This article pertains to the Goggle’s open source Android operating system (for mobile phones) that was released last year.  Priya Ganapati of Wired.com says that while the system had a slow start it has become increasingly popular but has run into a few problems.  Mainly the problem is that there are three version of the operating system on the market (Android 1.5, 1.6 and 2.0).  This became a problem because application developer has had to make much correction to there program in order for them to run successfully on all three systems.  That is while an application will run perfectly on one OS system it will not function properly on anther.  Another problem is that certain application will not operate on certain phone that it is the phones do not have the proper hardware to launch these applications.  “Ultimately, developers will have to start making tough decisions on who they want to target and versions of the operating system they want to support” ,says Gilligan (www.cnn.com). 

I found this to correlate to chapter 11 because chapter 11 discusses the importance of project planning and development.  This article shows a perfect example of a poorly planned project because time, scope, and Cost (triple constrain) where not balance effectively.  Both cell phone manufactures and OS developers need to coordinate their activities to produce a quality product.  The iPhone is a perfect example of such coordination.

Article By: Priya Ganapati

 http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/17/android.wired/index.html?iref=allsear

November 17, 2009 5:06 p.m. EST

The title of the article that I chose was “  The Benefits of Outsourcing for Small Businesses” by the All Business website. The article pointed out that it is sometimes wiser  for small businesses to outsource certain aspects of their business responsibilities to other companies. That through outsourcing these small companies can for one save money, but there are also other benefits to outsourcing. That by outsourcing they are changing a fixed cost of capital to a variable source that is utilized only when needed. Outsourcing allows businesses to increase their efficiency by spending time on those aspects of the business that must be run by the company and not spent on projects that could be done by others. By allowing other companies to complete the work these small businesses are gaining the expertise that these outsourced companies have. These experienced companies are also able to start new projects very quickly because they have the know how required by the small business. This in turn will reduce the labor costs associated with the individual projects and the training of employees that comes with each new project. By out outsourcing these projects small businesses have the opportunity to compete with the larger corporations who have the money and the experience to run the same project in-house. Some of the types of outsourcing that these small businesses might use would be like hiring an accounting or payroll firm to manage the books. This will make it easier for the owners to spend more time on the areas of the firm that require more customer service or time that could be better used on other projects.

http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/workforce-management-hiring/1084-3.html

The article, “Make Customer Service Local and Strong” posted on Bloomberg.com talks about the economy forcing businesses to resort to outsourcing in an effort to cut costs. The article makes some clear and precise points. The main point is that customer service is an essential part in any business and if its not addressed as a high priority then the business is doomed. The article pointed out Circuit City as one company that struggled with this. Circuit City let there top managers go and hired less qualified individuals. These switches lead to Circuit city’s demise. The Article then talks about keeping jobs local and how keeping jobs here in America will boost our economy. The author of the article then describes how his personal business has relied a lot more heavily on E-mail. By using e-mail he can respond to common problems quicker and more efficiently then phone calls. The author is trying to make an argument that outsourcing can be avoided and by keeping jobs in America better service can be provided.

This idea of switching to outsourcing to save costs is not new. Outsourcing has been a major debate topic for many years. In chapter 11 of our textbook it talks about outsourcings pros and cons. The pros are that it helps information technology by keeping up with the latest marketing and technologies and allowing the company to save on costs and human resources. The cons are that it takes away jobs and actually may lower the quality of customer service.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/dec2008/db20081231_703004.htm

“Boeing Outsourcing will pay off: Pratt exec”

Boeing Co. will be proved right with its controversial outsourcing of airplane production when its long-delayed Dreamliner takes to the skies this week, a top US aerospace executive said on Monday. This is how the article sets out and sets the tone for the article. The article then proclaims that Boeing has been criticized by customers and unions over its decision to send offshore the production of much of the brand new jetliner, which is already two years behind their schedule. Then it let the president David Hess have his say in it all. And he believes that Boeing should stay the course along with other future projects. Hess believes he will test the Boeing 787 Dreamliner as early as Tuesday (Dec 15) a flight that I mentioned before that is two years overdue because of the claims of problems in the supply chain. The great advantage of this plane compared to its predecessors is its lightweight, this gives it greater fuel efficiency and lower maintenance costs. It has a record number of orders on the books for the plane at its stage in development. It is also because of the outsourcing, the demand is going up because of the lower costs and foreign ingenuity. The author then goes onto saying that Hess the president is scheduled to fly out to Seattle on Tuesday to attend the test flight of this great machine. “Obviously, it was a tough road for Boeing,” Hess said. “I think it still – to me – is a tremendous achievement.”

Peterson, Kyle. Boeing outsourcing will pay off: Pratt exec. 14 Dec 2009. Washington Reuters. 14 Dec 2009. http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BD4YP20091214

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Windows 7 is Microsoft’s new operating system that was launched in early October.  Microsoft’s last system , Windows Vista, became known as a bust with many glitches and problems with the software.  Software developers for Microsoft has responded to these complaints and shortcomings with Windows 7.  Shortly after the launch of Windows 7, complaints started rolling in from the users. About 31% of users found it difficult to upgrade to Windows 7.  Many of the problems came with installation and loading the applications.  About 9% of the users would sit throuogh an hour of laoding the program, only to have it freeze upon 62% completion.  There were even some complaints about how the program severly slows down the speed of the computer and the dvd function would stop working.

Windows is well aware of these problems and continues to work to fix it.  Once the bugs are smoothed out for the users, the system actually works very well according to the users that did not experience bugs in the process of loading.  The complaints are significantly less than the complaints received from the prior operating system, Windows Vista. 

This article applies to the systems devevlopment life cycle discussed in chapter 11.  There are 7 phases in whic all systems devlopers must go by when creating a new operating system, including Microsoft.  These phases are, Planning, analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance.  Windows 7 is on the maintenance phase right now as they respond and fix the problems experienced by the users of the software.  It is crucial to have an efficent way to hear of the complaints of the sofftware to have a speedy solution to the problems.

Goldman, David. “Windows 7 Comlaints Begin”. CNN. 2009.

The article from BusinessWeek coincides with our textbook; India has been the primary destination for tech outsourcing with more than 90%.  Reasons are many, for starters its low-cost.  However, this article shows how IBM is changing destination by outsourcing at home.  As strange as it sounds IBM is turning to Michigan and Iowa when it comes to outsourcing.

IBM’s announcement of its two newest global service delivery centers surprised many when were not situated in Bangalore, Delhi, or Mumbai. Instead, Big Blue picked East Lansing, Michigan and Dubuque, Iowa.

This announcement is one of best news for citizens of those two cities, since the U.S. economic downturn has already claimed more than 60,000 tech jobs in the past three months alone.  In East Lansing, IBM plans to create up to 1,500 direct and indirect jobs in five years, and it should give jobs to approximately 1,300 people in Dubuque within a two-year period.

Michael Daniels, senior vice-president of IBM Global Technology Services explained the reasons to outsource at home.  According to him, the cost-competiveness of East Lansing and Dubuque were factors in the company’s decisions to locate there, salaries and other coast weren’t the biggest factors.  As he explains, “Low coast is factor in any decision, but the critical thing for us was the access to skills and the willingness of the local universities to cooperate with us and add to their curricula.”

According to the article” Dubuque and Iowa offered IBM an enciting package of incentives worth $55 million over 10 years.”  It also includes  a loan of $11.7 million that will be forgiven if IBM fulfills its hiring pledge.                               The new East Lansing service delivery center will modernize-out-of-date software for states and corporations.

IBM’s example  can lead to other big corporations decision to outsource at home if the government and states give more incentives and/or tax cuts.

Hamm, Steve. (2009). IBM: Outsourcing at home. Retrieved Dec. 2, 2009 from BusinessWeek. Tech Services                                                                                                                                                                                                http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jan2009/tc20090115_770577.htm

Outsourcing in Costa Rica has become a great asset to business. When comparing call centers from the Middle East and Asia to one in Central America such as Costa Rica you can notice that the language and accent barrier is not as bad when the primary language is Spanish.  Another asset is the time zones; taking these things into consideration it is almost a no brainer to decide where your call centers should be located.  In the government aspect the US can take advantage of the international tax laws granted to international companies that invest in Costa Rica and its local economy.  The savings will make this a very wise decision.  Call center software is as important to an outsourced campaign as telemarketing training since they must both try to out perform any other option you might have.

            Another asset of outsourcing to Costa Rica is that this country has a very solid infrastructure and a stable democratic government. Also, Call Center jobs are very well paid and there for competition for these jobs are infove of the client looking to outsource.  There for the turnover rate is much lower in Costa Rica than what you would find in any other country.  To be more specific the turn over rate would be 5-10 times grater in other countries than in Costa Rica.  

            This article relates to chapter 11 since it has to do with outsourcing. It also talks about the benefits for outsourcing in Central America more specific in Costa Rica.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/business/11unboxed.html?_r=2&scp=3&sq=business%20intelligence&st=cse

Project management is an important part of business as we realize that stagnant business is dead business.  In order for businesses to stay out of these stagnant areas businesses need to innovate their systems and products.  In order for these innovations to take hold and increase efficiencies and profits businesses must assemble teams or project groups as well as obtain software that allows for the exchange of the software.

These teams maintain a very important role within companies and corporations because without these teams, innovation falls short and the business loses its competitive advantages and therefore profit margins drop.  The way to create these teams is done by proper assessment from human resource management.  But the software used by these teams are of great important because they allow project teams to innovate faster than competition and communicate very effectively.  Without these efficiencies a company can fall back, making the point that the software used to collaborate information and communication in these teams are of extreme importance.

One way to increase the productivity of these projects is to reduce the amount of risk taken.  If a project can be made to be less risky, it allows for a greater chance of success.  Often the best way to decrease risk is by proper checks and balances that can be best attained through proper software analysis.  The implementation of software like this allows companies to innovate faster with less risk and more efficiency.  They are well worth the money and can be designed for each individual company.

Ali, A., Anbari, F., & Money, W. (2008). Impact of organizational and project factors on acceptance and usage of project management software and perceived project success. Project Management Journal, 39(2), 5-33. doi:10

For chapter 11 I choose an article titled, “ Plan to  Work and Work to Plan” by a man named John Mce. This article gives an over view of how to successfully include Project Management with the least amount of errors as possible. Mr. Mce says that the majority of problems in Projent Management come from the intial stage of the project whitch is the Planning Phase in chapter 11. “There are three deliverables in the project planning process; Project definition, the work plan and project management procedures,” says Mce I too can see where he is coming from as this is relevant to most things in life. If you plan something poorly or fail to plan at all the majority of the time when you near the end of your project you will be lost and lose valuble time fixing your mistakes.

I can use examples such a writing a paper to relate to Mce, more often that not when I personally fail to outline a paper before writing it the paper turns out unorganized and sloppy. However, this is easily prevented by spending the few extra minutes in my Planning stage of the paper and forecasting what and when I will be discussing certain information.

In this article Mr. Mce determines a solid project definition that I think would be helpful to anyone working on the planning stage of any project. Mce basically says having the project overview, objectives, assumptions of risk, and cost and duration estimates clearly thoughtout before starting the work on your project will lead to a time efficient well organized project. I agree with Mce on this issues although I also have something to add, I think it is crucial to have a detailed workplan in place as well. The more detail you go into prior to beginning your project, the easier you will be able to follow step by step your objectives and achieve success.

Resources: November 11, 2009: Best Management Articles .com

http://project-management.bestmanagementarticles.com/a-29866-project-management-tips-plan-to-work-and-work-to-plan.aspx

More energy saving methods are soon to hit the US from China. Novermber 16th in beijing, the company anounced its first american manufacturing plant. The facility is to located in phoenix area and will begin production by next October. Suntech will now become the first major Chinese cleantech player to bring factory jobs to the U.S. This agreement between the Chinese and the Americans is extremely important and could lead to greater things in the future.  At first the US was skeptical about having the chinese bring in thier sola panels in, worried about foreing domination witht the US cleantech space.  Suntechs first US facility will be modest, it will have capapcity of 3o megawatts of solar panels per year, enough to outfit around 7,500 homes. There will still be the flexability to boost output to 200 mrgawatts in time. US sales peaked at 494 megawatts in 2008, the us solar panels are expected to climb to more than 1000 in 2010.

The staff of 75 will assemble the solar parts imported from china in the facility located in Pheonix Arizona. This will help decrease the cost from shipping the finished products from china to the US. Chin is hoping to boost up sales of solar panels here in the US, and the US are excited to have the chinese here in the US supplying us with jobs and more solar panels. It seems to be a win win situation of outsourcing.

I chose this article because it correlates with chapter 11′s section on outsourcing. In this case it is helping out economy with jobs, and it will also help our enviroment out in the long run.

Aston A (2009) China Solar panel market sets first U.S. Plant

retreived Novermber 16, 2009 from the business week website:

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2009/tc20091115_970512.htm

Some of the world’s top retailers, including UK’s Tesco and American speciality retailer Home Depot, have been outsourcing projects to Indian third party service providers, including TCS and Infosys, apart from their own captive centers to support their existing IT systems and also develop newer applications. For example, Tesco saves over $60 million every year by outsourcing its IT projects to India.
So far, Wal-Mart which has been depending on its large in-house IT team is now seeking to globalize its IT operations. Especially India is now actively planning to grow its business from emerging markets. With almost $400 billion in annual revenues, the retailer also continues to look at establishing a captive technology center in India.
Wal-Mart already has a sourcing operation in the country. It’s natural for the retailer to explore various ways of leveraging its Indian presence. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart’s outsourcing of IT and back office projects is not expected to impact local US jobs, as the retailer is very sensitive about rising unemployment in the country. In fact, Wal-Mart said earlier this month that it will add around 22,000 new jobs in the US by adding over 150 new stores to its existing network of around 7,900 retail outlets.

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2009/gb2009068_435509.htm

Chapter 11. Systems Development and Project Management

“Can Outsourcing Save Sony?”

Sony, a Japanese company, makes technological equipment such as TV’s, computers chips, game consoles, cameras and more. Sony has always been very secretive about their TV design and manufacturing. All manufacturing is done in-house to protect the elements of the design. By manufacturing in-house they are increasing cost. This practice is known as vertical integration and it created more cost because more management is required. Other technological equipment makers such as Apple and Cisco, develop the design for their products and then have other companies manufacture them to save money. TV’s account for 10% of Sony’s overall sales but has not made a profit in the recent years due to economic troubles. Sony expects a 2.9 billion operating loss on TVs at the end of this fiscal year.

CEO Howard Stringer has stated that he needs to cut cost dramatically and fast. He has  a long to-do list in order to achieve these cuts. He plans to shut down plants and, for the first time in Sony history, he plans to outsource the manufacturing of TVs.  Stringer has said that all new, high-end TVs will still be manufactured in-house to protect the new ideas from leaking to competitors but older, medium-end TVs will be outsourced.

As discussed in the chapter, the cost a producing goods or services in developing countries is cheaper than producing them in developed countries. Many companies have turned to outsourcing to cut cost. The harsh economic conditions we have seen in the last few years, and the decrease in disposable income for families has caused Sony to consider outsourcing. Sony has many concerns about outsourcing though. One of the major concerns is that when you outsource the production of a product you have to share information with the company you are outsourcing to. This creates the possibility of someone leaking your design of new technology to competitors for them to copy.

Hall, K. (2009). “Can Outsourcing Save Sony?”. retrieved November 11, 2009. Business Week Online.

WEB: www.businessweek.com

“Agilemobile.com Ltd. Announces New Version of Its Award Winning Agile Messenger for Apple’s iPhone, Just $1.99 Until Nov 30, in iTunes”

 This article is about a software company that is based in Thailand and has its main focus on developing software for mobile phones including the iphone. What is recently made available for all iphone users to access and download is an application of the Agile Messenger. It is promoting its downloading by offering it for a limited time only for $1.99 instead of the regular cost $9.99. What Agile Messenger provides is a more advanced technology that is only expanding the usage of such mobile phones as the iphone. What it includes is sending pictures to family and friends and also talking on the phone while using the phone’s camera to see where you are going. The company that is offering this new trend is also based in Vietnam where outsourced software is developed and offered to other organizations.

In relation to the Chapter 11, Systems Development and Project Management, is discussed by Baltzan and Phillips the agile methodology is “aimed for customer satisfaction through early and continuous delivery of useful software components developed by an iterative process with a design point that uses the bare minimum requirements.” (pg. 405) Agile methodologies provide fast and satisfying services to those who can attain it. In my personal experience, I do not own an iphone or a hand held computer so I do not have access to such software. However, I do have friends that are now inseparable of their iphone and take advantage of every new application that is being promoted.

Agilemobile.com Ltd. Announces New Version of Its Award Winning Agile Messenger for Apple’s iPhone, Just $1.99 Until Nov 30, in iTunes. (13  November). PR Newswire.  Retrieved November 14, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Dateline.

Baltzan & Phillips, Business Driven Information Systems, 2nd Edition, McGraw-Hill, Inc. 2009.

Howard Stringer is the chief executive for Sony. Stringer has come to the realization that Sony is in dire need of change considering that it used to be one of the top selling electronic lines, however Stringer looked for a new plan to revive the electronic division. Stringer looked to outsourcing.  Stringer will close five or six of the company’s 57 plants globally and slash the company’s budget for factories and chipmaking equipment by a third over the next fiscal year, ending March 2010. Stringer will outsource Television sets. According to Stringer, “The TV division accounts for 10% of Sony’s overall sales but hasn’t made a profit since it launched the Bravia brand of flat-panel TVs in 2005. By the March 2008 fiscal yearend, the division’s three-year losses had reached $2.3 billion. Goldman Sachs (GS) predicts the division could bleed another $1.1 billion this year.” The point of outsourcing for Stringer is that he wants his company to be comparable to Apple and Cisco in profit. According to the article,”Sony’s domestic factories account for half of overall sales. They provided a boost to earnings while the yen was weak and overseas demand strong. But recently, when the yen surged and the global economy faltered, Sony found itself badly exposed.”

Stringer will not expose his plans he has for outsourcing the television sets. However experts say that Stringer will keep the high end ultra thin TV’s in house because they can make a premium off of them and Sony wouldn’t need to worry about rivals getting a hold of the product. The television sets experts believe will be outsourced are the small and midsize TV’s.

Hall, Kenji. “Can outsourcing Save Sony?”. 2009, Jan. 30. Retrived from Business Week. Website:http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2009/gb20090130_697510.htm. 12, Nov. 2009

The article that I chose to write about is When it comes to making data sexy, you can’t be too graphic. The article touched on data visualization and how data can be mind interesting. For example, data from government is now very open to the public the only issue is though it is very public it is extremely “boring”. But according to Manuel Lima, an interaction designer and data visualization expert, companies are trying to transform the “boring” information into graphical presentations to make things more appealing to the eye. One of the challenges to this is making sense of the data that some of the organizations give. Some larger cities are even holding competitions amongst themselves to try to release data with applications usage such as the iPhone (Mollman, 2009).  

Another company example of making data more desirable is the U.N data which is about emerging nations. A Swedish health professor by the name of Hans Rosling turned the data into computerized moving bubbles that uncovered the myths about the “developing world” (Mollman, 2009). The software used to do create this was made by Rosling’s non-profit organization, Gapminder Foundation. This software was then picked up by Google to use as a free gadget in their spreadsheet called Motion Chart. In addition to these organizations and individuals that have took interest in creating and using innovated software there have been others that have also jumped on the band wagon like the Open Society Institute (Mollman, 2009).   

In my opinion individuals like Manuel Lima and Rosling, and organizations like Google and Apple have really utilized the software around them. There have been many times I personally have tried to look up information on companies and the data seems so foreign. Having software and websites that distribute this data into something simpler is refreshing. The examples given above really support how companies and organizations need to be keeping with up software and services to meet the demands and wants of customers. It is a competitive market out there and technology is leading the way.

Mollman, S. (2009, November). CNN Tech. Retrieved November 12, 2009, from Digital Biz: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/11/data.visualization/index.html

IBM Draws criticism for job cuts, outsourcing

             IBM is in trouble with many people for their plan of and actually through with outsourcing many jobs to India.  As they seek stimulus money for “projects updating power grids, creating electronic health care records and furthering the use of broadband”, they also are cutting jobs for people in the U.S. and making more for them in India (Snow, Rizzo, & Foley, 2009).  They (IBM) estimate that the $30 billion that they are requesting would create about one million jobs in the next year.  IBM has already been heavily criticized for shifting jobs overseas over the past few years.  This point was illustrated in Business Week Magazine in saying, “The company’s workforce went up from 386,558 at the end of 2007 to 398,000 at the end of 2008.  But U.S. employment fell from 121,000 to 115,000 during the same time” (Snow et al., 2009).  Another concern is that IBM, being a large company, has a lot of ‘clout’ in the political area.  They can influence who gets stimulus money, but they themselves are not making proper use of the money that they would get.

             This relates to the textbook, Business Driven Information Systems, from chapter eleven entitled Systems Development and Project Management.  This is a challenge of outsourcing that is not really talked about in the chapter.  Ethical decisions have consequences that affect the public view of a company.  In this case, they are shifting jobs from the U.S. to India and want U.S. money to do it.  It could have a negative business impact.

     Snow, M., Rizzo, J., & Foley, V. (2009). IBM Draws criticism for job cuts,    outsourcing, CNN.COM/US. Retrieved November 12, 2009, from http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/26/ibm.outsourcing/index.html

The largest retail store in America is going to begin out sourcing to India . Wal
-Mart has a shortlist of companies with a contract that has the potential to be worth up to $500 million dollars. The outsourcing is to move more back office activities and business applications to India . The company hopes to have the project fully functioning in six months. Wal-Mart has been testing outsourcing smaller projects to India . Wal-Mart has a few companies on its list, which include: TCS, Infosys and Wipro. Many companies use outsourcing to help bring down costs, but Wal-Marts outsourcing is more for globalizing its information technology. Wal-Marts reason behind this move is because it hopes to tap into the emerging India market. However many people fear that with this move to outsourcing it will cause Americans to loose jobs. Wal-Mart stated even though they will outsource they are planning to add 22,000 new jobs in the United States by adding 150 new stores to the existing 7900.

Outsourcing has its pro and cons. Wal-Marts decision to outsource a part of the company makes sense from a business standpoint. They are looking to save money in the long run by outsourcing. It also will help create a place in India that is better trained with certain tasks. Wal-Mart is able to put fears about losing jobs aside by insuring that it will create more jobs and open more stores. This also gives Wal-Mart an advantage in the access of advanced technology.

Reference: Mishra, P “Wal-Mart to Start Outsourcing More to India” Business Week. Retrieved November 12, 2009. http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jun2009/gb2009068_435509.htm

Chapter 11 System Development

This article was a product comparison between two iPhone apps, the Navigon and the TomTom.  Both are turn-by-turn navigators designed to utilize the iPhone GPS and are made to compete with actual GPS navigators.

Both products have similar features, including, walking mode, and the ability to save favorites.  Each product costs $99.  The differentiation is with the Navigon because it offers an update that converts text to speech.  Navigon also offers a live traffic feature that the TomTom has yet to offer.  In conclusion of the critique, the Navigon beats the TomTom due to its features, look, and ease to use.

This relates to the chapter in the software development strategy.  In order to design this, the developers have to identify and address all issues of the System Development Life Cycle.  They had to plan on how to develop the software and what market it is going to target.  Next they had to analyze if it satisfied the end-user requirements.  After that stage, they designed the software.  Next the company had to develop the application.  The following stage is testing the software to verify its usefulness.  After the testing, the companies place the product into the market, which is the implementation stage.

McCloy, Cody. “Apps of the week: Getting there from here – CNN.com.” CNN.com – Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2009. <http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/11/navigation.apps.review/index.html>.

“India Takes Outsourcing to New Heights”

In this article in Business Week, they illustrate outsourcing in Asian Pacific Countries.The TPI index, in 2007 revealed that the Asia-Pacific outsourcing contracts contributed US$12.8 billion to the global outsourcing market in 2007, a 30 percent increase from 2006. The annual contract rose by 13 percent. Indian companies were the main contributors behind this growth. Indian companies account for US$4.9 billion, up from US$2.7 billion in 2006. Australia accounts for US$3.5 billion, while those from China are at a US$1.4 billion increase over 2006 to US$1.9 billion.
According to TPI, the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 9 deals in 2007. TPI reported that between India’s third wireless operator Vodafone Essar and IBM as one of the biggest deals signed in 2007. This gave Indian a lot more global contracts increasing their contracts rates from 6 percent in 2006 to 9 percent in 2007. They hold 16 percent of the marketshare in Asia. According to TPI, this region has the highest growth of 101 percent in business processing outsourcing contracts in 2006. The US scale fell by 28 percent and Europe and Middle East and Africa increase by 24 percent.
This relates to the chapter because the chapter focuses on a section of outsourcing. The outsourcing options are onshore outsourcing, nearshore outsourcing, and offshore outsourcing. This is an example of offshore outsourcing. India is dominating the marketplace when it comes to outsourcing. Outsourcing is giving developing countries the opportunities for jobs and ways to increase their economy. This is giving the chance for those to be apart of a growing economy and also making it cost effective for those that are clients of outsourcing.

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2008/gb20080125_367158.htm