Infy to offer single-digit salary hikes

BANGALORE: Infosys Technologies, India’s second biggest software company, will offer single-digit salary hikes next financial year, joining its peers, including TCS and Wipro, that have indicated that they would either defer salary hikes, or look at 7-8% hikes, in order to cope with a lower demand for their services in the US and Europe, their key markets. 

IT companies seek staff help to tide over crisis

Source: The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: At a time when layoff and cost-cutting dominate news space and drive conversations in corner rooms, corridors and staff canteens of India Inc, causing widespread panic and uncertainty, a handful of IT firms including Infosys, Cisco, HP, NIIT and CSC, to name a few, are encouraging their employees to chip in with suggestions to overcome the global economic crisis. Besides getting access to some valuable inputs, the move will help these companies instill a sense of confidence into a flock living in constant fear of getting the axe. 

“Cisco employees feel like members of a problem-solving team and not mute spectators , who are anxious whether they will be impacted personally,” says Cisco India director , human resources, Subash A K Rao. 

The networking major is using multiple means of communications like meetings, virtual meetings, emails, blogs, video messages and open house sessions to keep employees posted on the overall situation and help them post their ideas. “The employees’ ability to share ideas and suggestions across functional and hierarchical boundaries makes them a part of the company’s response and actions,” says Mr Rao. 

Infosys has set up a portal for employees to generate ideas ranging from simple energy saving and transportation to other possible steps for the software giant to reduce costs. The company claims it has already received more than a 1,000 ideas and is in the process of evaluating them. The portal is the first in a series of cost-cutting measures. 

The 30 skills every IT person should have

Source: InfoWorld

An IT manager's guide on how to be better at what you do, no matter how experienced you are. On MSN the other day, I noticed an article called "75 skills every man should master." It included some skills I have and some I don't. For example, I can tie a knot and hammer a nail, but frankly I can't recite a poem from memory, and bow ties still confuse me.

It was an interesting read and made me realize I could be more well-rounded than I am. To be honest, we all could be.

So in the spirit of personal growth, I developed a list of skills every IT person should have.

1. Be able to fix basic PC issues. These can be how to map a printer, back up files, or add a network card. You don't need to be an expert and understand how to overclock a CPU or hack the registry, but if you work in IT, people expect you to be able to do some things.

2. Work the help desk. Everyone, from the CIO to the senior architect, should be able to sit down at the help desk and answer the phones. Not only will you gain a new appreciation for the folks on the phones, but you will also teach them more about your process and avoid escalations in the future.

3. Do public speaking. At least once, you should present a topic to your peers. It can be as simple as a five-minute tutorial on how IM works, but being able to explain something and being comfortable enough to talk in front of a crowd is a skill you need to have. If you are nervous, partner with someone who is good at it, or do a roundtable. This way, if you get flustered, someone is there to cover for you.

4. Train someone. The best way to learn is to teach.

5. Listen more than you speak. I very rarely say something I didn't already know, but I often hear other people say things and think, "Darn, I wish I knew that last week."

6. Know basic networking. Whether you are a network engineer, a help desk technician, a business analyst, or a system administrator, you need to understand how networks work and simple troubleshooting. You should understand DNS and how to check it, as well as how to ping and trace-route machines.

7. Know basic system administration. Understand file permissions, access levels, and why machines talk to the domain controllers. You don't need to be an expert, but knowing the basics will avoid many headaches down the road.

8. Know how to take a network trace. Everyone in IT should be able to fire up wireshark, netmon, snoop, or some basic network capturing tool. You don't need to understand everything in it, but you should be able to capture it to send to a network engineer to examine.

9. Know the difference between latency and bandwidth. Latency is the amount of time to get a packet back and forth; bandwidth is the maximum amount of data a link can carry. They are related, but different. A link with high-bandwidth utilization can cause latency to go higher, but if the link isn't full, adding more bandwidth can't reduce latency.

10. Script. Everyone should be able to throw a script together to get quick results. That doesn't mean you're a programmer. Real programmers put in error messages, look for abnormal behavior, and document. You don't need to do that, but you should be able to put something together to remove lines, send e-mail, or copy files.

11. Back up. Before you do anything, for your own sake, back it up.

12. Test backups. If you haven't tested restoring it, it isn't really there. Trust me.

13. Document. None of the rest of us wants to have to figure out what you did. Write it down and put it in a location everyone can find. Even if it's obvious what you did or why you did it, write it down.

14. Read "The Cuckoo's Egg." I don't get a cut from Cliff Stoll (the author), but this is probably the best security book there is -- not because it is so technical, but because it isn't.

15. Work all night on a team project. No one likes to do this, but it's part of IT. Working through a hell project that requires an all-nighter to resolve stinks, but it builds very useful camaraderie by the time it is done.

16. Run cable. It looks easy, but it isn't. Plus, you will understand why installing a new server doesn't really take five minutes -- unless, of course, you just plug in both ends and let the cable fall all over the place. Don't do that -- do it right. Label all the cables (yes, both ends), and dress them nice and neat. This will save time when there's a problem because you'll be able to see what goes where.

17. You should know some energy rules of thumb. For example: A device consuming 3.5kW of electricity requires a ton of cooling to compensate for the heat. And I really do mean a ton, not merely "a lot." Note that 3.5kW is roughly what 15 to 20 fairly new 1U and 2U servers consume. One ton of cooling requires three 10-inch-round ducts to handle the air; 30 tons of air requires a duct measuring 80 by 20 inches. Thirty tons of air is a considerable amount.

18. Manage at least one project. This way, the next time the project manager asks you for a status, you'll understand why. Ideally, you will have already sent the status report because you knew it would be asked for.

19. Understand operating costs versus capital projects. Operating costs are the costs to run the business. Capital equipment is made of assets that can have their cost spread over a time period -- say, 36 months. Operating costs are sometimes better, sometimes worse. Know which one is better -- it can make a difference between a yes and no.

20. Learn the business processes. Being able to spot improvements in the way the business is run is a great technique for gaining points. You don't need to use fancy tools; just asking a few questions and using common sense will serve you well.

21. Don't be afraid to debate something you know is wrong. But also know when to stop arguing. It's a fine line between having a good idea and being a pain in the ass.

22. If you have to go to your boss with a problem, make sure you have at least one solution.

23. There is no such thing as a dumb question, so ask it ... once. Then write down the answer so that you don't have to ask it again. If you ask the same person the same question more than twice, you're an idiot (in their eyes).

24. Even if it takes you twice as long to figure something out on your own versus asking someone else, take the time to do it yourself. You'll remember it longer. If it takes more than twice as long, ask.

25. Learn how to speak without using acronyms.

26. IT managers: Listen to your people. They know more than you. If not, get rid of them and hire smarter people. If you think you are the smartest one, resign.

27. IT managers: If you know the answer, ask the right questions for someone else to get the solution; don't just give the answer. This is hard when you know what will bring the system back up quickly and everyone in the company is waiting for it, but it will pay off in the long run. After all, you won't always be available.

28. IT managers: The first time someone does something wrong, it's not a mistake -- it's a learning experience. The next time, though, give them hell. And remember: Every day is a chance for an employee to learn something else. Make sure they learn something valuable versus learning there's a better job out there.

29. IT managers: Always give people more work than you think they can handle. People will say you are unrealistic, but everyone needs something to complain about anyway, so make it easy. Plus, there's nothing worse than looking at the clock at 2 p.m. and thinking, "I've got nothing to do, but can't leave." This way, your employees won't have that dilemma.

30. IT managers: Square pegs go in square holes. If someone works well in a team but not so effectively on their own, keep them as part of a team.

In meltdown, big IT and BPO deals cheer India

MUMBAI: Outsourcing fights back and lives to see another day. While everybody was rushing to write off the industry in the wake of Barack Obama's election and the global economic
slowdown, two major outsourcing deals in the hospitality and the pharma sectors have been
signed which should bring hope and cheer for the Indian IT and BPO sector.

Cognizant bags $100 mn US contract
Cognizant Technology Solutions, which competes with Indian offshore biggies such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro, continues to win new contracts from its existing customers, including
Astrazeneca and Merck, even as the industry prepares to cope with lower information technology spend in top markets of the US and Europe.

Genpact got Hyatt Corporation deal
The world's premier hotel company, Chicago-based Global Hyatt Corporation, has outsourced part of its financial and accounting transaction services to India's Genpact. The Hyatt agreement is a trend-setting move in the hospitality industry and follows in the footsteps of other
global banking and insurance giants who outsourced a large part of their processes to India's BPO sector to save costs.

Infosys bags AstraZeneca
In the other major deal, the $30-billion global pharma giant AstraZeneca has outsourced its
end-to-end maintenance services for a variety of corporate services (such as human relations,
finance) to Bangalore-based Infosys. While the values of the two deals have not been disclosed
yet, both envisage increasing the scope of the work over time.

HCL Tech completes Axon buy

HCL Technologies on Monday closed the acquisition of UK-based Axon Group for £441 million ($658 million), marking the largest tech buyout by an Indian firm. HCL Axon, the new entity formed after the buyout, is now chasing outsourcing deals worth $1.2 billion.

Layoff news in USA - Dec 16th: Update

Agilent Technologies will be laying off up to 150 employees at its Liberty Lake operations, beginning in late January, further reducing what was once a major employer in the area.

AMD layoffs loom largeMedia reports indicate that AMD is poised to layoff an additional 10 per cent of its current 15,000 employee workforce.

Thousands of layoffs by DHL and ABX Air hit.

Best Buy Co. announced that a worsening sales environment could force it to lay off employees and significantly slow its new store openings in the United States. Minneapolis-based Best Buy, the No. 1 electronic seller, said it had already informed nearly all of its 4,000 corporate employees on Monday that they are eligible for a voluntary separation package in order to reduce its corporate expenses.

582,000 Canadians could lose jobs if Big 3 fail

Canada could lose more than 580,000 jobs within five years if Detroit's Big Three automakers go out of business, most of them in Ontario, says a report obtained by the Toronto Star.

Detroit's newspapers plan to cut 9 percent of their work force and offer fewer days of home delivery at a time of slumping revenue industrywide, a union official said.

American Airlines also plans layoffs. Not certain how many and where.

Factor 5 Lays Off Nearly Half Of Staff

Gaia online layoffs 36 employees

Layoffs in India - Mid-tier software companies hand out pink slips

Source: The Times of India

CHENNAI: Never in the past has retrenching excess people or weeding away non-performers caught so much attention. Almost all mid-tier software services companies are tightening the screws on non-performers and are handing out pink slips.

Market is agog with names of almost every tier II software services company laying off people.
However, a cross section HR heads of companies TOI spoke to, flatly denied any move to
retrench people.

Instead they insisted that the process of appraisal just got over and the companies were only
"weeding away flab or removing non-performers from their rolls."

Adventity BPO's HR head, Rajesh Balaji said, "We have not sacked anybody. As an organisation, we work on a performance improvement plan which comes in cycles. I don't have the exact number of people who have been asked to leave, but I can tell you it is around 250 or less and that too this has happened over the past few months."

Adventity has offices in Chennai and Mumbai besides other locations. The company has 4,300
staffers across the globe. "In Chennai alone, the poor performers maybe a handful, less than five," he said.

In the case of Hexaware, according to company insiders, as many as 500 people have been shown the door across locations. K Balasundaram, senior VP-HR, Hexaware, denied any retrenchment. A company source, however, said that these were lay-offs of non-performers after appraisal. Incidentally, in a related development, Hexaware decided to down its shutters in Gurgaon. This would see 130 of its staffers out of job, even as they have been encouraged to move to other centres in Chennai, Mumbai or Pune.

Ramco Systems, a mid-tier company based out Chennai has seen off 142 persons. "Elimination due to poor performance is a natural process. All this while, we had allowed these people to stay
on, but since our Ramco Virtual Works platform - a technology platform, is maturing and since
productivity levels are increasing, we have cut flab. Our annual appraisal happens between
April and July and the bottom 7% of employees have been shown the door," a senior company
official said. Ramco now has 1,800 people on its rolls.

Quintegra, another Chennai-based software solutions company has sent out 20 persons. "We have asked 20 trainees to leave. They were all freshers who were not upto the mark. None of whom we have asked to leave are in the middle or senior management," Shankararaman Vaidyanathan, MD of Quintegra, said.

At a recent HR Summit in Chennai, Nasscom's president, Som Mittal told this correspondent that the Indian IT industry was maturing and improving productivity. As these levels increase,
there was bound to be an effect on employees at the bottom. "It is still a fraction, but the good news is that the industry is getting serious of cutting flab," he said.

According to industry insiders, the number of people each of these tier II company is
filtering is a small portion of their overall strength.