Today's News

Lawmakers Cry Foul Over Chase’s Rumored Outsourcing
The Columbus Business First Journal reported that a group of more than three dozen members of Congress, led by U.S. Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, asked the CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co. to explain reports that the company plans to spend hundreds of millions on outsourcing work to India. A letter sent Tuesday to Chase CEO Jamie Dimon and signed by Kilroy, D-Columbus, and 41 other members of Congress comes after published reports in India indicated that the bank would spend $400 million on work outsourced to that country to improve information technology. Please click on the above link to review the entire article.

Methode to Cut Nearly 25% of Work Force, Posts Quarterly Loss
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) revealed that Methode Electronics Inc. has decided to offshore 850 jobs due to the downturn in the North American auto industry. The company said it would move manufacturing operations to lower-cost regions to cut costs. After the restructuring, all its manufacturing will be in Mexico, Malta and China. The company said automotive-segment revenue was hurt by the continued softening of the global economy, especially its effect on the auto industry, and by "negligible Chrysler sales volumes. For a full review of the article please click on the above link.

A Gateway to Legal Outsourcing Learning
An article in IP Preview.com noted that the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), a UK based trade organization has predicted that education will be a critical factor in 2009 for ensuring that outsourcing professionals maintain quality and continuity in their industry. NOA Director Yvonne Williams stated; "About three years ago, we noticed that people were coming into outsourcing from all sorts of backgrounds, such as legal, procurement, IT and sales, and people seemed to be working in silos of specialism. Outsourcing is a very complex business, and the NOA thought that understanding of end-to-end contract management would help to improve the industry in general." To see the complete article please click on the above link.