Spring in the Bluegrass
This week we are finally seeing signs that spring is here to stay. The coming of spring has brought some big changes in my life. Ella and I moved into our new house last weekend and yes, it was a royal pain. The boxes are disappearing slowly but surely, and I am anxious to show the place off to friends and family. For all the hassle, it's great to be a homeowner. "You ain't no kind of man if you ain't got land" - Delmar O'Donnell, O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Big changes are in the works on the job front too. Lexmark has decided to "in-source" everything, which I think is a funny term. It used to be that if you were a big company you simply did everything yourself. You had suppliers and customers and maybe a trucking company that you used exclusively, but if you needed a computer guy, you just went out and hired one. Then came the infinite wisdom of outsourcing, where the basic logic is "I make widgets, I should hire other companies to do everything not directly related to making widgets." The theory is that it saves you money because you're inefficient and doing anything except making widgets, and by bringing in all these other experts to run other aspects of your business, it allows you to focus on your "core competency" [designing and building widgets].
Over the past few years, reality has set in, and companies are discovering that they're not really saving any money. In some cases they are also realizing that information technology is no longer a support function, but rather it has become a critical part of their business. These days a lot of companies like Lexmark rely way too heavily on consultants. It's foolish to be paying non-employees $125 an hour to run a critical aspect of your business. This is the conclusion that Lexmark has reached, which means they are cutting back dramatically on their use of consultants. So now we have this term "in-sourcing" for cases when you outsourced something and you realize "man, that was stupid" so now you're going to start doing it yourself (again).
Not to worry though, Atos has already found a new assignment for me. I'll be going to Clermont-Ferrand France in April to work on a project we're doing at Michelin. The project will last several months and will involve 3 or 4 trips to France. So far it looks like I'll be able to bring Ella with me for some of the time (on the company dime, no less!). Details to come on that one.
I'm reviving the Colonel's forum because I think it'll be a great way to keep people posted about my adventures in France. OK, so it never really got started last year, but I figure now I'll have a good reason to make regular posts. I can report first hand about the riots and strikes.
Big changes are in the works on the job front too. Lexmark has decided to "in-source" everything, which I think is a funny term. It used to be that if you were a big company you simply did everything yourself. You had suppliers and customers and maybe a trucking company that you used exclusively, but if you needed a computer guy, you just went out and hired one. Then came the infinite wisdom of outsourcing, where the basic logic is "I make widgets, I should hire other companies to do everything not directly related to making widgets." The theory is that it saves you money because you're inefficient and doing anything except making widgets, and by bringing in all these other experts to run other aspects of your business, it allows you to focus on your "core competency" [designing and building widgets].
Over the past few years, reality has set in, and companies are discovering that they're not really saving any money. In some cases they are also realizing that information technology is no longer a support function, but rather it has become a critical part of their business. These days a lot of companies like Lexmark rely way too heavily on consultants. It's foolish to be paying non-employees $125 an hour to run a critical aspect of your business. This is the conclusion that Lexmark has reached, which means they are cutting back dramatically on their use of consultants. So now we have this term "in-sourcing" for cases when you outsourced something and you realize "man, that was stupid" so now you're going to start doing it yourself (again).
Not to worry though, Atos has already found a new assignment for me. I'll be going to Clermont-Ferrand France in April to work on a project we're doing at Michelin. The project will last several months and will involve 3 or 4 trips to France. So far it looks like I'll be able to bring Ella with me for some of the time (on the company dime, no less!). Details to come on that one.
I'm reviving the Colonel's forum because I think it'll be a great way to keep people posted about my adventures in France. OK, so it never really got started last year, but I figure now I'll have a good reason to make regular posts. I can report first hand about the riots and strikes.
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