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Sprint plans to send hundreds of technology jobs overseas
Kansas City Star ^ | 8/7/03 | Suzanne King

Posted on 08/07/2003 5:25:07 AM PDT by Non-Sequitur

Hundreds of Sprint Corp. employees may lose their jobs as the Overland Park-based telecommunications giant moves forward with a plan to send certain technology jobs overseas.

Sprint chairman and chief executive Gary Forsee on Wednesday said competitive pressures had forced the company toward "offshoring" -- the growing trend of U.S. companies relying on lower-paid computer programmers as far away as India and China.

Sprint put out a request for proposals from outsourcing companies earlier this year and has since narrowed the list to two offshore vendors. Forsee said Sprint is conducting site surveys and is in "serious discussions" with the two companies.

"At the end of the day, it's several hundred jobs that could be impacted," Forsee said. "But we don't know what the ultimate result is."

A final decision on how to handle sending the jobs overseas is likely within 60 days.

Layoffs would not be immediate, Forsee said, because moving work to the outsourcing companies could take six to 12 months.

Forsee also said the company hopes to ease the impact of sending jobs overseas by moving some displaced workers to other information technology projects within Sprint and replacing existing contractors with Sprint employees.

Sprint already was considering moving jobs overseas when Forsee replaced William T. Esrey as the company's top executive earlier this year. But Forsee said he made the final decision to go ahead with the request for proposals.

Sprint already uses an offshore company for some customer service jobs. The company has outsourced information technology jobs to U.S. firms for years. But it has resisted sending information technology jobs overseas.

That has changed as Sprint, like other telecommunications companies, struggles with weak sales in what continues to be a difficult economy.

For almost two years, Sprint has been on a campaign to lower costs to compensate for soft sales. Since October 2001, more than 18,000 jobs have been eliminated. Hundreds of contractors also have lost work at Sprint.

Computer programmers and other skilled technology workers have been among the hardest hit, and there remains a severe shortage of available technology jobs in Kansas City and elsewhere.

Sprint's move toward sending jobs overseas will make a bad situation worse, said Rick Kumar, a former Sprint contractor who last year founded a support group for laid off information technology workers.

"The market is where it was a year and a half ago," Kumar said.

Many people still are out of work or have abandoned their information technology careers for other work, Kumar said. But unlike many of his information technology colleagues, Kumar said he does not blame Sprint and the many other companies that have turned to cheaper labor overseas.

"They have to follow the model or go out of business," Kumar said.

That is precisely how Sprint explains its move toward an offshore vendor. When competitors began cutting information technology costs by turning to offshore programmers, company officials said, Sprint was forced to look at following suit.

"We've got to stay on top of our competitive position," Forsee said. Offshoring "has become a significant trend that we hadn't participated in, so we looked at that as a strategy that was important...because of the competitive aspects."

IBM, Microsoft and HP are among the U.S. companies that are sending information technology jobs overseas or reportedly plan to start. Sprint must lower its cost to keep pace, Forsee said. But he knows careers are at stake.

"When you take actions like that, you're doing that hoping to keep the company as a whole strong," realizing that there are "people and careers and jobs at stake," Forsee said. "We try to do that part very carefully. It's not without significant consideration."

Shares of FON closed Wednesday at $14.05, up 1 cent. PCS closed at $5.41, down 36 cents.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: economy; offshoring; outsourcing; sprint; unemployment
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To: txflake
I am glad you post so infrequently

Well, at least you find a silver lining in every cloud, even when there isn't one. LOL. Just a little lagniappe (a coonass term) for ya.

361 posted on 08/07/2003 8:45:25 PM PDT by Torie
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To: txflake
I am glad you post so infrequently

Well, at least you find a silver lining in every cloud, even when there isn't one. LOL. Just a little lagniappe (a coonass term) for ya.

362 posted on 08/07/2003 8:45:37 PM PDT by Torie
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To: oceanview
My wife and I both work. She is one of 4 dispatchers at her police station. Minimum staff. Pretty secure. Our discretionary expenses would be dropped immediately and there would be plenty to stay comfortable. The people who would notice are all the businesses that we patronize on a regular basis. My current contracts aren't easy targets for an outsourcing. Things look good through April 2004.
363 posted on 08/07/2003 8:47:29 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: harpseal
The argument against teh Bill of Rights was made by Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist papers

An opinion favored by the majority of the delegates.

I note the states ratified teh Bill of Rights and your discussion of sabotage does not conform to the Historical record.

After the Federalists bought out and shut down newspapers critical of their views. You'll recall Rhode Island was blockaded by ships of War to force her signature?

364 posted on 08/07/2003 8:49:14 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear....)
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To: ninenot
On the ChiCom "show tour" or in real China?

The 20 ft high steaming piles of human dung roasting in the Gobi sun seemed awfully real.

And they are Fascists not Communists.

365 posted on 08/07/2003 8:51:07 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear....)
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To: Poohbah
Quite true. Instead of outsourcing 60% of the jobs in a business unit, they may simply decide to shut down the business unit completely, and fire 100% of the employees.

That would be the best possible outcome. It would create a window of opportunity for a real US company to develop to take its place. These are little more then old name brands anyway.
366 posted on 08/07/2003 8:52:05 PM PDT by ARCADIA (Abuse of power comes as no surprise)
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To: Dr Warmoose
During the ColdWar, American businesses were not permitted, nor encouraged, nor subsidized by our Government to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into their infrastructure and industry. China, we educated, support and finance their country. All in the name of "expanding markets".

Even if we did, the Russians would have never produced goods acceptable to the West. Maybe raw materials. The cultural differences between the Chinese and Russians is night and day. Communism did not destroy the Chinese soul as it did the Russian.

Now they are doing like any other country we are benevolant to, they bite us, try to harm our economy,

Well, friggin duh. Maybe we shouldn't let Government Sponsored Entities sell them Mortgage Backed Securities to prop up our real estate bubble. Maybe we shouldn't use China to fund our deficit. Now they can crash our markets anytime they please..Sheesh.

Libertines/Free-Traitors hate America and everything she stands for, but embrace communist nations

I can't recall embracing China's government. I like the Chinese people. They are moral, hard working and very civil. The government? I would happily help kill them if given half a chance.

, speak highly of them, and encourage us to buy the rope they will hang us with.

Oh, I see its the Libertarians that helped China get MFN status, and join the WTO, not the two ruling parties. What a load of crap.

China is a communist country.

No China is a Fascist Country.

Given that, why do Libertarians constantly run Amnerica into the ground,

Uh, again. Libertarians can't get elected. They don't have any political power. Much like the Chinese people they are not the source of the world's problems.

Do you know where the book The Art Of War was written?

Yes, and I am familiar with the Legalist tradition of hiding ambition behind the mask of Confucism.

The Chinese, after all, invented Totalitarianism.

367 posted on 08/07/2003 8:56:35 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear....)
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To: ARCADIA
good point. we are better off having an American company that replaces Oracle, then have Oracle be a database company with only 200 US employees and 20,000 workers in India and China. and that is exactly where it is heading, at some point, what good are US companies if they are not employing Americans?
368 posted on 08/07/2003 8:56:38 PM PDT by oceanview
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To: Torie
I agree with your assessment of the schools. We have lots of well educated people with a good track record that are unemployed now. They did just fine in school, but find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. There is a huge spread in cost of living and commensurate compensation when you compare India and the U.S. If U.S. employees have any hope of competition, it will have to be on the basis of better quality, better productivity and faster response time. The Indians have already exposed shortcomings in these specific areas.

My current strategy calls for finding jobs of high complexity and short delivery times. It just isn't worth the effort to package these tasks in a fashion that could be executed by an offshore operation. I can finish the work faster than it can be sent to India.

369 posted on 08/07/2003 9:03:41 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: AdamSelene235
Okay you are against theuS Cionstitution and the Rhode Island icident was for ratification of teh original document not the Bill of Rights. Yes there were contentious issues at that time as there were at most times in teh History of the USA. But to be honest I have tyet to run into someone arguing the US Constititution is not valid because of teh tactics used in the ratification priocess. This is so bizarre an argument I can not deal with such wierdness tonight.

Please thisone post alone print it out and take it to a doctor and be evaluated you really need some medical help.

370 posted on 08/07/2003 9:04:15 PM PDT by harpseal (Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown)
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To: Dr Warmoose
Bastiat, like most pseduo-intellectuals was trying to be the smartest person in the room, but was a total ignoramous when it came to understanding morality and human nature. The guy lived in an intellectual and moral vacuum.

Most of the pro-freedom Chinese who I who have given copies of Bastiat's classic moral defense of individual liberty were quite enthusiatic about his writings.

371 posted on 08/07/2003 9:06:30 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear....)
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To: harpseal
. But to be honest I have tyet to run into someone arguing the US Constititution is not valid because of teh tactics used in the ratification priocess. This is so bizarre an argument I can not deal with such wierdness tonight. Please thisone post alone print it out and take it to a doctor and be evaluated you really need some medical help

No, I'm not saying its not valid, whatever that means. I'm pointing out that there are some very large gaping loopholes that allow for the type of unlimited government we suffer from today. Given the caliber of intellect of the Founding Lawyers, these loopholes are not mistakes but quite deliberate.

The Founding Lawyers were human beings, not demigods and they were writing their future job descriptions.

This is why we have the General Welfare clause which brought us Social Security.

This is why you have no right to a jury trial in non-criminal cases, like IRS cases or now enemy of the State cases.

This is why a cop can search a large portion of your car, under the Terry doctrine, without a warrant. The search isn't "unreasonable" you see.

This is why the Senate and the President can use treaty powers without House approval to create law on nearly equal footing with the Constitution itself. This is how the feds got municipal police powers over things like duck hunting.

Heck, if you read carefully, you might even notice the Bill of Rights does not apply to Federal Territory but only the United States. Poor Indians, they didn't live in the United States but rather Federal Territory where Congress has absolute, unlimited authority.

372 posted on 08/07/2003 9:19:29 PM PDT by AdamSelene235 (Like all the jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear....)
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To: ninenot
Analogy is false.

Sort of.

In "n" months you will have 12 programs, not just one. For the same cost as just one.

You can sell 12 programs at a profit, not just one. And with a higher per product margin, too!

373 posted on 08/07/2003 10:46:30 PM PDT by null and void (Everything I needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/12 - when I put a Flag in my cubicle)
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To: Myrddin
Things look good through April 2004.

Too bad the election is in November...

374 posted on 08/07/2003 11:01:59 PM PDT by null and void (Everything I needed to know about Islam I learned on 9/12 - when I put a Flag in my cubicle)
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To: null and void
Who cares when the election occurs? I'm just referencing the backlog of work for which I have signed contracts. My boss just kicked out proposals for another $3 million in new contracts this afternoon. There is a VERY high probability of getting all of them. Marketing is a continuous process of seeking new work to keep the backlog of tasks full and the paychecks coming in a predictable fashion.

My colleague in Mclean, VA just locked up $300K in new contracts and we have another $1 million on tap that carries through to October 1, 2004. This stuff is tied to the federal budget approval, so I'm not counting it as secure yet.

I have some DSP work to do for a towed array that fills some of the time around Thanksgiving. The most difficult task is having enough hours in the day to complete everything.

375 posted on 08/07/2003 11:25:45 PM PDT by Myrddin
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To: ninenot
err... I do know about Tomas de Torquemada the Grand Inquisitor of España.
376 posted on 08/08/2003 12:57:02 AM PDT by Cronos (Bush 2004 (Reagan waz best, but Dubya's close!))
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To: harpseal
Re: Layoffs.

I am making basic sense, you're just extrapolating without making any sense. Watch the biz news, whenever a company lays off workers, the stock markets reward them, under the impression that they're improving the bottom line. You can't deny that.

however, the company will lose employee morale and the productivity of the remaining may actually go down (my theory, since I'd consider people to either get so scared that the quality of work suffers or they do anything to improve, but it can go either way).

Saying that if they fire everyone they'll have killer stock prices, is, to put it bluntly, stupid. It's like saying that if a bit of Prozac makes you slightly better, why not down the whole lot?

No, my rant is that the stock markets reward a company for indulging in the tactics you're condemning. And those stock markets are run by folks who own the stocks who, in most cases are ordinary Americans. So, what's the point of blaming a CEO if he's just following the dictates of his shareholders??
377 posted on 08/08/2003 1:06:37 AM PDT by Cronos (Bush 2004 (Reagan waz best, but Dubya's close!))
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To: harpseal
unsupported statement

You hanker for tariffs. These were conducted during the times when we were expanding both in terms of territorial gains and population increase (millions of poor immigrants from Europe).

I state that we don't have those conditions now, at least in terms of territorial gains while the immigrants aren't welcome any more.
378 posted on 08/08/2003 1:22:45 AM PDT by Cronos (Bush 2004 (Reagan waz best, but Dubya's close!))
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To: chimera
What I mean is that I grew up listening to my parents (and others) preaching the line that getting yourself educated, bettering yourself, was the way to improve your chances for long-term success...So what do we tell the best and brightest today, that are fully capable of achieving very high levels of learning and skills, only to be thrown out on the street when their employer, private industry or the public sector, tells them they're not wanted or no good.

If you have to get affirmation of your worth from other people via employment and degrees, you really are going to be in bad shape. Note that Bill Gates is a college dropout. Being out of work doesn't mean you're no good - it means you don't have a job.

379 posted on 08/08/2003 4:01:15 AM PDT by garbanzo (Free people will set the course of history)
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To: Cronos
You hanker for tariffs. These were conducted during the times when we were expanding both in terms of territorial gains and population increase (millions of poor immigrants from Europe).

Well we are not gaining territory and we do have a period of over 50 years when the net territory where the uSA had sovreignity has decresed and the economy expanded. Admittedly we have always had immigrants coming to the USA we still do.

I state that we don't have those conditions now, at least in terms of territorial gains while the immigrants aren't welcome any more. How welcome the immigrants are I have no idea but they are still coming both legally and illegally.

380 posted on 08/08/2003 4:37:41 AM PDT by harpseal (Stay well - Stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown)
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