. True n/t

[Joanne98]

2. YAY

[OhioChick]

3. My thoughts exactly, Joanne! n/t

[Skittles]

5. now start researching their fucking resumes

yes INDEED

[OhioChick]

6. Padded....

Yes INDEED. :)

[morillon]

7. OMG. I've been burned by a resume fraudster before.

Had all these certifications and high profile techie job history a mile long. Talked a good game. But a freshman in high school computer class could write better code. This guy knew NOTHING. We finally were able to get rid of him when he called in sick for a few weeks straight as a cover for going back to his old job.

I've heard rumors of web sites where fraudsters can post their IT tasks and pay people overseas chump change to ghost write their code, and I think some of the same places publish answers to popular certification exams. When I'm interviewing people, I completely disregard whatever certifications they may have. In fact, the more certifications they list, the more it looks like they're trying to overcompensate. I give them my own test, not multiple choice but ESSAY, and they have to be prepared to discuss the reasoning behind their answers. These aren't particularly difficult questions, but they're pretty much guaranteed to cause a fraudster's cover story to collapse like a house of cards.