TECH NOTES

Survey shows U.S. slipping globally in IT use
Click title for source at InfoWorld.com…

The United States falls from first to seventh place in the World Economic Forum’s index of how well countries use IT to maximize development and competitiveness

By Fred O’Connor, IDG News Service
March 28, 2007

European countries and Singapore are leveraging IT better than the U.S., according to a study issued Wednesday by the World Economic Forum.

Denmark, for the first time, leads the “Networked Readiness Index” survey as the country that uses IT to maximize development and increase competitiveness. The U.S. fell to seventh in the rankings after placing first in last year’s study. Denmark came in third last year after starting to rise in the list in 2003.

The Danish government’s use of electronic services, regulatory structure, and telecommunications environment aided the country, according to the study. Conversely, the study attributed the U.S. slip to the “deterioration relative of the political and regulatory environment.”
(more…)

or a professional field that could use a lot more people of the female persuasion than we have, I have watched IT’s once substantial female presence dwindle over my long tenure in the field. From the increasingly harsh working conditions to out of control long hours, difficult supervisors, and a host of other reasons, our “better halves” have sought greener pastures in other forms of employment with negative effects on the environments they have left.

However, down in Australia we may be seeing something of a resurgence in our profession as women involved in the open-source community begin to make their own mark as they organize to thwart male-chauvinism in that island nation\sub-continent. Long rumored to be treated poorly on average by Australian men in general, these ladies are making a point of it by setting up an extension of the somewhat unknown women-based organization, “LinuxChix.org”.
(more…)

Every single career technician in the Information Technology field is concerned about the growing effects of outsourcing. And there isn’t a corporate manager who in defense of sending US jobs overseas doesn’t make the lofty claim that by doing so it makes the company more competitive. Even our politicians rush to judge this new industry trend as good for the country.

Somehow, the results don’t seem to be adding up too well for those defending this aberration in our labor market. And one has to wonder exactly how sending a few IT jobs to developing nations saves any company any real amount of money. For example if a company has around 65,000 employees internationally at an average salary of $100,000.00 each (averaging out all personnel) that would make the total salary outlay for this company approximately $6,500,000,000.00. That is a hefty sum for everyone involved.

Now let’s say the company decides to outsource 1100 IT employees to a developing nation (1100 people sounds like a common enough number these days.) where the equivalent salaries are only 25% of the corresponding American salaries. So what does this company actually land up saving? If we reduce the American salaries by 25% we would see a savings of $82,500,000.00.
(more…)

On Dr. Edward Deming…

see a complete overview on this business management scholar here…

In 1982, Dr. Deming, as author, had his book published by the MIT Center for Advanced Engineering as Quality, Productivity, and Competitive Position, which was renamed to Out of the Crisis in 1986. Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management’s failure to plan for the future brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. “Long-term commitment to new learning and new philosophy is required of any management that seeks transformation. The timid and the fainthearted, and the people that expect quick results, are doomed to disappointment.”

The article that follows is yet another expose on an increasing trend in the current outsourcing of technical personnel; that of existing technical hotspots that support the outsourced work are beginning to enjoy the rewards of capitalism. In this case, this translates into higher wages and mobility among techicians in such places as India, Russia and even China. This developing aspect of the outsourcing process for American corporations is forcing these companies to reconsider the underlying costs of their outsourcing programs while at the same time facing the same types of volatility that have been common in American technical employment markets; that of a rather high rate of mobility when the times and salaries are good.
(more…)