Eric Miller, former senior VP at Trilliant, has decamped the U.S. He is in search of the ideal spot to set up a software development shop focused on electric power and related clean technology. He thinks he has found it in Argentina.
The problem
Many of us agree with Eric that the shortage of technical talent is the number one gating factor in the build-out of the smart grid. And software development is the hardest of all the nuts to crack. As utilities (and their suppliers) move from simple standalone applications to enterprise-scale apps and analytics, they can never get the software done with the velocity, quality and scalability needed.
Is outsourcing the answer?
Outsourcing to India or Eastern Europe provides one solution – but also brings some problems, Miller claims. The time zone misalignment for one thing. The cultural misalignment for another, especially around things such as agile methodologies and other modern programming techniques.
Miller has set up SCVSoft in Buenos Aries to reinvent outsourcing so it can become a source of competitive advantage. Why Argentina? Thanks to free university educations, Argentina has more engineers than the U.S., Miller asserts. (Not just per capita, but in absolute numbers, he says.) The big boys like IBM, Accenture, and BEA Systems have had development outposts there for some time.
To these inborn advantages, Miller adds the benefits of specialization. His current areas of focus include smart grid networking, data analytics, and energy efficiency for buildings. By building a boutique operation of specialists, he hopes to overcome pitfalls of traditional outsourcing, where you often find anonymous programmers rotating in and out of your projects.
I am surprised. GE Energy figured out there were more engineering and software resources in Michigan than anywhere else and setup a software development center there. They have pulled jobs back from India because of the quality of talent they are able to obtain. Given the high unemployment rate for highly trained and experienced engineers in the Midwest it surprises me that you would leave the country.
Doug Houseman - 10/26/2011 - 07:56
US Smart Grid + Federal Grants = Outsourcing?
I don't think taxpayers are excited about outsourced overseas jobs when there has been so much federal and state investment in Smart Grid.
I'm not buying the talent pool argument either. It points more to federally subsidized projects being artificially structured in a way that US jobs can't be created.
Jeff Nelson - 10/26/2011 - 08:35
I Disagree...
This story has so many incorrect statements it's hard to know where to begin. After they read stories like this, it's no wonder kids in college don't want to go into technology.
1) The term is offshoring - not outsourcing. There's nothing wrong with outsourcing. But it's the passing off the expense of a labor force from a corporation to the US taxpayer that is not only un-American but immoral. That's offshoring.
2) Anyone in software knows it hasn't been *optimized* by shifting development to someone who will do the work for 1/5 the price. It's been Walmartized.
3) Shortage of talent? Have you guys ever heard of Steve Wozniak or Dennis Ritchie? The US is filled with engineers like them, and they can run rings around Indians, Russians and Argentinians. But they can't do it for the peanuts Miller wants to pay.
4) You don't really think there won't be anonymous programmers rotating in and out of projects just because they're in Argentina, do you?
Since taxpayers fund most, if not all, of the Smart Grid projects - keep the work and funding here. Thanks for warning us about SCVSoft.
Jerry Zoellner - 10/26/2011 - 20:32
Rubbish...
At least this statement: "Many of us agree with Eric that the shortage of technical talent is the number one gating factor in the build-out of the smart grid. And software development is the hardest of all the nuts to crack." These are typical statements given by those who aren't tasked to actual implement the system IMO.
Of course there are differences in middleware, sw development paradigms, data representation and communications, OS interfaces, and things of this ilk between today's technology and that of twenty years ago, however to suggest that new technologies are unrelated or have no common background with the latest technology du jour is as the subject states, rubbish. I seldom see any specifics about the "shortage" just that general statement. What specifically are you short of? C? C++? Java? C#? Linux? Win32/64? Ruby? ROR? php? Do you mean people who haven't experience with the Smart Grid? The one that doesn't exist other than as separate implementations of isolated technologies. I do know that motivated technical professionals can pick up most tools and technologies very quickly, and I would venture that also would apply to any technology used to build out the grid.
I work for a multinational and have been directly involved with the training of technical professionals in India, Romania, China, Malaysia, and other many other off-shore development centers of the month, and I'm happy to report that smart people are everywhere including the US. Then again, not so smart people are also everywhere, including the US.
If an entrepreneur wants to move their operations to another location for financial reasons i.e. ROI, then that's their legal right/choice, however please don't hide behind the "shortage" argument as if it's fact.
Thx for the soapbox.
Tom Archambault - 10/29/2011 - 11:59
Smart Grid Staffing
Great, let's mooch off the taxpayers of Argentina who invested in their students so we do not have to so in the US.
Three new demonstration projects caught our attention - a smart grid effort in Albuquerque's business district, a rapid recovery transformer study in Texas and a trial involving low voltage current sensor technologies in the UK. They also got us to thinking: At this stage in the smart grid build out, if you could design a demonstration project, what would it entail? That's our latest Tuesday Topic; click for the details.
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