India, Ireland seen best bet for IT outsourcing
Merrill Lynch puts Pakistan, China, Russia, Poland among 'up- coming, destinations
MUMBAI: India and Ireland are seen as the most attractive destinations for IT outsourcing. While in India, the average salary cost of an IT employee is around $5,880 per annum, similar costs for an employee in Ireland, Israel and Canada are $28,000, $25,000 and $28,174, respectively. A recent study by Merrill Lynch on global outsourcing destinations classifies various global destinations into three categories. These include main, upcoming and others.

The 'main' destinations include Ireland, India, Israel, Canada, the Philippines and South Africa. "However, India and Ireland are by far the most preferred outsourcing destinations," says the report.

The study identifies Argentina, China, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, Poland, Mexico and Pakistan as 'upcoming' destinations. The 'others' category includes countries like Chile, Venezuela, Thailand, South Korea, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore and Romania.

China is emerging as a strong contender, the study says. "In China, employee costs, on an average, are higher as compared with India. However, employee costs within China vary significantly across different cities. Further, China has a paucity of project managers, and many of them are imported from Australia and Hong Kong," the study says.

The report compared these countries on parameters such as total size, average IT employee costs, total workforce, number of quality certifications, main clients and main positives or negatives. Ireland is the largest IT services outsourcing destination in the world followed by India. The Philippines is India's closest rival in terms of low average IT employee costs.

The study predicts increased business for India. "We believe the high average software employee costs might make some of these destinations like Ireland, Canada and South Africa less competitive than India and other upcoming destinations.

The move by companies like Oracle and Intel to expand their India development centers, is indicative of this realisation. However, India has to tackle negatives in the form of below-average infrastructure and higher geo-political risks," the report states.

The report highlights strengths of various countries in comparison to India.

"India boasts of the largest number of clients from the Fortune 1,000 list as well as the largest number of CMM (Capability Maturity Model) certifications for software processes.

Outsourcing in Ireland is mainly driven by the development centers of large technology companies such as Microsoft, Dell, IBM and so on. Unlike India, where outsourcing is more project-oriented, Israel boasts of more product companies that offer shrink-wrapped solutions. Canada definitely gains owing to close proximity to the US and greater cultural compatibility. However, total cost savings are not meaningful owing to higher employee costs," the report adds.

A wireless printer for the mobile workforce
Imagine a compact wireless printer that can be worn on the hip or mounted on a vehicle dashboard. Mobile Command Systems, based in Seattle, Washington, has set out to equip the vast army of mobile sales and service workers employed in a variety of fields. The company is in advanced stages of developing a compact wireless printer, with availability expected early next year.

Dubbed the Nomad, the printer is designed to produce hard copies of sales agreements, inventory reports, receipts, diagrams or parking tickets--among other documents--just about anywhere. The printer has three infrared ports pointing in three different directions instead of a single port. So the printer can be worn on either side of the body and can more easily connect with the handheld device like a PDA. It also has a unique clamshell print mechanism that makes it much easier to load paper into the device.

The Nomad is designed for use by route delivery workers printing invoices, law enforcement personnel printing parking tickets, doctors who need to provide instructions for nurses, and a broad array of other field service employees. The printer uses an infrared wireless connection with an optional Bluetooth module.

Wi-Fi local area networking technology will be added in the near future. It also features a USB (universal serial bus) port for PC cable connections and can be used with both Palm OS- and Pocket PC-based handhelds. A Print Boy software development kit enables users to create custom print commands, including company logos or graphics.

The Nomad measures 6.5 inches by 3.3 inches by 7.4 inches, weighs about three pounds, and takes paper rolls sold by Mobile Command Systems that are 4.4 inches wide. It is priced at $795.

British Queen loses out on New Zealand's cyber name
GENEVA: Queen Elizabeth, acting as trustee for former British colony New Zealand, lost a legal battle to claim the Internet domain name newzealand.com from a US firm, international arbitrators ruled on Friday.

The decision, issued by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), is the first alleged cybersquatting case concerning a country domain name brought to the United Nations agency, according to WIPO assistant-director Francis Gurry.

"It is the first country case...," Gurry told Reuters.

In a unanimous ruling, three neutral arbitrators named by WIPO found that New Zealand had not registered the disputed name as a trademark. They ruled that Virtual Countries, a company based in Seattle, Washington which registered the site in the United States in 1996, had not acted in bad faith.

The site, which calls itself a "window on New Zealand", offers information for tourists, immigrants and students.

New Zealand is a constitutional monarchy which has retained Britain's Queen Elizabeth as its head of state. The case was filed against Virtual by "Her Majesty the Queen, in right of her government in New Zealand, as trustee for the citizens, organisations and state of New Zealand".

The site carries a disclaimer that it is "not affiliated with any government entity associated with a name similar to the site domain name".

Parties to a WIPO dispute have 10 days to appeal a decision. (Reuters)

Microsoft Outlook to work with Lotus e-mail systems
SEATTLE: Microsoft released on Friday software that allows users of competitor International Business Machines Corp.'s Lotus e-mail system to switch to the software giant's Outlook organiser program.

Microsoft Outlook 2002 Connector lets Microsoft's software access e-mail on a Lotus Domino server, giving it a broader base of potential users for its nearly ubiquitous Office desktop productivity software.

Microsoft, which dominates the desktop software market with its Windows operating system, is trying to accelerate slowing growth by diversifying its software in different environments and a wider range of devices.

Up to now, Outlook mainly worked with Microsoft's e-mail server, Exchange, while Lotus worked with IBM's Domino line of servers.

Microsoft said it developed the free add-in, with IBM's support, in response to requests by customers with Domino servers or a mixed infrastructure of both servers. (Reuters)

Bush Yahoo Person of the Year 2002
President George W. Bush has been named as Person of the Year 2002 by Yahoo, one of the world's most popular search engines.

It said that Bush's top three priorities in 2002 -- national security, homeland security, and economic security - earned him high approval ratings across the nation and a victory in Yahoo!'s first annual Person of the Year, a year-end poll to name the noisemaker and/or newsmaker of 2002.

After guiding the U.S. through the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, Bush has become a powerful leader in the global war on terrorism and one of the most popular presidents in U.S. history.

In a time of grave uncertainties at home and abroad, George W. Bush has navigated the stormy waters of the new millennium with strength, focus, and certainty. The president's abiding popularity and sweeping GOP gains in the 2002 elections have contributed to a stellar year for the 43rd U.S. president.

To select nominees for the 2002 Yahoo! Person of the Year, Yahoo utilized its greatest asset-Yahoo! users. It conducted a comprehensive assessment, across Yahoo!'s one-of-a-kind community and information platform, of the most searched-for people, the most frequently viewed photos and news articles, and related Buzz Index results to determine whom users were most interested in this year. This review incorporated data from a broad cross section of Yahoo! properties and users.

The results of this comprehensive overview were compiled to create an initial master list of nominees.

An editorial oversight committee, made up of Yahoo! employees who are experts in tracking and identifying user interests and trends, then reviewed the data collected and used it to determine the final list of 10 nominees.

Among other nominees were UN Secretary General Kofi Anan and pop sensation Britney Spears.