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Archive for August, 2011

Cisco Acquires Collaboration Software Maker Versly

August 30th, 2011

Cisco this morning announced that it has acquired San Francisco startup Versly, a privately-held company that develops collaboration tools that integrate with Microsoft Office applications.

Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but all Versly employees will be integrated into Cisco’s Collaboration Software Group (CSG) upon the close of the acquisition.

Versly builds plug-ins that enable groups of people to collaborate around content in Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and emails.

From the looks of it, the service was still in private beta, so this is a quick exit for Versly.

Here’s how Murali Sitaram, VP and general manager, CSG, Cisco, pitches the acquisition:

“Collaboration is a top priority at Cisco. With this acquisition we’re enhancing our collaboration offerings and improving the user experience by integrating social technologies within the business applications individuals and teams use at work.”

Versly’s software will be integrated into offerings such as Cisco Quad, Jabber and WebEx.

According to its CrunchBase profile, Versly was backed by seed funding raised from Accel Partners, Baseline Ventures, 500 Startups and a couple of angel investors, including Scott Dietzen, Kenny Van Zant, Jonathan Katzman and Rasool Rayani.

Source:http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/29/cisco-acquires-collaboration-software-maker-versly/

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Washington Conflict: Creating Jobs & Offshore Outsourcing

August 30th, 2011

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The President’s recent focus on job creation is on target with 15-20 million Americans currently out of work. His bus tour earlier this month was well timed and the President said a great many powerful and logical things to an important group of voters. He has finally latched on to the single most important topic facing America today. Unemployment. However his job creation efforts are facing some very strong headwinds. Case in point: Thousands of federal, state, and local governments are shedding jobs because of budget shortfalls and the private sector continues to expand the practice of offshore outsourcing. In essence, while President Obama helps to promote jobs coming in the front-door, the private sector continues to outsource jobs through the back-door.

Job Losses: Government & Information Technology

By most estimates America lost over 1 million IT jobs since 2000, which was due in a large part to offshore outsourcing. In addition, federal state, and local entities have reduced their payrolls by approximately 500,000 to 750,000 since the start of the financial crisis. With a Federal deficit projected to be around 1.3 trillion dollars for 2012, it is not likely that Washington will go on a hiring spree any time soon. In addition, the states are projected to have a 125 billion shortfall over this time period and expected to hemorrhage 15,000-25,000 jobs per-month over the next 12-24 months.

IT Jobs & India

The sad fact remains that American companies are accelerating their use of offshore outsourcing to places like India while millions of Americans remain unemployed. However, Washington can make important changes by imposing a tax on companies who fire American workers and replace them with foreign hires. Washington could impose a tax on the company outsourcing an American job, which carries with it a one-time charge of one year’s salary of the employee. For example, if a Java programmer on Wall Street making $55,000 was replaced by a person in Mumbai, then the company would be required to pay an up-front fee of $55,000 to the Federal government. The new tax would help to slow down this practice, while adding needed dollars to the Federal coffer. Why should Washington continue to allow private companies to give domestic jobs to foreign workers, or move them to foreign nations? There is little question that a strong lobby group hired by the outsourcing companies has had a great deal to do with it, but now with the 2012 Presidential Election coming up, it could be an excellent political topic to run with.

Presidential candidates from both parties have an excellent opportunity to bring the outsourcing topic into focus from now until November 6, 2012. While many consider it a political football, it will no doubt spark voter interest. Bottom line, it is time for Washington, both Democrats & Republicans to act and not turn a blind eye to this unfortunate practice.

Source:http://www.examiner.com/jobs-in-washington-dc/washington-conflict-creating-jobs-offshore-outsourcing

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Largest Outsourcing Website Freelancer.com Celebrates $100M in Freelancer Earnings

August 30th, 2011

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Freelancer.com, the world’s largest outsourcing marketplace, today announced that the site has passed $100 million in user earnings.

Freelancer.com CEO Matt Barrie says the figure proves that building a global team on a shoestring budget for any entrepreneur or small business is now a realistic, mainstream concept.

“More individuals and businesses are discovering exactly how far they can extend their competitive advantage using Freelancer.com,” said Barrie.

“Through an established platform like ours, outsourcing results in quality output while simultaneously reducing costs. We estimate that the US$100 million in projects paid out through the site has saved businesses around US$1 billion in equivalent skilled labor costs in industrialized economies.”

According to Freelancer.com, the United States and UK are the biggest outsourcing nations, followed by India, Canada, and Australia.

Through Freelancer.com, businesses can simply post a project on the site where millions of professional freelancers globally can bid to complete the work, starting from US$30, with the average job accomplished for under US$200. Employers are guaranteed to only receive high-quality, timely work from freelancers via the site’s Milestone Payment system — a system that withholds payment until the employer is fully satisfied with the delivered work.

“Employers want to know they’re hiring reliable and capable freelancers, so these decisions are not determined by price alone, but a combination of a freelancer’s bid, their reputation, and suitability to the task — determined by factors such as adherence to submission dates, quality of work and past employer feedback,” explains Barrie.

“Reputation is the most valuable long-term investment for a freelancer, and most freelancers establish their reputation by going above and beyond to provide exactly what businesses need. 1.2 million jobs posted on Freelancer.com to date is a tribute and testament to their professionalism all over the world.”

There are over 400 categories of work that can be outsourced or crowdsourced through Freelancer.com, with IT being one of the most popular. Freelancer.com has also recently launched a design contest site — the world’s largest — where users can get 18 different types of design, including logos, business cards, t-shirts, and more.

“You can get virtually anything done, whether it’s designing a website, data entry, or something as esoteric as designing an iPhone app so you can propose to your girlfriend! With Freelancer.com, 2.7 million professionals are readily available to deliver high-quality work at a fraction of the cost,” Barrie concluded.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/largest-outsourcing-website-freelancercom-celebrates-100m-in-freelancer-earnings-2011-08-29

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Call Center Outsourcing Provider VMC Adds New Jobs in San Antonio

August 30th, 2011

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VMC, a technology consulting and call center outsourcing company, announced it will add 40 new jobs this week at their Customer Care and Technical Support Center at Brooks City-Base.

The company is on a hiring spree and it also plans to add 120 new jobs to be filled by the end of September in San Antonio.

In April this year, VMC Consulting announced the opening of its Customer Care Center in San Antonio, Texas. The call center outsourcing center, located at 3300 Sidney Brooks Rd. Bldg. 532 in San Antonio, is a 35,000 square foot state of the art, 600-seat call center on the Brooks City-Base campus.

The call center outsourcing company is creating several opportunities to the people in San Antonio. The Support Center provides call center customer support services to consumers. VMC will be hiring Tier I support agents and quality assurance agents to begin working in a call center outsourcing environment, company officials said.

The growth of VMC has been significant over the past few months. The call center outsourcing company opened the Brooks City-Base location in December 2010, and started full-time call center outsourcing operations in January 2011.

“We continue to grow our operations to support our customers, and are happy to bring more new jobs to the San Antonio area,” said Kristin Carrico, chief operating officer at VMC, in a statement. “We have had great cooperation and support from the community, and continue to invest in our operations here.”

The 35,000 square foot facility is a newly furnished, 600-seat call center with expanded cafeteria on the Brooks City-Base campus.

VMC partners with businesses for competitive advantages through the effective application of people, process and technology. Using proven methodologies and talent and resources, VMC delivers targeted solutions for the unique business needs of its customers.

Source:http://call-center-outsourcing.tmcnet.com/topics/call-center-outsourcing/articles/212948-call-center-outsourcing-provider-vmc-adds-new-jobs.htm

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Wipro’s first rural BPO centre comes in Tamil Nadu

August 30th, 2011

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Opens with a 50 seat pilot project for an international client in the retail sector

The business process outsourcing arm of Wipro Technologies, Wipro BPO has opened its first rural backoffice centre at Manjakkudi in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The Manjakkudi centre has a capacity of 120 seats, and will open with a 50-seat pilot project for an international client in the retail sector.

Wipro plans to expand its rural BPO operations to 500 seats by March 2013 in Tamil Nadu, and to replicate this BPO model across other states in India, in the near future.

The company has collaborated with the public charitable trust Swami Dayananda Educational Trust for the Manjakkudi centre.

Based on the ‘back office to the back office’ (BOBO) outsourcing model, the focus of the centre is to explore the literate talent pool available in the region.

Graduate students between the age group of 21 to 25 will be employed in the Manjakkudi Wipro BPO centre, delivering a range of services to customers across industry sectors.

Wipro said the centre will have a fully equipped IT and physical infrastructure and will be compliant with standard security and regulatory requirements.

Wipro BPO provides onshore, near shore, offshore and hybrid delivery options in more than 28 centres in 11 countries.

Source:http://outsourcingbpo.cbronline.com/news/wipros-first-rural-bpo-centre-comes-in-tamil-nadu-290811

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RapidBuyr Launches New Daily Business Deals Site in Boston

August 30th, 2011

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RapidBuyr ( www.RapidBuyr.com ), a daily deal site catering exclusively to small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), today announced the launch of its local daily deals in its hometown of Boston. To kick off the Boston launch, several Boston landmarks have signed on to offer the inaugural deals, including a corporate teambuilding and customer appreciation experience at the Action Kitchen at the Seaport Hotel, a supercar driving experience at Motorsport Lab, a private corporate outing from Boston Duck Tours and a corporate package from the Lenox Hotel.

RapidBuyr deals offer businesses deep discounts ranging from 30-80 percent on important B2B/SMB products and services from Boston-based merchants. Offers range from computer hardware, software, web development and design, SaaS and cloud offerings, peripherals and IT outsourcing to marketing services, meeting space, staffing assistance, information subscriptions, office furniture and equipment, local services, travel and sporting and business events.

“RapidBuyr provides a great opportunity for us to reach new audiences with our corporate offerings through its growing network of partners,” said Dan Donahue, V.P. and Managing Director at the Lenox Hotel. “We’re thrilled to be a part of the kickoff here in Boston and look forward to offering new RapidBuyr deals in the future.”

Through a partnership with the Boston Business Journal and Mass High Tech, Boston becomes the ninth city in the growing RapidBuyr network, joining Cincinnati, Houston, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, Seattle, St. Louis and Tampa. The company is headquartered just north of the city in Concord and its founders are all Boston-area natives.

“We are pleased to bring Boston businesses some of the best deals around for local products and services – and to also help local merchants reach new audiences in this market,” stated Tom Aley, president and CEO of RapidBuyr. “We are very selective about the businesses and products featured through RapidBuyr. Our staff does its due diligence to make sure that each merchant makes the grade.”

Boston businesses can access RapidBuyr’s daily deals in a variety of ways:

Sign up for email alerts at www.rapidbuyr.com . Just provide an email address and a zip code.

Follow RapidBuyr on Twitter (@RapidBuyr) or Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/RapidBuyr ).

In addition to its website, RapidBuyr distributes daily deals through BuyerZone, the leading online B2B lead generation company, and American City Business Journals (ACBJ), the nation’s largest publisher of metropolitan business newspapers. By utilizing these channels, RapidBuyr’s deals reach a network of more than 11 million SMBs.

“RapidBuyr is giving SMBs the same money-saving opportunities big businesses enjoy by buying in bulk,” said Chris McIntosh, publisher of the Boston Business Journal. “We’ve seen a groundswell of deal-a-day sites aimed at consumers, and RapidBuyr is filling the void for business consumers. And, from a marketing perspective, it’s an excellent opportunity for local B2B product and service providers to expand their marketing outreach and grow their customer base with no upfront cost.”

Boston-based businesses that would like to become featured merchants on RapidBuyr can visit http://rapidbuyr.com/MerchantStreet for details. Local businesses that offer deals through RapidBuyr benefit from immediate increase in sales volume with same-day results with no up-front investment. Deals are cross-promoted through RapidBuyr partner sites and via social media through Facebook, Twitter and others to dramatically increase the audience reach. RapidBuyr offers merchants a trackable, measurable marketing channel that generates repeat business and builds customer loyalty.

In addition to local deals, RapidBuyr also offers national daily deals geared toward small and mid-sized businesses. Current national deals include a Lenovo G560 Series Laptop at 40% off for $299 and 69% off for a Canon Multi-Function Printer.

On the heels of its Boston launch, RapidBuyr plans to roll out local deals in up to 40 markets by the end of this year, bringing money-saving and new marketing opportunities to even more businesses in metro areas around the country. For more information and to check out the national or local deal in your area, visit www.rapidbuyr.com .

About RapidBuyr

RapidBuyr offers local and nationwide daily deals for small and medium-size businesses (SMBs). The site provides millions of businesses with deep discounts of up to 80 percent on products and services such as computers, software, peripherals, information subscriptions, general merchandise, local services, travel and sporting events. Founded by successful entrepreneurs from Amazon, Microsoft, CNET, Dow Jones and Ziff Davis, the company’s exclusive relationships with BuyerZone.com and American City Business Journals power local distribution and enable access to a highly targeted business audience. For more information, visit www.RapidBuyr.com .

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/rapidbuyr-launches-new-daily-business-deals-site-in-boston-2011-08-29

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Research and Markets Focuses on Next Generation Data Center Strategies

August 30th, 2011

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In its new report, titled, “Next Generation Data Center Strategies for Service Providers 2011,” Research and Markets focuses on the data center strategies for service providers in the year 2011.

From relatively basic services such as hosting and colocation to increasingly sophisticated services such as next-generation cloud computing offerings, the report examines strategies for data center service portfolio evolution. It also looks at strategies for winning greater IT services wallet-share among various customer types, including demand drivers and hurdles for IT outsourcing respective to each customer type, the company stated in a press release.

The report states that evolving their service portfolios from simple, low-touch services, service provides are investing heavily in data center infrastructure.

As businesses of various sizes outsource more of their IT operations to service providers, the market for data-center-based services is growing rapidly. Advances in virtualization and cloud computing make the economics of outsourcing IT infrastructure more compelling than ever, the report stated. While optimizing performance and security, the economic pressures of a long recession further encourage businesses to hand over more IT and data communication functions to experts who can distribute the cost of maintaining these functions, the report from Research and Markets stated.

The report looks at specific providers’ market positioning and service evolution strategies, including infrastructure development. According to the report, dynamics impacting build, buy and partner decisions facing service providers in this space, including analysis of recent M&A and partnerships. The report also focuses on how telecom companies fare with non-telecom companies in this market.

Recently, the company announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd’s new book “Data Mining in Grid Computing Environments” to their offering. Based around eleven international real life case studies and including contributions from leading experts in the field this groundbreaking book explores the need for the grid-enabling of data mining applications and provides a comprehensive study of the technology, techniques and management skills necessary to create them.

Source:http://dark-fiber.tmcnet.com/topics/3rd-party-colocation/articles/212789-research-markets-focuses-next-generation-data-center-strategies.htm

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