Irony: Perot outsources to Mexico

InformationWeek reports that Perot Systems, the IT service company created by Ross Perot, is establishing a service facility in Guadalajara, Mexico. We all remember how Ross Perot campaigned for US president in 1992 and 1996 with warnings of a "giant sucking sound" as jobs fled to Mexico as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Perot Systems said the new facility will "provide a range of outsourced tech services to companies in the U.S., including desktop support, infrastructure management, and engineering services."

Outsourcing is a mixed bag of risks and benefits, of course. The "loosely coupled business" that is evolving will rely on SOA, Software as a Service, and e-business technologies and approaches, drawing on a global base of customers, skillsets, and technology resources. And that flows both ways across borders.