Outsourcing

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Executives from Silicon Valley to Wall Street are adamant that shifting white-collar jobs from the United States to developing countries is good business, but a backlash is brewing. Indiana's state government canceled a $15 million contract with an Indian consulting firm in November. And eight states voted on bills last year that would ban the use of taxpayer money on contracts with foreign workers. Though none of those measures passed, the states and several others are expected to consider similar bills this year.

Concord's school bus service will continue to be run by the town for at least the next year. The School Committee voted last week to lease a facility in Billerica for the next school year and then come up with a permanent plan for the future, said Peter Fischelis, the chairman of the Concord-Carlisle Regional High School Committee. The existing transportation maintenance and storage facility is located on the grounds of the Concord-Carlisle Regional High School but must be torn down this summer to make way for the new high school.

Some Concord residents are up in arms about a school department proposal to close its town-run transportation system, and turn over the bus operation to a private contractor. Dozens of residents attended a forum Wednesday night hoping to persuade the School Committee to reject the administration's recommendation to contract with a Cincinnati-based company, First Student. Residents lined up to question First Student's safety and performance record, express concern about the future of existing drivers, complain about the bidding process, accuse officials of rushing the process without properly...

The Obama campaign charges in a new ad airing in three swing states that Mitt Romney's economic plan is built on outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. "As a corporate CEO, he shipped American jobs to places like Mexico and China," a male narrator says in the ad, running in Iowa, Ohio and Virginia. "As governor, he outsourced state jobs to a call center in India. He's still pushing tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. " "It's just what you expect from a guy who had a Swiss Bank account," the narrator concludes, referencing tax returns Romney released in January,...

Clark Ervin, former inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, has a long list of weaknesses in the systems and procedures we have established to keep ourselves safe. One of them is the extent to which we have turned over to private contractors essential responsibilities best left in the hands of government personnel, including members of the military. While newspaper readers may have been shocked at reports - and pictures - of security guards at the US Embassy in Kabul engaged in wild, and lewd, partying, Ervin focuses on a less titillating but more disturbing element of that incredible scene:...

President Barack Obama's re-election campaign released a new ad Tuesday accusing Republican Mitt Romney of outsourcing jobs and slamming him for keeping money in foreign bank accounts. The ad says Romney "shipped American jobs to places like Mexico and China" when he led the investment firm Bain Capital. And it says Romney "outsourced state jobs to a call center in India" when he was governor of Massachusetts. The campaign was spending about $780,000 to place the ad in markets in Virginia, Ohio and Iowa, according to a Republican strategist monitoring the purchase of...

By Jennifer Fenn Lefferts, Globe Correspondent Concord residents are up in arms about a school department proposal to close its town-run transportation system and outsource the bus operations to a private contractor. Dozens of residents attended a forum Wednesday night hoping to convince School Committee members to reject the administration's recommendation to contract with Cincinnati-based First Student. Residents lined up to question First Student's safety and performance record, express concern about the future of existing drivers, complain about the bidding...

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration may outsource hundreds of jobs to private companies, according to agency officials. The government's chief health regulatory agency is reviewing more than 300 positions in more than 20 cities to determine whether they could be performed cheaper and better by the private sector. A decision is expected next month, according to FDA documents. An initial list of positions under review included lab technicians and field office workers who work at FDA facilities where food and medical...

Facing mounting opposition from parents over plans to outsource its bus services, the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District has temporarily backed down and is now looking to keep the transportation in-house. Administration officials have rescinded the two bids it received for privatizing transportation starting this fall and are looking to lease a storage and maintenance facility for the next school year. But they also said outsourcing has not been ruled out for the future.

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority officials have decided they will not take over direct management of the commuter rail when their contract with Massachusetts Bay Commuter Railroad Co. expires next year. Since 2003, the MBTA has outsourced management of the commuter rail system to MBCR, a private company. That contract ends in June 2013, and other companies, along with the current operator, will have the chance to put in bids for managing the rail lines. Jonathan R. Davis, the T's acting general manager, announced at the agency's general meeting this...

Outsourcing company Wipro Ltd. said Monday it reached a deal to buy Promax Applications Group, a privately held provider of trade promotion planning and management services, for 35 million Australian dollars ($36.6 million). Wipro, which is based in India, said that by industry estimates, consumer-focused companies spend as much as a quarter of their yearly sales on trade promotions, that is, marketing activities directed at vendors rather than people. Promax is based in Australia, with offices in New Zealand, Japan, Europe and North America.

By Jennifer Fenn Lefferts, Globe Correspondent Concord's bus service will continue to be run by the town for at least the next year. The School Committee voted Monday night to lease a facility in Billerica for the next school year and then come up with a permanent plan for the future, said Peter Fischelis, the chairman of the Concord-Carlisle Regional High School Committee. The existing transportation maintenance and storage facility is located on the grounds of the Concord-Carlisle Regional High School but must be torn down this summer to make way for the new...

The future of Concord's school bus service is expected to be a hot topic of discussion at a Special Town Meeting this week when a group of residents will ask officials not to hire a private contractor. There are two articles on Tuesday's warrant related to the School Department's transportation system, which has been operated in-house since 1957. School officials recommended turning it over to a private contractor starting next year to save money, but many residents are strongly opposed to any change.

Infosys Technologies reported quarterly profit of $463 million Friday and said its revenue will grow more slowly than the industry's this fiscal year, eroding its position as India's outsourcing bellwether. Infosys shares plunged 11 percent in Mumbai. Net income for the quarter ended March grew 15.2 percent in dollar terms from a year earlier to $463 million. Sales grew 10.5 percent, to $1.8 billion, in line with expectations. A survey of analysts by FactSet predicted quarterly sales of $1.8 billion and net income of $443.7 million.

WASHINGTON - President Obama and top Democrats are planning a key-state offensive aimed at Mitt Romney, accusing the former Massachusetts governor of promoting policies that send American jobs overseas. Democrats are highlighting decisions Romney made while he was chief executive of Bain Capital, as well as moves he made as governor of Massachusetts, in hopes of undermining his support by blue collar workers in states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, where manufacturing jobs have moved overseas.

Facing mounting opposition from parents over plans to outsource its bus services, the Concord-Carlisle Regional School District has temporarily backed down and is now looking to keep the transportation in-house. Administration officials have rescinded the two bids it received for privatizing transportation starting this fall and are looking to lease a storage and maintenance facility for the next school year. But they also said outsourcing has not been ruled out for the future.

When we think about globalization, we often imagine a simple transfer of jobs from one country to another: cars made in Osaka rather than Detroit, or jeans made in Guangzhou instead of San Francisco. But this view of globalization is too simple. According to business scholars Greg Linden, Jason Dedrick, and Kenneth Kraemer, it's more useful to look at a product like the iPod: a little bundle of techno-wonder assembled, piece by piece, in factories around the world. In their new paper, " Innovation and Job Creation in a Global Economy: The Case of Apple’s iPod ," pubslihed in the Journal of...

Shares of the Miami physician outsourcing firm rallied after Metropolitan Health Networks Inc. agreed to buy it in a cash and stock transaction worth about $400 million. Metropolitan Health said the combined company will run 31 primary care practices and provide care for 68,000 Florida Medicare Advantage and Medicaid customers. The sale is expected to close during the third quarter.