Tell Us Your Outsourcing Nightmare
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How do you tell when your outsourcing project is in trouble?
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Outsourcing is seen as an increasing problem and UK firms should not move more jobs abroad, a survey finds.
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What to do when bad news strikes a company you're watching.
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Strong job outlook offset by skills shortage The outlook for jobs in the European technology sector is good but the spectre of outsourcing looms ominously, according to a new report.â¦
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Australia's IT News reports the findings of a recent survey in which more than 20 percent of company execs said they were considering or recommending offshore outsourcing. [Outsourcing Blog]
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If you took your laptop in for repairs to a well-known big-box store only to discover the store's tech contractor had lost the machine, lied to you about it, manufactured fake documentation and finally offered you a "We're sorry" gift card -- you'd be steamed.
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Some U.S. customer support lines outsourced to India experienced a brief failure in service following the deadly Asian tsunami, but economists say U.S. companies won't have to move their call centers. By Elisa Batista.
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In a new wave of global outsourcing, personal chores are moving offshore, and this is leading to some daunting challenges, both economic and cultural.
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The Story: Silicon Valley businesses have long argued that changes in the immigration laws are needed to ensure a continuing supply of highly skilled workers. The current limit of 65,000 under the standard H1-B visas is not enough, they say. (The quota was filled in less than a month in 2007.)[ Slideshow: 2007's top underreported tech stories ]                                                    But that number obscures an important fact: The real total of visas issued to highly skilled workers is closer to 400,000 annually, according to the federal Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS) agency. And that, say some critics, may mean that the law is being abused.There are two reasons the number is so large.First, the H1-B visa cap has a built-in exemption that allows an additional 20,000 workers who have graduated from U.S. universities with an advanced degree (master?s or higher) to enter every year.Second ? and the biggest reason ? is the use of L-1 visas, which are granted to executives and workers with specialized skills employed by multinational companies. Because there is no cap on L-1 visas issued each year, the numbers have soared. In the last three years, an average of 315,000 L-1 visas have been issued each year.Unlike the H-1B visas, the L-1 visas are not intended to be a springboard to possible permanent residency and a coveted green card. In essence, the L-1s are intended to allow multinational companies to rotate staff across national borders, so they can transfer foreign managers and specialists within the company to U.S. offices for a limited period of time.But the vast number of workers admitted with L-1 visas has critics suspecting that companies ? Indian outsourcing firms in particular ?are using them as a back door to bring in lower-paid workers to do jobs that could be performed by Americans, rather than for the intended purposes of staff rotation."It's clear that foreign outsourcing firms are abusing the system, and we can't let that continue," Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) said earlier this year as Congress debated immigration reform. Here?s what upset him: According to immigration records, 14 of 20 companies whose employees were granted the most L-1 visas were offshore outsourcing firms, including Tata Consultancy, Satyam Computer Services, Wipro, and Infosys Technologies.Tata Consultancy obtained 4,887 L-1s in fiscal 2006 ? the most of any company ? and 3,601 in fiscal 2007, second only to Cognizant (4,869), a U.S.-based outsourcer with a major presence in India. "I find it hard to believe that any one company has that many individuals ? legitimately being transferred within a single year," Durbin said in Congress. (Tata declined to comment to InfoWorld, but a spokesman told BusinessWeek, "We're complying with the law and with the regulations. We want to work with Congress to address any issues they may have.")Infosys, Wipro, Satyam, Tata, and Cognizant also appear on the CIS?s top 10 list of companies obtaining H-1B visas for employees in fiscal 2007, along with Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Motorola, and Intel. Those facts further raise critics? suspicions.Bob Meltzer, who heads the VisaNow firm that helps applicants obtain visas, says there?s a growing belief that the L-1s are being abused today, though he can?t tell if that belief is justified. He does note that the L-1s had been abused in the early 1990s in the manner that critics suspect is happening today.The Bottom Line: Immigration is a tough issue. And it?s even tougher when we don?t have all the facts, as is the case on employers? claims of labor shortages requiring more foreign hires and employees? claims of being replaced by foreign workers by companies looking to save a buck. When you?ve figured out the right balance, let the pols know what you think.Complete list of 2007's underreported stories: 1.? Java is becoming the new Cobol 2.? Sun Microsystems is back in the game 3.? Hackers take aim at Mac OS X 4.? There are some threats you can worry less about 5.? Companies may have found a way around H-1B visa limits 6.? Open source?s new commercial strategy 7.? End-to-end Ethernet finally arrives 8.? Blade servers arrive for the masses 9.? BI is dead; long live BI 10. Balance of power shifts to software buyers
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Blog: For too long, technology companies have been living large by making the rest of us pay for their shoddy workmanship. Worst of all, we consumers keep playing along.
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In a new wave of the global outsourcing of services, personal chores are moving offshore, and this is leading to some daunting challenges, both economic and cultural.
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BANGALORE, INDIA -- As hiring picks up in Bangalore, India, the city's software professionals are again acquiring the spoiled-brat image they had in the late 1990s, when the dot-com boom increased staff requirements at Indian outsourcing companies.
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Outsourcing is a word we hear more and more these days, but according to EMC Chairman and CEO Joe Tucci, it&#39;s one that&#39;s used too much.&quot;I think outsourcing is an over-used word. I think what you are going to see more of is companies willing to outsource a business process. So for instance, in EMC we outsource all our payroll but we outsource the entire process, not just the IT process. So I think you are going to see a lot more of that. I think you are not going to see wholesale take everything. I think that market is slowing down,&quot; he said.Tucci was speaking during a news conference on the sidelines of his company&#39;s EMC Forum event.He said outsourcing of specific functions, such as PC backup which EMC offers through its Berkeley Data Systems unit, is where he sees success in outsourcing.&quot;I see business process outsourcing speeding up, I see a slowdown in wholesale &#39;take my whole datacenter, take my applications and you do it for me.&#39; I think that market is not going to be a robust market,&quot; he said.Last week the data-storage company reported a&#160;third quarter net income&#160;of $493 million, up more than $200 million over the same period last year. Revenue jumped to $3.3 billion from $2.8 billion. The company was helped during the quarter by the&#160;sale of a partial stake&#160;in virtualization software maker VMware to Cisco Systems.&#160;EMC acquired VMware&#160;in 2003.Tucci said EMC might look at further acquisitions but is now focused on companies that will help grow its existing businesses.&quot;My philosophy is that I want to stay focused on what I call these eight spheres of technology, so acquisitions that we do would basically make some of these spheres stronger rather than put another sphere on the board,&quot; he said. The eight areas he referred to are: intelligent information management, enterprise content management, virtualization, resource management, storage, availability, security, and archiving.&quot;That being said, eventually we will add a new sphere but that&#39;s not my immediate attention,&quot; Tucci said.During the news conference Tucci also confirmed that Mark Lewis has become president of the company&#39;s Documentum unit. Lewis was previously chief development officer for EMC.
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Opinion: Bruce A. Stewart thinks too many companies don't manage their outsourcers properly.
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Software vendor mulls how to compensate Chinese comupter users effected by a buggy antivirus update last week.
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BANGALORE, INDIA -- The purely offshore outsourcing model is out of favor, and Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are finding that they need U.S. facilities and staff to run operations for their American clients.
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Bad contractors can make your life miserable -- avoid them.