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| Subject: | RE: [gislist] Indian GIS usage |
| Date: |
12/23/2003 08:05:01 AM |
| From: |
Richard Nicoll |
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Following from Mike's questions, I would suggest that the GIS industry
could be classified into two halves - the number-crunching, data
processing side: and the more strategic policy side.
Its seems logical therefore that the first can be achieved anywhere in
the world after initial discussions with the client, with the main cost
of this work being the labour required (and hence some countries are
always going to be able to offer lower rates due to different economic
parameters). If the process required has a relatively simple technical
methodology then the work in theory can be completed entirely remotely.
However, it is the strategic side which inherently requires more
specific knowledge about an individual country, its legislation and
laws, and the local marketplace. I would suggest that this work (whilst
a smaller slice of the GIS pie) is likely to be retained in the host
country.
For example, we provide strategic advise to the UK government on
implementation of EU directives, this requires in-depth experience of
the mechanisms in operation within our country and Europe at large. It
is unlikely that an overseas firm would ever expect to rival this
knowledge, being based on the other side of the world. And then of
course, people still like to meet regularly in person which for some
will never be replaced by video-conferencing... We would however,
subcontract any technical GIS work (that might be produced from this
process) to an overseas firm, once we have a clear brief!
I realise that this classification is very simplistic but it serves as
an example of the differences in the utilisation of GI-technology?
Essentially the industry is of course highly complex and fragmented, and
not all of this work is suitable for exporting overseas. Also of note,
when the client is a government they dont necessarily mind paying more!!
Perhaps to sustain growth in the Indian GIS market, instead of trying to
attract work by undercutting overseas firms, what is needed is an
adoption of GIS as a real toolkit within the government policy makers.
This would then filter down to contracted firms and start to take hold
as a standard technique which is trusted and better understood by the
'non-technical' citizens. This has happened in the UK within the past
decade and is a strong reason why our industry is more encompassing and
integrated into the national economy.
Cheers,
Rich
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike [mailto:mjsnow@direcway.com]
Sent: 23 December 2003 13:20
To: gislist@lists.thinkburst.com
Subject: RE: [gislist] Indian GIS usage
You made some excellent points Anthony. Yes I agree that in order to
understand what is happing in GIS we have to understand the overall
context
that it exists in. I would like to add a few things to some of the
points
you made.
I recently was looking at some business studies about the effects of
Wal-Mart on suppliers and was surprised by the fact that people will
"consumerspenderize" them selves right out of a job. The case in point
was
Master Lock which had a factory in Michigan. The people who worked at
the
factory when they needed a padlock would go to Wal-Mart and buy a
similar
one from China that sold for 3 dollars less. Of course, the factory was
moved to Mexico so Master Lock could stay in business and, the factory
workers were forced to move on to other careers. I would suggest that
going
with the cheapest price in spite of the long term consequences is not
unique
to just the corporate world but is a basic law of economics all
consumers in
a free market are subject too - including Indian GIS companies.
This brings me to another point. Again, to add to your excellent
comments, I
am starting to understand the difficulties of developing a solid GIS
industry in India. In particular, the problem that as India's IT
industry
becomes more successful, it in fact becomes less sustainable. One of the
problems with living in the U.S. is we tend to paint everything in terms
of
U.S. markets and "others." India's IT market isn't just competing with
U.S.
companies, it is competing with every company that supplies GIS or IT
services. If Indian companies become too successful, they will price
themselves out of the market just like so many U.S. IT companies do to
firms
in China or other places. (Did you know that Mexico lost 30,000 factory
jobs
to China last year) Thanks Anthony for pointing that out. Now it makes
sense
why an Indian company would advertise as costing five times less then a
U.S.
company. If they didn't come in that cheap, some other company in
Bangladesh, Viet Nam, or the Congo would.
Understanding this sort of world that GIS exists in brings back the
nagging
question of can something like IT in general and GIS in particular be
transported across cultural and language boundaries. What parts of GIS
are
commodity items that can be done anywhere in the world and what parts
must
be done
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