Continue reading ADP: Recovering In-Sync with the U.S. Economy

ADP: Recovering In-Sync with the U.S. Economy originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 May 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Accenture Ltd. (NYSE: ACN), a global consulting firm that also offers outsourcing and technology services, reported earnings after the close today. Earnings per share for the quarter ending May 31 were $0.68 on $5.15 billion in revenue, compared to the $0.64 average and $0.67 high expected from analysts. The consensus revenue target was $5.2 billion, and results were hurt by currency translation effects, which reduced U.S. dollar results by 12%. Year-over-year, EPS was down 8% from the $0.74 earned in the same quarter last year, with the difference again attributable to currency exchange.

Shares, which were up fractionally today, jumped almost 5% in after-hours trading following the earnings results.

Continue reading Accenture shares rise on earnings beat

Accenture shares rise on earnings beat originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Markets were mixed and downish Tuesday, but there was some good news to be found.

Housing starts and building permits soared, causing a big pop in shares to battered homebuilders. Whether this is a false start or a real jump, its hard to get anything but good news out of a housing market so beaten down.

On the industrial side, the Produce Price Index remained relatively stable, walking the narrow path between two evils -- deflation and inflation.

Continue reading Green Shoots Scenario: Onshoreable jobs

Green Shoots Scenario: Onshoreable jobs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

This week the U.S. Postal Service hiked the rates on postage, covering a majority of the mail services like first-class mail, first-class international, postcards, and special services. So, the price for a one-ounce first-class stamp has gone from $0.42 to $0.44.

And, I'm sure we'll continue to see more increases.

Unfortunately, this is yet more bad news for small businesses, which are trying to deal with the recession.

Continue reading Entrepreneur's Journal: Stamp prices rising again, so what to do?

Entrepreneur's Journal: Stamp prices rising again, so what to do? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 17 May 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Satyam Computer Services (NYSE: SAY) stock has not opened for U.S. trading in days -- and if it did it would be down 91%. As I posted, its CEO announced that Satyam's financial statements were fraudulent and that means that its clients and 53,000 employees are up for grabs. In a world of shrinking budgets, Satyam's competitors ought to be eagerly feeding on the flesh of this crippled company.

Which competitors are likely to pick up the slack? Both Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and and International Business Machines (NYSE: IBM) are best positioned to feed on Satyam's corpse. And with the $50 billion a year market for offshoring experienced a growth slowdown from 29% in 2008 to 10% in 2009 -- those Satyam clients could help plug the growth gap,

There are three reasons why Accenture and IBM should gain:

• They each already supply most of Satyam's blue-chip corporate clients;
• They each have built up their Indian operations in recent years, so they offer Satyam customers the same skills at competitive prices; and
• They are not Indian companies and therefore are not under the same corporate governance cloud that Satyam's revelations spread to all of India's outsourcers.

It may not be too late to invest in Accenture -- which is much more focused on consulting -- to take advantage of this possibility. In the case of IBM, the pickings from Satyam may not be big enough to move its stock.

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College. His eighth book is You Can't Order Change: Lessons from Jim McNerney's Turnaround at Boeing. He has no financial interest in the securities mentioned.

Will Accenture and IBM pick up Satyam's slack? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

With everything from call centers to web site design being outsourced, the clear trend in the business world is to outsource almost any task that can be done cheaper and quicker somewhere else. Reports that CBS (NYSE: CBS) and cable news pioneer CNN, owned by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) are in talks about outsourcing the news, should come as no surprise.

According to a story in The New York Times, "Broadly speaking, the executives described conversations about reducing CBS's news-gathering capacity while keeping its frontline personalities, like Katie Couric, the CBS Evening News anchor, and paying a fee to CNN to buy the cable network's news feeds. "

With CBS stuck in third place among major networks for years, and general viewership of the evening news falling due to alternative news outlets such as cable news, blogs and internet sites, this tie-up would make economic sense. CBS would be able to keep its brand name and substantially cut costs, as they would be able to take CNN news feeds from around the country.

Continue reading Will the evening news be outsourced?

Will the evening news be outsourced? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 08 Apr 2008 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Christopher Johns is certainly well-traveled. For more than a decade, he has started ventures in places like Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.

His latest company is SupportSave, an outsourcing services provider for small and mid-sized customers.

I recently had a chance to interview him:

Some background on your company?

The company got its start in November 2004. Our founders strongly believed that the trend of outsourcing should not only benefit Fortune 1000 companies. So they set out to create a business model that makes outsourcing affordable to businesses of any size.

We thought the Philippines as the most suitable destination for our services because of the strong language skills, minimal accent and affinity towards American culture.

Continue reading BloggingStocks CEO Interview: SupportSave sees big growth in outsourcing

BloggingStocks CEO Interview: SupportSave sees big growth in outsourcing originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 05 Dec 2007 16:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Back in October 2004, PeopleSupport Inc. (NASDAQ: PSPT) went public at $7 per share (the offering was fairly lackluster as the stock price fell on its first day of trading).

Well, now the company may no longer be public. That is, on Friday, PeopleSupport announced that it got a $15 per share buyout offer from IPVG and AO Capital Partners.

PeopleSupport provides offshore business process outsourcing services -- such as for customer management and transcription. The company operates in the Philippines, Costa Rica, and the United States.

However, the stock price plunged 38% in March because of a weak quarterly report. No doubt, the company faces intense competition from players like IBM (NYSE: IBM), Convergys, and eTelecare. Thus, it's likely we'll see consolidation in the space.

Interestingly enough, BloggingStocks had a piece -- a day before the buyout announcement --t hat showed that PeopleSupport had a "bullish 'flag'" pattern on its stock chart.

Yes, it certainly did.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

PeopleSupport gets support from a takeover offer originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 02 Dec 2007 13:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

You don't have to be a fashionista to know that French fashion has a reputation for being uppity and tres expensive. They don't call it haute couture for nothing.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, "With the euro reaching new records against the dollar, U.S. shoppers are finding European designer labels even more expensive than in past years. But a young crop of French designers is now trying to prove that style doesn't have to be so costly."

Unlike the traditional fashion houses selling $1,000 bags, less expensive French labels are outsourcing manufacturing to keep costs down -- a big no-no in traditional fashion circles, where local production is considered key to retaining cachet. Some are also taking the hit on the euro's rise, rather than passing the expense on to American consumers.

Paul & Joe is even -- gasp -- designing a collection for Target (NYSE: TGT).

Will Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT) be able to capitalize on the trend toward more affordable French fashions, as it struggles with its efforts to sell more upscale clothing? Doubtful. If outsourcing production in France hurts cachet, designing clothes for Wal-Mart, the international symbol of corporate avarice and apathy toward people, would be fashion suicide.

French designers get dollar-conscious originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sun, 02 Dec 2007 09:10:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Indian outsourcing firm Wipro says business is good originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Should states lease out their lotteries? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

If you're tired of poisoning your kids with lead-painted toys from China or killing your pets with melamine-laced Chinese pet food, you may be wondering what you can buy that's made in America.

To its credit, China is trying to fix its reputation. Last week, according to CBS News, China's product safety chief Li Changjiang offered assurances that toys made in China would be "safer, better and more appealing. Before Christmas, we will certainly provide children safer, better and more appealing toys. They will certainly like them." To bolster that claim, on September 11th, China signed an agreement to prohibit the use of lead paint on toys exported to the United States.

As I posted in July, I expect that there could be a business opportunity to sell products to U.S. consumers that are made anywhere but China. Then I cited examples of an upscale New York grocery with no Chinese seafood and a New Jersey-based natural producer of premium dog food blended from meat and vegetables. However, I have not seen much in the way of new developments in the last few months.

So what are the choices for those who want to buy products made in the USA?

Continue reading Made in the U.S.A.: What products are still American-made?

Made in the U.S.A.: What products are still American-made? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Continue reading Killer bibs! Is recall madness just anti-Chinese sentiment?

Killer bibs! Is recall madness just anti-Chinese sentiment? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

The initial consensus on Wall Street regarding IBM's (NYSE: IBM) announcement Wednesday that it would eliminate another 1,570 positions is that the effort represents another prudent action in its "reorganizational tripod" of fewer positions, cheaper positions, and reinvented positions.

Further, the reorganization effort represents nothing less than wholesale transformation of the company as it confronts the multi-directional competitive winds of the globalization era. Job eliminations bring Big Blue more in line with today's continuously right-sizing, temperature-taking business environment. Wholesale shifts of jobs to lower-cost markets -- IBM's India workforce surged to 52,000 in 2006 from a scant 9,000 in 2003 -- helps IBM make up for lost time vis-a-vis lower-cost competitors. And, perhaps most significant, IBM's operational shifts -- including rethinking how it delivers services -- create a more nimble, higher-value company that can respond to clients' needs quicker and more productively. IBM's shares closed Wednesday up $1.03 to $106.93.

Further, more position "rebalancing" may be ahead: IBM, which with Wednesday's cuts has now eliminated 3,700 positions in 2007, still has about 356,000 employees, including an eye-opening 128,000 based in the United States. And as part of those cuts, many analysts in the quarters ahead see a continued trimming of global services in favor of software, where revenue is growing faster.

Continue reading IBM: From Big Blue to Nimble Blue

IBM: From Big Blue to Nimble Blue originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 31 May 2007 11:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Wendy's outsourcing for its drive-throughs originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 15 May 2007 12:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

My recent stories about American Idol inflamed reader passions from many perspectives. Sanjaya aside, the idea of American companies out-sourcing jobs to India or anywhere else offends many people. Some readers of American Idol: Are Indian call centers skewing the vote? thought I was singling out the people of India which they interpreted as hostile and racist. I thought I would set the record straight about my views on the subject.

1. The jobs we are sending overseas to India, or elsewhere, is not affecting the employment rate in the United States to any appreciable level. Last I read the unemployment rate stood at 4.5%. It has been hovering between 4% and 5% for several years. To me that is actually close to full employment in a market society as complex as ours. I have no expectation that we could sustain anything lower.
2. Our connection and developing relationship with India in particular is extremely valuable. I believe India has as much potential as any nation, and more than most, to help us expand our economy. It's size, value system, geographic location, history, English foundation, and more make it a great partner. There is much more to gain than to lose for both sides.
3. The fluidity of markets and the greatest transparency in business dealings should be our focus and the word globalization is sometimes a distraction. It is not specific and means different things to different people. Integration is a better word. International partnering is a better term. Since the market is becoming more and more fluid we have not only witnessed call-centers and software development moving overseas, but in some cases they are coming back as companies experiment and decide they function better with local talent and control.

One of the greatest ironies I find in this whole discussion is that the people that complain about the outsourcing of work to other countries are the same ones that complain if a foreign company comes to set up shop in the United States - bringing jobs here!

Continue reading Call centers won't go away - American Idol notwithstanding

Call centers won't go away - American Idol notwithstanding originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 28 Mar 2007 19:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

I've just returned from the World Money Show in Orlando where more than 10,000 investors gathered to learn about global investing. I had a chance to meet with many of the U.S. and foreign financial experts featured at the show, who have shared some of their top investment ideas. To view all of the stocks featured in this special global report, click here.

Global expert John Christy -- editor of the Forbes International Investment Report -- has been very successful in selecting Indian outsourcing companies; two such firms -- Infosys (NASDAQ:INFY) and Wipro (NYSE:WIT) -- are both strong performing holdings in his model portfolio in recent years.

A third player in the sector -- Sify (NASDAQ:SIFY) -- has not shared in that success. Christy explains, "Sify shares got off to a decent start last year. But like other emerging market stocks, they got clobbered in the sell-off last May. Problem is, unlike the rest of the group, Sify never bounced back."

However, the company's prospects may be changing. He notes, "Sify's outsourcing business serves global companies like GE, Oracle, and Whirlpool, as well as local blue-chips such as Ranbaxy Laboratories, Bharti, and Jet Airways.

"It runs a chain of internet cafés throughout India and a family of internet portals. It also provides broadband access to about 200,000 homes. Sify's internet backbone reaches 186 cities across the country.

Continue reading Global gains: Outsourcing and Indian internets

Global gains: Outsourcing and Indian internets originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 17 Feb 2007 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Business leaders chime in on keeping tech leadership in the U.S. originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Cramer has IT outsourcing picks originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 18:51:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

DaimlerChrysler (NYSE:DCX) and Chery Automobile Co. of China will join forces to manufacture a line of tiny cars to be sold under either the Chrysler, Jeep, or Dodge brand. The move is the latest in the phenomenon of outsourcing of U.S. manufacturing jobs, as U.S. labor costs would be too high for such inexpensive cars.

The move is a good one for the American consumer. A line of small, affordable cars is good for the financial situation of working Americans and for the environment. If you're like me, you're getting sick of all the big SUVs everywhere, and you'd love a return to smaller compact cars that are better for the planet and less dangerous to other vehicles.

Chrysler goes mini originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.