International Herald Tribune reports Canada is gaining favour as an outsourcing partner due to its stability, proximity and cultural similarities. Some are refer to this as ‘nearshoring’ or ‘remote contracting’.
“Companies are willing to pay a premium for a destination that is close to home. The customer on the end of the phone will be able to relate much better to a representative in Canada than one in the Philippines.”
Best estimated that Canada had 26,300 call-center “agent positions,” or work stations, serving the United States. The actual number of workers is probably much higher, since each position is basically a phone line and a cubicle. At some call centers, three employees working separate shifts will staff a single phone during each 24-hour period. The figure, however, looks almost insignificant when compared to the 2.85 million call-agent posts that remain in the United States.
This fun tool comes courtesy of Visual-Literacy.org, an e-learning site educating visitors about “a critical, but often neglected skill for business, communication, and engineering students, namely visual literacy, or the ability to evaluate, apply, or create conceptual visual representations.”
(Hat tip to Cool Tools.)
posted by Diane Levin @ 5:12 PM 0 comments
Thursday, April 19, 2007
“Verdict on American Lawyers”: ADR and collaborative law missing from one-sided depiction of lawyers and justice
Negative attack on lawyers overlooks changing legal professionAmerican lawyers by now may be inured to media attacks on the legal profession. We expect it from Fox News. But this week lawyers drew fire from an unexpected source: a National Public Radio broadcast.
On Point, a week-day radio news magazine produced by NPR member station WBUR in Boston, broadcast a show this week titled “Verdict on American Lawyers”. From the show’s description:
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Europeans Working for India Outsourcers
BBC News reports entry and mid-level employees are being recruited from European countries to work in India.
“Prashant Sahni, chief executive officer of Tecnovate, says the way it works is simple. ‘We hire people from various parts of Europe to work for us on Indian salaries and it’s been very successful.’”
“Mr Sahni says the European employees are recruited for a minimum period of a year, but many extend their stay. And although the employees are paid local salaries, they receive other compensation in the form of free housing, a furnishing allowance and subsidised meals.”