Another Acquisition for IBM

BI and Performance Management Software industry has experienced a major consolidation wave in acquisitions space. The first to happen was the acquisition of Hyperion by Oracle, followed by the acquisition of Pilot Software by SAP. The third acquisition to happen now is the acquisition of Cognos by IBM. IBM and Cognos have been partnering for nearly 15 years with extensive technical integrations and eight pre-integrated joint solutions already supporting many joint customers such as the NY City police department, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Tennessee, Canadian Tire, MetLife and Bayer UK. This acquisition will be the 23rd acquisition for IBM with other major acquisitions up till now being with Princeton Softech, FileNet, Ascential Software, DataMirror, SRD, Trigo, DWL and Alphablox.
Please review this for a complete Press Release from IBM on the Cognos acquisition :
IBM to Acquire Cognos .

Indian BPO Security Issues

It was in 2005 that a Bangalore based BPO employee, Prathibha, was murdered. This incident created havoc around the country in an otherwise booming Indian BPO industry. The security of employees then became the primary focus of BPO companies and all companies operating at night came up with several security measures to counter the issues of security, especially to female employees. It is a normal practice for BPOs that operate at night to provide pick and drop facilities to their employees and prior to this Bangalore incident, not many companies had the practice of providing security personnel for each drop. In the aftermath of the Bangalore incident the companies came forward with measures such as “no first pick up should be a female employee” and “no last drop should be a female employee”. If it is necessary for a female employee to be last dropped then it was made mandatory to provide a security person for each such drop. In addition the companies vouched to do a stringent background check of each one of their transport suppliers and their drivers as well, preventing those drivers with a criminal background to be used for their services.
How many BPOs still continue to follow such stringent measures? The answer appears not to be not many, as the very recent incident in Pune, India suggests. A 22 year old female employee, Jyoti Chaudary, of IT Major Wipro call center was allegedly raped and murdered by the driver of a taxi which was hired by the company and an accomplice, according to the initial reports coming out in the media. Though complete details are not yet available, it does raise eyebrows as to why the female employee was first picked up. It also raises our concerns as to whether the employees are taking enough additional care as to ensure their own safety and security.
This incident again brought to light the rising security issues in the BPO industry and will have an impact on the industry as a whole. After the Bangalore incident, it has become a tough exercise for recruiters to convince female candidates to take BPO jobs on night shifts and most parents are now reluctant to allow their children to work on night shifts. Unlike other countries, in India, parents play a vital role in the career decisions of their children, at least during the initial stages of their careers. BPOs expect very good communication skills as the mandatory skill set and most female candidates possess good communication track records. If this incident adds to the existing fears of night shift jobs in the BPO industry, particularly among female employees, the Indian BPO industry will definitely face productivity issues in the near future. It has become a waiting and watching game to see how BPOs will face the rising issues of security and employee safety.