Tag Archives: Outsourcing

Weekly recap: 8 best cities for IT jobs, business uses for tablets, and more…

February 17, 2012NewsIT Skills, Mobile, Mobile apps, OutsourcingJoe Stangarone

Education Every Friday, I share the most interesting and useful tech articles that I’ve found over the past week. This week’s top articles cover a wide range of topics, from changing enterprise software to mobile apps to outsourcing and much more. I hope you find them useful:

9 powerful business uses for tablets
You’ve probably heard all the talk about tablets in the business. The real question is: How can my company use tablets? This slideshow shares some great ideas and examples of ways other companies are using tablets in their business.

7 key skills new IT grads are lacking

October 13, 2011EducationIT Skills, OutsourcingJoe Stangarone

Education I hear conflicting reports about IT skills in the US. On one hand, I hear that many good IT professionals have lost their jobs to outsourcing. I hear cries to “stop outsourcing American jobs overseas.” It’s even turned into a political battle.

But, on the other hand, I hear companies saying they can’t find qualified workers. They claim to outsource due to the lack of available skills here in the U.S. Which is it? Is that just an excuse to go the cheaper outsourcing route, or have American IT workers largely failed to keep their skills current?

Why are so many IT departments outsourced?

March 18, 2011Save MoneyOutsourcingJoe Stangarone

Save Money Do you know why so many IT departments get outsourced? Because many businesses view IT as a service organization, existing only to support the business. They view IT as “order-takers,” not innovators. From their perspective, if the IT department exists only to take orders from the business, why not outsource?

I think that perception needs to change, and I’d like to show you how.

13 biggest technology myths

February 17, 2011EducationOutsourcingJoe Stangarone

Education Is using a cell phone on a plane during takeoff really dangerous? Will a magnet really erase your hard drive? If you think you know everything about tech, check out this article/slideshow on Infoworld.com entitled, “Technology’s biggest myths.” How many of those myths did you actually believe?

The article got me thinking: What are the biggest business technology myths? Are there any commonly held beliefs about business tech that aren’t as factual as most people believe? While I’m sure there are plenty of myths, here’s one that really jumps out to me:

How to think like an outsourcer and save jobs

December 13, 2010ProductivityApplication Development, OutsourcingJoe Stangarone

Save Money Offshoring isn’t a welcome topic among IT departments. Many jobs have already moved overseas and many IT professionals know that poor company performance increases the chances of offshoring their own jobs. According to a CIO.com article entitled, “Why IT jobs are never coming back,” the future doesn’t look any better for IT workers in the US.

I don’t want to focus on doom and gloom, I want to tell you how thinking like an outsourcer can save jobs.

5 low-risk, high-reward experiments for IT

May 20, 2010Save MoneyGeneral Advice, OutsourcingJoe Stangarone

Save Money This article on Computerworld.com gives some great advice for IT departments. It gives you ideas of things you can try to make IT more strategic to your business. As long as the business views IT as an order-taker, IT is at risk for outsourcing. When IT starts providing business benefits and technology ideas that help the bottom line, the business will start to see IT as a valuable asset.

Where is the best place to outsource?

March 15, 2010Save MoneyApplication Development, OutsourcingJoe Stangarone

Save Money Someone in one of my LinkedIn groups asked this question: “Where is the best place to outsource?” Now, he was from an outsourcing company and was only trying to raise awareness for his company, but the responses made me smile.

Most responses mirrored my advice: Avoid outsourcing if at all possible and keep it in house. I understand…many companies outsource because they feel it’s their only option. They can’t afford to keep the work in-house and outsourcing makes perfect financial sense on paper.

The cheapest outsourcing destination

January 11, 2010Save MoneyOutsourcingJoe Stangarone

It’s not China, or even India. Nope, not Africa either. Give up? Look around you. Given the right tools, the cheapest outsourcing destination is right inside your office.

If that sounds crazy, take a look at this company. They needed Java web-based portals, but no one had any experience with Java. Rather than outsource the project or hire consultants, they did it themselves.

The result: They completed the project faster and cheaper than any outsourcer or consultants could have.