AOL's plans slipped out on its Web site in a 10 December job posting seeking a global program manager to "coordinate software development teams" in the United States, Dublin, Ireland, and Bangalore. The posting bothered some people because it appeared at the same time AOL announced it was laying off hundreds of software engineers at its Netscape Communications unit in Mountain View, California, as well as other West Coast offices.
"It's America Online with code built where?" said one former Netscape manager. "There's an image issue that they should address, especially with all the people they just chucked."
Besides raising concerns about exporting high-paying, high-skilled jobs abroad, many of these workers have long griped that higher-ups at AOL allowed Netscape to falter.
AOL said the job posting and the layoffs are unrelated.
"We are considering opening a small (engineering) office in Bangalore," spokesman Andrew Weinstein said. "That action is completely unrelated to the Netscape job actions that were taken."
Like Ireland and other foreign countries, India isn't a new frontier for AOL. The company already operates a call centre in Bangalore and has relied on software engineers in India previously through an alliance with Sun Microsystems. Still, this would mark the first time AOL turned to India to help build its flagship Internet software.
One out of every 10 jobs
AOL's Bangalore explorations come as US-based businesses are increasingly tapping cheaper labour abroad, typically to handle low-level jobs such as customer service. In a newer wrinkle, some software companies are experimenting with hiring skilled programmers to assist on higher profile projects, including product development.
In July, AOL rival Yahoo outlined plans to hire programmers in Bangalore to help build its Web products. Google also is planning to open a Bangalore office and expects to hire 100 software engineers by year-end 2004.
These actions have heightened fears among US technology workers that their jobs will be shipped abroad.
More than eight in 10 software companies are exporting their work offshore this year or next, according to a July study by research firm Sand Hill Group.
US tech going abroad
A growing number of high-technology companies are boosting employment in foreign markets -- sometimes at the expense of Silicon Valley job growth. Bangalore, India, is proving to be a popular locale for software development.
America Online: A recent company job posting seeks a product manager in Virginia to lead global software development in the United States; Dublin, Ireland; and a new office in Bangalore, India. This comes on the heels of AOL laying off 450 software developers in California. AOL denies a link between the two events.
Google: The search giant plans to open its first international research and development centre in Bangalore next year, with a staff of about 100 programmers.
Hewlett Packard: The computer maker plans to cut 4,800 US jobs, after missing its earnings mark for the third quarter. HP also plans to outsource more work to India, China, Poland, Costa Rica and the Philippines.
Oracle: The database company plans to double its 3,000-person workforce at two Indian research centres. It recently opened development centres in China, employing 200 developers.
Siebel Systems: The business software maker said it would cut 490 jobs in July and move some business operations abroad to boost its bottom line.
Yahoo: The Internet company opened an office in Bangalore in July and plans to hire 150 software developers by the end of 2004.
Gartner predicted that one out of every 10 jobs at US information technology companies will be shifted abroad by the end of next year. IDC recently estimated that by 2007, 23 percent of all IT services jobs will be offshore, up from 5 percent this year. The figures refer to IT work done for US-based companies.
Cost cutting is the most commonly cited reason for this practice. Hewlett-Packard has pegged the cost of a talented programmer in India at about $20,000 a year, well below the cost of a top US tech worker. Companies also face facilities costs and the expense of managing offshore work, offsetting the impact on the bottom line. The total savings from hiring an IT service provider to perform foreign work may be as high as 40 percent to 50 percent, IDC analyst Ned May said.
AOL appears poised to jump on the bandwagon at a time when it is paring back software engineering in Silicon Valley. It laid off 450 employees in its California offices earlier this month. Many of the employees who were laid off were software engineers at Netscape. AOL has offered to relocate 100 of the workers to its Virginia, headquarters or its office in Columbus, Ohio.
Weinstein said the bulk of AOL's coding efforts will now be centred on the East Coast. AOL will also continue hiring software engineers and programmers in Dulles and Columbus.
One former AOL executive doesn't expect the company to outsource key programming projects any time soon, suggesting an India software engineering office probably would handle lower-profile tasks such as quality assurance, at least to begin with.
"There has not been much software-product offshoring so far," this person said. "It can only be more difficult managing the process from afar."
Culture clash
Sources said AOL's recent Silicon Valley layoffs reflect a new focus on cost cutting, as well as simmering tensions between AOL headquarters and Netscape -- a company AOL acquired in 1999 for nearly $9bn (£5.11bn) only to end its signature engineering efforts such as its pioneering Web browser.
"The AOL guys always thought the Netscape guys were overpaid, they didn't ever integrate the Netscape stuff into their culture," said the former Netscape project manager. "The West Coast (engineering) groups make less sense for them."
For their part, Netscape workers looked down on Dulles for lacking the technological savvy and pioneering spirit that has long defined Silicon Valley. Some think AOL management never understood how to tap Silicon Valley's potential and never took advantage of the area's academic breeding ground for talent.
About 300 AOL workers will remain in Mountain View.
One engineering group that was largely spared was Nullsoft, the developers of the popular online music player Winamp. Despite the loss of two prominent members, Nullsoft's founder, Justin Frankel, and most of his team remain at the company. Days after the layoffs were announced, Nullsoft released its long-anticipated Winamp 5.0 media player, a new version of the software that the team hopes will revive interest after a couple years of missteps.
"AOL is in Silicon Valley because it offers unique value, not because of cost advantages," said David Weiden, vice president of marketing at TellMe and a former Netscape executive.
CNET News.com's Paul Festa, Alorie Gilbert and Ed Frauenheim contributed to this report.
Talkback
AOL has been using India for its telephone
tech help for the past year. I finally got one
of the people to state where they were
located through some crafty questions about
the time. I realized this was most likely
because I have only heard one American
voice in the past year.
While it's probably a no-brainer for many, I don't think MOST Americans see the grand scheme behind the Bush economic policies. Sure they say they want to "shrink government" and "reduce taxes" (for the investor classes)- but the ultimate goal seems to be to reduce the financial/compensation expectations of the working and middle classes.
They want us desperate and afraid.
Only after creating a country-wide desperation for work- any work- will American companies begin to bring jobs back to the U.S. Until skilled workers are willing to agree to $20,000 a year (with few, if any, benefits), they will continue exporting jobs.
So, in the elite's demented world-view, they are doing working Americans a favor by forcing us to comply with the "realities" of the "global labor market."
(It's for our own good.)
The big picture is truly frightening, and I'm not sure that the 2004 election will make any difference in the continued "downsizing of America."
The WalMart model is America's future.
We need to reintroduce labor issues into the "party dialogue" in a way that makes sense to the the working class. Statistical analysis and "policy discussion" isn't enough to convince the majority of Americans who still believe in the so-called American Dream and who aspire to rise above their class-- which is NOT going to happen for most people.
They need to be told what is happening and to understand what the future holds if they don't organize.
Deal AOL,
You simply suck. If anything will make me close my account it is the fact that your ripping off eastern indians.
You have highly educated people in India working for you now, at slave wages.
You hire and Indian person, train them for tech support, then give them an American name. example 'Steve'. Steve's name is actually ------Shibad. Mr. Shibad is paid the anual sum of about $1,800.00 a year.
My daughter worked as a tech for AOL for 2 years ... she made $23,000.00 per year, and did no more than what the current aol techs are doing in India now!