?These terms have apparent ?negative connotations? in some of the mature markets such as the US. I think we have to remove these from our vocabulary?, President of National Association of Software and Services Companies  Som Mittal said.

Responding to a question on whether India should change strategy vis-a-vis ?desi? engineering and R & D services market here, he said usage of terms like ?outsourcing? has ?hurt? India?s software industry overseas.

Mittal argued that offshoring is also a business, citing the example that Nokia is designing products in India, which is also a market for the telecom company.

?These debates  are in the mind?, he observed.

Apart from using terms like ?offshoring? and ?outsourcing?, the term ?services? should also be removed from the vocabulary, Krishna Mikkilineni, President of Honeywell Technologies said, adding ?This is engineering (no need to add services).?

Source:http://www.indiajournal.com/pages/event.php?id=11267

]]> http://www.termdirectory.com/2-extradited-to-ny-on-global-id-theft-charges/feed 0 http://www.termdirectory.com/recession-makes-bangaloreans-cautious-shoppers http://www.termdirectory.com/recession-makes-bangaloreans-cautious-shoppers#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:07:35 +0000 admin http://www.directorysearch.us/ Continue reading →]]> If not anything else, global economic recession seems to have taught one or two lessons in economics to India’s IT hub. This festive season, ahead of Christmas and New Year revelry, Bangaloreans are showing “thrift” instead of the usual “splurge” while shopping. While there is no specific data, the city’s prominent shopping hubs, including Brigade Road, Commercial Street and M.G. Road at the city centre, are witnessing a change in the way Bangaloreans shop.

“As usual, festive shoppers have started thronging shops. However, they are spending less and hunting for good bargains,” Suresh R., a trader and a member of the Brigade Shops and Establishments Association (BSEA), told IANS.

Priya Raza, a shop owner on Brigade Road, one of the most popular shopping destinations, said it seemed Bangaloreans were yet to recover from the shock of recession.

Although attractive discount sales are on in several malls, as part of the festive season, Bangaloreans are thinking twice before splurging.

The mood to spend, once popular among Bangalore’s crowd with disposable income, seems to be missing.

“Discount sales are no more pulling crowds to shops. People are buying gifts, clothes and accessories, depending on their needs. The mood to splurge is missing this time,” said Ramesh Makhija of Favourite Shop, a leading shopping destination in Commercial Street.

The economy of Bangalore, mostly driven by the IT industry, was hit hard by global economic recession, which began in the US last year.

Although global economy has started bouncing back, with the job market slowly opening up and companies no longer showing the exit door to employees, Bangaloreans are cautious while spending.

“Bangalore has been severely hit by recession. But things have started improving. Lay-offs seems to have stopped,” Karthik Shekhar, general secretary of UNITES Professionals India, told IANS.

“However, it will take some time for the economy to fully recover. Once that happens, people are sure to open up their purses again,” he added.

According to UNITES Professionals, a union of employees in the ITES sector, around 50,000 techies in India lost jobs during September 2008-October 2009.

Bangalore was the worst hit in job losses as 40 percent of Indian IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) professionals work in the city.

Moreover, 80 percent of IT and BPO professionals in Bangalore have seen a cut in their pay packages and perks post-recession.

Over half a million people are employed in the IT industry across Karnataka spanning software services and IT-enabled services, including BPO and call centres.

As India’s tech hub, Bangalore accounts for about 450,000 jobs, with 300,000 in software services and the remaining (150,000) in back-office operations.

“Recession has taught me a good lesson. Save for bad times. Thankfully, I did not lose my job whereas so many of my friends were shown the door. These days I think twice before spending. I don’t spend unnecessarily,” said Apurva Agarwala, a software engineer.

Shweta Misra, another IT professional, said now she saves half her salary.

“I no more splurge. I make a budget for the month and make a good saving every month to tackle any situation,” she said with a smile.

Source : http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Recession_makes_Bangaloreans_cautious_shoppers-nid-63952.html/1/1

The new second generation outsourcing initiative will improve Telenor Norway?s operational efficiency, refresh its IT stack and make it more agile to respond to its customers changing needs, company officials said.

Ragnar Karhus, CEO of Telenor Norway, says through second generation outsourcing initiative the company is making the necessary adaptations to provide the customers with improved and more innovative services in relation to capacity, speed and stability, as well as better quality in both voice and data, and to facilitate current demands for accessibility.

The contract reinforces TCS? leadership position in the Nordic market, say TCS officials. A.S. Lakshminarayanan, vice president and head of Tata Consultancy Services  at Europe, says the contract underscores TCS’ ability to help global corporations optimize their ?Run the Business? cost and channelize those savings to undertake modernization projects that are delivered with reduced risk and increased certainty.

The telecom business unit is the second largest vertical for TCS, containing over 12,000 employees working for 160+ telecom clients worldwide. This modernization project by Telenor is being recognized as a landmark leadership move for the company.

According to Tom Olsen, head of TPI Norway, this contract marks an important milestone for the IT industry in Norway and signifies the acceptance of global service delivery in Norway and expect this deal to serve as a catalyst for other Norwegian organizations. TCS? investment in the Norwegian market appears to have positioned it well to capitalize on these opportunities. TPI believes this contract could well represent a shift in how Norwegian companies will approach IT.

Recently, TCS had been ranked as the number one service provider in the Nordic region by an EquaTerra  survey in which leading CIOs and CXOs in the Nordic region had rated the company ahead of all other providers in terms of customer satisfaction, quality, flexibility, risk and innovation.

Earlier in June TCS announced the availability of 9-1-1 Femtocell  solution, TMCnet reported. Wireless carriers and providers can make use of this solution to provide emergency services for their remote customers.

Source:http://ipcommunications.tmcnet.com/topics/enterprise-voip/articles/89348-tata-consultancy-services-telenor-norway-signs-multi-year.htm

HP last month lost a significant part of its central government business, the desktop component of its contract with the Department for Work and Pensions, to Fujitsu.

In an interview, Wilson said that EDS had traditionally eschewed local government business because of the small size and “very thin” profit margins of the contracts. However he said the sector is now looking more attractive to the company, partly because the HP sales force already has a relationship with most local authorities, partly because of demand for more consolidation of IT.

Wilson said that despite the Conservatives’ stated antipathy to large projects the need for “profound change” in the public sector would continue to require large procurements whoever wins the general election. However he predicted that a Tory government would implement at least a short-term freeze on procurements. “One thing that new ministers can do quite easily is to stop things.”

Source:http://www.ukauthority.com/Headlines/tabid/36/NewsArticle/tabid/64/Default.aspx?id=2728

Director General of NITDA, Cleopas Aganye, who made the observation in Abuja at the e-Nigeria 2010 summit press briefing, said many foreign investors were afraid of investing in ICT in Nigeria because of lack of legal framework upon which they can operate.

Arguing that in spite of his efforts to convince some of the foreign investors in ICT to invest in Nigeria, Aganye said the bottom line in their fear to venture into the sector in the Nigerian economy has been that there is no legal framework to work with.

According to him, the outsourcing initiative, which was initiated by the past administration, made him to travel to California to see if he could bring some of the Nigerians in Diaspora down, “but we have a problem that made most of them complained that they were afraid of fraudsters. They said if they were duped who will pay for them; who will be their guarantors and many at times if these things are in law court it is not easy to get justice.

“We need to have proper framework for this thing; another problem is cyber security. We don’t have a law to crack down cyber criminals, if you commit any ICT crime, it is not enforceable in the Nigerian court because we don’t have the legal backing yet.

“This is a big problem in the country. In fact, I was looking at the rate of cyber crime offences and I discovered that Nigeria’s rate is very high, our country is rated the sixth worse in the world.

According to him, the cyber crimes are among others include scam, which is generating unnecessary or unwanted mail. So we have the problem of network security, recalling that in 2008 NITDA sponsored cyber crime security workshop for all stakeholders, that have gone very far and it will be very useful in cyber-security law.

These he noted are some of the problems that have mitigated against the outsourcing security problems, which include power, also as a major factor.

As part of efforts to make Nigeria a hub if ICT, he said he went to Singapore to woo G-Link, a ICT factory which expressed interest in investing in Nigeria, as well as other investors who were willing to come to make Nigeria.

“But because of those problem highlighted all these people don’t want to come, since 2004 we sent a bill to the National Assembly, unfortunately the law was not passed until the last NASS tenure wounded up. But it has now be represented through sponsored bill and all what we are advocating for is to be passed the bill into law.”
Acknowledging the achievements of the agency, he said the agency has in 2006 sponsored an open programme in capacity building and most of the people that benefitted from the training got jobs.

“We have also achieved internet penetration in the country. If we look at the internet you will realized that we have moved forward initially, we were at 161 rating in 2006 but now we are at 100. Part of it also is that we have enhanced IT awareness.”

The DG said the agency has trained 6000 unemployed youths, 1000 each from each of the geopolitical zones, this is in addition to making available IT equipment for them.

The agency had before now advertised the institutionalizing two software development centres with the provision of IT infrastructure in 18 higher institutions to include internet access, computer infrastructure and other component that entail e-learning.

Source:http://allafrica.com/stories/201005030885.html

At a hearing today before United States District Judge David Hittner, Brown, who worked as a patient care assistant at Memorial Hermann Hospital at the time of the charged offense, admitted she stole the ?face sheet? printout containing the name, date of birth, Social Security number, address, employment information and other personal identifiers from a deceased patient?s medical records in February 2009. She then used the information to apply for a Target credit card on March 15, 2009. An investigation was initiated by the United States Secret Service (USSS) shortly thereafter after the patient?s widow notified the Social Security Administration about the credit card application. That investigation showed the credit card application was received online from an internet protocol address associated with Brown. The application listed Brown?s home address. When USSS agents confronted Brown about the application using the deceased patient?s information, Brown confessed to having stolen the patient?s personal identification information and using that information to apply for the Target credit card.

The statutory maximum punishment for a bank fraud conviction is 30 years imprisonment and a fine of up to $1 million as well as restitution if applicable. The aggravated identity theft conviction carries a two-year sentence to be served consecutive to any sentence imposed for the bank fraud conviction.

Brown?s bond was revoked immediately following her conviction and she has been ordered into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending her Nov. 5, 2009, sentencing date.

This case was investigated by special agents from the United States Secret Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jay Hileman.

Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office

Note: This incident was first reported on this site in May 2009 in Bits ‘n Pieces.

]]> http://www.termdirectory.com/memorial-hermann-worker-convicted/feed 0 http://www.termdirectory.com/cdi-survey-of-higher-education-it-decision-makers-reveals-growing-interest-in-outsourced-services http://www.termdirectory.com/cdi-survey-of-higher-education-it-decision-makers-reveals-growing-interest-in-outsourced-services#comments Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:07:33 +0000 admin http://www.directorysearch.us/ Continue reading →]]> A recent survey conducted by CDI IT Solutions (CDI), a division of engineering and IT outsourcing leader CDI Corp. (NYSE: CDI), reveals that higher education IT decision makers are becoming increasingly interested in outsourced services to help address key challenges and implement priority initiatives.

Results of the survey show that those making IT support decisions at higher education institutions are most challenged by efforts to effectively manage resources dedicated to the needs of their constituencies while still maintaining focus on their organization’s strategic initiatives. They are also finding challenges in:

* Disaster recovery (lack of adequate disaster preparedness)
* Quality assurance/testing (lack of standardization, lack of QA resulting in costly rework, lack of staff and time)
* Application development (have talent but lack IT process, standards and governance)
* Ability to stay on top of IT innovations and their impact on IT support models
* Security (threat of breaches)
* IT staff retention

As for immediate needs, the survey indicates that top IT initiatives for 2010 include:

* Disaster recovery and business continuity
* Content management and workflow
* Strengthening enterprise technology governance programs
* Expansion of service desk self-service
* Student computing & desktop virtualization
* Virtual computer labs

“As their CIO counterparts in the private sector learned in past business cycles, IT leaders at colleges and universities are beginning to recognize the value of outsourcing services to stretch tight budgets while maintaining quality service delivery to faculty, students and administration,” says Andy Cvitanov, President of CDI IT Solutions.

Half of the survey respondents indicated that they already outsource some IT services within their organization with the most common being those considered non-strategic in nature (student email, laptop distribution, printer support and project management, etc.). Noting that most opportunities would be in the QA/Testing and application development areas, nearly all believe outsourcing would be good for their institution provided they can:

* Successfully address outsourcing as cultural change with other internal decision makers
* Accept that an external service provider (ESP) can provide equal or better service than the institution itself and are willing to keep control by managing the ESP through Service Level Agreements

“Demand for services continues to grow as more innovative and non-traditional use of technology permeates into pedagogy, business systems and social computing models,” said one survey participant. “Demand for services requires us to evaluate our core competencies and where does it make sense to outsource to experts.”

“The results of our survey clearly show that IT outsourcing is perceived as favorable within the higher education community and the participants agree interest will continue to grow over the next few years,” continues Cvitanov. “Companies like CDI will prove to be an asset to those institutions as we provide them with high-value IT outsourcing solutions, ultimately allowing them to focus on their core organizational initiatives.”

Source:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cdi-survey-of-higher-education-it-decision-makers-reveals-growing-interest-in-outsourced-services-81976407.html

IBM Daksh was chosen for this award at the recent 2010 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards after it was evaluated and benchmarked against other leading service providers across the region, said a press release.

he company was conferred this recognition for showing exemplary growth and performance in 2009 in the Asia Pacific region.

The Contact Centre Outsourcing Service Provider of the Year Award involves multiple stages of evaluation by analysts and industry experts and is based on criteria comprising customer acquisitions, customer diversification, breadth of service offerings, financial performance as evidenced by revenue and revenue growth and overall contribution to the industry.

Pavan Vaish, chief executive officer IBM Daksh, said, ?This award reinforces our market leadership and is testimony to the sustained competitive advantage we provide to clients through innovative offerings and a global delivery footprint. ?

He added that it is indeed an honor to be recognized by Frost & Sullivan for having consistently added value to their customers and helping them enhance their growth and leadership position.

The award recognizes IBM Daksh?s extensive suite of end-to-end service offerings including business transformation outsourcing, hosted applications, and IT services on top of BPO services which attracts businesses as they strive to not just lower costs but also make their processes leaner and smarter to further enhance the customer experience.

Source:http://www.ciol.com/News/BPO/News-Reports/IBM-Daksh-named-best-contact-center-in-APAC/138039/0/