(aSsigN nO.9) iNformAtiOn enviRoNment

The first thing that came to my mind when I read the term working environment is an animation studio., Even before when I was just a kid I was always fascinated on how the animation s where made, on how the drawings move, and especially on the machines that they used to create the incredible works of art. Since I don’t even know what a computer is before and how it contributed to the animation industry, eventually I gave up with those thoughts.

In the past years of my college life and even at present, slowly, I became aware about the involvement of the computers in the development of the animation industry. The common software that the animation companies used in their products where introduced to me. Software like adobe multimedia studio, toon boom, audio converters and video edit pro are some of them. These software were not directly introduced to me and where not even brought up in class. I came up with these software when we were task to make different systems. These applications were used especially when it comes to the design part of the system. It may be not that important but still the design of the system offers some additional points.

Before I put the concentration of my topic on what my position will be most likely in this environment and on what I could contribute to its growth, let me have a little background about this working environment.

Cave paintings

The earliest examples derive from still drawings, which can be found in Palaeolithic cave paintings, where animals are depicted with multiple sets of legs in superimposed positions, clearly attempting to convey the perception of motion.

Pottery of Persia

A 5,200-year old earthen bowl found in Iran in Shahr-i Sokhta has five images painted along the sides. It shows phases of a goat leaping up to a tree to take a pear. However, since no equipment existed to show the images in motion, such a series of images cannot be called animation in a true sense of the word.

Egyptian murals

An Egyptian mural, approximately 4000 years old, shows wrestlers in action. Even though this may appear similar to a series of animation drawings, there was no way of viewing the images in motion. It does, however, indicate the artist's intention of depicting motion.

Zoetrope

A zoetrope is a device which creates the image of a moving picture. The earliest elementary zoetrope was created in China around 180 AD by the prolific inventor Ting Huan (丁緩). Driven by convection Ting Huan's device hung over a lamp. The rising air turned vanes at the top from which were hung translucent paper or mica panels. Pictures painted on the panels would appear to move if the device is spun at the right speed.

The modern zoetrope contraption was produced in 1834 by William George Horner. The device is basically a cylinder with vertical slits around the sides. Around the inside edge of the cylinder there are a series of pictures on the opposite side to the slits. As the cylinder is spun, the user then looks through the slits producing the illusion of motion. No one thought this small device would be the initial beginnings for the animation world to come. As a matter a fact, in present day beginning animation classes, the Zoetrope is still being used to illustrate early concepts of animation.

Leonardo shoulder study (ca. 1510)

Seven drawings by Leonardo da Vinci extending over two folios in the Windsor Collection, Anatomical Studies of the Muscles of the Neck, Shoulder, Chest, and Arm, show detailed drawings of the upper body (with a less-detailed facial image), illustrating the changes as the torso turns from profile to frontal position and the forearm extends.

The magic lantern

The magic lantern is the predecessor of the modern day projector. It consisted of a translucent oil painting and a simple lamp. When put together in a darkened room, the image would appear larger on a flat surface. Athanasius Kircher spoke about this originating from China in the 16th century. Some slides for the lanterns contained parts that could be mechanically actuated to present limited movement on the screen.

Thaumatrope (1824)

A thaumatrope was a simple toy used in the Victorian era. It was a small circular disk or card with two different pictures on each side that was attached to a piece of string running through the centre. When the strings were twirled quickly between the fingers the two pictures appear to combine into a single image. The creator of this invention may have been either John Ayrton Paris or Charles Babbage.

Phenakistoscope (1831)

A phenakistoscope disc by Eadweard Muybridge (1893).
The phenakistoscope was an early animation device, the predecessor of the zoetrope. It was invented in 1831 simultaneously by the Belgian Joseph Plateau and the Austrian Simon von Stampfer.

Praxinoscope (1877)

The praxinoscope, invented by French scientist Charles-Émile Reynaud, was a more sophisticated version of the zoetrope. It used the same basic mechanism of a strip of images placed on the inside of a spinning cylinder, but instead of viewing it through slits, it was viewed in a series of small, stationary mirrors around the inside of the cylinder, so that the animation would stay in place, and provide a clearer image and better quality. Reynaud also developed a larger version of the praxinoscope that could be projected onto a screen, called the Théâtre Optique.

Flip book (1868)

The first flip book was patented in 1868 by a John Barns Linnet. Flip books were yet another development that brought us closer to modern animation. Like the Zoetrope, the Flip Book creates the illusion of motion. A set of sequential pictures flipped at a high speed creates this effect. The Mutoscope (1894) is basically a flip book in a box with a crank handle to flip the pages.

Stop motion

Stop motion is used for many animation productions using physical objects rather than images of people, as with traditional animation. An object will be photographed, moved slightly, and then photographed again. When the pictures are played back in normal speed the object will appear to move by itself. This process is used for many productions, for example, clay animations such as Chicken Run and Wallace and Gromit, as well as animated movies which use poseable figures, such as The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach. Sometimes even objects are used, such as with the films of Jan Švankmajer.

Stop motion animation was also commonly used for special effects work in many live-action films, such as the 1933 version of King Kong and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.

CGI animation

Computer-generated imagery (CGI) changed animated films forever. The first film done completely in CGI was Toy Story, produced by Pixar. The process of CGI animation is still very tedious and similar in that sense to traditional animation, and it still adheres to many of the same principles.

A principal difference of CGI Animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modeling, almost like virtual version of stop-motion, though a form of animation that combines the two worlds can be considered to be computer aided animation but on 2D computer drawing (which can be considered close to traditional drawing and sometimes based on it).

Animated humans

Most CGI created films are based on animal characters, monsters, machines or cartoon-like humans. Animation studios are now trying to develop ways of creating realistic-looking humans. Films that have attempted this include Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within in 2001, Final Fantasy: Advent Children in 2005, The Polar Express in 2004, and Beowulf in 2007. However, due to the complexity of human body functions, emotions and interactions, this method of animation is rarely used. The more realistic a CG character becomes, the more difficult it is to create the nuances and details of a living person. The creation of hair and clothing that move convincingly with the animated human character is another area of difficulty.

Cel-shaded animation

Main article: Cel-shaded animation
A type of non-photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. Cel-shading is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. It is a somewhat recent addition to computer graphics, most commonly turning up in console video games. Though the end result of cel-shading has a very simplistic feel like that of hand-drawn animation, the process is complex. The name comes from the clear sheets of acetate, called cels, that are painted on for use in traditional 2D animation. It may be considered a "2.5D" form of animation. True real-time cel-shading was first introduced in 2000 by Sega's Jet Set Radio for their Dreamcast console. Besides video games, a number of anime have also used this style of animation, such as Freedom Project in 2006.

Film animation

The history of film animation began in the 1890s with the earliest days of silent films and continues through the present day. The first animated film was created by Charles-Émile Reynaud, inventor of the praxinoscope, an animation system using loops of 12 pictures. On October 28, 1892 at Musée Grévin in Paris, France he exhibited animations consisting of loops of about 500 frames, using his Théâtre Optique system - similar in principle to a modern film projector.

The first animated work on standard picture film was Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) by J. Stuart Blackton. It features a cartoonist drawing faces on a chalkboard, and the faces apparently coming to life.

Fantasmagorie, by the French director Émile Cohl (also called Émile Courtet), is also noteworthy. It was screened for the first time on August 17, 1908 at Théâtre du Gymnase in Paris. Émile Courtet later went to Fort Lee, New Jersey near New York City in 1912, where he worked for French studio Éclair and spread its technique in the US.

The first puppet-animated film was The Beautiful Lukanida (1912) by the Russian-born (ethnically Polish) director Wladyslaw Starewicz (Ladislas Starevich).

The first animated feature film was El Apóstol, made in 1917 by Quirino Cristiani from Argentina. He also directed two other animated feature films, including 1931's Peludopolis, the first to use synchronized sound. None of these, however, survive to the present day. The earliest-surviving animated feature, which used colour-tinted scenes, is the silhouette-animated Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) directed by German Lotte Reiniger and French/Hungarian Berthold Bartosch. Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), often considered to be the first animated feature when in fact at least eight were previously released. However, Snow White was the first to become successful and well-known within the English-speaking world.

The first animation to use the full, three-color Technicolor method was Flowers and Trees (1932) made by Disney Studios which won an academy award for this work.

The first Japanese-made anime film was the propaganda film Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (桃太郎 海の神兵) by the Japanese director Mitsuyo Seo. The film, shown in 1945, was ordered to be made to support the war by the Japanese Naval Ministry. The film's song AIEUO no Uta (アイウエオの歌) was later used in Osamu Tezuka's anime series Kimba the White Lion. Originally thought to have been destroyed during the American occupation, a negative copy survived and the film is now available in Japan on VHS.

The real deal in animation is entertainment. For years a lot of people in this field have dedicated their time and effort to develop this industry and as long as people continue to seek fun and happiness this business will eventually grow.

Base on my current learning and experiences I won’t be able to fit in to any job specification that any position in this business will require, but sooner or later if I will focus my attention in this craft I would be fitted to be a cinematic director/editor. I have a little talent in drawing but as an IT practitioner I would prefer to be in the editing department in the company. It would be very interesting to make astonishing effects that would add more life in the animation, to be the one to arrange the drawings and the scenes using an animation tool to make it more understandable and concise, to fill the drawings with colors and lighting effects that would definitely give it a boost in terms of attraction and fun for the viewers and most important of above all is to be the one to integrate the drawings with the sound effects and music. I came up to the idea that the latter is the most important one because music and audio is the soul of the animation. It gives the animation a great sense of reality and it makes it a lot more fun. The audio will also play a very important role for the animation to have a story. It will give the animation the spirit, the impact, and the ability to attract more viewers and patrons through funny and interesting dialogues
I have browsed the internet regarding the job description of this job and the qualifications that it requires. These are the results and the links to where I found these facts.

JOB DESCRIPTION: CINEMATIC DIRECTOR (38 STUDIOS)

Would you like to become part of the team that includes the creative visionaries behind Drizzt Do’Urden and Spawn? 38 Studios is currently seeking an experienced Cinematics Director to join our art department. This is a full-time time position with competitive salary, full benefits and 401k, and the chance to be part of online gaming history!

Position Responsibilities

• Creation of cinematic sequences to the highest quality standards for interactive gaming; this includes both story driven cinematics and elements of game play that require cinematic presentation.
• Overseeing all creative aspects of cinematic production, including the direction of the storyboarding process, workload estimates, blocking direction, and final cinematic presentation.
• Produce art that adheres to a unified studio art vision.
• Collaborate closely with Art Director, Animation Lead, Character Lead, Environment Lead, Design Department and Marketing Department to achieve the best possible fusion of storytelling and aesthetics.
• Establish cinematic production pipeline, protocols, and tools.
• Develop Cinematic Department staff, set and maintain schedules.
• Identify and address risks in the production pipeline.
• Work in conjunction with established pipelines and procedures for game art production, and help to identify additional processes and art tools necessary to do so efficiently.
• Promote a productive and energetic culture within the team and studio.

Knowledge, skills & ability requirements

• Knowledge:

Strong understanding of cinematic principles (camera direction, editing, lens, etc.). Knowledge and experience with a variety of 2D and 3D software packages, including expert knowledge of Photoshop, Maya, and Unreal. Skill in 3DStudio Max will be considered. Range of interests in cinematic style from live action to CG to 2D animation, etc. Must be able to demonstrate a strong, hands-on knowledge of art creation tools and production experience.

• Competencies:

Exceptional artistic abilities, ideally across a variety of media, both traditional and electronic. Animation and storyboarding skills a plus. Strong time management and organization skills with a proven ability to prioritize, solve problems, and meet deadlines. Able to collaborate with other game team leads in a deadline-driven environment. Effective self-tasker. Firm understanding of art production pipelines, ideally within a game development environment. Excellent oral and written communication skills.

• Experience:

Expected minimum 4 to 6 years of applicable industry experience with at least two completed products as an Artist and one completed product as a Lead.

LINK: http://jobs.gamasutra.com/jobseekerx/viewjobrss.asp?cjid=18621&accountno=210

Job Title : Cinematic Designer

Job Category Artists Location Dallas, Texas, Texas, United States, North America Job Description This Dallas based independent development studio has made a name for itself creating award winning, blockbuster interactive entertainment for all major platforms. By employing the industry's most talented people and using proven production methods they consistently create games that are technologically advanced, creative, and above all, fun to play. They offer excellent benefits, generous profit sharing, and the opportunity to settle in a fun, affordable city.

They are currently seeking a cinematic designer and/or director to work on an upcoming high-profile sci-fi action title currently in development.

Required Skills:

- Understanding of cinematic principles and techniques for visual storytelling
- Be passionate about games and digital media
- Be able to follow direction and work well with a team

Desired Skills:

- Film school or amateur/professional film experience
- Familiarity with cinematic cut-scene setups and animation
- Familiarity with UnrealEd, Hammer/Worldcraft, and/or Q3Radiant
- Ability to design and/or draw rough storyboards
- Professional or published work is a plus Salary $HIGH Date posted 14/09/2007 Recruiter This job is advertised on behalf of Datascope USA using their internal reference DS12119.
LINK: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/jobs/datascope-usa/texas/united-states/north-america/cinematic-designer-id13856
JOB PROFILE: CINEMATIC ARTIST
Job Category Artists
Skills Required 3D modeller, Animator, Character Artist
Location Alberta, Canada, North America
Job Description Cinematic Animators
Our Client has created some of the world's best-selling and award-winning title. They are hard at work on many projects including an epic fantasy RPG and unannounced projects including a highly anticipated massively multiplayer online game.

Their games have continually achieved critical and commercial success. All of their published titles are in the top 5% highest rated games. Today our client has more than 400 staff at its two locations and continues to grow. They have sold over 20 million games (including engine licenses) in the past ten years!

Our client is in search of Cinematic/Character Animators to enhance their animation team. Successful candidates must have at least 3 years experience in character animation for games, and a strong understanding of the fundamentals of traditional animation. Candidates must also have experience with game cinematics; creating storyboards, recording mo-cap, and putting final polish into a cinematic.

Education and Experience


- Post secondary program in computer generated animation is preferred.

- At least 3 years of experience in computer generated animation.

- 3+ years of game development experience would be an asset.

- In-depth technical knowledge of 3D Studio Max would be an asset.

- Experience with mo-cap would be an asset.


Skills / Abilities / Knowledge / Personal Suitability


- An understanding of character creation (model, texture, rig) is preferred.

- Complete knowledge of 3DSMAX's animation tools is required.

- Knowledge of Motion Builder and Motion Capture animation an asset.

- Must be able to work in team environments, and be able to share knowledge.

- Insight into animation pipeline is an asset.

- An understanding of human and animal anatomy is an asset.

- Leadership skills are an asset.

- Passion for animation and gaming is required.

- The ability to take initiative is required.


Duties


- Animate dynamic, believable and appealing characters for both in-game and cut scene environments.

- Be able to take responsibility for an animation or cinematic, seeing it through to completion, in a timely manner, to the highest quality possible.

- As a team player, you must be able to take direction, and both give and receive critiques on animation.

- Clearly communicate your progress to your supervisor, and work with that individual to achieve dynamic, believable, and appealing animation.


Portfolio Requirements


3D portfolio

- Examples of various animations applied to humanoid figures and animal figures

- Examples of cinematic work

- Character rigging examples


2D portfolio (no originals please)

- Storyboarding skills

- Figure drawing

- Color work

This industry has gone far, from the early days of black and white 2d animations to the present digital 3d high definition animations. With regards to what I can help in the development of this industry I would definitely have some great ideas in the future to further enhance my work. But at present I do not have definite suggestions but I have some ideas here that in some point could give the animation business a boost.

1. Realistic approach

Nowadays, animation with the use of the current graphic technologies that are usable, is going to the forefront of reality. I know that the current animations are almost at the verge of their goal but improvement is still possible. I do not know how to do it at present, but with the different experience and learning that I may encounter in the future maybe I will be able to develop a software that will be able to render realistic colors to the drawings and some image editing software that will fix the lines and curves that the artist may have overlooked. I will also give greater attention in the relationship of my animations scenes to its counterpart reality. With more and more developments in technology, sooner or later the concept of reality will definitely be upon the reach of the animation industry.

2. Unique Transitions

As a cinematic director it will be my job to manage and decide on how the scene transitions will work. Base on the animations that I have seen in the past years, their transitions are getting redundant. A common thing is a transition where it fades to black going to another scene or it lightens up. These transitions have been used for decades and are getting overused. Animation must evolve and must always be trendy. It must always give its viewer a new flavor. It must give them something to be excited for, something to look for, and something to make them interested, make them ask for more.

(aSsign nO.8) outSouRcing oR inSouRcing?

DEFINITION OF TERMS:

OUTSOURCING

FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourcing

Outsourcing is subcontracting a process, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources[citation needed]. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour.Out sourcing in the information technology field has two meanings One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. The latter concept might not include development of new applications.

Outsourcing involves the transfer of the management and/or day-to-day execution of an entire business function to an external service provider. The client organization and the supplier enter into a contractual agreement that defines the transferred services. Under the agreement the supplier acquires the means of production in the form of a transfer of people, assets and other resources from the client. The client agrees to procure the services from the supplier for the term of the contract. Business segments typically outsourced include information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting. Many companies also outsource customer support and call center functions like telemarketing, CAD drafting, customer service, market research, manufacturing, designing, web development, print-to-mail, content writing, ghostwriting and engineering. Offshoring is the type of outsourcing in which the buyer organization belongs to another country.

Outsourcing and offshoring are used interchangeably in public discourse despite important technical differences. Outsourcing involves contracting with a supplier, which may or may not involve some degree of offshoring. Offshoring is the transfer of an organizational function to another country, regardless of whether the work is outsourced or stays within the same corporation/company.

With increasing globalization of outsourcing companies, the distinction between outsourcing and offshoring will become less clear over time. This is evident in the increasing presence of Indian outsourcing companies in the United States and United Kingdom. The globalization of outsourcing operating models has resulted in new terms such as nearshoring, noshoring, and rightshoring that reflect the changing mix of locations. This is seen in the opening of offices and operations centers by Indian companies in the U.S. and UK. A major job that is being outsourced is accounting. They are able to complete tax returns across seas for people in America.

Multisourcing refers to large outsourcing agreements (predominantly IT). Multisourcing is a framework to enable different parts of the client business to be sourced from different suppliers. This requires a governance model that communicates strategy, clearly defines responsibility and has end-to-end integration.

Strategic outsourcing is the organizing arrangement that emerges when firms rely on intermediate markets to provide specialized capabilities that supplement existing capabilities deployed along a firm’s value chain (see Holcomb & Hitt, 2007). Such an arrangement produces value within firms’ supply chains beyond those benefits achieved through cost economies. Intermediate markets that provide specialized capabilities emerge as different industry conditions intensify the partitioning of production. As a result of greater information standardization and simplified coordination, clear administrative demarcations emerge along a value chain. Partitioning of intermediate markets occurs as the coordination of production across a value chain is simplified and as information becomes standardized, making it easier to transfer activities across boundaries.

Due to the complexity of work definition, codifying requirements, pricing, and legal terms and conditions, clients often utilize the advisory services of outsourcing consultants (see sourcing advisory) or outsourcing intermediaries to assist in scoping, decision making, and vendor evaluation.


ACTIVITIES FOR OUTSOURCING

Research & Development

The competitive pressures on firms to bring out new products at an ever rapid pace to meet market needs are increasing. As such, the pressures on the R&D department are increasing. In order to alleviate the pressure, firms have to either increase R&D budgets or find ways to utilize the resources in a more productive way. There are situations when a firm may consider outsourcing some of its R&D work to a contract research organizations or universities. Reasons why a firm could consider outsourcing are:


* new product design does not work
* project time and cost overruns
* loss of key staff
* competitive response
* problems of quality/yield.

The key drivers for R&D outsourcing are emerging mass markets and availability of expertise in the field. In this context, the two most populous countries in the world, China and India, provide huge pools from which to find talent. Both countries produce over 200,000 engineers and science graduates each year. Moreover both countries are low cost sourcing countries. Other strategic drivers for outsourcing R&D are access to expertise and intellectual property, filling gaps in the capabilities of the R&D function, managing risk better, reducing the time to market, and focusing on the core competence or activities of the firm.


CRITICISMS OF OUTSOURCING

Quality Risks

Quality Risk is the propensity for a product or service to be defective, due to operations-related issues. Quality risk in outsourcing is driven by a list of factors. One such factor is opportunism by suppliers due to misaligned incentives between buyer and supplier, information asymmetry, high asset specificity, or high supplier switching costs. Other factors contributing to quality risk in outsourcing are poor buyer-supplier communication, lack of supplier capabilities/resources/capacity, or buyer-supplier contract enforceability. Two main concepts must be considered when considering observability as it related to quality risks in outsourcing: the concepts of testability and criticality.
Quality fade is the deliberate and secretive reduction in the quality of labor in order to widen profit margins. The downward changes in human capital are subtle but progressive, and usually unnoticeable by the out sourcer/customer. The initial interview meets requirements, however, with subsequent support, more and more of the support team are replaced with novice or less experienced workers. India IT shops will continue to reduce the quality of human capital[citation needed], under the pressure of drying up labor supply and upward trend of salary, pushing the quality limits. Such practices are hard to detect, as customers may just simply give up seeking help from the help desk. However, the overall customer satisfaction will be reduced greatly over time[citation needed]. Unless the company constantly conducts customer satisfaction surveys, they may eventually be caught in a surprise of customer churn, and when they find out the root cause, it could be too late. In such cases, it can be hard to dispute the legal contract with the India outsourcing company, as their staff are now trained in the process and the original staff made redundant. In the end, the company that outsources is worse off than before it outsourced its workforce to India.


Public opinion

There is a strong public opinion regarding outsourcing (especially when combined with offshoring) that outsourcing damages a local labor market. Outsourcing is the transfer of the delivery of services which affects both jobs and individuals. It is difficult to dispute that outsourcing has a detrimental effect on individuals who face job disruption and employment insecurity; however, its supporters believe that outsourcing should bring down prices, providing greater economic benefit to all. There are legal protections in the European Union regulations called the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment). Labor laws in the United States are not as protective as those in the European Union. [21] On June 26 2009, Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, called for the United States to increase its manufacturing base employment to 20% of the workforce commenting that the U.S. has outsourced too much and can no longer rely on consumer spending to drive demand.


Language skills

In the area of call centers end-user-experience is deemed to be of lower quality when a service is outsourced[citation needed]. This is exacerbated when outsourcing is combined with off-shoring to regions where the first language and culture are different. The questionable quality is particularly evident when call centers that service the public are outsourced and offshored.
The public generally find linguistic features such as accents, word use and phraseology different which may make call center agents difficult to understand. The visual clues that are present in face-to-face encounters are missing from the call center interactions and this also may lead to misunderstandings and difficulties.
In addition to language and accent differences, a lack of local social and geographic knowledge is often present, leading to misunderstandings or mis-communications.

Social responsibility

Outsourcing sends jobs to the lower-income areas where work is being outsourced to, which provides jobs in these areas and has a net equalizing effect on the overall distribution of wealth. Some argue that the outsourcing of jobs (particularly off-shore) exploits the lower paid workers. A contrary view is that more people are employed and benefit from paid work. Despite this argument, domestic workers displaced by such equalization are proportionately unable to outsource their own costs of housing, food and transportation.
On the issue of high-skilled labor, such as computer programming, some argue that it is unfair to both the local and off-shore programmers to outsource the work simply because the foreign pay rate is lower. On the other hand, one can argue that paying the higher-rate for local programmers is wasteful, or charity, or simply overpayment. If the end goal of buyers is to pay less for what they buy, and for sellers it is to get a higher price for what they sell, there is nothing automatically unethical about choosing the cheaper of two products, services, or employees.
Social responsibility is also reflected in the costs of benefits provided to workers. Companies outsourcing jobs effectively transfer the cost of retirement and medical benefits to the countries where the services are outsourced. This represents a significant reduction in total cost of labor for the outsourcing company. A side effect of this trend is the reduction in salaries and benefits at home in the occupations most directly impacted by outsourcing.


Quality of service

Quality of service is measured through a service level agreement (SLA) in the outsourcing contract. In poorly defined contracts there is no measure of quality or SLA defined. Even when an SLA exists it may not be to the same level as previously enjoyed. This may be due to the process of implementing proper objective measurement and reporting which is being done for the first time. It may also be lower quality through design to match the lower price.
There are a number of stakeholders who are affected and there is no single view of quality. The CEO may view the lower quality acceptable to meet the business needs at the right price. The retained management team may view quality as slipping compared to what they previously achieved. The end consumer of the service may also receive a change in service that is within agreed SLAs but is still perceived as inadequate. The supplier may view quality in purely meeting the defined SLAs regardless of perception or ability to do better.
Quality in terms of end-user-experience is best measured through customer satisfaction questionnaires which are professionally designed to capture an unbiased view of quality. Surveys can be one of research. This allows quality to be tracked over time and also for corrective action to be identified and taken.


Staff turnover

The staff turnover of employee who originally transferred to the outsourcer is a concern for many companies. Turnover is higher under an outsourcer and key company skills may be lost with retention outside of the control of the company. In outsourcing offshore there is an issue of staff turnover in the outsourcer companies call centers. It is quite normal for such companies to replace its entire workforce each year in a call center. This inhibits the build-up of employee knowledge and keeps quality at a low level.


Company knowledge

Outsourcing could lead to communication problems with transferred employees. For example, before transfer staff have access to broadcast company e-mail informing them of new products, procedures etc. Once in the outsourcing organization the same access may not be available. Also to reduce costs, some outsource employees may not have access to e-mail, but any information which is new is delivered in team meetings.


Qualifications of outsourcers

The outsourcer may replace staff with less qualified people or with people with different non-equivalent qualifications. In the engineering discipline there has been a debate about the number of engineers being produced by the major economies of the United States, India and China. The argument centers around the definition of an engineering graduate and also disputed numbers. The closest comparable numbers of annual graduates of four-year degrees are United States (137,437) India (112,000) and China (351,537).


Failure to deliver business transformation

Business transformation has traditionally been promised by outsourcing suppliers, but they have usually failed to deliver. In a commoditised market where any half-decent service provider can do things cheaper and faster, smart vendors have promised a second wave of benefits that will improve the client’s business outcomes. According to Vinay Couto of Booz & Company “Clients always use the service provider’s ability to achieve transformation as a key selection criterion. It’s always in the top three and sometimes number one.” Often vendors have promised transformation on the basis of wider domain expertise that they didn’t really have, though Couto also says that this is often down to client’s unwillingness to invest in transformation once an outsourcing contract is in place.


INSOURCING

Insourcing is the opposite of outsourcing; that is insourcing (or contracting in) is often defined as the delegation of operations or jobs from production within a business to an internal (but 'stand-alone') entity that specializes in that operation. Insourcing is a business decision that is often made to maintain control of critical production or competencies. An alternate use of the term implies transferring jobs to within the country where the term is used, either by hiring local subcontractors or building a facility.


Insourcing is widely used in an area such as production to reduce costs of taxes, labor (e.g., American labor is often cheaper than European labor), transportation, etc.


Insourcing at United Parcel Service (UPS) was described in the bestselling book The World Is Flat, by Thomas Friedman.


According to PR Web, insourcing was becoming more common by 2006 as businesses had less than satisfactory experiences with outsourcing (including customer support). Many outsourcing proponents responded to a negative consumer opinion backlash resulting from outsourcing their communications management to vendors who rely on overseas operations.


To those who are concerned that nations may be losing a net amount of jobs due to outsourcing, some point out that insourcing also occurs. According to a study by Mary Amiti and Shang-Jin Wei, in the United States, the United Kingdom, and many other industrialized countries more jobs are insourced than outsourced. They found that out of all the countries in the world they studied, the U.S. and the U.K. actually have the largest net trade surpluses in business services. Countries with a net deficit in business services include Indonesia, Germany and Ireland.


Insourcing is loosely referred in call centers who are doing the work of the outsourcing companies. Companies that outsource include Dell, Hewlett Packard, Symantec, and Linksys. The callcenters and technicians that are contracted to handle the outsourced work are usually over-seas. Customers may refer to these countries as "India" technical support if they are hard to understand over telecommunications. These insourcing companies were a great way to save money for the outsourcing of work, but quality varies, and poor performance has sometimes harmed the reputations of companies who provide 24/7 customer/technical support.


The Organization for International Investment, a Washington D.C. trade association, uses the term to describe the creation of jobs through foreign direct investment within the United States.



To further have an idea about their difference and on what factors that we must consider to decide whether what to choose from either outsourcing or insourcing, I read these articles and found it full of important points.


FROM: http://www.outsource2india.com/why_india/articles/outsourcing-versus-insourcing.asp

What is best for your organization?

If your organization has a number of non-core processes which are taking plenty of time, effort and resources to perform in-house, it would be wise to outsource these non-core functions. Outsourcing in this case, would help you save on time, effort, manpower and would also aid you in making quicker deliveries to your customers.

If you require expertise services in areas which do not fall under your core competency, then outsourcing will be a good option as you can get access to expertise services. For reducing costs and making faster deliverables, outsourcing is again a good option.

If your work involves production, then it would be more ideal for your organization to opt for insourcing, as you can save on transportation costs and exercise a better control over your project.

It is not necessary to choose outsourcing over insourcing or vice versa. Your organization can outsource and insource at the same time. By outsourcing and insourcing simultaneously, you can have the best of what both offers and your business can get a competitive advantage!


FROM:http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Outsourcing-Instead-of-Insourcing?&id=2622522

Why Outsourcing Instead of Insourcing?
By Mary Thomas Platinum Quality Author

There is a big debate going on at the moment and people are constantly arguing whether or not it is better to outsource or to insource. We can mention a lot of good reasons and bad reasons for both but at the end of the day what is important stand in your own personal needs.

The biggest benefit that insourcing has stands in the fact that you get a very close contact with the person you are hiring. This can create a very good working environment but at the same time it does bring in some negative aspects that we have to think about. Unfortunately sometimes we can not find what we are looking for through insourcing. This basically means that what we want done can not be found locally. Such a fact shows us the biggest advantage why outsourcing is preferred in a comparison with insourcing: a wider set of choices. The truth is that when outsourcing we are faced with more people or companies to consider hiring. We are basically moving everything towards a much larger scale. Why outsourcing towards a single area or even country when we can think at a global scale.

If you talk to most Internet Marketers about outsourcing they will tell you that it is a must have. Most of them don't even think about insourcing when we have the possibility of outsourcing. The Internet has made it possible for a lot of people to meet. We now have a chance we never did in the past. In the past we had to invest into newspaper ads and similar actions in order to get in contact with professionals we needed. This does bring everything down in terms of time and possible success. When thinking about why outsourcing is better than insourcing we should always think about numbers. For instance, there is a huge chance that we can spare money by hiring someone from abroad that will do everything cheaper than on a local scale search. Also, the number of potential people worth hiring is much bigger. We can thus make sure at all times that we hire the best professionals we can afford.

There shouldn't be any doubt in anyone's mind that outsourcing is a lot better than insourcing. The reasons mentioned above are just the most obvious but the list can go on. In short, the most important facts we need to consider when thinking whether or not outsourcing is better than insourcing can be written with ease.


Why Outsourcing?

- It is Cheaper
- It is Better
- You can Work with More Competent People
- You can make sure you get what you are looking for
- The Quality is Better in Most Cases
- Marketing time needed to look for people is drastically reduced
- Less Risks


Based on these facts about outsourcing and insourcing, both have their own advantage and disadvantages. The thing that we must focus our attention is on what procedure will the university be well fitted to. And in my opinion, outsourcing is a bad choice for the university and I have 3 reasons that made me come up to this decision.

1. FUNDS

[justify]The university operates using government funds thus it is more likely to be unpredictable and insufficient to meet the university's demands in almost all occasions. Outsourcing will definitely meanburning funds for finding contractors and employing the outsource-rs. This could also mean that the university maybe spending double in theor employee's salary because of hiring another employee with the same capabilities as the employees that the university already have.



2. LACK OF POSSIBLE QUALIFIED OUTSOURCED EMPLOYEES

It is very evident nowadays that the quality of education in the Philippines is depreciating and it may be sad to say but fresh graduates in our field may not be competent enough to meet the demands of the university. The university may look to the veterans but it is most likely for them to seek for greater wages or you may not find a lot of experienced IT persons nowadays because most of them already ventured outside the country.


3. LACK OF BACKGROUND ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY

The system that will be developed by the outsourced persons will definitely something concerning the operations involved in the school. And provided the fact that they are outsiders, it is most likely that they will be unfamiliar with these processes and could be the cause of delay or even failure of the project.

baRriErs in tHeiR IS/IT iMpLemeNtaTioN

Based on our interview and our personal observations in ouyr adopted compnay (PPA Philippine Port Authority) these are the barriers in the implementation of their system.

* Lack of personnel

*Lack or limited funds

*Outsourced system

*Lack of facilities

*Human resistance

*Gradual changes in system demands


I will explain each of them in the following paragraphs.

*Lack of personnel

In order to implement a system, a qualified owrkforce is a requirement. Especially in the hardware part of the system. In implementing it, numerous computer sets will be deployed and configured, a lot of networks will be established and the cables and wires must will be firmly and correctly be connected to their right positions. These steps will consume not only days but even months to ensure that the hardware part of the system is properly functioning. With regards to our adopted company, they extremely lack qualified personnels for this agenda. They only have 3 personnels that could handle advance IT related jobs. This is the reason why their system is not totally self operational. The system still requires them to be on guard on the possible errors and bugs. It took them a couple of months to establish the networks and other hardware requirements and it also took them more months to configure and debug their open source system for the software to adopt to the processes that their office have.

*Lack / limited funds

Their office is run by government funds. This is the sole reason why their funds are very hard to access. A personnel shared during our interview that in order to request even just a new keyboard it will take about a month of waiting. This is because the request will ne passed to numerous hands. First, in the head of their department, second, to the head of their office and third to the main office in Manila were a lot of personalities will eventually need to sign up or approve that request. This problem will eventually slow down the reaction of the system in terms of coorecting necessary bugs and errors. For example, if the system shuts down because of a hardware failure. And if the request for a new hardware will consume a lot of time, the backfire of the system being unoperational for the period of time for waiting for the new hardware will give their office a lot of problems.

*Outsourced System

What do I mean in an outsourced system?

Outsourcing is subcontracting a service such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision to outsource is often made in the interest of lowering cost or making better use of time and energy costs, redirecting or conserving energy directed at the competencies of a particular business, or to make more efficient use of land, labor, capital, (information) technology and resources[citation needed]. Outsourcing became part of the business lexicon during the 1980s. It is essentially a division of labour. Outsourcing in the information technology field has two meanings. One is to commission the development of an application to another organization, usually a company that specializes in the development of this type of application. The other is to hire the services of another company to manage all or parts of the services that otherwise would be rendered by an IT unit of the organization. The latter concept might not include development of new applications.

Why did the company outsourced?

• Cost savings. The lowering of the overall cost of the service to the business. This will involve reducing the scope, defining quality levels, re-pricing, re-negotiation, cost re-structuring. Access to lower cost economies through offshoring called "labor arbitrage" generated by the wage gap between industrialized and developing nations.
• Focus on Core Business. Resources (for example investment, people, infrastructure) are focused on developing the core business. For example often organizations outsource their IT support to specilaised IT services companies.
• Cost restructuring. Operating leverage is a measure that compares fixed costs to variable costs. Outsourcing changes the balance of this ratio by offering a move from fixed to variable cost and also by making variable costs more predictable.
• Improve quality. Achieve a step change in quality through contracting out the service with a new service level agreement.
• Knowledge. Access to intellectual property and wider experience and knowledge.
• Contract. Services will be provided to a legally binding contract with financial penalties and legal redress. This is not the case with internal services.
• Operational expertise. Access to operational best practice that would be too difficult or time consuming to develop in-house.
• Access to talent. Access to a larger talent pool and a sustainable source of skills, in particular in science and engineering.
• Capacity management. An improved method of capacity management of services and technology where the risk in providing the excess capacity is borne by the supplier.
• Catalyst for change. An organization can use an outsourcing agreement as a catalyst for major step change that can not be achieved alone. The outsourcer becomes a Change agent in the process.
• Enhance capacity for innovation. Companies increasingly use external knowledge service providers to supplement limited in-house capacity for product innovation.
• Reduce time to market. The acceleration of the development or production of a product through the additional capability brought by the supplier.
• Commodification. The trend of standardizing business processes, IT Services and application services enabling businesses to intelligently buy at the right price. Allows a wide range of businesses access to services previously only available to large corporations.
• Risk management. An approach to risk management for some types of risks is to partner with an outsourcer who is better able to provide the mitigation.
• Venture Capital. Some countries match government funds venture capital with private venture capital for startups that start businesses in their country.
• Tax Benefit. Countries offer tax incentives to move manufacturing operations to counter high corporate taxes within another country.

Why outsourcing became a problem?

The mere fact that the office lacks in personnel to tend to the different problems that the system may bump into, the system is also an outsourced one making it hard for the personnel to be familiar about the flow of the system in a short span of time. The developers of the system spent time to send an on-call representative to tend to the problem if the system especially on the early days of the implementation but this cannot go on forever. The personnel in-charge in the MIS department must be able to handle the problems because it is their job to do so. And it became a barrier in the implementation because currently the personnel are still studying the flow of the system and are not yet very confident in debugging it.

*Human Resistance

What are the possible reasons of resistance?

Most people don't like change because they don't like being changed. When change comes into view, fear and resistance to change follow – often despite its obvious benefits. People fight against change because they:

• fear to lose something they value, or
• don't understand the change and its implications, or
• don't think that the change makes sense, or
• find it difficult to cope with either the level or pace of the change.

Resistance emerges when there’s a threat to something the individual values. The threat may be real or it may be just a perception. It may arise from a genuine understanding of the change or from misunderstanding, or even almost total ignorance about it.

Why this concept did became a problem in system implementation?

Upon the order of their heads to convert their manual system into an automated one, even the IT personnel in their office have some doubts and resistance. They do not want the new system because they are confident with the old system. They resist the change because they do not want to be ignorant of something. They have some doubts whether the new system could benefit them more or just burden them by trying to learn something that is out of their skills. But they are slowly adopting the system. They are beginning to realize the importance of the system because of the good things that it is slowly becoming visible because of its implementation.

*Lack of Facilities

Like all other offices that are run by the government, their office facilities are very limited. They shared to us that the personnel are the ones coping due to this lack in facilities. They tend to use softwares that require lesser computer specifications. This is because they do not have the option to request for new equipments because they know that it will take a large amount of time to wait for their request to be granted.

*Lack of Trainings

Why training is important?

Having a formal IT training plan in place can be beneficial to the organization and offer benefits to employees that competitors may not offer. Although companies may risk losing employees that have just been trained, the benefit of training these employees far outweighs this risk. When IT staff is involved in a formal training plan, individual’s skill sets improve and they can contribute more to the organization.

Employees that feel that their company is investing in them may feel more job satisfaction and increased loyalty to their organization. The benefit of training employees is mutual and can be realized for quite some time. Organizations can also offer lesser skilled workers formal training in order to benefit from their new skills. This will also allow companies to save money on salaries for higher skilled workers.

Employee Training Programs Have Some Risks

Companies often have trouble finding skilled and trained technology staff and an even harder time retaining those employees. However, while this is an opportunity for most employees, it also presents a risk when so many organizations are competing for skilled workers. These newly trained workers can easily be lured away by other organizations offering more money, benefits, flexibility or just a new work environment.
Another risk to note in providing formal IT training is in making sure organizations get a return on investment for technology expenditures. If a company invests time and money in new technology, that company would certainly need employees with the right skill set to operate the new technology. If technology systems are underutilized because of improper training, the return on investment becomes minimal. Companies not investing in this type of training will not realize that return on investment.

The Importance of IT Training Programs

Formal IT training programs cannot be ignored because the benefits outweigh the risks. Most employees do want to enhance their skills. If companies offer training, employees may view this as an added benefit from their employer. Organizations that offer formalized training and keep employees’ salaries competitive mitigate the risk of losing employees to other organizations.

LINK: http://job-satisfaction.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_benefits_of_formal_it_training

Why lack of trainings became a barrier?

The old system that our adopted company used is a manual type of system. It does not require the end users to be knowledgeable in using a computer. Upon the implementation of the system, the end-users need to be trained in using the system in a computer. The problem arise because it will definitely take time for the first-timers to learn the basics f computing and to be able to master the basic computing functions will take even more. The longer it the time it takes for the employees to be oriented with basic computer knowledge, the longer it takes for the office to have the optimal performance of the system.

*Gradual change in system demand

As the system is implemented, the change in the demand of the system is still ongoing. This became a barrier because as the demand changes the system must respond to it and if the change in demand is gradual, there will come a point where the system will not be implemented perfectly because it will tend to change over and over depending on the change in demand. That is why it is a good idea to develop a system that is capable to cope on a case to case basis in terms of the situations that may occur in the work area.