Outsourcing
John Hagel Blog, 3/31/04: Capturing the Real Value of Offshoring in Asia
This is a working paper arguing that most companies significantly misunderstand the real value of offshoring. Maintains that offshoring should be viewed as an offensive competitive weapon, rather than simply as a defensive, cost-reduction measure. Companies that recognize this will not only restructure their own operations but increasingly will restructure entire industries as well.
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eWeek, 3/30/04: Study: Outsourcing Tech Jobs Helps Economy
By Rachel Konrad, AP Business Writer
Outsourcing white-collar jobs to low-wage countries such as India and China has thrown some Americans out of work, but a new report predicts that the trend will ultimately lower inflation, create jobs and boost productivity in the United States.
The Information Technology Association of America, in a survey set for release Tuesday, acknowledges that the migration of tech jobs to low-paid foreigners has eliminated 104,000 American jobs so far, nearly 3 percent of the positions in the U.S. tech industry.
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Gartner, 3/26/04: Infrastructure Support Services Forecast: Worldwide, 2002-2007 (Executive Summary)
Market Overview
Global expenditure on all types of IT products and services, including computer hardware, software, IT services and the telecommunications market, amounted to $2.3 trillion in 2003 and is forecast to grow at a 4.9 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) between 2002 and 2007. During 2003, this market encompassed $579 billion of various types of IT services, and telecommunications services made up another $1,298 billion. The remainder is hardware and software product sales. The IT services segment, in comparison with other segments of the market, is second in size and had higher growth in 2003 (7.9 percent) than other elements of the IT market despite the tough economic climate. Vendors and customers are increasingly consuming their IT value as service rather than capital.
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IT Management
Forrestor, 3/26/04: Projected 2004 IT Spending Growth: Inching Upward
by Andrew Bartels
with Tom Pohlmann and Ryan Hudson
If there were doubts about the tech recovery in the US, the final 2003 IT investment data from the US Department of Commerce and data from vendor earnings reports put them to rest. The fourth quarter of 2003 turned out to be a particularly strong one, especially for computer hardware and network equipment. Moreover, in its January GDP release, the US Department of Commerce revised upward its numbers for recent business investment in information technology. The strong economic and profit growth of 2003 nudges our projected growth for 2004 IT spending up a notch, from 4% to 5%. Spending on IT outsourcing will be higher than we had expected and computers and software will be slightly stronger, but spending on network equipment will grow more slowly from significantly higher 2003 levels. With higher demand, expect prices for IT goods to firm.
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Forrestor, 3/25/04: Best Practices For Infrastructure Change Management
Regain Control Of Runaway IT Infrastructures
by Jean-Pierre Garbani
with Laura Koetzle, Thomas Powell, and Stephan Wenninger
In IT, change is an engine of progress, as well as a source of doom. End user applications, operational disciplines, and IT vendors are major sources of continuous change. While application software change control is a relatively mature process, many organizations implement infrastructure change manually, relying primarily on the IT staff ’s knowledge and expertise. This ad hoc process is nearing its limits in today’s complex environment, where the risks inherent to changes multiply. Reducing human error through an automated process promises direct and indirect IT savings, as well as a more efficient business support. In the long run, with the emergence of business service management and Organic IT, infrastructure change management helps firms regain control of the infrastructure and take a necessary first step toward data center automation.
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Mobile
eWeek, 3/29/04: BlackBerry Is Branching Out
By Carmen Nobel
Research In Motion LTD. is working on new products and carrier partnerships that will mean easier deployment and more choices for IT managers.
RIM this summer will release the next version of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server, said Jim Balsillie, co-chairman and CEO of the Waterloo, Ontario, company, in an interview at last week's CTIA Wireless show in Atlanta. The most significant feature of BES 4.0 is that it has no footprint on the desktop, Balsillie said. As a result, IT managers can provision the software to devices remotely; previous versions required a desktop install.
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Microsoft
Computerworld, 3/30/04: Gates suggests 2006 Longhorn release
Microsoft will release an alpha version of Longhorn later this year
News Story by Joris Evers
Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates yesterday suggested 2006 as the release year for the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn.
Speaking at Gartner Inc.'s Symposium/ITxpo event in San Diego, Gates stopped short of actually setting a deadline for Longhorn, but he said industry speculation that the operating system will come out in 2006 is "probably valid."
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