Dell's overseas workforce outstrips its U.S. jobs

[omcate]

4/12/2004 10:54:25 PM

NEW YORK, April 12 (Reuters) - The world's No. 2 personal computer maker, Dell Inc. (DELL) , said on Monday most of its employees are based outside the United States, as it expands in overseas markets.

Round Rock, Texas-based Dell, which derived about 36 percent of its fiscal 2004 net revenue from international sales, said in its annual report that at the end of January, 23,800 of its 46,000 workers were overseas while 22,200 were U.S. based.

The company recently set up technical and customer support operations in India, Panama, Slovakia, Morocco and China and intended to continue to expand internationally, it said in the report, filed at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It also has design centers in China and Taiwan.

Dell, which ranks after Hewlett-Packard Co (HPQ) , had 39,100 employees a year earlier, 17,900 of whom were located overseas.

© Reuters 2004. All rights reserved.

 

[Mecro]

Cheap labor=cheap product=cheap quality.

Right up Dell's alley to outsource every job they can. I'm not surprised at all. Expect even more outsourcing.

 

[cashonly]

And if you've called Dell for tech support recently, this shouldn't come as a surprise to you.

They've found a source of cheap labor and it shows!

Cash

 

[omcate]

Quote from cashonly:

And if you've called Dell for tech support recently, this shouldn't come as a surprise to you.

They've found a source of cheap labor and it shows!

Cash

I have not called Dell Tech Support for a long time. I did call Time Warner Tech Support a while ago, regarding some problems of the Cable Modem. As expected, an Indian girls answered the phone.

After getting rid of about 25,000 people between June 2000 and March 2003, Merrill Lynch finally hired 100 people in the last quarter. I hope the finance industry has not found a similar source of cheap labor too.

 

[axeman]

They have...and it will continue.


My analogy of a US CEO sitting in an office all by himself, with
the entire rest of the company offshore, is the extreme reality
we are approaching.

But dont worry....US workers will just move on to higher paying
jobs...like all those software developers getting jobs that
pay 1/4 as much in non-comp-sci fields :eek:

The US economy is toast.

peace

axeman

Quote from omcate:

I have not called Dell Tech Support for a long time. I did call Time Warner Tech Support a while ago, regarding some problems of the Cable Modem. As expected, an Indian girls answered the phone.

After getting rid of about 25,000 people between June 2000 and March 2003, Merrill Lynch finally hired 100 people in the last quarter. I hope the finance industry has not found a similar source of cheap labor too.

 

[AOL_9.0 Man]

Quote from cashonly:

And if you've called Dell for tech support recently, this shouldn't come as a surprise to you.

They've found a source of cheap labor and it shows!

Cash

They used to be first on the fabricators' list for technical breakthroughs:

WUXGA laptop screens sporting resolutions of 1600x1200
DVD/RW capability on laptops,
other significant innovations.

Now HP/CPQ (Compaq), and other box fabricators/assemblers have "primary" or "first call" access to the major Tiwanese and other Chip Fabrication plants.

Dell has lost its edge with both new cutting edge designs, technical support and quality.

Their laptops have become such significant risks that getting support costs more in time, effort, frustration, phone calls than it can ever be worth.

Ever try explaining to these so-called degreed tech suport telephone staff:
1) what the purpose of the call is
2) why you called
3) how you got the error condition
4) why its supposed to function differently
5) why you're calling them?

They try to solve the tech call by asking questions and belittling the caller instead of knowing anything other than basic answers.

 

[otto]

Well remember there out sourcing jobs so they can create more here in the US.............

 

[EricP]

Quote from Mecro:

Cheap labor=cheap product=cheap quality.

That's what the U.S. automakers were trying to fool the public into believing in the 1970's. Such as blanket statement is obviously not true, as the Japanese automakers kicked Detroits butt, both in quality and cost for many years. Nice try though.

 

[axeman]

True....cheap prices may simply be due to market inefficiencies,
not low quality work.

peace

axeman

Quote from EricP:

That's what the U.S. automakers were trying to fool the public into believing in the 1970's. Such as blanket statement is obviously not true, as the Japanese automakers kicked Detroits butt, both in quality and cost for many years. Nice try though.

 

[spect8or]

Quote from axeman:

True....cheap prices may simply be due to market inefficiencies,
not low quality work.

"Market inefficiencies"? Let's not get too technical here. Nguyen Viet Tran takes that $100/month job 'cos he's dirt poor and, hey, $100 a month is a massive step up from starvation.

PS -- you guys don't like Dells? Newsflash: you don't gotta buy one!