BizTech

BofA to send tech work, data to India

Do you want your personal financial data to be accessible in a country that rarely enforces privacy laws?

The original article can be found on SFGate.com here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/10/29/BUGL42L7N91.DTL

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, October 29, 2003 (SF Chronicle)
BofA to send tech work, data to India
David Lazarus

Bank of America snagged a lot of headlines when it announced this week
that it will create the second-biggest U.S. bank by acquiring FleetBoston
Financial for about $47 billion.
But virtually no attention was paid just days earlier when BofA said it
will move more operations abroad by setting up a subsidiary in India next
year to handle key tech functions, many involving sensitive customer
information....

David Lazarus' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He also can
be seen regularly on KTVU's "Mornings on 2." Send tips or feedback to
dlazarus@sfchronicle.com.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle

Reverse Offshoring: From China to SC

The article that begs the question, Could we save American jobs by inviting international companies to hire US workers in the US? Could this work for white collar jobs at higher salaries?

When Jobs Move Overseas (to South Carolina)

CAMDEN, S.C.
By YILU ZHAO

Published: October 26, 2003

WHILE many American manufacturers look to China as a place to make their products with cheap labor, an odd turnabout is taking place in this small town northeast of Columbia.

There, one of China's best-known companies, the Haier Group, is churning out refrigerators at a factory staffed by American workers.

The decision to build in South Carolina was a step toward the company's goal of making Haier a household name in America, like Whirlpool or Maytag. Haier argues that the plant saves transportation costs.

To the company, which had $8.5 billion in revenue last year, the plant is at the core of its vision to expand in the United States. The factory, completed in 2000 at a cost of $40 million, is designed to respond nimbly to American retailers, who stock little inventory but want to replenish supplies quickly when products run out, said David Parks, a senior vice president of Haier's American unit. Shipping refrigerators from Asia can take up to six weeks.

For the full story, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/business/yourmoney/26chin.html?pagewanted=1

White Collar Blues

White-Collar Blues
Professional jobs shifting overseas

The loss of more than 2 million jobs so far in the Bush
administration has been a particular source of anger among
Democrats. This was highlighted in early October with an
announcement by air-conditioner maker Carrier that it was moving
1,200 jobs from Syracuse overseas—a major blow to that upstate New
York city.

Continued job losses during what is supposed to be a slow recovery
are leading to calls for new laws to protect American manufacturing.
In fact, there is a much graver threat to American workers.

For the complete story, see
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=412_0_2_0_C

Laid Off Take Survival Jobs

Laid Off Take Survival Jobs
USA Today Story 10/23/03

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/429515091.html?did=429515091&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&desc=Laid-off+take+survival+jobs+to+pay+the+bills+

"....Two years ago, John Van Ness earned six figures and supervised
employees. Now, the laid-off Sun Microsystems manager sells plumbing
supplies at Home Depot.

"It's a job; it's a paycheck," says Van Ness, 57, of San Jose,
Calif., who lost his job in 2001 and has seen his income drop from
$125,000 a year to about $25,000. "But I'd like to get back to
something I really enjoy doing."

It's a growing lament. More workers who find themselves unemployed
are turning to survival jobs, taking hourly or part-time work to
make ends meet as the economic rebound drags on....."

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Laid-off take survival jobs to pay the bills ; Professionals turn to entry-level work:[FINAL Edition]
Stephanie Armour. USA TODAY. McLean, Va.: Oct 23, 2003. pg. B.01

Column Name: COVER STORY
Section: MONEY
ISSN/ISBN: 07347456
Text Word Count 1608

Abstract (Article Summary)
Another strong allure of survival jobs is health benefits. The number of Americans without health coverage jumped 5.8% in 2002, to 43.6 million, the largest increase in a decade, according to the Census Bureau. Some unemployed workers get health coverage through their spouses or COBRA, which gives some downsized workers the ability to continue group health coverage for limited periods at their own expense.

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USA TODAY Travel USA TODAY Job Center
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COPYRIGHT © 2003 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Krazny/KQED on Outsourcing

Michael Krazny hosted a talk show on KQED on October 23, 2003 about offshoring featuring David Lazarus, the SF Chronicle reporter who wrote about the woman in Pakistan who did work outsourced by UCSF, then threatened to post private medical information on the Internet if she didn't get paid. The program also included a CBS reporter, a SF Chamber of Commerce member, and an executive from an outsourcing firm.

Did you know that NYC parking tickets are scanned and then the digitized information is sent for processing in Ghana?

KQED FM radio: Bay Area at 88.5FM, Sacramento KQEI at 89.3FM, and 88.3FM in
Santa Rosa and 88.1FM in Martinez.

You can isten online (at any time). See
http://www.kqed.org/help/radio/radio-faq.jsp#ListeningOnline1

State and Local IT Outsourcing to Reach $23 Billion by 08

o Report: State and Local IT Outsourcing to Reach $23
Billion by '08

Reston, Va. -- Continuing fiscal pressure and the aging
government
workforce will help drive state and local information
technology
outsourcing from approximately $10 billion this year to over
$23 billion
by 2008, according to a new report released from INPUT, a
provider of
market intelligence to companies doing business with
government. "The
growth will become dramatic as retirements outpace the
ability of
governments to staff important technical functional areas,"
said James
Krouse, the manager of state and local market analysis at
INPUT. The
largest outsourcing needs are expected to come in the areas
of Medicaid
and welfare management.
http://makeashorterlink.com/?G1F721056

No US jobs, no purchasing power...

A BizTech member writes:

...Here's an interesting article in the 10-20 issue of US News
& World Report that suggests our so-called increase in US
productivity is because of outsourcing....
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/031020/opinion/20money.htm

Pakistani transcriber threatens UCSF

LAZARUS AT LARGE
A tough lesson on medical privacy
Pakistani transcriber threatens UCSF over back pay

David Lazarus Wednesday, October 22, 2003

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Your patient records are out in the open... so you better track that person and make him pay my dues."

A woman in Pakistan doing cut-rate clerical work for UCSF Medical Center threatened to post patients' confidential files on the Internet unless she was paid more money.To show she was serious, the woman sent UCSF an e-mail earlier this month with actual patients' records attached....

For full story, go to: www.sfgate.com

Offshoring in Iraq?

A friend fo SV Web writes....
..."did you catch this item on the news recently? Unemployed Iraqi
laborers are rioting against the US occupation forces because the companies
that received no-bid contracts for Iraqi reconstruction are cutting costs by
importing cheap, cheap labor from other Asian countries?"

An Outsourcing Breakfast

The following was sent to us by one of our BizTech members:

REPORT FROM SEP. OUTSOURCING iBREAKFAST
Outsourcing iBreakfast

CURTISS MONTGOMERY, CTG
ANTHONY GREENBERG, RAMP^RATE
STEVEN DELACASTRO, TATUM CIO PARTNERS
ROBERT BATTS, MANAGING PARTNER, OUTSOURCING INSIGHT

Outsourcing is on many people's minds, especially the offshore kind. But it may not be everything they say it is. Not every company can take advantage of it yet it raises the IT bar on all other companies it may drive business to local companies and consultants that can be competitive, even if they use their own form of outsourcing to compete.

The Outsourcing trend also seems inevitable and in the long run it may increase jobs. The problem is really one of managing the disruption of the interim period. And in this area, government and industry is woefully lacking.

The special iBreakfast at TECHNY (PC Expo) covered the economics, the management and rating issues and other practicalities that underly an outsourcing project by consulting and management companies:

For more about this event and the Outsourcing World event at TECHXNY read:

Offshore outsourcers grapple with U.S. backlash
By Marc Ferranti, IDG News Service, New York Bureau

NEW YORK (09/19/2003) - Though a variety of speakers at the OutsourceWorld show this week took pains to illustrate the benefits of offshore outsourcing -- pointing to the availability of relatively low-cost, highly educated service providers around the world -- a common theme among discussions taking place in the booths and aisles was the growing U.S. backlash against foreign IT competition.

The show was a part of TECHXNY in New York, which ended Thursday, and featured booths with outsourcing providers from all over the world, including Romania, the Philippines, China, Bulgaria, India, Egypt and even Nepal.

"A couple of people were here, pointing at me and telling me about how we are taking jobs away -- they were quite militant," said Nico van Rooyen, director of market development for B&Ti Solutions, a specialist in services for financial and insurance industries in Johannesburg, South Africa......
For the article, go to:
http://www.idgnews.net/intl/international.nsf/0/00256AF50054FFC100256DA600585EE2?OpenDocument