MORE than 800 job cuts were announced yesterday as outsourcing giant Serco consolidated functions following a series of acquisitions and administrators of Thamesteel cut most of its workforce.

Serco, which delivers back-office support for a range of industries including banking, insurance, travel and healthcare, is merging its business processing operations into a single global division.

The move will be combined with an overhaul of its UK management structure.

Its Scottish operations, which include Kilmarnock prison and a joint venture with Glasgow City Council that covers IT and property management, are likely to be unaffected as the axe falls mainly at the group’s headquarters near Basingstoke.

Chief executive Christopher Hyman said the changes would allow the FTSE 100 company to provide the kind of office operations that customers were demanding while improving “innovation and efficiency in our management structure”.

Serco’s recent acquisitions include the Listening Company in the UK, Intelenet in India and Excelior in Australia, taking its global staff to some 100,000.

The firm has previously warned that its divisions in the UK and US were facing “challenging conditions” in the face of central and local government cutbacks. Almost half of sales already come from outside the UK.

Serco also yesterday unveiled a £55 million contract with the British Army to provide training and support to military personnel prior to deployment on operations around the world.

It will involve training soldiers in essential language, culture and operational environment skills.

Meanwhile, about 350 workers at Thamesteel’s site in Sheerness, Kent, were yesterday told they would be made redundant in a “disastrous” blow to the steel industry.

Joint administrator Rod Weston, of accountancy firm Mazars, said: “Production at Thamesteel’s Sheerness plant ended several weeks ago and the company voluntarily entered administration. The administrators, unfortunately, had to inform the workforce that a large number of redundancies need to be made.”

Fifty workers are being kept to maintain the plant in full working order while the administrators work to try and find a buyer for the business.

The steel manufacturer, owned by a Saudi industrial group, operated from a 50-acre site in Sheerness, on the Isle of Sheppey, and had employed more than 400 full-time workers.

Source:http://www.scotsman.com/business/economics/outsourcing_giant_serco_to_axe_up_to_500_jobs_but_scots_escape_cull_1_2083572

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The country’s top outsourcing firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is expected to provide jobs to at least 25,000 people through their various projects as the Madhya Pradesh government cleared the decks for TCS to set up the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Indore.

Moreover, TCS is likely to provide job to over 10,000 local engineers as far the conditions set by the state government for providing land at subsidised rates to the IT giant.

According to TCS officials, the major projects would be operational by 2013 and will employ more than 25,000 people directly and equal number indirectly.

The TCS hubs in Indore will also provide businesses to hundreds of ancillary units. State cabinet had cleared the proposals to offer 100 acres of land to IT major TCS at the rate of Rs 20 lakh per acre.

Source:http://news.oneindia.in/2012/01/25/good-news-techies-tcs-to-offer-25000-jobs-in-indore.html

U.S. technology companies are investing more in machines than in people, but tech hiring is nonetheless rising, according to a new report by Forrester and a just-released National Science Foundation study.

There are several trends behind what is a pronounced shift in tech employment. Tech manufacturing is shrinking, thanks in part to automation and overseas production. Telecommunications is shedding jobs as the industry moves to wireless. But software and IT services are on the rise as more of the economy moves online.

High-tech manufacturing employment has declined by 28% since 2000, or about 687,000 jobs, according to the National Science Foundation (NSF) in its Science and Engineering Indicators 2012. The NSF’s high-tech definition is broad and includes communications equipment, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, aerospace and computer industries.

The value of the output generated by manufacturing employees in the last decade, however, doubled, according to the NSF, meaning it takes far fewer people today than it did just 10 years ago to produce a product.

As manufacturing jobs decline, the value of the work performed has doubled in the last decade, thanks, in part, to improved automation.
Manufacturing in the U.S. is increasingly becoming the assembly of components that are brought in from overseas; it is also increasingly automated, said Andrew Bartels, who prepared Forrester’s study.

The NSF report looks at a broad range of the tech industry. Forrester is looking at a much smaller segment: the high-tech industry, which includes IT and telecommunications.

The U.S. tech industry, by Forrester’s count, employed 3.2 million people by the end of last year. That represented a net gain of 42,000 workers compared to 2010 despite job losses in the telecommunications sector.

Nonetheless, the U.S. tech sector added 131,000 jobs last year in services and software development, according to Forrester. Although the tech sector provides only 2% of U.S. jobs, these IT jobs represent 6% of the total new private sector jobs created since the first quarter of 2010.

Holding back job growth are businesses that are investing in machines instead of people, said Bartels.

There was a 7% increase in business IT investment last year, but only a 1% increase in jobs compared with 2010, said Forrester. “Rather than add capacity, in the form of more workers, they are choosing to put their cash flow into technology to reduce cost,” said Bartels.

The telecommunications sector is losing jobs because of the shift from wired to wireless, which needs fewer workers. There is also increasing automation in that industry, said Bartels.

Telecommunications, which makes up about a third of tech employment, lost about 89,000 jobs last year.

The U.S. high-tech manufacturing employment chart defines tech broadly to include not only IT and telecom related industries, but aerospace, pharmaceuticals.
IT outsourcing also declined last year by 5,000 jobs, and is down 31,000 jobs from the recession, according to Forrester. Hiring by offshore outsourcers appears brisk; Tata Consultancy Services, for instance, reported this week that it added nearly 12,000 net new employees to its payroll in its most recent quarter.

Forrester’s overall count of 3.2 million jobs in tech is lower than the estimates used by some groups because it excludes semiconductor manufacturing and value-added resellers from its tech employment estimates. Bartels said it is trying to line up the data between tech companies that sell directly to businesses.

Forrester expects a continuing rise in software and services employment through this year, and sees tech purchases growing 6%.

Foote Partners, which researches employment data, said that U.S. data showed that 127,000 jobs were added last year in the government categories of management technical consulting services and computer systems design and related services.

Foote also believes the government is having trouble tracking IT growth because of the creation of hybrid IT-business professionals, people who have a combination of business and technology knowledge and don’t match government labor categories.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9223608/U.S._tech_firms_add_jobs_despite_automation

The forthcoming EDEX Expo 2012, an annual education and career exhibition to be held for the ninth consecutive time will be offering ‘walk-in job opportunities’ for prospective jobseekers in the Information Technology (IT) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sectors. Towards this end, for the first time, Sri Lanka’s leading computer firms are slated to participate at this exposition, scheduled to take place in Colombo and in Kandy, according to organisers.

“‘The walk in job opportunities’ is not new feature for Edex Expo, however, this is the first time that the IT/BPO sector will be taking part in it. This is not all, the other corporate institutions and several banks like HSBC and NDB will also be offering job opportunities,” Assistant Manager of EDEX, Sandamali Peramunarachchi told The Bottom Line.

Edex Expo 2012 will be held in Colombo at the BMICH from January 20 to 22 while it will be held in Kandy from January 27 to 28 at Kandy’s City Centre.

“With the IT/BPO sector becoming a thrust industry and the sixth largest export earner it has become the immediate employment multiplier for our youth with the potential of creating 50,000 jobs in the next three years,” Chairman EDEX 2012, Kumar Abeysinghe said speaking at a press conference held at Royal College premises in Colombo last week.

EDEX Expo will have a career booth to offer free career guidance to students with psychometric testing facilities whilst vocational training will also be given at the exhibition.

“This will help youth understand what kind of path they should take in building up their career. Also for those who are seeking employment, they can upload their CVs to our web portal and use other resources free of charge,” Abeysinghe said.

Meanwhile, EDEX is planning on helping underprivileged students with their ‘Donate new or reusable books to needy students’ campaign at EDEX Expo 2012.
“As this caters for students who have sat the two general exams, they can help students who don’t have the ability to access books. I request those who come for the exhibition to help these students by donating their books that are no longer useful for them,” Abeysinghe said.

Source:http://www.nation.lk/edition/biz-news/item/1356-it-job-opportunities-at-edex-expo-2012

SOME 100 technology jobs are to be created in Ireland by management consultancy group Accenture.

The high-skill jobs will be filled over the next year, and will be aimed at graduates and experienced specialists in areas such as Java, cloud computing, mobility and workplace collaboration technologies.

According to Mark Ryan, managing director of Accenture Ireland, the jobs are being created to meet client demand for technology solutions for their businesses.

“Over the last six months or so we are definitely seeing some upturn in terms of clients beginning to make decisions, particularly investment decisions in the field of technology,” he said.

Accenture is also benefiting from the fact that some of its clients are major exporters, he said, though domestically focused firms are also looking at technology to drive efficiency as they downsize.

Accenture provides management consultancy, technology services and outsourcing to private and public sector clients including Microsoft, Kerry Group and the Revenue Commissioners.

Some 50 per cent of the new jobs, which are based in Dublin, will be graduate positions. These are in addition to the 60 or so new graduate positions created by the company in the autumn as part of its annual graduate recruitment scheme.

The jobs are also separate to the 100 new positions announced by the company just over a year ago when it announced the opening of a new R D centre specialising in predictive analytics solutions, a form of analysis that applies statistical modelling to data. Some 100 jobs were due to be created over about four years. Mr Ryan says the investment is progressing ahead of schedule. Around 20 people have been hired for the new centre which opened in May, though he said that sourcing staff had proved challenging due to the highly specialist nature of the work.

He believes analytics is a major growth area in the Irish economy. “There is a huge amount of activity and interest in the analytic space,” he said.

Accenture, which has a presence in Belfast and Dublin, will have 1,400 employees following this latest announcement. The majority are based in the Dublin office.

Accenture is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has annual revenues of more than $20 billion. It operates in more than 120 countries, but does not break down financial results for each geographical region.

The announcement follows a number of job announcements by the IDA last week. This included the creation of 100 jobs by US software company Workday, which provides IT solutions and services to the financial services industry.

The IDA says technology is one of the major growth areas for the Irish economy, and will represent 40 per cent of all jobs created by multinationals in Ireland over the next few years.

The agency announced last week that 13,000 new jobs were created by IDA-supported companies in 2011. With 7,000 jobs shed during the same period, this left a net increase of 6,000 jobs.

Source:http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0109/1224310004217.html

Standard Life is cutting another 69 IT jobs at its main Edinburgh base as it continues to restructure its technology and customer service operations to reduce costs.

Earlier this month, the pensions and insurance firm axed 95 jobs in customer services at its Edinburgh and Glasgow sites, as part of the company’s drive to make £100 million in cost savings by the year’s end.

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In addition to the 69 jobs going in Edinburgh, a further 17 jobs in the company’s network and telephony division are being transferred to BT as part of an outsourcing deal.

Standard Life appoints digital head Standard Life targets £350m efficiency gain with IT
Standard Life claimed the headcount reduction would “ensure greater synergies, greater capacity to serve customers, and provide clarity of roles for our people”.

Standard Life has been considering outsourcing most of its IT operation. While this plan seems to have been shelved for now, the company said it couldn’t rule out further job cuts in the future.

The company started its £100 million cost-cutting drive in March 2010, and wants to reach the target figure by the beginning of 2012.

Standard Life has nevertheless said that technology supporting its growing online presence is a “key enabler” in its bid to launch financial products faster, and increase their scale and profitability.

In August, the company reported a 44 percent leap in half-year profits to £262 million, as it cut costs globally. In December 2010, Standard Life acquired IT supplier Focus Solutions for £42 million. The company sells technology aimed at automating the delivery of financial products and services across multiple distribution channels, including online.

Source:http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/careers/3321929/standard-life-cuts-scottish-it-jobs/

A leading IT company is to create 90 jobs over the next two years.
Version 1, a consultancy and outsourcing business, which has offices in Dublin, Belfast and Cork, made the announcement as it opened new headquarters in the capital.

Richard Bruton, Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, said the company has achieved astonishing levels of growth since setting up in 1996.

“If we are to get out of this crisis and create the levels of employment we need, we must create an indigenous engine of economic growth,” he said.

“Indigenous companies provide proportionately three times more benefit to the Irish economy than multinational companies, and while FDI (foreign direct investment) will remain a crucial part of our economic strategy, I am determined to support high-growth indigenous companies in every way possible.”

Mr Bruton pledged to continue to support more companies like Version 1.

Justin Keatinge, Version 1 managing director, said the company was halfway through a major recruitment programme announced in May.

“Our growth plans are on track with annual turnover increasing by 40% to 25 million euro this year. Based on a strong deals pipeline, we are forecasting an additional 20% growth in sales next year,” he said.

Meanwhile, cloud computing software firm Ammeon said it will create 20 jobs in Dublin and the country’s largest pet retailer, Maxi Zoo, is to create 15 jobs by opening its first store in the south-east, in the Butlersland retail park on the Cork Road in Waterford.

Source:http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/it-consultancy-creating-90-jobs-16083553.html

Nearly two-thirds of UK IT jobs are now with software houses and outsourcing firms, according to a report by specialist IT websites CWJobs and JobsAdsWatch.

The survey also shows an increase of 19% in IT vacancies advertised over the last 12 months, although growth in the last quarter has slowed with just a 1% rise in permanent roles.

Monday’s Reed Job Index for October showed the index for IT & telecoms jobs rise even more sharply, from 109 to 173 – with the single biggest month-on-month rise coming in the last month.

However, the CWJobs/JobsAdsWatch survey did show that public sector IT jobs have fallen 40% year-on-year.

SQL, C, C#, .NET and Java are still the most demanded skills in the sector, although SQL roles have seen a 2% decrease overall, the first since 2008.

Source:http://www.recruiter.co.uk/outsourcing-boosts-it-jobs/1011579.article

Power giant PNM said more than 20 local positions could soon be located elsewhere, even out of the country.

The power company said outsourcing the IT positions is a standard practice to keep things cheaper for its consumers.

Losing local jobs, however, doesn’t sit well with the residents.

“Anything that goes outside to a place where there are lower wages, it always hurts the local economy,” said PNM customer Troy Lowe.

Up to 21 slots may be affected by the change.

“We have an obligation to our customers to continually work to keep costs low,” company spokeswoman Valerie Smith said in a statement.

Right now, there are about 130 IT jobs throughout the utility.

Action 7 News learned an outside, New Jersey-based firm, which has some of its operations overseas in places like India, will take control of the jobs.

The move comes after the state’s Public Regulation Commission approved a 9.2 percent rate hike in August that PNM says was necessary.

Source:http://www.koat.com/news/29413879/detail.html

Offshoring has become so engrained in IT processes that 65% of businesses now do it for some aspect of their business, according to an annual survey of IT budgets and technology trends by the Society of Information Management (SIM).

This survey, which is based on data collected from CIOs and senior IT leaders at 275 companies, found that nearly a quarter of the companies using offshore services did so to run existing systems applications. And another 20% said they used offshore services to manage their infrastructure.

This survey is wide-ranging and offers a number of findings about how corporations and workers are dealing with continuing economic problems.

For instance, employee turnover in 2010 was 5.5%, almost the same level it is this year. From 2006 to 2011, employee turnover averaged 5.92%, reported SIM.

“The boomers that were expecting to leave aren’t leaving,” said Jerry Luftman, a management professor at Stevens Institute of Technology who heads SIM’s survey project.

The average tenure of a CIO is 4.36 years, the survey reported. That finding lines up well with similar surveys.

Companies aren’t cutting IT. Last year, 65% of the firms responding to this survey said their budgets would be equal or greater to the previous year. That increased to 83% this year, and 85% of the respondents said next year’s budgets would be equal or better than their current budgets.

Although the timing of this report was before the stock market’s August-September swoon, Luftman believes that respondents weren’t necessarily optimistic about the economy. “Nobody is confident that the economy is turned around,” he said.

The top management concern, according to the survey, is business alignment; the last concern, in the list of 10, is IT cost reduction. The reason IT cost reduction is such a low priority is that many companies are trying to leverage IT to reduce costs instead of cutting IT to save money, said Luftman.

The other IT priorities, in order, were business agility, business process management, IT strategic planning, IT reliability and efficiency, enterprise architecture, security and revenue-generating IT innovations.

Of the firms using offshore outsourcing, 58% had turned to Indian-based companies, with the next largest segment, China at 10%. That was followed by Mexico, 7%; Western Europe, 6%; and Eastern Europe, Philippines and the Caribbean, all tied at 4%. Russia and Brazil were tied at 3%, the survey said.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9220476/Two_thirds_of_U.S._tech_firms_send_jobs_offshore_survey_shows

The world’s largest mobile phone maker Nokia said on Friday that it had finished outsourcing 2,300 engineers to US-based global consulting firm Accenture.

“Nokia announced today that it has completed the transaction to outsource its Symbian software development and support activities to Accenture,” the company said in a statement.

Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop announced in February the company would phase out Symbian as its smartphone platform in favour of a partnership with Microsoft, resulting in the loss of 4,000 jobs and the outsourcing of around 3,000 Symbian developers.

The number of outsourced jobs is fewer than the 2,800 that Nokia estimated in June.

The engineers will continue to develop Symbian software for Nokia through 2016, according to the company.
The news that Nokia and Accenture completed the transfer came just a day after the Finnish mobile phone giant announced it was slashing 3,500 jobs in Romania, Germany and the United States.

Those job cuts came on top of the 4,000 Elop announced in April, when he said no more layoffs were expected “for as far as we can see into the future.”

Source:http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jLhVDsrZ4SJBWge3hJ446YoOtZww?docId=CNG.d5da9c3e980f229e1b5b0dbbd6839895.5d1

Arvato, which provides outsourcing services to businesses, is to create up to 150 jobs in its Irish finance division over the next three years. The company says 30 vacancies are currently available.

The new positions are in IT, consulting, finance and accounting, project management and customer service. The company is adding the new jobs because of increased demand for outsourcing services in Ireland and internationally.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny made the announcement, which comes as the company marked 15 years in Dublin. Arvato, part of the German media group Bertelsmann, already employs 1,200 people in Ireland.

Source:http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0921/jobs-business.html

Major US corporations often don’t reveal the percentage of their workforce that’s overseas—even as some of these firms, including Apple and Pfizer, seek tax breaks that they say would allow them to create more jobs at home, the Washington Post reports. While they’re required by law to present such figures to the Commerce Department, officials have agreed to release the data in aggregate form, without revealing individual firms’ breakdown of US and foreign workers. That means lawmakers are stuck battling unemployment without knowing which firms are US-job creators.

“It’s an important piece of information that the American people should have,” says an analyst. “Should you listen to the kind of advice these companies have about how to grow the economy when their record and their model indicates they’ve cut jobs? … Or should we talk to people who actually do create jobs in the United States?” While some firms say they keep the numbers quiet in a spirit of competition, a manufacturing advocate believes otherwise. “Outsourcing has become a lightning rod, and the media coverage they’re likely to get is unfavorable,” he says. The combined figures show that between 2000 and 2009, multinationals cut 2.9 million US jobs and added 2.4 million abroad.

Source:http://www.newser.com/story/126486/apple-pfizer-among-firms-urging-tax-breaks-but-keeping-outsourcing-data-quiet.html

Fifty Cochocton jobs are being outsourced to other countries as Coshocton experiences the loss of another plant, Ansell Occupational Healthcare.

Port Authority Director Dorothy Skowrunski said her office, the city, county and Ohio Department of Development all reached out to the company to see what could be done to keep them in town. However, Ansell is an Australian company and has been phasing out production in Coshocton. Mexico and Sri Lanka will be the beneficiaries of the outsourcing.

It’s not a total loss, as the 50 jobs represent the production arm of the company that manufactures protective gloves for the health care and industry. About 25 regional technical/quality support employees will remain. They can operate independently of manufacturing, according to the company’s statement.

Coshocton, which has a 12.2 percent unemployment rate according to the June figures, has been rocked by job loss. In all, the county has lost 1,792 manufacturing jobs from 2001 to 2009, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Labor Market Information. Some of those were the results of companies like General Electric, JII Promotions and Pretty Products leaving town. American Electric Power Conesville Generating Station will lose about 20 good-paying jobs by the end of 2012 as it shuts down a generating unit to meet environmental protection agency air quality standards.

The end of an era
Ansell, which started in Coshocton as Edmont Manufacturing Co., has been making gloves in Coshocton for 78 years. At its height, more than 400 people were employed locally.

The layoffs will begin in late November, with all transitions completed by the end of December, according to company officials.

The plan aligns with Ansell’s strategy to optimize its operational footprint and streamline its supply chain, according to a statement released by the company.

Skowrunski said local discussions included help with the Coshocton Job Creation Tax, the Enterprise Zone tax, the Port Authority Revolving Loan Fund and Coshocton County Job and Family Services committed to training new employees or continued training for current employees.

The Port Authority did assist in a search for a location for about 25 regional technical/quality support employees who will remain.

“The Port Authority has served as a liaison as they searched for a location, so we’ve been able to keep those jobs,” Skowrunski said.

The fate of the existing buildings is yet to be determined, according to the company.

The company owns several parcels on 14th and Orchard streets. The largest parcel, at 1300 Walnut St., is valued at just more than $1 million, according to the Coshocton County Auditor’s website.

With the local economy being hit hard, Skowrunski said the county hopes to get a financial boost from the Marcellus Shale drilling industry.

Skowrunski said talks with nearby Guernsey County officials have yielded some positive information. As leases are signed for drilling rights at $3,000 to $4,000 per acre, farmers in that area are paying off mortgages, buying new equipment and spending money in other ways, she said.

Likewise, Guernsey County officials said office space and private rentals are filling up, and businesses like restaurants, hair cutters, grocery stores, gas stations, and merchants are reaping the rewards as employees of the gas drilling companies come to the area.

“It’s coming, and it’s going to be about a four-year boon,” Skowrunski said. “We’re looking for entrepreneurs who’ll be able to take advantage of this boon and make it through the bust.”

She and Chamber of Commerce Director Carol Remington have been compiling information to assist area business owners with taking advantage of the influx of visitors that’s expected to arrive in the coming months.

Mayor Steve Mercer could not be reached for comment.

Coshocton’s employment status
While closures have occurred in recent years, some long-time larger employers have been able to weather the economic storms.

Clow Water Systems, a division of the McWane Co., was able to bring its work force back up to about 380 employees, including production and office staff, after a layoff of more than 100 employees in the fall of 2009.

After experiencing financial concerns the past couple of years Coshocton Hospital has started to see a positive financial turn around. It came with a personnel loss, as 21 employees were laid off, another 50 were let go with the extended care sale, and others have left or retired and their responsibilities were redistributed, reducing payroll from 667 people in February 2010 to 552 now.

Employment at RockTenn, the former Smurfit-Stone Container Corp., remains constant at about 200 employees. There are currently about 415 employees at AK Steel Coshocton Works, back up from a drop to 342 when layoffs took place in 2008.

In the meantime, with 2,100 people out of work, jobs are being patched together one business at a time.

Skowrunski said small businesses continue to chip away at the unemployment at a rate of one, five or 10 employees at a time.

The Port Authority has helped some small businesses in the county startup or expand, including Three Rivers Therapy Services, Uncorked, Evo Manufacturing, Party Package, Too and Mission Auto Connection.

Other businesses that have opened or expanded without Port Authority help in the past couple of years include Crowtown Pizza, Woodbury Outfitters, Coshocton Furniture and Edie Ryan’s Family Restaurant.

Source:http://www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/article/20110819/NEWS01/108190306

Some American corporations are retaining a small, but highly-prized slice of software jobs at home, mindful of the record unemployment levels and the anger among locals who see work being shipped overseas.

For Indian software providers such as TCS, Infosys and HCL, such a development – it is not expected to become a mainstream trend – could chip away a fraction of new jobs that could have been offshored to them. In an interview with Bloomberg on Monday, Charlene Begley, chief information technology officer of GE, said his company was rethinking the strategy of outsourcing more than half of its IT work.

Already, GE has announced plans to add 15,000 jobs in the US over three years, 1,100 of which will be at the Detroit IT centre. Walmart has also decided to drive the development and design of its ecommerce platform from a new centre in Brisbane, California.

WALMART PUTS OFF BANGALORE CENTRE

Walmart will not open its own captive technology centre in Bangalore, a person familiar with the retailer’s decision said last week. In the latest job posting on its website, Walmart has advertised nearly 150 new technology jobs in Bentonville, Arkansas. “Some of this, let’s say at least a quarter of these, could have easily been managed out of a captive centre Walmart was evaluating to open in India,” the person said.

At least a dozen executives at US-based firms and local American authorities said more companies would shift highend technology jobs as they are under pressure from their local constituencies to create jobs. “Companies like GE are under social pressure to demonstrate they care by creating local jobs. They have been practising economic sense for years and reaped enough profits,” said a senior executive at one of the top US tech firms. He requested anonymity because his company counts GE among its top customers.

In January, GE Chairman & CEO Jeffrey R Immelt was named the head of US President Barack Obama’s panel on jobs and competitiveness, which also includes the leaders of America’s biggest firms, including Xerox and Intel.

“There is pressure to create jobs in the marketplace, as well as demands on technology to create revenue impact in the front office. Both these trends actually play to create jobs in onsite locations – the former as a good corporate citizen, and the latter in recognition of the new levels and roles that IT has to play in these days of mobility, social networks and advanced analytics,” said Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies.

He declined comment on GE’s outsourcing strategy but said customers are increasingly asking vendors to play a role. “For instance, if you were to look at what has been happening in HCL, the cosourcing deals we do with customers have already brought 9,000 employees who were with customers into HCL ranks,” Nayar added.

Co-sourcing involves the transfer of a client’s workforce to the payroll of the vendor, a switch which ensures job security to local workers who would then become part of multi-year outsourcing contracts. Experts say creation of more local jobs in the US is not likely to have any material impact on India’s $60-billion outsourcing sector.

“The costs of switching out of outsourcing relationships are too high for most, but I think you can expect to see more companies finding ways to create jobs in the US,” said Esteban Herrera, COO of US-based HfS Research, which advises customers on outsourcing.

“But it is likely GE will be sending less high-end work to India based on this strategy; meaning growth, and especially growth in complex processes and services, will likely decrease or stop altogether.” While GE has been outsourcing to India for over three decades, Walmart started its offshoring pilot with Infosys only last year.

GE currently outsources nearly $1 billion of software development and backoffice projects to Indian companies such as TCS, Wipro, Genpact, Patni Computer and MindTree. TCS is GE’s largest Indian IT vendor, accounting for about $200 million of business a year. Genpact, originally a GE back-office captive, currently gets almost 40%, or around $450 million, of its revenues from the company.

“As a percentage, the jobs moving back are very small. For example, if 500 out of 60,000 jobs move back it is a drop in the ocean. The kinds of jobs that are moving back are select, niche jobs such as design. Politics is a factor, but it is not the only factor why this is happening,” said Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of iGate, which counts GE among its top customers.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/jobs/tcs-infosys-mindtree-hcl-and-other-indian-it-companies-to-suffer-as-angry-america-wants-its-jobs-back/articleshow/9546753.cms

“I have had enough of IT as a career,” – This is the feeling that creeps into the thoughts of many professionals working in the information technology industry and it’s spreading in a fast rhythm. Yes, IT is going through a phase of exciting growth which it has never experienced; however, there is an alarming number of professionals who feel that they have reached the saturation point in IT which doesn’t excite them any longer. Despite the positive demand for outsourcing and offshoring and companies offering hefty pay packages, many consider quitting the field and switching over to something interesting and challenging. A short peek into major reasons behind this spreading trend:
1. Stress
It’s a wrong notion to believe that IT is an easy career which pours in a lot of money. The stress level is so heavy here that people often find it had to cope with. IT disaster management is the best example to assess the stress level associated with the job. The nature of the job is highly risk associated and a failure can cost you the job. The close deadlines, impossible targets, and escalating customer demands are beyond one’s ability to manage at a time.

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/5_reasons_why_people_quit_IT_Jobs-nid-86977.html

EXPECTATIONS for the outsourcing industry have been scaled down but are better compared to the more uncertain view recently offered for merchandise exports.
Officials of the Export Development Council (EDC) and the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) have pegged industry growth for 2011 at 18% and 20%, respectively, down from last year’s 26% surge to $8.9 billion.

This compares to merchandise exporters describing their 10% growth goal a “fighting target” given concerns over a recovery in Japan, the unresolved debt crisis in the euro zone and continued unrest in the oil-producing Arab world.

Last year, outbound merchandise shipments rebounded by over a third to $50 billion.

“Since the growth in IT-BPO (information technology-business process outsourcing) has been robust at over 30% in recent years, it was felt that it would be more realistic to have a slightly lower target because the base itself is expanding rapidly and it would be difficult to project the same or higher rate,” EDC Executive Director Senen M. Perlada said in a text message yesterday.

The outsourcing sector is more optimistic, with BPAP Executive Director Gillian G. Virata saying the forecast is for revenues to grow by a fifth to $11 billion. The Contact Center Association of the Philippines (CCAP) is also similarly upbeat.

“A target of around 15-20% for the BPO industry is a conservative growth rate,” Jojo J. Uligan, CCAP corporate secretary and executive director, said on Saturday.

“The base is expanding, which is why it’s more difficult to achieve larger growth rates now, but the voice-based customer service industry is far from its saturation point,” Mr. Uligan added.

“Majority of our accounts are still from the US, but there are other English-speaking countries out there we can tap such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand,” he continued.

“We’re also encouraging companies to expand outside Metro Manila [to areas] such as Cebu, Baguio, Batangas, Laguna, Cavite, Davao, Dumaguete, Cagayan de Oro, and Iloilo to increase their risk management abilities and lower their vulnerability to things like natural disasters.”

The call center industry ended 2010 with 344,000 jobs and $6.1 billion worth of revenue, a 21% rise from 2009, BPAP data show.

“[O]ur industry is close to 370,00-380,000 employees, but we are aiming for more than 420,000 jobs generated by the end of the year,” Mr. Uligan said.

“Most of all, we are moving to higher value adding for voice-operated customer services for the next several years, since our workforce now is more technically capable and more knowledgeable compared to three to five years ago,” he noted.

The BPAP has drafted a six-year medium-term development plan to generate $25 billion in revenue and 1.3 million jobs.

Source:http://www.bworldonline.com/content.php?section=TopStory&title=Prospects-better-for-BPO-firms&id=33060

Six American firms with combined estimated investments of $100 million are outsourcing their non-voice services to the Philippines and are expected to create 10,000 jobs, Board of Investments managing head Cristino L. Panlilio said.

Panlilio, who has just arrived from an investment mission abroad, refused to identify these firms but said these are new players in the market.

Earlier, the BoI also reported that leading American insurance firm AETNA will tap Filipino nurses without jobs to provide clinical support for its insurance claims and to provide service to home care patients in the US .

Board of Investments executive director Fe Reyes-Agoncillo said there are two components for this niche project.

“There are 30,000 unemployed nurses in the country and some of them have the opportunity to provide clinical support to these American patients,” Agoncillo said.

AETNA has tapped EXL Service, a local firm that directly transacts business with AETNA .

For the first project component, Agoncillo said that 250 nurses are already working to provide assessment on medical claims by patients who are going to undertake treatment of their illnesses.

The potential is to hire a total of 500 Filipino nurses who would undertake the job.

According to Reyes, Filipino nurses’ job here is to evaluate requests for insurance coverage and relay back to the US their assessments. Filipino nurses, however, cannot deny a patient’s requests for insurance coverage.

Should their evaluation say a particular request should be denied because it is not covered, all they have to do is forward it to the US where an American doctor would be the one to convey the denial of such request.

This job was used to be undertaken by nurses and doctors in the US but the American insurance firm has decided to outsource this service to the Philippines Nurses would fit this job because they are at least familiar with the technical terms and ailments.

The other project component also involves the hiring of services of nurses to provide home care patients to American patients.

This team of nurses will take on the services that nurses in the US used to provide to home care patients. Nurses in the US either call or visit home care patients to check on them, if they have already taken their medicines, among others.

In this case, the Filipino nurses in Manila will call the home care patients to check if they have taken their medication and determine if they are well.

This team will start with 250 nurses in the next 12 months and is hoping to ramp up to 1,000 in a couple of years as more business come in.

This is a niche job, a combination of voice and non-voice, Reyes said.

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/320571/6-us-companies-investing-100m-bpo-generating-10000-jobs

The potential savings that could result from hiring a private firm and outsourcing the work done by custodians who are district employees shocked some members of the Colts Neck K-8 School District Board of Education.

Board Vice President Fred Garber, who has been the Finance Committee chairman, spoke about the bids during the board’s May 11 meeting.

Colts Neck recently joined with the Marlboro K-8 and Freehold Borough K-8 school districts in soliciting bids on the cost of private janitorial services. None of the districts was or is under any obligation to accept any of the bids that have been received.

Garber said the bids have been received and it appears that by outsourcing 10 night positions, Colts Neck could save about $200,000 per year. He said the biggest savings came through the health care costs.

The pros and cons of outsourcing the janitorial services will be weighed. Garber said the information was delivered to the district’s union, the Colts Neck Township Education Association (CNTEA). Garber said he is hopeful a different solution to outsourcing can be identified.

Christine Gold, who was chairing the Negotiations Committee, said the CNTEA has been offered a chance to suggest cost reductions to compare to the savings seen through the possibility of outsourcing certain jobs.

A teacher from the Cedar Drive Middle School who was present at the meeting said while the numbers may be good, outsourcing the district’s custodians may not be in the best interest of students.

No decision about whether to outsource the janitorial services was made at the May 11 board meeting. It is expected that the discussion among the involved parties will continue.

Source:http://newstranscript.gmnews.com/news/2011-05-25/Front_Page/Outsourcing_jobs_could_save_money.html

Capita is looking to send a number of Birmingham City Council IT jobs overseas, to India.
The affected jobs are with Service Birmingham, a controversial £1 billion outsourcing contract the council has with Capita to provide ICT, contact centre and revenue services until 2021.

“As part of our ongoing partnership with Birmingham City Council we are exploring how we can utilise some overseas expertise to help deliver a cost-effective addition to our existing Birmingham operation,” a spokesperson for Service Birmingham said.
“We are talking about a limited number of back office technical roles. No customer-facing staff will be affected.”
Around 55 back office technical roles are being considered for offshoring to by the end of summer 2011. Another 45, taking the total number of affected roles to 100, could potentially go by the end of the year.
“It is still early days and we will actively work with our trade union representatives as our plans develop.
“It is important to emphasise that this is a very small element of the work we do for the council and we remain absolutely committed to our Birmingham workforce,” the spokesperson added.
On the Service Birmingham website, the council’s IT investment is described as the “bedrock” of the council’s transformation programme, which aims to “deliver cost savings of £1 billion over 10 years”.
Since the partnership was established in 2006, it said it has helped to improve the council’s IT infrastructure by investing £2 million in a new server estate, and consolidating seven service desks into two. It has also helped to rationalise 550 system applications to 150.
However, in 2007, the council’s new SAP e-procurement system kept crashing, which reportedly caused suppliers to send round bailiffs to collect unpaid bills.
At one point, there was a backlog of 20,000 to 30,000 unpaid invoices. But in 2009, Councillor Paul Tilsley said the system was rescued and was working, praising the “radical and nationally acclaimed transformation programme”.
In order to save £300 million a year over the next three years, in response to the government’s Spending Review, Birmingham City Council in February announced plans to increase outsourcing and expand its shared servicesefforts.
Last week, Lancashire County Council became the latest local authority to form a public/private partnership, called One Connect, to operate its back office functions. It signed a 10-year contract with BT to outsource its IT, customer service, HR and procurement functions.
It made the move despite years of successful benchmarking to ensure year-on-year cost efficiencies and improved services at the authority’s in-house IT operation.

Source:http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/careers/3281418/birmingham-city-council-it-jobs-may-be-offshored/