Global Diversity, Out Sourcing, economics

Global Diversity for U.S.A. has become a reality as the internet has made every corner of World accessible via the internet. While many companies top executives have embraced diversity, many companies and citizens are still un-accepting, or behind the times.

Many minorities and woman have made great progress in breaking the so called glass ceiling. We have a Barack Obama, a black president, Deval Patrick, the first black governor of Ma, and many other influential business people. When people make it to the top of their profession, they tend to hire and reward people in their inner circle. In the recent past, trickle down economics meant, minorities and woman where the last hired.


During this economic down turn, gains made in the Information Technology sector by blacks, Hispanics, and women have been reverse by wide spread lay offs.

Global diversification of the work place has proliferated as a result of wide spread out sourcing. Many support functions have been sent to countries such as India, Guatemala, and China. The fact is, many people in these countries can speak multiple languages (fluent English) but speak with a distinct accent. It time to realize that the world is no longer US (USA) and them (foreigners), but we as one!

When in this global economy, all U.S. workers need to be able to work with all cultures and countries. We as US citizens need to take a look at the world beyond our borders. How can U.S. business and workers use the global diversification and economy to our advantage? It time to refocus from Main Street to the global super highway and I as a business man, will be reviewing our relationship with Europe and our global strategy.

Massachusetts Information Technology -- State Legislature

Massachusetts state government and Governor Deval Patrick has under taken an initiative to merge all state agencies under one umbrella. The key person in this project would be the chief information technology officer for the state.

The CIO would help merge the MA highway department, public transit, RMV, and Aeronautics under the Executive Office of Transportation. The EOT budget was projected at 20 million which also over sees 3000 agencies.  One of the key duties for the CIO was working with the Information Technology Division and Federal funding sources to identify and secure financial resources needed to support IT initiatives

Once of the keys to merging agencies involved the state’s effort to move towards open document format (ODF) with in executive branch agencies. Transforming IT operations for 3000 agencies is a huge investment that the state appears not ready to make. The last two CIO have resigned as a result of the “Massachusetts Legislature's decision not to fund most of the state's IT projects”.

During the last three years, battle lines have been drawn over the direction of digit document format.  Both former CIO’S have decided to go with ODF, XML based format using a variety or products including IBM workplace and StarOffice.  The decision to not use Microsoft’s digital format resulted in opposition from Microsoft, legislators, government officials, and special interest group.

I was interested in tracking this project as I assisted in locating person to fill CIO position for the state of Ma. They key to project management is, the person or people running the project and associated funding. If either of these two variables are lacking, chance of success are diminished greatly.