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When a state auditor's report blasts the project, and politicians start playing football. Oregon's data center consolidation project is a cautionary tale about either a lack of careful project management or carefully managing expectations -- probably both.

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A new report forecasting the top 10 workplace trends of the future says video and Web conferencing will make business travel extinct while social networking sites and other Web 2.0 technologies emerge as the primary tools for job recruiting. Is your organization ready to support these and other workplace trends? Or maybe you're already making these shifts.

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With gasoline prices rising above $4 a gallon, a recent survey found that 40% of tech workers would willingly take a pay cut to telecommute. Meanwhile, more employers are apparently offering IT pros the choice to work remotely as a perk to attract hard-to-find skills. Is telecommuting an option you offer your staff?

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Last week, SAP announced new university alliances to prepare future professionals with business, tech, and soft skills needed in the rollout of NetWeaver, ERP 6.0, and other popular SAP products. This week, the company talked to me about the work under way with other third parties to help fill the talent gap now.

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Having a hard time finding professionals to staff your SAP software rollouts? That's apparently the case for many organizations implementing NetWeaver, ERP 6.0, and other SAP technologies, as well as the third-party companies assisting in the deployments.

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Ken Abendshien is CIO of Midwest Health Systems Data Center, a tech support organization that provides outsourced data center services to 27 small county hospitals and long-term care facilities in Kansas, and two in Nebraska. Some of those sites are really tiny -- treating one or two patients a day. And with those hospitals having even tinier IT budgets, Abendshien needs to stretch his resources very carefully.

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When was the last time you got a call from a headhunter? Have those calls cooled down lately? Think it's due to the weak economy, or do you think it's possible that you're just not that "hot" anymore?

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Got a lot on your plate? How would you like to be the IT shop? While the common belief is that one-person IT departments are typically the stuff of start-ups and mom-and-pop businesses, that's not always the case.

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Money is always quick and easy bait to keep valued staff from leaving. But how do you retain -- or even attract -- key talent when budgets are tight?

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The Air Force is getting lots of ack-ack for its decision to award a $35 billion airborne tanker contract to Europe's Airbus instead of Chicago-based Boeing. National defense shouldn't be outsourced, the critics say. There's just one problem with that argument -- Boeing itself sends key military work offshore.

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Some folks predict the volume of H-1B visas petitions employers file starting April 1 will be lighter than last year. But that's not because demand is waning for foreign tech talent. Rather, companies are being more selective in the kind of talent they're seeking, given the odds aren't good they'll have their visa applications approved.

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IT budgets and tech staffs were clobbered during the recession of the early 2000s. But how would they survive this time around? Hasn't most of the "fat" already been slashed, or has much of it returned?

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Nasscom, which just wrapped up an annual conference that drew thousands of people worldwide to Mumbai, has been hit with a nasty blow. Its president faces prosecution for allegedly failing to ensure the safety of a Hewlett-Packard nighttime call-center employee prior to her murder.

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Even before the first wave of baby boomers began reaching retirement age, predictions of an impending brain drain looked pretty dire. About 50% of the federal government's workforce was expected to retire over the next few years. Now, it looks like many of those people will be staying put longer.

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Do you expect your paycheck to grow much fatter this year? Maybe you're just glad you get a paycheck, especially with all the gloom and doom about the economy. If that's the case, then maybe other job traits or perks -- besides money -- are moving higher up on your priority list right now when it comes to work.

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The morning after the Iowa caucus results, I shared with you what Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama are saying about technology and globalization. The focus has shifted over to Hillary Clinton and John McCain after the results in New Hampshire's primary. Here's what those presidential candidates have to say about those topics.

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Who has pickier job expectations, young people entering the tech field, or the employers who hire them? A new report released today says tech executives think millennials -- people between the ages of 18 and 31 -- are too fussy about pay and perks, and are the most difficult to manage.

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There were almost 300,000 new IT jobs last year, according to the latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And that doesn’t surprise Bob Keefe, new president of the Society for Information Management. He says talent issues are the top challenge these days for his fellow CIOs.

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First off, Huck-a-who? I had to do some research this morning to learn more about the winning Republican candidate at the Iowa caucus. So Mike Huckabee is an ultraconservative and former Baptist preacher. Ohh-kay. But I'll resist the urge to spout out my personal views here and share with you what Huckabee and Democratic winner Barack Obama have to say on the issues of globalization and technology at their Web sites.

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Bad economic news is making techies glum about jobs, even though managers supposedly remain fairly upbeat about IT hiring and spending plans, according to a new report. What does your gut tell you about tech jobs in 2008?

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Plenty of change lies ahead in the area of offshore outsourcing, which has evolved from a little-used practice to a mature industry in less than 10 years. Here are five predictions for offshore outsourcing in 2008:

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There are reports coming from India that IT outsourcing vendor Wipro is preparing a $7 billion bid for Capgemini. The companies aren't commenting directly on these reports, but a Wipro exec did say something that underscores this fact: Indian companies are under the gun to move beyond their Indian workforces.

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Nothing gets that holiday season name calling flowing more fluidly than mentioning H-1B visas.

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Restrictions on visas for foreign IT pros to work in the United States will drive more tech jobs and creativity offshore, says a new study released today. While that argument isn't new, the report has a collection of government and other stats to help back it up.

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Uncertainty about the economy is giving some tech professionals jitters about their jobs and wallets. Are the fears warranted or not?

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If you're looking to hire IT staff next year, what kind of talent are you hunting for? On the flip side, if you're searching for a new tech job, what skills do you offer prospective employers?

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During the dot-com boom, employers rolled out the red carpet and waved fat checks at tech talent. Today's carrots aren't 20% raises and signing bonuses, but rather 20%-off coupons on car rentals. But could job-perk programs be making a comeback?

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Maybe outsourced IT work and offshore manufacturing are as different as apples and lead-painted oranges. But does the rash of tainted product news from China make you more edgy about the quality of IT work that's done outside the U.S.?

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The days of work going offshore to Indian IT pros earning $15,000 a year? They're gone. Now salaries are at least double that, according to a seemingly reliable source.

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Moves--or lack of movement--by Congress this week are good news and/or bad news depending on what side of the H-1B visa fence you're on. There seems to be something (and nothing) in it for everyone.

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It's inevitable. We post a story about offshore outsourcing, and the comments section quickly fills with several or more postings about those damn foreigners taking our jobs. My multi-story package on entering the second decade of offshore outsourcing has attracted quite a few.

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Is the United States locking the door and nailing it shut to foreign tech talent while Europe is getting ready to roll out the red carpet? Some people think so.

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Sinu provides IT service and tech support to small businesses for a flat monthly fee, regardless of how much time is spent fixing technology problems.

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Small businesses of 10 to 100 employees have a new option for CRM and sales force applications. LongJump offers a suite of software applications delivered via the Web.

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We've shared ways that U.S. IT pros are planning their careers with one eye on offshoring as a risk factor. We haven't spent enough time on the automation risk. Today's news of Hewlett-Packard buying Opsware for $1.6 billion cash shows how a lot of companies will look to automation to cut IT people, regardless of where in the world they work.

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Microsoft for years has sought an end to limits on the number of visas granted to foreign high-tech workers. But the demise of the immigration reform bill appears to have the company taking a different tack: It now wants to park overseas talent in Canada.

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As a talent war escalates in India, many companies are looking to China as the next big opportunity for offshore outsourcing. I have two words for you: tainted toothpaste.

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A largely overlooked section in the comprehensive immigration reform being debated in the Senate calls for the Social Security Administration to come up with fraud-resistant cards within two years to aid in electronic worker verification, possibly including biometric information. One top immigration scholar says this could be the "sleeper" issue of the debate, since it affects every U.S. employee.

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More businesses want to get involved with YouTube. It's young, it's hip, it's "Web 2.0." But don't mistake YouTube for child's play. As a Pittsburgh law firm is learning, there can be ugly repercussions to posting video for the whole world to see.

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I've spent the last few weeks researching an article on H-1B visas, and it's been both illuminating and painful to dig underneath the press releases of high-tech firms, lobbying groups, and politicians and talk to the individuals directly affected by how many H-1B visas are issued -- and how many of those guest workers actually get green cards.

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For any business that doesn't already have its foot in the door in India, it may be too late. The IT talent shortage there has hit a tipping point, and I predict that before long, only the in-crowd will be assured good access to top talent. That means big companies with strong ties to established service providers.

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Having winnowed the domestic pool of highly experienced IT and engineering talent by hounding thousands out of the business through years of layoffs and false complaints about the math-smarts of American students, big business has hit on the latest tack for controlling high-tech labor costs: In-source the jobs it was previously outsourcing, by getting the government to lift the cap on H-1B visas.

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A company called Vocal Laboratories provides video commentary on a six-minute customer service call to Hewlett-Packard. HP treats its customer rudely, like cattle. They waste the customer's time. They make the customer sit through six minutes of silence, hold music, and pointless questions. Then they abruptly hang up on the poor guy without providing any help at all. But the most shocking thing of all is that HP is not unusual in this behavior. It's a typical call by any customer to any company, anywhere, at any time.

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There’s a new study out by Duke University challenging the belief that a common reason businesses go to China and India for engineers is because the United States doesn’t graduate nearly enough of them. The main reason businesses offshore outsource, the study concludes, is because the salaries are lower. Well, no $#*&!

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Of late, there have appeared a number of not-so-subtle signs that India is moving well beyond its traditional role as host for low-level back office and IT work from the West. The only question now seems to be when (not if) we'll see the first U.S. corporation move its headquarters and CEO to the subcontinent. Here's what to watch for:

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A leading Indian economist cautions that outsourcing-fueled inflation in tech hubs like Bangalore could cause social disruptions in the country. It's also not good news for companies looking to boost profits through offshoring. So here's a look at what some lesser-known Indian cities have to offer.

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Somebody has to write those subtitles that allow the hearing impaired to watch movies. Increasingly, that work is being outsourced to India--with some unintentionally hilarious consequences.

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Bill Gates last week asked Washington to up the supply of H-1B visas available to U.S. companies. He failed to mention that Microsoft and other American tech companies will ship hundreds of thousands of more jobs overseas if the visa cap isn't raised.

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And the average IT staffer $73,000 in salary and bonus. Those are just the start of the findings from last year's InformationWeek Salary Survey, in which 10,000 of you participated. Please take this year's survey, at informationweek.com/salary. (Links to a salary tool and last year's articles after the jump.)

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Do you believe Bill Gates' message that the United States has a tech-talent shortage -- near term and long term? The answer should shape your reaction to three main issues Microsoft's chairman discussed during congressional testimony this week: H-1B visiting worker visas, tech education, and immigration.

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