Giant Sucking Sound: Perot Systems Outsources to Mexico

Perot Systems is opening a center in Guadalajara to provide outsourced tech services like desktop support, infrastructure management, and engineering services to companies in the U.S.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek

Nov 10, 2006 02:00 PM

When billionaire H. Ross Perot ran for president in 1992, he warned that the torrent of American jobs headed south of the border as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement would create "a giant sucking sound." On Friday, the outsourcing company founded by Perot, where he serves as chairman emeritus, disclosed that it's opening a new service center in Mexico.

Perot Systems said the center will be based in Guadalajara, and will provide a range of outsourced tech services to companies in the U.S., including desktop support, infrastructure management, and engineering services. The facility will take up several floors of the Guadalajara World Trade Business Center and contain about 270 desks from which Mexican workers will provide computer support to American businesses. Perot says it's already begun recruiting workers for the center. "We are reaching out to the best infrastructure services professionals in Mexico," the company said in a statement.

Outsourcing critics will be quick to point out the irony in Perot outsourcing jobs to Mexico, while advocates of so-called global sourcing would surely argue that U.S. business investment in Mexico will help to relieve the strain of illegal cross-border immigration as more Mexicans are able to find work at home...

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