Outsourcing... Accck!

[SamIAm21]

Disney Outsourcing? To me outsourcing is a bit like leaving your kids at daycare (not that there's anything wrong with daycare!! I work and used daycare for many years.) But everyone knows, that no one loves or understands your kids as well/much as you do. Disney should be careful about where they place valuable assets and into whose hands they place such valuable information technology. No other company is going to be as careful with them as they would be.

Kevin Yee, a fellow DIS'er did speculate on impending Disney outsourcing in a column last September 2007. His current column also speculates on what the economic downturn will have on Disney and revives that year old column.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Blech, yeah I agree. I want to see what Disney can create, not what they can pay some other company to create. I agree with what Pete said on the podcast- why don't they just hire these people that know how to do it, take them under the Disney wing and teach them even more and let them create just for Disney. And like Kevin said, they are going to lose what makes them unique! That is disappointing. I hope Disney was listening to what the podcasters said.

Stay on that soapbox Pete- I agree!

 

[Mozart]

Being someone who works for an outsourcing company I'd just like to say that it's not quite as evil as everyone seems to think it is. Because we work with various companies, we have more expertise than those people who only work for one company. Due to economies of scale, we have the ability to do the work for less money than it would cost if it were done in-house.

I'm not saying that Disney should out-source. But I think outsourcing gets a really bad rap in general and that bugs me. Then again, maybe that's just because it's my job.

 

[trivial]

I hope Disney is listening intently, but I'm skeptical.

 

[cyberbox2]

If it wasn't for the outsourcing of Disney I.T. to third party vendors like IBM and ACS, I'd be living in Orlando and working for Disney I.T. right now!!

Hey but I've worked for the outsourcing companies before as well so no hard feelings, it is what it is

 

[DSNY4ever]

I understand that it is not all evil Mozart, I am sure you do a great job

I think it just depends on the company. I am disappointed because I see Disney as a company that is a leader in this type of technology and I am impressed and astounded each time I go to the parks and see the advancements that they have made, but now I feel like it is someone else's technology and they will no longer be the ones leading the way and challenging other companies to step it up to another level.

 

[SamIAm21]

I understand that it is not all evil Mozart, I am sure you do a great job

I think it just depends on the company. I am disappointed because I see Disney as a company that is a leader in this type of technology and I am impressed and astounded each time I go to the parks and see the advancements that they have made, but now I feel like it is someone else's technology and they will no longer be the ones leading the way and challenging other companies to step it up to another level.

Just as Walt did every step of his career!

 

[cxcelica]

Just as Walt did every step of his career!

I agree with Mozart in the sense that the word "outsourcing" has developed a very negative connotation, and some of it might not be totally deserving.

I think that SamIam and Dsny4ever make valid points though that Disney was founded on this idea that not only can we do everything "in house" but we will be able to do it better than everyone else and we will be setting the market trends and developments that everyone will look up to.

The Company has grown tremendously since the days of Walt and perhaps they feel that its so big that they can't manage all parts of it like that anymore or maybe its just that they don't want to manage parts of it like that anymore for financial reasons. It's an interesting issue for sure.

 

[bsbrady]

I am in the IT field, and I can say that most outsourcing does a lesser quality job and that is across all fields. Outsourcing's goal is to do one thing, reduce costs. When costs are reduced quality suffers, and if operations get outsourced to foreign countries, like India, it really goes down. We have all been on the phone with some 800 number that goes to india and they are completely useless. If an outsourcing company can do a job for a fraction of the cost you cant tell me that they do a better job than before.
And incase someone wants to dispute me, I work for a company that does outsourcing and I know, that things dont run as well as they did before

 

[jlewisinsyr]

I think in some situations outsourcing can be a very powerful tool as it is about economies of scale, but there has to be stringent service standards tied to the contract and the service standards have to be constantly measured.

 

[bsbrady]

I think in some situations outsourcing can be a very powerful tool as it is about economies of scale, but there has to be stringent service standards tied to the contract and the service standards have to be constantly measured.

The problem wit that is the service standards are frequently not met, and the outsourcing company has to pay fines or fees back to the vendor. The other issue is when things out of the ordinary happen things tend to blow up

 

[jlewisinsyr]

The problem wit that is the service standards are frequently not met, and the outsourcing company has to pay fines or fees back to the vendor. The other issue is when things out of the ordinary happen things tend to blow up

I am well aware of these...I am actually a financial analyst for my company and walk through this all the time, in terms of near shore outsourcing, offshore in house and offshore outsourcing.

Some things we have seen a reduction in quality which we enforce, others we have seen a HUGE improvement in quality.

There is also another benefit, espicially offshoring, 24 hour access. Its easier to staff operations 24 hours a day when you can have just one day shift in each of your operations if they are spread around the world.

A great example of this is AT&T Language Line Services (not a company I work for, but we do use their services), they have facilities all over the world, and when you call them, you never know where you are actually connecting to, only that the person can translate your call for you and with over 150 languages available for translation, it only makes sense to outsource because there is very little possibility in terms of logistics to handle this in-house because of all the variations.