Outsourcing HR in Recession & Surviving and Thriving in Recession

With recession hitting the market, companies need to be more practical and strategic in their business process. Of late, companies have started realizing that HR recruitment, selection, retention etc., is quite a cumbersome process calling for high amount of time and resources and inflicting cost. Thus, they are warming up to the idea of outsourcing HR function to offshore firms. Multinational companies are saving millions of dollars by outsourcing HR. All cultural differences are addressed while streamlining the work.

Advantages associated with outsourcing the HR departments include:

Great Reduction in Costs

HR outsourcing (HRO) converts fixed cost to variable cost and can produce quality performance in low cost. Companies have started realizing that offshoring HR department to low-cost areas will help in reducing cost while maintaining the quality of performance. Gradually, offshore outsourcing firm becomes an inbuilt function of the organization and the combined effect of their partnership further strengthens the process of the company.

Simple Global Models

Outsourcing takes HR functions to a global scale. With entrance of global service providers in the market competition has become tough; however the service delivery model has become mature and highly satisfactory for global clients. Outsourcing helps in moving HR executives from local role to global. Few advantages of global engagements for HR are:

• Expertise: HR Managers of varied expertise from all over the globe improves the recruitment process.
• Cost Effective: As stated earlier, hiring HR personnel from low-cost countries helps in providing same or better service at lower price.
• Workplace diversity: Globally functioning HR brings employees from across the globe and makes the work environment culturally more diverse.

In a tough competitive global market, the benefits of global HR model are too valuable for a company to miss.

Best of Breed Solutions

With outsourcing talent hunt has become broad spectrum. Now finding the desired candidate satisfying all selection criteria is not the main area of focus, instead, best-of-bread approach is taken to find the leaders in the field.

Risk Mitigation

Many a times companies faces crisis due to sudden loss of the key HR person. A tight labor market delays finding a suitable replacement. Hiring and training a new person for knowledge transfer becomes difficult and costly in recession. An outsourced HR engagement helps to almost terminate these problems. In HRO, hiring new replacements and training them are the responsibilities of the service provider, thus, ensuring a continued hassle-free service.

Value Addition

Generally, in-house HR functions are primarily visualized as cost-centre; whereas, HRO models chiefly focus on strategies which would improve business and reduce cost. Unlike in-house HR personnel, outsourced HR team does not get caught up in internal issues and thus can concentrate on cost-reduction, talent acquisition, training and retention. This results in the following benefits:

• Increases process efficiency by concentrating on important issues.

• Increases flexibility of business and makes it more dynamic.

• Increases employee satisfaction and productivity.

• Increases the business network and help gain market access.

• Increases sales and business during recession.

In the current volatile market the need to focus on core business activities has become an absolute necessity. To cater to core activities, companies are opting to outsource non-core process like Human Resource management.
Like every process, outsourcing too has its own pros and cons. Few disadvantages of HR outsourcing are:

• It requires lots of coordination with the service provider.

• It reduces the scope of learning for an organization.

• It reduces the control over the support function thus affecting the integrity of the company.

To minimize these disadvantages organizations has to understand their ultimate motive of outsourcing. A clear vision of goal and transferring only the functions and not responsibilities will certainly prove to be fruitful in smooth outsourcing of HR functions. This is no cakewalk and requires a great deal of knowledge, planning, skill and commitment.

Source: http://www.nowpublic.com/

RP set to become global outsource for games

THE Philippines is set to emerge as one of the global outsourcing destinations for the games industry.

Thus declared Manny Ayala, director of MoAnima, a global animation company, after attending the recently concluded 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, California.

More than 17,000 game-industry professionals took part in the world’s largest industry-only event in San Francisco, where MoAnima represented the Philippines.

MoAnima is a premier 3D-services company offering animation services to global clients in the video-game and entertainment industries. It has over three years of experience in the 3D-animation industry. Its team has experience in triple-A game titles and computer-generated animated feature films.

“We believe that the Philippines is ideally suited to this outsource-gaming industry. We have the creative talent, good English communication skills and affinity for US culture,” said Ayala.

“Although the economic recession has weighed down heavily on other sectors, the gaming industry has proven to be quite resilient thanks to more people investing in home-based forms of entertainment,” Ayala declared.

As a Filipino gaming-outsource company, MoAnima proudly represented the Philippines in a series of side meetings with leading game developers, publishers and other luminaries in the field.

Apart from meeting with key executives from leading game developers and publishers, MoAnima also attended several lectures, panels, tutorials and roundtable discussions in San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center.

During the course of the meetings with the industry professionals, MoAnima received positive feedback from gaming companies outsourcing to the Philippines, Ayala reported.

“In addition to excellent English-language skills, Filipinos are fast learners when it comes to mastering complex software,” Ayala said. Over the past years, the Philippines has gained a reputation for its dedication and high level of quality when working on 3D graphics and animation.

Source: http://businessmirror.com.ph/

Li & Fung sees more outsourcing deals, US. recovery

Consumer goods exporter Li & Fung Ltd, which manages supply chains for retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Target Corp, expects to sign more outsourcing deals within months as cash-strapped retailers in the United States look to cut costs in the economic downturn.

Despite the slump in the economy, Li & Fung President Bruce Rockowitz said he is optimistic that the current retail environment in the United States is close to a bottom, adding the company snapped up more orders from existing customers in the past six weeks.

The outsourcing deals in 2009 could be similar in size to the one the firm signed with fashion retailer Liz Claiborne Inc, Rockowitz told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

"Some will be surprisingly big," he said, but declined to be more specific.

In 2009, Li & Fung could sign a similar number of outsourcing deals to the four signed last year, Rockowitz said. The 2008 deals included those with Sanrio, Timberland and Mexx.

On February 23, Li & Fung agreed to pay $83 million to become fashion company Liz Claiborne's primary global sourcing agent for apparel and accessories. In return, Liz Claiborne will pay an agency commission of its product purchases through Li & Fung.

Li & Fung expects to sign an outsourcing deal with loss-making US retailer Talbots Inc within the next 45 days, Rockowitz said.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/

Outsourcing in India calls for custom software

Custom software development has gained tremendous vitality in the light of increasing global demand for new software outsourcing solutions. The article outlines the new phenomenon, which is benefiting India and western countries.

Custom software development depends on adept software developers who use the latest web technology and testing skills for web design development solutions and web-enabled IT services. Developed countries on the other hand, like UK, are following a lucrative outsourcing policy which places them at the behest of enormously skilled technicians and developers along with a competitive IT infrastructure. This has led to a surge in the number of providers of IT development in the second most populated country in the world, ie India.

Most established businesses in western countries need solutions and there is no actual shortage of software outsourcing firms today. There are lots and lots of programming experts who are involved in testing, development and different validation tests. Thousands of western countries and companies are harnessing outsourcing services for the execution of their projects. Even though IT development and outsourcing has increased manifold in India, people are still skeptical about the working and viability of custom software development in offshore centers.

Nevertheless, the option of offshore software development has already commanded huge popularity to help satiate rising software related needs. Many small and large companies have invested substantially in offshore software development so that they can cut costs by outsourcing their non-core functions. In fact, outsourcing software requirements regulates and saves time for focusing on core functions.

Consider this, according to several research reports, 40 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies including Microsoft, General Electric, Oracle, etc are outsourcing much of their work today and this list is consistently growing in the field of custom software development.

Many of them have started with the aim of yielding the maximum ROI by reducing costs extracting work from low-cost areas like India, China, and Philippines. Majority of them stand to save in the range of 40 per cent - 70 per cent. However, choosing an offshore software provider is not an easy task; it demands proper synchronisation between the client and the provider. India proves to be an ideal destination for the outsourcing process as they possess adequate knowledge of English, and are also skilled in various areas of software development and research.

Indian companies today have rich experience in providing offshore software development and focused not only documenting the required solutions but also for providing support. Their work quality is genuinely improving as per international standards with the emergence of innovative solutions from the developers themselves. Most of them are well-versed in different custom programming languages such as PHP, JAVA, .NET, Perl, Flash, Oracle and many other upcoming languages like Ruby on Rails (ROR) for custom software development.

Source: http://www.merinews.com/

Banks to submit annual report on outsourcing

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has advised banks to submit an annual compliance certificate underlining the risk management practices adopted in overseeing and managing outsourcing arrangement of banking services.

The new norms form part of a review of the guidelines issued to banks on managing risks and code of conduct in outsourcing financial services.

The certificate provided by the auditor should give the particulars of outsourcing contracts , prescribed periodicity of audit by internal / external auditors, major findings of the audit and action-taken by the bank boards. Thus, regular audits by either internal or external auditors of the bank should assess the adequacy of the risk management practices adopted by the banks and their outsourcing partners.

As per the guidelines issued in 2007, banks were advised to review the financial and operational condition of the service provider and to assess its ability to continue to meet its outsourcing obligations at least on an annual basis. Such due diligence reviews, which can be based on all available information about the service provider should highlight any deterioration or breach in performance standards, confidentiality and security, and in business continuity preparedness.

According to the RBI guidelines, outsourcing is entirely an independent decision wherein the bank would be required to take a view on the desirability of outsourcing related to financial services with regard to all relevant factors, including the commercial aspects. Banks would not require prior RBI approval for outsourcing of financial or other services except where the service provider is located outside India or when the outsourcing is in relation to doorstep banking. However, the banks will have to keep RBI informed of all the financial services outsourced by them.

Banks cannot outsource core management functions such as corporate planning, organization, management and control and decision-making functions such as determining compliance with know-your-customer (KYC) norms for opening deposit accounts, according sanction for loans and management of investment portfolio.

Source: http://www.business-standard.com/

Crunch will fuel outsourcing

Recession-hit councils look to outside suppliers

Local government expert Tony Travers has predicted that the recession will lead to much more outsourcing, in some cases involving all services provided by organizations.

"There will be a major move to outsource services to save money," the director of the LSE London research centre told the Society of IT Management's national conference at Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire on 23 April 2009.

If attempts by some councils to outsource large parts of their functions succeed, "almost every authority in the country will be inexorably pulled" towards this model, he said.

Travers added that this trend is likely to involve different kinds of organizations in an area, such as primary care trusts and police forces, outsourcing services jointly. "It's hard this morning not seeing this occurring," he said.

Travers told the Socitm event that the exact model of outsourcing would depend on suppliers, but he expects it may be far reaching, perhaps involving 'management buyouts' where existing executives join suppliers.

"A market will emerge, and that mature market will include consortia of providers taking over the whole of what an authority manages," he said, noting that Essex County Council's attempt to outsource many of its functions was given as a case study by the Treasury in documents released with this week's Budget.

He painted a dismal picture of public sector finances over the next decade, referring to an article this week in The Times by Audit Commission chief executive Steve Bundred discussing the possibility of an "Armageddon scenario", in which the government was unable to find lenders to finance its debt. "I think that word, strong though it is, isn't far from the truth," Travers said.

He predicted that schools and the NHS may see cash increases of 2-3% in funding over the next few years, adding "that's for the favoured parts of the public sector. For the rest of the public services, there will be enormous pressure".

He predicted that local authorities could see no real term increase in their income "for 10 years at least", with council tax capping tightened to increases of 1-2% a year and zero grant increases from central government. However, he said that the current spending review settlement, which runs to 2010-11, looks "generous" given zero inflation.

Travers said the recession will produce increased demand for some services, but other factors are increasing costs. These include: those of childcare, as a result of Lord Laming's second review of the sector; more elderly people requiring a range of services; increasing healthcare costs; public sector organizations being encouraged to pay suppliers faster by government; and local authorities receiving less income from fees, charges and investments.

Local authorities may also want to take advantage of low property prices to buy land, either for planned buildings or as investments, creating further pressure on budgets.

Balancing these factors will require major savings elsewhere, Travers said, adding that the cuts required will be greater than those imposed during the 1980s: "Mrs Thatcher will be seen as a guiding light of an expansion in public services. How the world moves on."

Source: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/

Mincom Signs a Multi-Million Dollar Outsourcing Deal with Xstrata Queensland Limited

Mincom, a leading global provider of software solutions and services for asset intensive industries, has signed a multi-million dollar outsourcing contract with Xstrata Queensland Limited.

Following a competitive tender process, Mincom won the contract to provide managed services to Xstrata's operational sites in north Queensland and the Northern Territory starting next month.

The contract, which covers IT applications, including Mincom Ellipse, and IT operations, also gives Xstrata the option to engage Mincom to perform additional IT project services.

Mincom proved to be a natural fit for the outsourcing contract, having extensive experience in delivering substantial cost savings for other large asset intensive customers in government, public infrastructure, mining, defense, energy and transport.

Mincom's IT services solution is specifically designed to enable customers to focus on their core business, reduce operational costs and minimize risks, while having access to the latest infrastructure and technical expertise with the highest level of service.

Greg Clark, Mincom Chief Executive Officer, said, 'Securing this contract reaffirms Mincom's position as a leading managed services provider to core industries, particularly mining. Mincom's continuing partnership with Xstrata demonstrates that big players in asset intensive industries are choosing Mincom to deliver both products and services critical to their business.

'Mincom understands the complexities involved in all aspects of mining operations and knows that improving productivity, controlling costs and maximizing profits are vital to the success of any operation. IT is a critical part of achieving these core outcomes and Mincom has the experience to ensure that a business' IT is enabling them to achieve these goals.'

Mincom's Global Managed Services business provides a range of outsourced IT services including application management and IT infrastructure outsourcing aimed at reducing customers' operational costs while maintaining high levels of service.

Source: http://tvs.consumerelectronicsnet.com/

Accounting Outsourcing Services- Economical and Cheap Way to Added Benefits

We all know that the recession has made a negative impact on the economy. Banks are going bankrupt and countries are falling prey to the financial crisis. The shortage of cash has become a world wide problem. Business has tightened up and companies are looking for all sorts of ways to reduce their cost of operations. One such way is to lay off employees in this time and make the cost reduce to half.

With business getting no sales and prices shooting the stars, most business houses are calling it quits, as they can survive the pressure. If you have a business, be it small scale, medium or big scale, you must be worried about its future prospects. One way to reduce the stress and tension is by opting for accounting outsourcing services. The outsourcing services will reduce the cost of operations drastically and make your business attain global standards.

Since we all know accounting services come in very expensive. There is no other alternative than to take help of a CPA. This does not come in cheap and business houses have to shell out a lot to make their financial statements. Since a good financial statement reflects the health of the company, show casing them in a good way has become mandatory.

There are a lot of people who depend on financial statements such as government authority for taxation purpose; shareholders for future stake in business; stakeholders for further investment; prospective investors and employees all want to know if the financial statements are meeting their expectations. Hence it’s important not to fidget with accounting services. Outsourcing them makes sense, since the business gets all the benefits of accounting services at the cost of one/third the amount the business would have to shell out for a CPA. So it’s taken that accounting services are important and companies need to go for accounting outsourcing services for a better future.

Accounting outsourcing services are done by mostly developing nations since only they can afford to bring the prices of these services so down. There are companies which offer these services and the business, should check them out first on the Internet. A good research is needed to select the type of company to do business with. The company should have previous experience in outsourcing and should also meet all the requirements set out by the business.

A good track record is needed for the business to have faith in the company. After all the Internet research is done, the business firm needs to get in touch with the company and ask for a better rate charged. The executives can also go for a check to the location of the outsourcing nation to see the environment and working standards of the company. After due discussions if they come to a settlement the deal can be made.

The business should make sure that they are getting a good service in exchange of cash. They should opt for a firm that gives them good quality and timely delivery rather then one that is the cheapest because seldom do those firms do really well.

Source: http://www.bestsyndication.com/m

India Is Losing Its Share of Offshoring Market, Says Gartner

The growth rate of offshore outsourcing to India is expected to come down considerably, as new clients are increasingly including other countries in their evaluation, according to research firm Gartner.

"In the past, 80 to 90 percent of clients would automatically source from India, when they decided to go offshore," said Gartner analyst Frances Karamouzis in a telephone interview on Friday. "That number is down to 60 percent," she said.

Brazil, the Philippines, Mexico, Vietnam, and some East European countries are getting a larger share of offshore outsourcing, Karamouzis said.

Other emerging offshore locations are cutting into India's share of the offshore outsourcing market, but the loss of share will likely be in single digits, said Siddharth Pai, a partner at outsourcing consultancy firm Technology Partners International (TPI), on Monday. India will continue to retain its position as the largest offshore location, he added.

India has reached a saturation point in outsourcing, and customers are reducing their exposure to risk by looking at other locations, Karamouzis said.

In their comparison of various countries, customers are also addressing concerns such as perceptions of geopolitical risk which was heightened in India by the terrorist attack in Mumbai in November last year, Karamouzis said.

India's infrastructure, which is behind that of China, growing staff attrition rates, wage increases, and the financial scandal at outsourcer Satyam Computer Services also influence their decisions, she added.

"It is not a single event, but a confluence of five to six different things," Karamouzis said.

China is not necessarily a strong alternative to India at this point, because China is facing its own growing pains, she said. The country is however attractive to a number of customers because of its large domestic market, she added.

Customers have to pay a premium of 10 percent to 15 percent in China for English speaking staff, according to Karamouzis. Key locations in China like Shanghai, Beijing, and Dalian are already saturated and prices have gone up, a lot faster than they did in India, she added.

It is the collective impact of seven or eight different countries that is taking away market share that would have otherwise gone to India, Karamouzis said.

One of the benefits touted by Indian outsourcers is that India is the only country where a customer can scale operations easily, because of the large number of qualified staff in the country that graduate each year.

If a customer wants to have an application development center with 1,000 staff set up in six weeks to two months, the only country where it is possible is India, Karamouzis said. It can be done in China or Brazil as well, but it will take nine months to a year, she added.

However the number of new clients that will come to the market asking for 1,000 people is quite low, more like 10 percent of clients. Most clients require 20, 50 or 100 people, and other countries can provide that, Karamouzis said.

Indian outsourcers are already facing a contraction in business because of the economic downturn. Customers are postponing new contracts, and even implementation of current projects, Pai said.

Indian outsourcer, Infosys Technologies, forecast last week its first ever annual revenue decline. Its revenue in the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2010, may decline by 3.1 to 6.7 percent, the company said.

Customers also want to renegotiate contracts and cut prices. A discussion around price presents a large dilemma for Indian outsourcers who have spent marketing dollars for the last three years to try to change their image from price players to value-added providers, Karamouzis said.

As customers look to other countries for offshoring, Indian outsourcers are also setting up operations in these countries, hoping to bag the business, Karamouzis said.

In the last 18 months, 12 Indian vendors have set up operations in Mexico, seven opened facilities in Brazil, and almost all of the large companies have facilities in Eastern Europe, she said.

Indian outsourcers are well equipped to take advantage of low cost resources in other countries because of their experience in India, Pai said.

But Indian companies are taking time to become global companies, continuing to depend more on Indian resources, Karamouzis said.

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/

IBM inks 10-Yr IT Outsourcing Deal With Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank in India

International Business Machines Corp. Monday said it reached a 10-year information technology outsourcing agreement with Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank Ltd, an urban co-operative bank in the state of Uttarakhand in India. Kurmanchal Nagar Sahakari Bank is a licensed urban co-operative bank having 17 branches in the state of Uttarakhand.

As part of the agreement, IBM would remotely host and manage the IT infrastructure, manage the disaster recovery site and provide the networking infrastructure for the bank.

Source: http://www.rttnews.com/

Report: Microsoft signs up Indian outsourcing firm for 600 workers

It's hardly unprecedented for Microsoft, or any other tech company, to hire overseas outsourcing firms for contract work. But given the economic climate, and the company's recent layoffs, there will probably be extra scrutiny on today's Economic Times report that outsourcer HCL Technologies of India has reached a five-year, $170 million deal with Microsoft involving as many as 600 workers.

The Economic Times says the contract is related to Microsoft online services, but it doesn't describe the work in detail. It's the latest in a series of customer wins for HCL, with companies including Xerox and others.

It's not clear if the agreement is replacing existing outsourcing agreements for Microsoft in India or expanding the scope of the company's outsourcing there. The company also has a sizable base of direct employees in India. We've asked the company for confirmation of the report, and additional details, and we'll update this post depending on its response.

Microsoft in January announced cutbacks including plans to lay off up to 5,000 employees globally over 18 months, although the total could end up being less, depending on the direction of the company's business. Microsoft has also ticked off its base of contract workers in Redmond by reducing the rates it pays employment agencies, resulting in pay cuts for many of them.

Source: http://www.techflash.com/

Asset Acquisition: Smart Outsourcing For Hard Times

Call center outsourcing is more than just hiring a company to handle your overflow. It’s a complex and intimate relationship. The core of that relationship is the tension that exists inside a lot of companies who come to realize that though their customers are their most important asset, handling their interactions is way beyond their core competency. That’s when you bring someone else in, preferably an expert with robust infrastructure and solid experience.

In recent years, outsourcers have been growing larger. The biggest ones sport broader geographic footprints, many more agent stations, and a wider range of services offered beyond simple call handling. Of late there is also a new collaborative model emerging that brings outsourcers even closer to their clients: asset acquisition.

Asset acquisition is simply the purchase of one company’s non-core functions by another. In the outsourcing world, that means that a large and well-financed outsourcer would literally buy part of its client: the call handling infrastructure, including facilities, technology and staff. In an asset acquisition scenario, that means that the outsourcing partner buys a company’s call center, wherever it is located, and then operates it as an on-site adjunct to the client’s business. It may seem extreme, but it has several advantages for both parties.

On the client side, the primary benefit is cost savings. Not only are they offloading the process of the interaction, as they would in a traditional outsourcing relationship, but here they are offloading an entire cost-structure, complete with salaries, benefits and site costs. And on top of that, the asset is actually monetized: the outsourcer is paying for the call center. In difficult economic times, that injection of cash can be very useful.

Dallas-based ACS (News - Alert) has been a pioneer of asset acquisition as a strategy for growth. Darin Wright of ACS told me that his company has engaged in asset acquisition projects with some major clients, including Motorola ( News - Alert) , GM and GE. In Motorola’s case, ACS took on more than 700 employees and about 16 global locations from that company, including some HR functions that were outside the tech company’s core focus.

“They were needing to get out of the transactional HR space, and we were able to go in and monetize it, provide forward pricing and really look at process improvements that we would be installing.” He says that one of the advantages for Motorola was that they could eliminate those functions and see the benefits from Day One, because they were getting paid by someone who would run the facilities, instead of having to pay to shut the units down. The second major benefit is what many companies look for in the first place from an outsourcer — relief from the cycle of buying and upgrading technology to stay competitive. Outsourcers, by definition, have a greater investment in having leading edge tools at their disposal. For them, since handling customer interactions is their core business, it’s a competitive necessity. And the scale on which they buy that technology across multiple centers and thousands of agents means that they can support a higher level of tools than their clients can. For the clients, asset acquisition represents a serious CapEx avoidance.

And the outsourcer benefits just as firmly. Outsourcers need capacity, but they don’t need the uncertainty and risk of having to build greenfield capacity in hopes that there will be business to support it. In this model, they buy the assets that they know they can use (spurring client lock in along the way). And once bought, the call outsourcer can use their expertise to optimize the center’s processes and leverage the center for more than just that one client.

Even the staff of the acquired center can benefit. Instead of being part a tangential, non-core group at a company where there may not be a career path or a future, they become embedded in a company that is expert at doing the things they have chosen to do; the managers and supervisors become peer professionals in a company devoted to the global, horizontal practice of what they do.

Wright says that the practice helps his company cope with growing demand for ACS’ services. He cites another deal with the client was trying to rationalize the call center assets it had, and considering consolidations. “We were able to say rather than you trying to figure out how to do that, or having us come in and shut it down and migrate offshore, a better solution was why don’t we come in, deploy our best practices, and our technology and processes.” He says that ACS bought the 500-seat capacity center, where 400 agents were working.

Through process improvements, ACS reduced the client’s actual requirements to about 250 seats. “That let us take 250 additional seats and bring in another client from our portfolio who had been needing a domestic call center, and back-fill in,” Wright says.

This model is reminiscent of the practice seen in the 1990s where an outsourcer would try to win a client by building a call center in close proximity (or onsite with) a client. There were instances where service providers would locate airline reservation centers on the main airport of the client, in or near a headquarters. The new model has a lot more going for it. For one thing, it’s a lot more collaborative. And for another, it has a slimming effect on the client, rather than a bulking up.

In this economy, asset acquisition has direct financial advantages for the client, Wright says. It takes costs off the books, of course. But it also adds an initial sum that drops straight to the bottom line. Being able to monetize the process very quickly can make a big difference to a company that’s struggling with resource allocation issues — and in a way that doesn’t compromise service quality. That’s a win-win for everybody, including the customer.

Source: http://www.tmcnet.com/

Palm's effort to woo developers

Personal digital assistant (PDA) manufacturer Palm is pitching its new software development kit (SDK) for its next-gen operating system, WebOS.

However, the firm has refused to say when the long-awaited Palm Pre will go on sale and how much it will cost.

The company announced the launch of the new Mojo SDK at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

"Developers are an incredibly important part of the WebOS ecosystem," said Palm's Michael Abbott.

"We're eager to get the SDK into their hands and are very excited to work with developers to make this unique development environment even better."

Despite announcing the SDK to a conference hall filled with thousands of developers attending this week's Web 2.0 Expo, Mr Abbott - Palm's vice-president of application software and services - said not everyone would be able to get their hands on it straight away.

Palm has started what it calls an "early access programme" so a limited number of developers can actually get their hands on the kit.

The company said that it would "gradually increase the size of the programme as the tools mature".

"Now that the SDK will be available to a broader base of developers, we think enthusiasm for WebOS will only grow," said Mr Abbott.

'Next major step'

The Pre was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

The touchscreen handset runs the web-centric operating system WebOS, which aims to help people organize and manage their online contacts and identities.

It is being talked up as a rival to the iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia's N97 and the Google G1 phone.

The release of the SDK is being seen as a significant development in the life of the Pre smartphone.

"The Mojo SDK is the next major step in the Pre's release timeline, as well as a boon for next-generation smartphones," said Wired magazine's Michael Calore.

"It will give developers another major platform to build apps for, joining the Apple iPhone, Google's Android and Nokia's Symbian."

Palm also revealed it would deploy its first Palm-branded cloud service, which access its resources over the internet.

The company said that when the Mojo SDK was broadly released later this year, it would include a "developer-facing offering called the Mojo messaging service".

This was demonstrated by Mr Abbott during his presentation at Web 2.0 and lets applications display data updates on a small bar at the bottom of the phone's screen, unlike the iPhone which uses pop-ups to show updates.

Another aspect of the WebOS is that it includes software by MotionApps, which will allow legacy Palm OS applications to run on the new software.

The Mojo SDK used open-source technologies to build applications. The tools necessary to write for WebOS - HTML, CSS and Java - are the same as web developers use. Palm believes this makes WebOS an attractive choice for developers.

"We've been pitching to companies and they're excited, because the same guy working on their website can make a WebOS app," said Palm's director of product management, Paul Cousineau.

"That makes it totally different and changes the dynamic about the hard decisions around how you deploy your resources."

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Verizon wants its software on mobile phones

Verizon Wireless doesn't care who emerges from the coming mobile operating system wars because no matter who wins, Verizon will make sure its software runs on top of that operating system.

"I don't think I need to bet on an operating system," said Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, in a question-and-answer session at CTIA 2009 Wednesday. "I need to bet on layers that will bridge those operating systems."

McAdam was referring to the news announced Wednesday that Verizon Wireless will join the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) created by its corporate parent, Vodafone, along with China Mobile and Softbank. JIL plans to build "mobile widgets" for future phones that will apparently run on whatever operating systems Verizon decides to support on its future smartphones.

Seven organizations are currently jockeying for the inside track to run the mobile computer of the future. Symbian, Research in Motion, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Palm, and the LiMo Foundation are all fighting to get their software established as the platform of the future, and not all of them are going to make it: choice is a good thing, but too many choices overwhelms developers and carriers, not to mention users.

Earlier in his keynote address, Verizon Communications CEO Ivan Seidenberg predicted that the current list would get whittled down as the industry coalesces around "an open operating environment." He did not, of course, say which ones Verizon is eyeing, and neither Seidenberg nor McAdam took that bait in the Q&A session following the keynote.

McAdam did say, however, that "three, maybe four" would survive. Verizon's plan with JIL appears to be an extension of its historical strategy of putting its own software--things like VCast--on its phones, which gives it the ability to tightly control what applications run on its network and extend its brand into software and entertainment. For example, Verizon, as part of JIL, will create games for future phones on its network, McAdam said.

It will be interesting to see how Verizon's software works with the applications created by other developers, such as the ones that will appear on the BlackBerry Storm now that BlackBerry App World is up and running. Widgets by definition are pretty lightweight applications, but how Verizon chooses to prioritize those applications on its devices could determine how widely they are used versus applications created by third parties.

This probably also means that barring a major change on strategy, Apple and Verizon are unlikely to hook up any time soon. Right now, there's the obvious barrier in the different networking standards used by the iPhone and phones on Verizon's network, but the companies seem very philosophically opposed when it comes to software: it's hard to imagine Apple agreeing to let Verizon run its own widgets on the iPhone.

It also means Verizon is still bent on avoiding a fate as a "dumb pipe," leaving the software development to others and just making sure its network is running smoothly. As usual, it all comes down to money: people will spend a fortune over the next ten years on mobile software and services, and Verizon wants to make sure it is part of the action.

Source: http://reviews.cnet.com/