12 Articles Worth Reading
12 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 1:02 AM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
March 22, 2006 No. 1444
COMMENT FROM ROB: Lots of crummy news about outsourcing. The only good news
is #14 which isn't on the web yet, so scroll to the bottom of this
newsletter to read it. Now you can even outsource your job search to India
(#1).
Article 1:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-jobserf_13bus.ART0.State.Edition1.9118be9.html
You can outsource job search
Local start-up hires workers in India to help American clients
In a novel twist on the practice of outsourcing work overseas, a
Bedford-based start-up is hiring workers in India to help Americans find
jobs. Calling these workers "serfs" has raised some eyebrows. "My initial
reaction was that a serf is a slave, and I didn't like the connotation of
that," Mr. Stewart said. "I've gotten over it."
Article 2:
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20&artnum=3&issue=20060315
Visa Versa: Why Do Illegals Outnumber H1-Bs?
Immigration: Some 100,000 demonstrators marched through Chicago last week
to oppose a tightening of immigration laws. We're a nation of immigrants,
they noted. But will it be a nation of busboys or physicists? A Senate bill
proposes increasing the number of H-1B visas to 115,000 and exempting
entirely those with advanced degrees in science, tech or engineering. A
good start.
Article 3:
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin287.htm
AMERICA'S LEADERS SELLING OUR COUNTRY OUT FROM UNDER US
The recent attempt by the Bush administration to turn at least six U.S. sea
ports over to the control of the United Arab Emirates is only the latest
example of how America's leaders are selling our country right out from
under us. America's leaders are willfully and deliberately outsourcing
every viable asset we have to foreign countries. Ever since President Bill
Clinton and Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole collaborated to ram NAFTA and
GATT down our throats, the rush to outsource America's jobs, industries,
and even our security has been in full swing (and FTAA is just around the
corner).
Article 4:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/21/BUG2OHR8LI1.DTL
China throws a new pitch
Changzhou hopes to be a magnet for U.S. companies
It's probably a safe bet to say most Americans know little or nothing about
the Chinese city of Changzhou. If the city fathers and their contacts in
Silicon Valley have their way, however, that will soon change.
Article 5:
http://www.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle1.asp?artid=82051
Apple's India move spurs debate among Mac fans
Following reports that Apple India plans to open tech support centers and a
development facility in India, the Internet is abuzz with Mac users on
various forums, airing their strong views on the company's decision. Apple,
which has taken up 1,40,000-1,50,000 sq ft of commercial space in RMZ
Ecospace business park in Bangalore, hopes to recruit 1,500 people.
Article 6:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0603210268mar21,1,2688961.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Wal-Mart, Dell plan to expand in China, India
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to increase its workforce in China sixfold over
the next five years, and Dell Inc. will double the number of its employees
in India in the next three years.
Article 7:
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5043
Congress Considers Massive H-1b Visa Expansion, Gates Tells Congress Its
Microsofts Top Priority
Seattle-Congress is contemplating legislation that would allow up to
600,000 skilled professional guest workers to enter the U.S. in a single
year. This would be the biggest one time expansion of the controversial
H-1b visa program ito date.
Article 8:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/03/21/76507_13OPreality_1.html
Office of the Inspector General finds significant flaws in overseas hiring
program
In the course of my research for a column on misuse of the L-1A and L-1B
visa program for temporary workers in the United States, I was alerted to
the Inspector Generals report published in January of this year by the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), titled "Review of Vulnerabilities
and Potential Abuses of the L-1 Visa Program."
Article 9:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-crtech18mar18,0,10454,full.story?coll=la-utilities-business-money
Costa Rica Rides High-Tech Wave
U.S. firms are drawn by the country's lower costs, educated and bilingual
workforce, political stability, tax breaks and proximity. With little
fanfare, Costa Rica has attracted hundreds of millions of dollars in
investment from some of the best-known names in technology, including Intel
Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp.
Article 10:
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2006/03/16/ap2601034.html
Lenovo to Lay Off 1,000 Workers Worldwide
Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. will lay off about 5 percent of
its global workforce as part of a restructuring the company expects will
save it $250 million. Up to 350 positions will be cut in the Raleigh, N.C.,
area, where Lenovo last year bought IBM Corp.'s personal computer division,
spokesman Ray Gorman said. The remaining jobs will be eliminated around the
world with the exception of China, he said.
Article 11:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502939
IBM Eyes 50,000-Plus Indian Employees
And they're doing high-level work. Look at last week's decision to
consolidate SOA work in Bangalore.
IBM is on a hiring binge in India. The company employs about 39,000 people
in the country, up 70% from 23,000 a year ago. That rate of growth should
continue "for quite some time," says Amitabh Ray, who heads IBM's global
delivery operations in India. At that clip, IBM will have at least 55,000
workers in India by next year. And the figure could easily pass 60,000--or
20% of its current worldwide workforce of 300,000. IBM's decision to put in
India virtually all of the design and development of the bundled solutions
its consultants offer won't comfort U.S. workers who hoped such high-end
work wouldn't go abroad, at least not this quickly.
Article 12:
With the private, most sensitive personal data of up to 200,000 state
employees potentially in peril, Senate Democratic Leader Lesley "Les"
Miller Jr. (D-Tampa) and Senate Democratic Leader Walter "Skip" Campbell
(D-Ft. Lauderdale) on Tuesday called for for the immediate termination of
the Convergys contract.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-jobserf_13bus.ART0.State.Edition1.9118be9.html
You can outsource job search
Local start-up hires workers in India to help American clients
Monday, March 13, 2006
By KATHERINE YUNG / The Dallas Morning News
In a novel twist on the practice of outsourcing work overseas, a
Bedford-based start-up is hiring workers in India to help Americans find
jobs.
NATHAN HUNSINGER/DMN
From left: Philip Miller, Jay Martin and Gary Blum are all involved in
JobSerf. Mr. Martin is the company chairman. He and Mr. Blum are JobSerf's
two largest investors. JobSerf Inc. has hired a team of 13 young, low-wage
workers in Vizag, a port city on India's eastern coast, to apply for jobs
for U.S. customers, using the Internet.
"It's the first example of a net positive, when it comes to outsourcing,"
said Jay Martin, JobSerf's chairman and one of its founders. "We're not
taking away anybody's job."
The firm officially launched its business Feb. 1. So far, the company has
attracted only a few customers, but it has yet to spend heavily on
advertising and marketing.
One customer, Melissa Kunde, 39, said JobSerf has enabled her to spend more
time preparing for job interviews, meeting with potential employers and
networking.
The so-called serfs have applied for more than 300 jobs on her behalf, she
said.
Ms. Kunde, who lives in Portland, Ore., has been looking for a job in
marketing, communications, business development and sales.
Normally, it would take her all day to apply for 10 jobs online. But with
JobSerf, she gets an e-mail message every morning telling her how many jobs
the serfs have applied for, with a listing for each position.
Ms. Kunde started seeing results after three weeks, with more than 10
companies calling to interview her.
"This is by far the best choice I ever made," she said.
How it works
JobSerf charges $98 for 20 hours of work during the first week of
enrollment. After that, customers can continue at that rate, or pay $49 for
eight hours a week.
Customers also need to upload their risumis and cover letters to
JobSerf's Web site. The serfs use technology that makes it seem as if the
e-mail they send originates from the job applicants' own computers.
JobSerf's debut comes as U.S. companies are quietly moving an increasing
number of jobs to India, China and other low-wage countries.
"It's increasing in size and scope," said Ron Hira, an assistant professor
of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology and the co-author of
a book about outsourcing. "It's starting to hit lots and lots of
industries."
JobSerf isn't for everyone. Although a plethora of job listings abound
online for some occupations, that isn't the case for others, such as
contract consulting. In addition, some experts caution that the chances of
finding a job online are usually small.
But JobSerf could help older people who don't know much about online job
searching, said Jim Stewart, founder and chief executive of Executive
Smarts LLC, a Plano consulting firm. He has been testing the service and
has no affiliation with JobSerf.
"You probably are not going to find a job on the Internet, but it takes you
away from the labor so you can spend your days networking," he said.
Getting started
JobSerf is the brainchild of Mr. Martin, a 38-year-old former consultant
who has worked in India. He teamed with David Micek, chief executive of
Houston-based Eagle Broadband, and Philip Miller, who runs CFO Ventures, a
Richardson accounting firm.
Mr. Martin and Gary Blum, a Dallas financier, are JobSerf's two largest
investors. The company's advisory board includes, among others, Robert
Neff, the former chief of Web operations at the United States Mint, and
Peter Gudmundsson, a former chief executive of Jobs.com.
JobSerf also enlisted an Indian partner, NuNet Technologies, an outsourcing
firm with an office in Bedford. NuNet hired and trained JobSerf's workers
in Vizag.
Calling these workers "serfs" has raised some eyebrows.
"My initial reaction was that a serf is a slave, and I didn't like the
connotation of that," Mr. Stewart said. "I've gotten over it."
The company said its name was chosen only after much deliberation. Mr.
Martin said he asked many Indians whether they would be offended by the
name but everyone just laughed.
"Serf is not a commonly used word in India and carries no connotations
here," said Subbarao Jayanti, NuNet's chief executive.
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20&artnum=3&issue=20060315
Visa Versa: Why Do Illegals Outnumber H1-Bs?
Posted 3/15/2006
Immigration: Some 100,000 demonstrators marched through Chicago last week
to oppose a tightening of immigration laws. We're a nation of immigrants,
they noted. But will it be a nation of busboys or physicists?
T hose who crowded the streets of Chicago's Near West Side and Loop did so
in protest of H.R.4437, a bill passed by the House of Representatives in
December and sent to the Senate. It would enlist military and local law
enforcement in stopping illegal entrants, extend a fence along the Mexican
border and provide for criminal penalties for employers of illegal
entrants.
A bevy of local politicians attended the march, including Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich, who addressed the crowd in Spanish. Noting that he was the son
of immigrants, Blagojevich proclaimed to loud cheers: "Ustedes no son
criminales. Ustedes son trabajadores." ("You are not criminals. You are
workers.")
Granted, illegal immigrants are often hard workers. And agreed, they are
seeking a better life. But while we are a nation of immigrants, we are also
a nation of laws. Millions of American citizens, including 17 million who
don't have a high school degree, are also seeking a better life and are
willing to work hard -- just not at Third World wages. And they must
compete with noncitizens who are.
Contrary to the notion that Americans won't do certain jobs, Americans mow
lawns, wait tables and perform other low-skilled tasks every day. According
to the Center for Immigration Studies, illegal immigrants make up only 17%
of workers in building and maintenance, 14% in private households, 13% in
the hospitality industry and 11% in food preparation and serving.
Others wish to come to America to seek a better life. As noted on our front
page March 9, they are the foreign professionals - from engineers to
mathematicians to computer programmers -- who hope to get one of the
precious few H-1B visas. That would let them come and work at U.S.
technology companies such as Hotmail and Intel, themselves founded by
immigrants -- legal immigrants.
The annual cap on H-1B visas has fallen from 195,000 in 2003 to the current
65,000, fewer than the number of illegals in a good month. So great is the
demand, the number of visas available for fiscal 2006 beginning in October
were gobbled up by last August, two months before the fiscal year began.
Leslie Nicolett, staff manager in immigration policy at Hewlett-Packard
Americas, observed, "The way our immigration system is acting, it's almost
becoming a disincentive for these best and brightest to come to the U.S."
So why are we welcoming illegal dishwashers, gardeners and nannies while
blocking legal engineers?
A Senate bill proposes increasing the number of H-1B visas to 115,000 and
exempting entirely those with advanced degrees in science, tech or
engineering. A good start.
There's nothing anti-immigrant about insisting that border security and a
guest worker program are not mutually exclusive. If there is to be a guest
worker program, we should be the ones sending out the invitations.
Which begs the question: Do we want to let in those who will do the jobs
Americans allegedly won't do, or do we want to invite in those who will do
the jobs America needs to have done to remain competitive in the world
economy?
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.newswithviews.com/baldwin/baldwin287.htm
AMERICA'S LEADERS SELLING OUR COUNTRY OUT FROM UNDER US
By Pastor Chuck Baldwin
March 17, 2006
NewsWithViews.com
The recent attempt by the Bush administration to turn at least six U.S. sea
ports over to the control of the United Arab Emirates is only the latest
example of how America's leaders are selling our country right out from
under us.
According to the March 8, 2006 edition of The Washington Times, "Homeland
Security officials, who initially said there are about 850 terminals
nationwide, now say there are 3,200 terminals, up to 80 percent of which
are operated by foreign companies and countries."
When pressed, Homeland Security officials admit that they do not even know
exactly who controls our ports. As one Homeland Security officer put it,
"It's as clear as mud."
The Times report goes on to say, "Countries operating U.S. terminals
include China and Singapore. Foreign businesses include companies from
Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, London and Denmark."
By the way, readers need to be alert to the fact that the Dubai deal is
anything but nixed. Newsday recently reported Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist as acknowledging "that if an American buyer is not found, and the
Bush administration determines there are no security risks, a deal for DP
World to manage and operate major U.S. ports still could go through."
Frist told ABC's This Week, "If everything that the president, the
administration has said, and that is that there is absolutely no
threatening or jeopardy to our security and safety of the American people,
I don't see how the deal would have to be canceled."
Remember, too, as I reported in the previous article, the Bush
administration is proceeding with plans to turn over at least nine military
facilities to the United Arab Emirates. Interestingly enough, Congress has
made absolutely no attempts to block this deal, and with the exception of a
few newspapers, the major media has not even bothered to cover this story.
Furthermore, let's not forget that the Communist Chinese Army now controls
the Panama Canal and also controls port terminals in Seattle, Washington,
and Long Beach, California.
America's leaders are willfully and deliberately outsourcing every viable
asset we have to foreign countries. Ever since President Bill Clinton and
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole collaborated to ram NAFTA and GATT down our
throats, the rush to outsource America's jobs, industries, and even our
security has been in full swing (and FTAA is just around the corner).
Coincidentally, according to Human Events, Bob Dole and former Secretary of
State Madeleine Albright have both been agents for UAE government-owned
Dubai Ports World. Dole as a Washington lobbyist and Albright on a recent
trip to the People's Republic of China.
Furthermore, Bush administration officials also have financial ties to
Dubai Ports World. "[Treasury Secretary John] Snow was chairman of the CSX
rail firm that sold its own international port operations to DP World for
$1.5 billion in 2004, the year after Snow left for President Bush's
cabinet." (Source: New York Daily News, Tuesday, Feb. 21st, 2006)
Snow is not alone. New York Daily News also reports that David Sanborn, who
was tapped by Bush to lead the U.S. Maritime Administration also runs DP
World's European and Latin American operations.
American industries are vanishing as are American jobs. Our public
education system is so bad we cannot supply needed demands in our medical
and science sectors. Even worse, we cannot even meet the recruiting demands
of our military.
One recent news report said that of all young people between the ages of 17
and 24 (who would be eligible for military recruitment) at least 75% were
determined to be unqualified. They are either too fat, too dumb, or too
undisciplined. The Army doesn't want them! Therefore, along with doctors,
engineers, scientists, teachers, and laborers, we are importing soldiers!
Speaking of our military, you do know that U.S. soldiers have now been put
under foreign commanders in Afghanistan, don't you? Well, it's true. Just
read the AP news wire dated Tuesday, March 14.
Also, think about this: according to government statistics, foreigners own
65% or our metal ore mining industry, 65% of our database publishers, 62%
of our cement, concrete, lime, and gypsum products, 57% of our engine,
turbine, and power transmission equipment, 53% of our rubber products, 53%
of our nonmetallic mineral products manufacturing, 52% of our plastics
manufacturing, 50% of our oiler, tank, and shipping containers, 48% of our
glass and glass products, 48% of our coal mining, 40% of our
pharmaceuticals and medicines, and on and on.
Here's more: there are more than 12 million illegal aliens living in
America. 40% of these arrived after G.W. Bush became president in 2000.
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, these "unauthorized migrants"
comprise 24% of the labor force in farming, 17% in cleaning, 14% in
construction, and 12% in food preparation. And those numbers are escalating
rapidly!
Does anyone actually believe that our elected officials in Washington,
D.C., don't know what is going on? Does anyone believe that they are
ignorant or naove about these things? Get real! Our politicians know
exactly what is happening, because they are actively participating in the
whole debacle.
Face it, folks: our leaders are selling our country right out from under
us.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/21/BUG2OHR8LI1.DTL
China throws a new pitch
Changzhou hopes to be a magnet for U.S. companies
- David Armstrong, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
It's probably a safe bet to say most Americans know little or nothing about
the Chinese city of Changzhou. If the city fathers and their contacts in
Silicon Valley have their way, however, that will soon change.
Changzhou, a city of nearly 4 million located in the Yangtze River delta
near China's booming east coast, is positioning itself as the next big
business center in the fast-growing Chinese market.
Located 100 miles west of Shanghai, Changzhou offers very low costs and an
ease of doing business matched by few other places, according to
Changzhou's mayor, Wang Weicheng. Wang led a delegation of executives and
municipal officials to San Jose on Monday in search of investors and U.S.
firms interested in starting operations in his city.
For ambitious cities like Changzhou, Silicon Valley is a rich potential
source of capital and technology. For Silicon Valley, Changzhou is a deep
well of talent and an inexpensive place to operate, compared with bigger,
more mature cities like Shanghai, where costs are rising fast.
"We came to San Jose because Silicon Valley is the capital of the world's
high-tech industry,'' Wang said in an interview. "We sincerely hope we can
get high-tech information from the Silicon Valley to promote friendly
partnerships.''
Changzhou specializes in textiles and the manufacture of heavy machinery,
but it has big plans to expand into high technology and biotechnology. The
city offers tax incentives for foreign firms, delaying the payment of
income taxes for the first two years and offering a low, 15 percent tax
rate to high-tech companies. Other foreign enterprises pay a 24 percent tax
on revenue, while domestic Chinese companies pay 33 percent.
Some Silicon Valley firms are already in Changzhou, though their presence
is not necessarily large.
Intel Corp. has a sales and marketing office in the city but runs much
larger assembly and testing plants for its flash technology in Shanghai,
Beijing and Chengdu, according to Intel spokesman Bill Calder.
Intel is drawn to China, where it has "north of 5,000 employees,'' Calder
said. "We are extremely impressed by their focus on science and technology
education. China has a highly skilled, very talented workforce.''
Intel recently invested $200 million in a factory in the industrial city of
Chengdu, he said, noting that China's big cities often entice multinational
corporations with special offers and broadly similar sales pitches.
However, some U.S. companies are already sold on Changzhou and speak well
of the city's special qualities.
Peoria Tube Forming Corp., an Illinois firm that makes metal tubes and
pipes for the likes of Volvo and Caterpillar, has 60 employees in Changzhou
-- almost as many as the 70 workers it employs in its home factory,
according to the company's president, Rodger Butler. All but two of the
firm's Changzhou employees are Chinese, and all of them were recruited at
the city's large and recurring job fair, Butler said.
Peoria Tube's wholly owned Chinese subsidiary, Pacific Changzhou Tubing
Co., accounts for $3 million of annual revenue, Butler said, compared with
$12 million in annual revenue from the U.S. operation.
Although the Peoria shop still leads in producing revenue, Butler said the
company sees its greatest growth potential in Changzhou, where labor costs
are much lower than in the United States and only 25 to 30 percent of the
labor costs in more famous Shanghai.
His company's future, Butler said, is in avidly pro-business Chinese cities
such as Changzhou, where municipal authorities cut red tape and provide
economic incentives. Butler said one key city official gave him his home
phone number and has been "available 24/7 to help with our issues.''
Growing cities like Changzhou send delegations and trade missions overseas
on their own, without asking national leaders in Beijing to approve them,
said George Koo, a director of Deloitte & Touche USA, who advised Changzhou
officials on their visit to Northern California.
Wang and other city officials had planned to visit San Francisco on the
first leg of a three-city U.S. trip that will also take them to Los Angeles
and Washington, Koo said. "I told them they really should come to Silicon
Valley, not San Francisco, and the heart of Silicon Valley is San Jose,''
he said.
Changzhou, which boasts modern port facilities, two expressways and 10
special economic zones, is a rising star, thanks to its combination of
high-quality infrastructure, low costs and highly trained workers, said
Daniel Hsu, general partner at Mountain View's StarBridge Venture
Management LLC, who visits Changzhou three or four times a year.
Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, who spoke briefly at Monday's gathering, which
was sponsored by the California-Asia Business Council, said China's
importance to California continues to grow, with the state's exports to
China jumping to $8 billion in 2005, up $1 billion from the year before.
Honda acknowledged that the $200 billion U.S. trade deficit with China has
become a political football in Congress but pointed out that some products
from U.S. firms that receive final assembly in China are counted as Chinese
exports, thus making the deficit sound even bigger than it is.
Also, Honda said in an interview, "People say ship containers come here
(from China) full and go back empty. But airplanes go back full. We sell
them chips and other small computer products.'' Such goods, he said, are
taken by air and are popular with consumers in China's fast-growing market.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle1.asp?artid=82051
Article Title: Apple's India move spurs debate among Mac fans
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
BANGALORE: Following reports that Apple India plans to open tech support
centers and a development facility in India, the Internet is abuzz with Mac
users on various forums, airing their strong views on the company's
decision.
The reactions range from disappointment, and strong disapproval of Indian
call centers to appreciation at Apple's move.
Incidentally, Dell was another company got some flak for increasing its
tech support centers in India.
Some observers have commented that the outsourcing debate has been renewed
after a period of time. Perhaps in Apple's case, it seems to stem from the
fact that the Apple user cult which is devoted to the company's products
(mainly for its design, good looks) and for being different from other PCs,
feels let down that the company seems to be going the way of other
companies by deciding to outsource tech support to India.
This feeling was echoed by a netizen who wrote, "It's very disappointing!
My smug satisfaction that my computer company was better than the heartless
run of mill just took a big hit!"
Said another blogger: "I'm not a protectionist, and I have nothing against
India, but I'd like to see Apple keep as many jobs in the USA (and Canada)
as possible."
The company has tried to allay fears of transfer of jobs from the US to
India by clarifying that its US call centers would continue to grow.
"I think this is a good move by Apple. It is not outsourcing local jobs.
Apple is a global company, and it makes sense that some of the support work
should be done overseas to be a little closer to those markets. Apple also
has to compete in a global environment," says a positive post on the
macobserver site.
Apple, which has taken up 1,40,000-1,50,000 sq ft of commercial space in
RMZ Ecospace business park in Bangalore, hopes to recruit 1,500 people.
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0603210268mar21,1,2688961.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Wal-Mart, Dell plan to expand in China, India
Companies to hire thousands of people
From Tribune news services
March 21, 2006
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to increase its workforce in China sixfold over
the next five years, and Dell Inc. will double the number of its employees
in India in the next three years.
Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart said Monday that it will hire as many as
150,000 more employees in China as it expands its number of stores there.
Wal-Mart has targeted China, which has long been a major supplier of its
products, as a key region for its international store growth. It now has 56
stores in China and about 30,000 employees, and it plans to open 20 more
stores this year.
Spokesman Bill Wertz said that, with a decade of retailing in China under
its belt, the company is ready to aggressively multiply the number of
stores.
"We expect to significantly increase the pace of our building there in the
future," Wertz said. "We've seen an outstanding acceptance of our stores in
China. Everywhere we open new stores, there are huge crowds attending, and
everywhere we build, there are more applicants than we can accept."
But hiring in China is a "challenge," Wertz said. "We're not able to draw
from a labor pool of experienced supercenter or retail workers. We need to
train them ourselves."
Though Wal-Mart has been in China since 1994, its store growth has been
hampered by strict laws that were only eased in 2004, when China began
letting foreign retailers open stores without a local partner.
Also Monday, Round Rock, Texas-based Dell said it plans to double the
number of its employees in India, to 20,000, by 2009.
Although most of the new hiring will be made at the company's call centers,
there will also be substantial recruitment at its product testing center
and a possible manufacturing plant.
Dell operates four call centers in India, a product testing center for
corporate customers and a global software development center. Some 10,000
people are employed at these facilities.
"We will double our staff from the current level over the next three
years," Chairman Michael Dell said during a visit to the technology hub in
Bangalore. "There's a fantastic opportunity to attract talent [here]. We
will ensure a major recruitment push in engineering talents."
Scores of Western companies have been cutting costs by shifting software
development, engineering design and routine office functions to countries
such as India, where English-speaking workers are plentiful and wages are
low.
But in this case, the company says it is not reducing its workforce in the
U.S. or elsewhere. Rather, it's a bid to increase its share in India's
fast-growing market for computers.
Dell says it accounts for less than 4 percent of the 4 million computers
sold annually in India. According to research firm IDC, Dell had an 18
percent global market share last year.
But Dell lags in India largely because of taxes that result in higher
prices for Dell products. The Indian government imposes higher import taxes
on fully assembled computers than its does on computer parts, and Dell
ships complete computer sets to India.
James McGregor, a Beijing-based economic analyst who monitors issues in
India and China, said a manufacturing facility in India "will help Dell to
be close to its customers not just in India, but South Asia."
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5043
March 21, 2006
WashTech News
Congress Considers Massive H-1b Visa Expansion, Gates Tells Congress Its
Microsofts Top Priority
By Marcus Courtney
Seattle-Congress is contemplating legislation that would allow up to
600,000 skilled professional guest workers to enter the U.S. in a single
year. This would be the biggest one time expansion of the controversial
H-1b visa program ito date.
This increase comes after the high-tech industry is just beginning to
recover from the economic recession of 2001, as a small demand for workers
has been noticed.
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) is drafting an immigration reform bill that
contains the expansion of the H-1b visa program. Sen. Specter chairs the
Senate Judiciary Committee, which has jurisdiction over immigration
matters.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is spending his own personal political capital on
this issue. He was in Washington D.C. last week lobbying for the changes.
According to Washington Post columnist David Broder, "Gates told me the
"high-skills immigration issue is by far the number one thing" on the
Washington agenda for Microsoft and for the electronics industry generally
"This is gigantic for us." The article went on to say, "So great is the
demand for such skills in the burgeoning high-tech world," However,
government studies have dismissed the notion the industry is facing a
worker shortage.
Last week, WashTech News released information showing that wages at
Microsoft have been stagnant for several years in the majority of pay
scales. If a real skill shortage existed, as Mr. Gates claims, pay should
be increasing not stagnating at his company.
In an analysis done by the AFL-CIO Department of Professional Employees,
the bill would:
Mandate a retroactive increase to 195,000 from the current 65,000 H-1B
visa cap (exclusive of existing exemptions) for the years of 2004-2006, in
effect allowing for a one-time visa grab by employers of nearly 400,000
visas!
Increase the 65,000 visa cap to 115,000," a 60% hike!
Require an automatic 20% annual hike in the new cap whenever the visas
are exhausted, thus establishing a new annual cap for each successive year.
This, in effect, rips the lid off of any meaningful annual visa limitation.
Adds still another open-ended exemption from the cap for any foreign
national that has an advanced degree in science, technology, engineering or
math from anywhere on the planet. At least the previous exemption authored
by the committee restricted such visas to foreign graduates of U.S.
institutions and limited it to 20,000 annually.
"Taken together, within one year over 600,000 new foreign professionals
could flood the U.S. market, the result of which would be to inflict
serious economic harm on highly skilled, well-educated American workers,"
said the analysis.
Marcus Courtney is the President of WashTech/CWA Local 37083. He can be
reached at courtney@washtech.org
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/03/21/76507_13OPreality_1.html
Office of the Inspector General finds significant flaws in overseas hiring
program
By Ephraim Schwartz
March 21, 2006
In the course of my research for a column on misuse of the L-1A and L-1B
visa program for temporary workers in the United States, I was alerted to
the Inspector Generals report published in January of this year by the
Department of Homeland Security (DHS), titled "Review of Vulnerabilities
and Potential Abuses of the L-1 Visa Program."
First, some background on what the L-1 visa program is. The program allows
a foreign worker employed by a company overseas for at least one year to
enter the United States temporarily, "in order to continue to render his
services to the same employer or a subsidiary or affiliate ... in a
capacity that is managerial, executive, or involves specialized knowledge."
According to Frank Robinson, CFO at Darwin Partners, insurance companies
are bringing in foreign workers under L-1, providing food and lodging, but
are paying the guest workers at the salary they were getting back home. If
a typical programmer in the United States makes $60,000 to $80,000 per
year, these workers are being paid as little as one-quarter of that. And
they can stay as long as five to seven years.
These workers may be employees of the insurance company; or worse, they
could be employees of IT services companies, known as "body shops," who
hire them out for a fee.
I called some leading insurance companies and got a response from one.
"There is a lot of internal sensitivity to this," my source -- whom I
wont name -- says. "It involves some displacement of people. We have
done our best to keep a low profile on that."
Using foreign workers and paying them below American scale is only one
abuse. A second is bringing in workers for training. In this case, there is
no way to pretend that these workers have skills that the company needs. I
am told that many high-tech companies do this and that I should ask Intel
about it, especially at Intels Folsom, Calif., location. I called three
or four Intel public relations people I know but got no response.
The irony here is that when workers are brought in like this for training,
the American workers are in essence training their own replacements,
according to Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild.
Finally, that DHS report I mentioned calls L-1 "The Computer Visa," saying
nine out of 10 companies that use the L-1 are "computer- and IT-related."
The report says that it is "difficult to be confident that a firm truly
intends using an imported worker" as a manager or executive. It suggests
that the term "specialized knowledge" is so broad that "adjudicators
believe they have little choice but to approve almost all petitions." And
while L-1 workers must be employed by the importing company abroad for at
least a year, the report finds that the United States has "little ability
to evaluate the substantiality of the foreign operation" and even allows
"petitioners to transfer themselves into the United States."
There are a lot of things wrong with this. But what bugs me the most are
the statements made by our leading high-tech CEOs about the poor quality of
American education and the fact that there arent enough U.S. workers to
fill the jobs. All the while, these same CEOs bring in outside workers --
not because the education is so much better abroad, but because doing so
benefits their own bottom lines.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-crtech18mar18,0,10454,full.story?coll=la-utilities-business-money
Costa Rica Rides High-Tech Wave
U.S. firms are drawn by the country's lower costs, educated and bilingual
workforce, political stability, tax breaks and proximity.
By Marla Dickerson
Times Staff Writer
March 18, 2006
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica -- The crates that leave this Central American nation
these days are more likely to be stuffed with microchips and telecom
components than the bananas that once represented Costa Rica's plantation
economy.
With little fanfare, Costa Rica has attracted hundreds of millions of
dollars in investment from some of the best-known names in technology,
including Intel Corp., Hewlett-Packard Co. and Microsoft Corp.
Medical device makers and pharmaceutical companies are sprouting in the
tropical heat. And the nation is becoming a hub for call centers and
back-office outsourcing.
Seattle-based Washington Mutual Inc. recently announced it would cut 600
loan processing jobs in Chatsworth and move some of them to Costa Rica.
Palo Alto-based HP plans to nearly triple its business service workforce
here to 3,500 workers within two years. The lure: lower costs, an educated,
bilingual workforce, political stability, fat tax incentives and its
location.
"We're shooting to be the Irish," Roberto Leiton Garro, an executive at Art
in Soft, a Costa Rican software company, said of his nation's ambitions to
emulate the Celtic Tiger.
Indeed, like Ireland before it, this small nation is leveraging talent and
technology to catapult an agrarian economy into the Digital Age. In the
process, it is capitalizing on a trend known as "near-sourcing" that has
American firms establishing facilities closer to home.
Although Mexico, Nicaragua and other Latin American nations have benefited
as well, Costa Rica's focus on tech-related industries has helped it
achieve Central America's highest standard of living and surprising stature
in the tech world.
It ranks third behind powerhouses India and China as the most competitive
offshore destination, according to a 2005 report on outsourcing by two
consulting firms. Not bad for a country roughly the size of Vermont and New
Hampshire combined, and whose population of just over 4 million is less
than half the size of Los Angeles County's.
When medical device maker MedTech Group Inc. was looking for a low-cost
location to put a plant, giants China and India loomed as obvious choices.
But the New Jersey-based manufacturer of surgical tools and other medical
products chose Costa Rica, where health science firms such as Baxter
International Inc. and Boston Scientific Corp. had already set up shop.
Now when MedTech President George Blank needs to call someone in the Costa
Rican plant, he knows the facility is just an hour behind East Coast time.
And instead of spending nearly a day traveling to Asia, he can be in the
capital, San Jose, within 4 1/2 hours on a nonstop flight.
When he lands, he finds plenty of English speakers attuned to the needs of
the U.S. market. He says he has never been asked to pay a bribe, a routine
cost of doing business in many developing countries. And Blank says he
doesn't lose sleep worrying that a competitor will swipe his company's
designs, a risk in places such as China, where intellectual property rules
aren't widely enforced.
"The actual going and doing and seeing and working is much easier than it
is in China," said Blank, whose Costa Rica plant began production in early
2005. "Business conditions are a little easier."
Costa Rica exports more software per capita than any other country in Latin
America. Computer components have supplanted bananas as the nation's
largest export product. Combined, the information technology and medical
clusters employ about 30,000 workers in more than 300 companies, with most
of that business materializing in the last decade.
A lot is riding on Costa Rica's ability to continue developing these
sectors, which pay better than tourism and agriculture, the other pillars
of its economy. With unemployment high, one-fifth of households mired in
poverty and the economy growing more slowly than many would like, Costa
Rican officials are banking on tech-related exports and services to keep
the country climbing toward its goal of becoming the first developed nation
in Central America.
Obstacles abound, the most obvious being Costa Rica's modest population,
which can't produce the hoards of skilled workers needed to keep it among
the top offshore destinations, said Mark Minevich, one of the authors of
the outsourcing report.
He envisions Costa Rica following the path of Singapore, a small,
tech-savvy nation that partners with bigger countries such as Malaysia and
Indonesia, which provide much of the workforce for major projects.
"The strategy for [Costa Rica] is to do joint ventures," said Minevich,
co-chair of the BTM Institute, a technology think tank based in Stamford,
Conn. "And they're going to have to focus on niches."
Costa Rica's conversion from a largely farm-based economy to a tech-led one
has its roots dating back more than a century. The nation made primary
education free and compulsory in 1870, according to the Costa Rican
Investment Board, a private entity.
But what really launched the nation on its upward trajectory was its
decision to scrap its army in 1949. The resources that had gone to the
military were reallocated to higher education, universal healthcare and
other human development programs that have paid huge dividends over the
decades.
Known as the "Switzerland of Central America" for being an oasis of peace
in a region torn by conflict, Costa Rica boasts the region's oldest
democracy, its highest per capita income and a 95% literacy rate on par
with the United States.
"Costa Rica invested in its people," said Rosalma Morales Acosta,
executive director of the Costa Rican Chamber of Information Technology and
Communication. "That set the stage" for everything that followed.
Although the nation never became embroiled in the armed struggles that
convulsed its neighbors, a 1980s economic crisis brought on in part by
plunging prices for bananas, pineapple and coffee led Costa Rica to
diversify into manufacturing. It set up tax-free trade zones to attract
foreign companies, which at first consisted mainly of assembly plants
producing garments for the U.S. market.
But as neighboring countries with lower wages began stealing those jobs,
Costa Rica capitalized on its skilled labor pool by targeting industries
such as electronics and telecommunications equipment. The strategy proved a
sound one, said economist Andres Rodriguez-Clare, who has written
extensively on Costa Rica's technology evolution.
Growing fast but under pressure to cut costs, U.S. electronics makers in
the 1990s found in Costa Rica an abundance of low-cost, English-speaking
technicians and engineers. Companies including telecom equipment makers DSC
Communications Corp. -- which was bought by France's Alcatel in 1998 -- and
Sawtek Inc., now part of TriQuint Semiconductor Inc., set up facilities.
Costa Rica's big prize, however, was Intel. The chip maker opened an
assembly and testing plant in Costa Rica in 1998, after a huge recruitment
effort that included then-president Jose Maria Figueres.
"It was a validation for the country," said Edna Camacho, general manager
of the Costa Rican Investment Board, who said Intel's investment put Costa
Rica on the radar of other firms.
Today, Intel has grown to be Costa Rica's largest high-tech employer, with
2,900 workers. English conversations float through the carpeted halls and
uniform cubicles of the firm's gleaming campus outside the capital. Except
for the rice-and-bean dish gallo pinto served in the company cafeteria, one
would be hard-pressed to distinguish the facility from one in Silicon
Valley.
That is also true about the caliber of the workforce, Intel public affairs
manager Gabriela Llobet said. The Costa Rican facility last year beat out
other Intel sites to land 150 new jobs in an area known as financial shared
services, she said. The group performs tasks such as software development,
circuit design, procurement and financial services for the rest of the
company. That's proof the Costa Rican operation is globally competitive and
capable of jobs beyond testing and assembly, Llobet said.
"This is a milestone," she said. "We have positioned ourselves as a place
to provide services."
Costa Rica's talent also is on display in its software industry, which
consists almost entirely of homegrown firms. One of the biggest is Art in
Soft, which creates so-called migration software that allows companies to
take their old software and convert it to new platforms.
Started by a Costa Rican computer science professor, Carlos Araya, the
company's products are used worldwide. Microsoft became a minority investor
in 2001.
Leiton, the company's project director, said Costa Rican universities were
turning out top-notch technology workers. He said the problem was that
there just weren't enough of them. He said his firm was already paying
premiums for experienced programmers with English skills, who are in demand
from a number of competitors.
"If we had a big contract that needed 200 people, we couldn't do it here,
and that's nothing," Leiton said. "That's the biggest issue, whether the
country itself is scalable."
Experts said Costa Rica faced other significant hurdles. Many complain that
the government-owned telecommunications monopoly is slow and inefficient,
and that a sector so critical to the growth of technology companies must be
opened to private competitors. That's something that the nation's powerful
public-sector unions have long resisted.
The World Trade Organization has declared the tax-free benefits offered to
foreign companies in Costa Rica's free-trade zones an illegal export
subsidy that must be phased out by 2009. Exporters such as Santa Clara,
Calif.-based Intel say such incentives are crucial to keeping Costa Rica
competitive. But lawmakers haven't come up with an alternative that would
pass muster with the world trading body.
And Costa Rica has yet to ratify a Central American free-trade agreement
that also is to include the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States.
The Costa Rican public is deeply divided, but the nation's technology firms
are strong supporters of the pact, which they say is critical to cementing
access to the U.S. market, the destination for half of Costa Rica's
exports.
"This country is at an inflection point," Leiton said. "The potential is
here. But if Costa Rica doesn't take some necessary steps, we're going to
miss the next wave."
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2006/03/16/ap2601034.html
Lenovo to Lay Off 1,000 Workers Worldwide
03.16.2006, 05:01 PM
Chinese computer maker Lenovo Group Ltd. will lay off about 5 percent of
its global workforce as part of a restructuring the company expects will
save it $250 million.
The layoff of 1,000 full-time employees out of its 21,400 workers worldwide
will occur over the next six months to a year, the company said Thursday.
Up to 350 positions will be cut in the Raleigh, N.C., area, where Lenovo
last year bought IBM Corp.'s personal computer division, spokesman Ray
Gorman said. The remaining jobs will be eliminated around the world with
the exception of China, he said.
"We still have some inefficiencies that leave us less competitive than I
want us to be," William J. Amelio, Lenovo's president and chief executive
officer, said in a conference call. "This plan makes Lenovo a much stronger
company."
Lenovo will take a $100 million charge in the quarter ending March 31 to
pay for the restructuring.
The company also announced it will move its corporate headquarters and
about 70 jobs from Purchase, N.Y., to Morrisville, near Raleigh. The jobs
include corporate legal, finance, human resource, communications, marketing
and sales.
Most of the 70 Lenovo employees in Purchase will be offered relocation
packages, but the company won't know for weeks how many will move, Gorman
said.
Lenovo became the world's third-largest personal computer maker by
purchasing IBM Corp.'s PC division last May. It already employs 1,820
workers on IBM's campus in Research Triangle Park, between Raleigh and
Durham.
In October, Lenovo Group - which makes both laptop and desktop PCs - said
it would add 400 jobs and move into a 500,000-square-foot facility it is
building five miles away in Morrisville, which is to open in early 2007.
That announcement came with a promise of state and local government
incentives worth $11 million or more, if the company meets its job creation
goals.
The Raleigh-Durham area is already considered a major center for Lenovo's
international division for research, design and administrative functions
for computers such as ThinkPad laptops.
Moving the corporate offices to Morrisville as well will enable "more
face-to-face interaction" between corporate staff and operations, Amelio
said Thursday.
Amelio, who replaced former IBM executive Stephen Ward as head of the
Lenovo Group in December, said desktop computer operations would be
centralized in China, where its parent group is still based, and more
global supply chain operations also will be moved there.
He said the corporate bureaucracy will be streamlined, with corporate
managers reporting directly to him and empowered to "make faster, quicker
decisions."
Just last month, Lenovo introduced its first branded computers to be sold
outside China. It also was a major sponsor of the Winter Olympics in Turin,
Italy, to help it expand its brand recognition.
11. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502939
IBM Eyes 50,000-Plus Indian Employees
And they're doing high-level work. Look at last week's decision to
consolidate SOA work in Bangalore.
By Paul McDougall
March 13, 2006
Meet the new face of IBM software. Siddharth Purohit lives in Bangalore,
India, and is an expert at developing the kind of reusable code on which
the company is staking much of its future. As such, Purohit represents two
of IBM's biggest bets--Indian talent and software built around
service-oriented architectures.
IBM is on a hiring binge in India. The company employs about 39,000 people
in the country, up 70% from 23,000 a year ago. That rate of growth should
continue "for quite some time," says Amitabh Ray, who heads IBM's global
delivery operations in India. At that clip, IBM will have at least 55,000
workers in India by next year. And the figure could easily pass 60,000--or
20% of its current worldwide workforce of 300,000.
Jeby Cherian, part of a new world order at IBM
Make no mistake: This isn't the kind of routine, brute-force coding for
which India is known. IBM last week revealed it would spend $200 million a
year on a Bangalore development center to centralize work on one of its
most strategic efforts--building SOA-based software systems that
consultants can resell to customers in various industries. "We're moving
all of that development to India," says Jeby Cherian, head of IBM's new
Global Solutions Delivery Center in Bangalore. Previously, IBM did this
work in a number of development centers worldwide.
Along with churning out software components, workers at the Bangalore
center will design new ways in which businesses can combine those
components with other technologies to solve some of their thorniest, and
costliest, problems: straight-through processing for banks, for example,
and inventory optimization systems. That's hardly commodity work.
The SOA Bet
IBM needs growth. Its software sales were flat last quarter, and its global
services business was down 5%. Software based on SOA is one of its big
growth bets. It plans to invest $1 billion this year around SOAs, which let
companies reorganize IT infrastructures around processes. Software to
"check shipping status" exists as a reusable component, one of many that
can be mixed and matched to create, say, an online inventory management
system. SOAs are all the rage because they're easier to maintain and
update, and because they offer a way to Web-enable processes with less
custom programming. Most companies using SOAs spend less than $1 million
annually on the technology, but 60% of them will increase spending by an
average of 17% this year, AMR Research predicts.
Enter Purohit. IBM's India gamble is that it can find enough people like
him to make its strategy work. Purohit, 40, obtained a master's degree in
computer science from the New York Institute of Technology in the late
1980s, then spent 17 years in the United States on technology and
consulting gigs. It wasn't a tough call when IBM offered him a position at
the new center. "This is the vision and situation I've been waiting for,"
says the married father of two girls, ages 2 and 6.
Purohit is the chief architect on a number of key projects at the Bangalore
center, including one to build an SOA-based system that will let shipping
companies monitor the contents of containers throughout cross-ocean
journeys. It's a critical capability for ensuring the integrity of goods
that are temperature sensitive or could pose security concerns. The first
customer is shipping company Maersk Logistics. The system features wireless
container-level tracking devices developed by IBM researchers in Zurich,
Switzerland. It's a sensor network that transmits data from the devices to
databases that can be accessed by numerous parties, such as shipping
managers, customers, and port authorities, using a variety of front-end
applications.
Purohit's challenge was to identify and assemble the technologies required
for such a system, develop software components where needed, and assemble
everything into a working whole. "This group here has the charter to bring
all of IBM's technologies and services together on behalf of the customer,"
Purohit says. "We're creating business solutions and assets that can be
reused. This is breaking new ground."
Another example: Teams at the Bangalore center are designing a system that
uses telemetry devices, embedded processors, and mathematical algorithms to
help automakers predict and manage costs from warranty claims.
While IBM's hiring numbers are huge, its rivals have similar ambitions.
Infosys, India's second-largest IT outsourcer, added more than 3,200
employees in its most recent quarter. India's tech and business-process
outsourcing industry will employ 1 million more people in 2010 than it does
today, as it grows from $22 billion in revenue to $60 billion, predicts
India's National Association of Software and Service Companies and
consulting firm McKinsey.
Consolidation In India
IBM says its existing delivery centers outside India won't be closed but
will be "remapped" into demo centers. "They will become more customer
facing," Cherian says. Still, IBM's decision to put in India virtually all
of the design and development of the bundled solutions its consultants
offer won't comfort U.S. workers who hoped such high-end work wouldn't go
abroad, at least not this quickly. The company employs about 150,000
workers in the United States but has quietly eliminated a number of
domestic positions in recent months. It has lowered its costs in global
services, improving gross margins about 3 percentage points last quarter,
to 27.4%, compared with a year ago.
The systems created in Bangalore will be marketed and sold to customers
through IBM's Business Consulting Unit, which posted a 6% decrease in
revenue in its most recent quarter. With the bulk of the unit's offerings
to be designed in India, IBM will need to find a lot more people with the
skills and experience of a Purohit. That won't be easy in India's
tightening labor market (see story, India Calls Its Talent Home).
Expect the hiring pace to continue, Ray says.
Ray predicts IBM and its customers will get two main advantages from the
move to India: Costs will be lower, and greater centralization will speed
design and innovation. "In the previous model, these solutions were
splintered across a number of development centers," he says. "We can get
cross-visibility--something that's applicable in retail might be applicable
in automotive."
IBM's challenge will be to make sure this centralized development group is
close enough to customers' real-world business problems and to the
consultants and researchers around the world working on them.
A pilot project in Washington and Oregon shows where IBM can excel. Called
GridWise, it links 200 homes to see if it's feasible to make power
consumption more price sensitive. The plan is to use the Internet to
connect home thermostats to a real-time feed of energy prices, letting
homeowners automatically lower the temperature in response to spikes.
GridWise runs over an Internet-based messaging system that IBM developed.
It works because IBM energy experts understood the problem and what
information is vital to maintaining a stable power supply. "They've been
able to bring a technology I presume they developed elsewhere and apply it
here," says David Chassin, staff scientist at the Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory, which runs the GridWise project, set to go live next
month.
Chassin says he's not concerned or surprised that IBM is sending this kind
of development work to India. The energy industry wants the lowest cost for
the right product. Plus, global development is the reality, he laments,
given the dearth of American computer science and engineering graduates.
"We're dependent on foreign intellectual engineering capacity already,"
Chassin says.
In Need Of Growth
IBM needs big ideas that drive software and consulting sales, not just cost
cutting from a lower-wage operation. But the SOA market is a risky bet
because companies, while keen on the concept, aren't spending big money on
it. They're doing one-off component-software projects, but very few are
creating an entire architecture based on it that requires major investment.
If they ever do embrace that "holistic view," says David Grossman, an
analyst at Thomas Weisel Partners, IBM's broad portfolio of technologies
and services give it an advantage over more specialized vendors like BEA
Systems and Systinet.
IBM this week will unveil an online library to help companies track its
components and services. Called SOA Business Central, it also will stock
offerings from IBM software partners such as Actuate, a financial services
specialist. The library is one small example of how IBM CEO Sam Palmisano
"is making a double-down bet on SOA," says Sandy Carter, IBM's VP for SOA
strategy. IBM's system integration arm handled 1,800 SOA engagements last
year, and Carter expects a big increase this year.
Behind IBM's SOA push will be Indian managers and technologists like
Purohit. Finding such experienced talent in India will be tough, but
there's no doubting the ambition behind this latest expansion. Purohit says
he and his colleagues at the center are expected to deliver "thought
leadership." That and a heap of revenue growth is just what IBM needs to
show results from its Indian hiring spree.
12. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 21, 2006
SENATE DEMOCRATS CALL FOR ACCOUNTABILITY IN CONVERGYS CONTRACT
Attorney General Needs to Step In; Contract Needs to Be Terminated
TALLAHASSEE - With the private, most sensitive personal data of up to
200,000 state employees potentially in peril, Senate Democratic Leader
Lesley "Les" Miller Jr. (D-Tampa) and Senate Democratic Leader Walter
"Skip" Campbell (D-Ft. Lauderdale) on Tuesday called for the attorney
general to intercede in the security breach involving the $350 million
"People First" contract.
The lawmakers also called for the immediate termination of the Convergys
contract.
"It took two conscientious individuals to sound the alarm that state
employees private data, some of which, if improperly disclosed could, as
Convergys noted in the contract have grave repercussions for the
employees and the State agency was floating around in India, and
possibly Barbados and China," said Miller. "And all because, allegedly,
GDXdata wanted to boost its bottom line."
A Convergys subcontractor, GDXdata was named in a lawsuit filed last year
under the states false claims act alleging the illegal transfer of the
personnel data to offshore locations. Despite confirmation last week by the
Department of Management Services that the data transfer had improperly
occurred, the attorney general has thus far declined to intervene in the
litigation, nor has he moved to assess any fines which may, by law, be
collected in the event of a security breach.
"The damage is done, the horse is already out of the barn," said Campbell.
"Employees need to know this will never happen again. Can DMS and Convergys
guarantee that one of these employees names wont show up on a foreign
passport? That some foreign national wont use it to gain illegal entry
into the United States?"
Both Campbell and Miller have previously urged the Administration to
terminate the Convergys contract, citing past reports of identify theft and
failure to conduct background checks.
"The contract needs to be cancelled," said Miller. "The attorney general
needs to do his job. And Floridians need some assurances from this
administration that $350 million of their tax dollars havent been lost
along with the identities that remain unaccounted for."
Michelle Hayes
Communications Director
Senate Democratic Office
850-487-5833
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