In his seminal book The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman states, "Y2K became a huge flattener because it demonstrated to so many different businesses that the combination of the PC, the Internet, and fiber-optic cable had created the possibility of a whole new form of collaboration and horizontal value creation: outsourcing. Any service, call center, business support operation or knowledge work that could be digitized could be sourced globally to the cheapest, smartest, or most efficient provider."

在他经典的著作《世界是平的》里，Thomas Friedman指出，“2000年成为了一个巨大的碾平机，因为它向如此众多的业务展示了PC、因特网和光纤已经创造了一种全新的协作和水平价值创造模式：外包。任何服务，呼叫中心，技术支持操作或能够数字化的知识工作，都可以在全球范围内外包，寻找最廉价、最聪明、最有效率的提供者”