Integration and Services: Opinions

The financial fraud perpetrated by Satyam Computer Services executives could trigger near-term disruptions across the outsourcing and IT industries. Ramalinga Raju, the company's founder and chairman, resigned last week. He has admitted to inflating Satyam's cash balances and the credit amounts it was owed while understating its liabilities. This scandal has many ramifications for Satyam's customers as well as those of other outsourcing companies.

No two IT shops conduct business in the same way: CIOs report to various executives, project approval processes are all over the board, and personnel policies are vastly different. Unlike other professions, IT doesn't seem to have a common set of basic principles across companies.

Open up any newspaper, online media site or industry report and you’ll hear about the effects of the economic downturn. Last week, the Australian Financial Review published a report on the looming recession, pointing out Australia’s gross domestic product grew by just 0.1 per cent in the third quarter of the year. The report also found the market had begun losing momentum before the global stock markets went into freefall.

During the last calendar quarter, I wrote an article for ARN (July 16, 2008) regarding recruiting staff from partners, alternative solutions and asked what retention plans need to be in place in order to maintain your employees. Now as we come to year-end and in the current economic climate, it feels like everything has changed – or has it?

It's no surprise that Microsoft has its eye on the cloud. Cloud computing, that is.

Looming on the horizon are the nimbus, cirrus, stratus and cumulus that threaten to deliver us cloud computing imminently. Promising an end to most of the challenges and frustrations of IT systems as we know them, the concept of cloud computing is thundering through the business community to become one of the most talked about and revered subjects of the day.

The latest instalment of the Commander saga hit the ARN newsdesk last week and raised more questions than it provided answers. The company’s receivers, McGrathNicol, announced the sale of the embattled integrator’s telecommunications assets, including its national franchise network, to a newly created private equity firm, Commander Telecom Group.

While reading outsourcing horror stories may be somewhat entertaining, especially if it hasn't happened to you, it's even better to learn from the mistakes of others.

As Optima’s administrators recommend the company be liquidated, I can’t help but think that repercussions for the local whitebox industry are going to be much deeper than I first feared. The reason why, in a word, is warranties.

News that Commander had hit the skids was no surprise to many in the industry, but I was still a little shocked when the receivers were finally called in.