How management hides outsourcing plans
By Pulkit Sharma

Last year, business and personal software company, Intuit, was named by Fortune magazine as USA’s most admired software company for the fourth consecutive year.  Its products - QuickBooks, Quicken and TurboTax software brought in revenue of $3.1 billion in 2008. While claiming its India centre was for the Indian market, Intuit was preparing it as an outsourcing hub.

In March, 2009, Intuit announced that it would start a Global Business Division in India. During the press conference, Intuit President and CEO, Brad Smith, said the Indian centre would develop Indian products for an Indian audience. Brad Smith announced that Umang Bedi was would be the Managing Director of Intuit India.  There was no mention of the Indian centre being used to outsource jobs from USA.  The Global Business Division was presented to the media as ‘a centre to promote products and services to revolutionize millions of lives in India’.
 
In May, 2009, former NASSCOM Chairman and outsourcing specialist, Kiran Karnik, joined the Intuit India Advisory Board.  While welcoming Kiran Karnik to the team, Intuit India MD Umang Bedi stuck to the India centre for Indian market theme: "We are honored to have such elite dignitaries to guide our endeavors. Their expertise and experience will help us delve into the psyche of the Indian consumers and small businesses. They will play an important role in helping us develop and deliver solutions in India, for India.”

But the Intuit India centre at Bangalore was being prepared to take over some of the jobs of American workers. And that happened day before yesterday.

On June 5, All Things Digital reported:

“
This week proved a lousy one for 300 or so Intuit employees. The tax-preparation software maker on Thursday sacked 4 percent of its work force as part of its ongoing resource management efforts. “We manage our resources on an on-going basis; these changes support our long-term growth strategy,” an Intuit (INTU) spokesperson said in a statement. Said strategy, it should be noted, also includes the $170 million acquisition just two days ago of PayCyle, an online payroll services provider.
“

Intuit is not the first tech company to do this.  Most western companies tell their employees that the India centre is there to support and complement them.  And then before you know it, the jobs have been moved to India.