Offshoring: Not Everybody’s Doing It

Offshoring isn’t quite as common as the hype would suggest. According to a new CFO survey of 275 finance executives at a broad range of companies, only 18 percent currently use offshore outsourcing. Those companies have moved an average of 6 percent of their workforce overseas during the past thr...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 1, 2004

Reader Opinions on the Offshoring Backlash

In our exclusive CFO survey, 275 finance executives shared their offshoring plans, experiences, and opinions. When asked, “What is your opinion of the recent backlash against offshore outsourcing?” our readers provided a torrent of responses.We divided the responses below into two groups: Comment...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 1, 2004

Explore the Trendline➔

The CFO Strategy for Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence’s impact on the office of the CFO continues to evolve, and finance chiefs must be aware of the opportunities it will create for growth. 

By CFO.com staff

Offshoring by the Numbers

Pick a Number, Any Number…Just how many nonmanufacturing jobs are heading overseas? It depends who you ask. Goldman Sachs estimates U.S. companies have sent 400,000 service jobs overseas since 2000, and the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) says that 104,000 tech jobs moved abr...

By Kate O'Sullivan and Don Durfee • June 1, 2004

Off Shore

Nothing roils the American body politic like foreign competition for jobs. Today’s outcry over offshoring reflects a realization that there is no longer a clear limit to the level of job function that can be outsourced overseas — college degree or the color of one’s collar notwithstanding.Decades...

By CFO Editorial Staff • June 1, 2004

Keeping Receivables Rolling

At logistics and supply-chain company DSC Logistics, chief financial officer JoAnn Lilek recognizes that “one key to making money in logistics is business process automation.”Lilek’s affection for automation extends to the order-to-cash cycle, in which she includes order entry, invoicing, account...

By Marie Leone • May 25, 2004

Small Is Big

“Small is big here.” That catchphrase, for Beech-Nut baby food, applies to more than tiny taste buds and strained peas, according to Alain Souligny, chief financial officer of Beech-Nut parent Milnot Holding Corp.“As a small company, we try very hard to stay ahead of changes in the marketplace, s...

By Marie Leone • May 18, 2004

Spiders in the Web

The tech folk in Silicon Valley knew something was up last year when another web spider appeared. Web spiders are powerful software programs that crawl around the world wide web, automatically analysing words, following links and collecting vast amounts of data. The catalogues they assemble are u...

By Economist Staff • May 17, 2004

Unlimited Opportunities?

There has never been a better time to start a business, especially an e-business. The internet has dramatically reduced the cost of setting up, and especially of reaching customers. For about $1,000, you can buy a personal computer. A high-speed internet connection with enough space for a good we...

By Economist Staff • May 14, 2004

Third Canadian Tech Executive Fired

For the third week in a row week in a row, an executive has been fired from a Canadian technology company during an earnings revision.This time it occurred at video-game maker Hip Interactive Corp. The company announced that the senior vice president of finance of its video-game-distribution divi...

By Stephen Taub • May 12, 2004

The Secret Life of Copiers

Last fall, reports began circulating that a large university in the Northeast had uncovered an illegal music-file-swapping service on campus. Generally, when such a story hits, it turns out that the swappers were hosting their service on a friend’s notebook. Or a portable hard drive. Or even on a...

By Karen Bannan • May 12, 2004

Healing Ways

Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc. is a survivor. In 1999, the Wellesley, Massachusetts-based nonprofit — which operates managed health-care plans and Medicaid/Medicare programs — found itself in state receivership after spending the previous 11 of its 30 years on an acquisition spree.A Massachuset...

By Marie Leone • May 11, 2004

Outsourcing the Handyman

Jerry Whitaker, a vice president in Eaton Corp.’s $2.3 billion electrical-products division, had reservations about outsourcing his equipment maintenance. At the time, Eaton employed on-site mechanics to tackle emergency repairs. “Our initial concern,” he recalls, “was whether [the outsourcer] wo...

By Ilan Mochari • May 6, 2004

Will IM Pay?

When Virgin Atlantic Airways needed to get a key part to a disabled plane in Barbados in September 2002, the carrier called on delivery specialist Sterling Courier Services. Under normal circumstances, Sterling (a division of Quick International Courier Inc.) would have no problem executing the r...

By Esther Shein • May 4, 2004

Down on the Server Farm

BM’s Universal Server Farm (USF) in Shatin, Hong Kong, looks more like a control tower poised for heavy traffic than a place designed for cultivation. TVs in its spartan control room scroll bewildering screens of data. Cavernous rows of server racks groan with metal boxes, each with blinking ligh...

By Arthur Clennam • April 28, 2004

Get Rich Quick Fighting Spam?

At faucet maker Moen Inc., a trickle had grown into a torrent, and security manager Rob Buchwald didn’t like the sound of it. Every day, he heard complaints from employees at the North Olmsted, Ohio-based company — the largest manufacturer of faucets and plumbing accessories in North America — on...

By Esther Shein • April 27, 2004

Outsourcing Finance Not Catching On

Companies with mature shared service centers have found little or no occasion to outsource key finance areas, and most companies are unlikely to increase their outsourcing in the next three years, according to a survey by the Hackett Group.The reasons, said Hackett, include concerns over cost, qu...

By Stephen Taub • April 21, 2004

More Balls Through Windows

For years, hope has ebbed and flowed among many in the computer business that Linux, a freely available computer operating system which uses a penguin as its symbol, would become a viable alternative to Microsoft’s Windows, the near universal standard for the world’s personal computers. The indus...

By Economist Staff • April 20, 2004

What’s the Deal?

Lease or buy? Finance executives grapple with this decision constantly, whether it’s for office space, furniture, vehicles, maintenance equipment, or scores of other products. Now, thanks to mostly flat sales in many types of computer hardware, the IT market is full of special finance deals. CFOs...

By Bob Violino • April 14, 2004

Offshoring Isn’t Biggest Economic Worry

In mid-March, when CFO.com asked readers what will be the most-discussed issue in this year’s U.S. presidential election, 68 percent replied “offshoring of U.S. jobs.” As President George Bush and his likely Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, might have guessed, that answer far outweighed the ...

By Dave Cook • April 13, 2004

IBM Acquires Indian Outsource Provider

If you can’t beat ’em, buy ’em.That’s one take on the policy behind International Business Machines Corp.’s decision to acquire Daksh, India’s third-largest provider of back-office services, for between $150 million and $200 million, according to Reuters.IBM’s acquisition is the largest deal of i...

By Stephen Taub • April 8, 2004

The Big Sleep

In the completely fictional Museum of Business Technology, the displays are amazing. Down one hall they’ve got a Quadricycle, down another the original Telex. One wing is devoted entirely to computers. There, Hollerith Desks, Apple 1s, and IBM 650s sit perched on ivory cubes, encased in acrylic p...

By John Edwards • April 7, 2004

There’s No ”IT” in ”Thrift”

Take a new, young CFO, ensconce him in the downtown Seattle headquarters of a small but growing company with operations in eight western states, and you can be pretty sure that information technology will be an important aspect of his growth strategy.So much for assumptions. Meet Brent Beardall, ...

By Connie Winkler • April 6, 2004

Study: Outsourcing Boosts Jobs, Economy

Offshore outsourcing curbs inflation, increases productivity, and lowers interest rates, contends a study commissioned by the Information Technology Association of America, an IT industry trade association.The study claims that offshore outsourcing has already supplied a boost to the U.S. economy...

By Stephen Taub • March 31, 2004

Why Not Every Job Translates Overseas

When sales of their security software slowed in 2001, executives at ValiCert Inc. began laying off engineers in Silicon Valley to hire replacements in India for $7,000 a year.ValiCert expected to save millions annually while cranking out new software for banks, insurers and government agencies. S...

By Scott Thurm • March 30, 2004

Amazon Finally Clicks

The foosball tables are still there, as are the desks made from sawhorses, plywood, and old doors. And no one wears a tie, not even CFO Thomas J. Szkutak. But if some E-commerce trappings are alive and well at Amazon.com headquarters, others are not. Red ink, for example, has disappeared—at least...

By Russ Banham • March 24, 2004