Leader: The tough offshoring question

The usual outcry has already begun with the news that the national rail enquiries call centres are likely to be offshored to India, with the possible loss of up to 1,700 jobs in Plymouth, Cardiff, Derby and Newcastle.

The head of the rail enquiry service betrayed the train operating companies' denials earlier in the week by boldly proclaiming to MPs at a Commons select committee yesterday that a pilot project had shown Indian staff offer as good, if not better, service than its current UK operators.

The union Amicus, quite rightly wanting to protect its members jobs, is already up in arms about the plans, claiming that Indian staff cannot offer the same level of detail and local journey knowledge as UK workers. It also claims that as a partly taxpayer subsidised service, there is a "moral obligation" to protect UK staff.

But offshoring is now an unstoppable force. Gartner in its recent IT spend forecasts said all organisations should be looking at offshoring at least some of their infrastructure to lower cost centres such as India.

Failing to take advantage of the same level of service at a fraction of the cost it takes to provide it from the UK is almost an irresponsible decision for businesses to take in the current economic climate. And the argument is never as clear cut as 'Indian workers taking our jobs'. In many cases the very jobs that are being moved to places like India may not have existed for much longer if the organisation had not been able to make substantial savings in doing so.

Union and media scrutiny of large offshore moves is likely to continue for some time yet but that should not put businesses off looking at a move that could enhance their competitiveness, as long as quality of service as well as cost savings is taken into account.

Analysts also predict that the tough economic climate is a major factor in the level of union opposition to such deals and that when things do pick up again the outsourcing backlash against places like India will fade away.