Microsoft Might Have To Increase Overseas Development Of Software

Q Does Microsoft plan to do more software development outside the United States, where software expertise may be more cheaply obtained? -Paul Benninghoff, benning@cse.ogi.edu.

A: Microsoft does the great majority of its software development in the United States but that could change in the future. Our motive would not be to save money, however.

We create software for the world and our success depends on drawing on a world of talent. Until now we have achieved this by recruiting software developers from around the world and bringing them to our corporate campus in Redmond, Wash.

As it happens only about 5 percent of our U.S.-based software developers come from outside the United States but it is absolutely critical that we have an environment in which great minds from many countries can work together.

We rely on skilled foreign workers for their math, science and creative abilities as well as their cultural knowledge, which helps when localizing products for world markets.

By having 90 percent of our software developers together in one place, we achieve quick time-to-market and high quality. It costs us $1 billion a year in research and development but it works well.

An immigration bill now before Congress would make it extremely difficult for Microsoft or any other U.S. company to hire skilled foreign workers. It is entirely possible the bill will pass.

If so, the United States seems destined to become the country where skilled foreigners can’t get even short-term work permits, and where companies cannot easily sponsor employees for permanent residence even after proving that no U.S. workers are available to do the job.

These restrictions will really put pressure on us to do a major portion of our software development outside the United States, in a country that welcomes well-qualified workers from abroad. If the U.S. is not going to let talented people in, or let them have their spouses and children come with them, it makes focusing research and development in a single site a lot less attractive.

Questions may be sent to Bill Gates’ by electronic mail. The address is askbill@microsoft.com. Or write to him care of The New York Times Syndication Sales Corp., 122 E. 42nd St., New York, N.Y. 10168. Questions of general interest will be answered in this column; Bill Gates regrets that unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.