Reverse Outsourcing

The recent news about TCS opening a 1000-seat centre in Ohio, US was the focus of a lot of attention - primarily because this showcases how an industry which is always seen as the reason for jobs moving away from US, is now creating jobs in US. This is a strategy which would be followed not only by TCS but also by other Indian IT giants such as Infosys and Wipro. Traditionally, the whole Indian IT services industry was built around the lower labour cost and the perfect time zone match between India and US that helps in round-the-clock development cycle.
So, how does such a move make sense?

• By moving the primary software development centre to the client's country, it becomes easier to interface with the clients. Under the existing scenario, most of the on-site work gets done with the vendor's employees working on the client site. This move will help vendor companies to build a critical mass of employees near client, which will make servicing the clients easier.
• Hiring local talent helps remove the headache of moving people from low-wage countries to on-site. With H1B visa restrictions, the extreme talent crunch faced in countries like India and the vanishing labour cost arbitrage, it makes better sense to bring in local talent. This also improves the companies' goodwill in the eyes of the US and other developed countries' public.
• The recession in US is forcing companies to cut their IT and Systems costs. Since IT doesn't form the core competency of any non-IT company, the best move for them is to outsource to the experts. For companies reluctant to let their data move out of their home country, a near-client facility would be the next best solution.

The time is ripe for Indian IT companies to shed their image of a low cost service provider and move on to become a multinational organisation, not limited by the dynamics in India. The current US recession is a potential springboard to move to the next level of providing IT services.
TCS Press Release
ET Article

bCheck's apps

bCheck is a pretty cool site with a small set of tiny applications, some of which are quite useful. Two of them which I found very useful:

Purrint

Purrint gives the additional functionality which we always have felt to be lacking in the 'Print Screen' button. With this application, one can choose to save to a file, 'print' the screen or just copy to clipboard.

Capster

This application provides the option to run an application at Windows startup with the help of Caps Lock key. One immediate use I can see for this functionality is to start my Thunderbird and FeedDemon at start up using Caps Lock when I am connected to the internet, and not start them when I am working offline.

Courtesy: Lifehacker

Bridge to Terabithia

In a season where I am watching more and more animated movies, Bridge to Terabithia came in as an extra sweetener. Simply put, this is a children fantasy movie which explores the wide array of emotions a boy goes through when turning from a kid to a teenager - a time when he is still amazed by the childhood fantasies he sees in even small things and at the same time goes through a change in emotions he displays to the people around him.

The vivid imaginations portrayed in the movie are so delightful that one gets easily transformed to the childhood days when each of us held different fantasies. But what makes this movie truly special is the mix of the real and the imaginary world that it tries to portray, and is quite successful at it.