Cost of offshoring = Cost of Business + Cost of Travel
I wrote about the challenges of managing logistics of global travel in my blog on Global Environment, Visas and Travel
Infosys , like many other Tier-1 software services companies have well-oiled machinery to handle logistics of visas, tickets and travel. Neither the employees, nor the managers have sufficient insight into intricacies of visas, travel advisories, restrictions and other nuances. The travel department / division play a very significant role in advising managers on getting the right travel documents, visas and in ensuring that the business critical requirements are fulfilled.
An aspect of such cross continental travel I did not touch upon was the travel costs. Don’t ask me who bears the cost of such travel. Certainly “business has to pay for it, right? [Which business, how much are all subjectivities we will not get into]
Vinni, a deal consultant and blogger with whom I have interacted in the past points to interesting statistics of travel expenses and consulting and adds "Consultant travel continues to be a major add-on to fees." In the blog, he also points to statistics gathered by Brian Sommer which makes for interesting reading. The data quoted is that of a few American consulting companies and I wonder if the statistics would be any different if the survey were global.
Even a cursory straw poll of frequent air travelers would indicate how widespread travel by techies is. And a good percentage of the international travel would be by “foot soldiers” of software services companies traveling to client locations around the globe. This is a topic I have dealt with extensively in my book, including the case study on “Techies and Travel”
With all the advancements in communication -- High-Speed networks, cheap VOIP, teleconferencing and video conferencing – face-time is still highly valued in business. Travel to client locations continues to be a “business necessarily.”
