IBM withdraws software patent application on offshoring jobs
Mar 31, 2009 1:03 PM
Apr 01, 2009 9:24 AM
IBM is reportedly hiring 32,000 for its work sites in India and China
Employees fearful of more layoffs at IBM work sites in U.S.
ROCHESTER (KTTC-DT) -- Computer giant IBM has abruptly withdrawn a patent
application for software that helps companies decide the benefits or
disadvantages of moving jobs to another country.
Five IBM software designers created the product and filed for a patent on it in
September, 2007. But after news of the project broke on Monday, IBM quickly
withdrew the patent application, calling it a mistake.
IBM spokesman Steve Malkiewicz is quoted as saying the filing was "an error."
Ironically, it took the U.S. Patent Office about a year and a half to publish
the application, and it did so on March 26--the very day that IBM was
initiating one of its "resource actions." In this case, industry observers
believe IBM was eliminating four to five thousand jobs from its Global Business
Services and Global Technology Services divisions, and moving them to India.
The jobs outsourcing software patent application is titled "METHOD AND SYSTEM
FOR STRATEGIC GLOBAL RESOURCE SOURCING." Its somewhat complex abstract
describes what it purports to do: "Method and system for strategic global
resource sourcing in one aspect incorporates concurrently a plurality of
qualitative and quantitative attributes that influence performance of sourcing
strategy with respect to one or more quantitative measures, quantifies an
impact of said qualitative attributes using said one or more quantitative
measures, and optimizes the sourcing strategy with respect to said one or more
quantitative measures subject to one or more constraints."
The software's five designers are all based in the Westchester County, New
York, region near IBM's world headquarters in Armonk. The five listed on the
patent application are Ching-Hua Chen-Ritzo of Mahopac, Daniel Patrick Connors
of Pleasant Valley, Markus Ettl of Yorktown Heights, Mayank Sharma of White
Plains and Karthik Sourirajan, also of White Plains.
IBM Rochester was not significantly touched by the latest downsizing of Big
Blue's U.S. work force, from the information at hand. However, hundreds were
cut in southeastern Minnesota in the so-called "resource action" the company
pursued in late January. As KTTC NewsCenter reported in early March, it was an
eye-opener for many long-time IBMers who lost their jobs in Rochester to see
job descriptions for their old positions popping up in China. And anger built
up when an analysis of the terminations showed that most of them came among
those who were over age 50.
The wife of one former IBM Rochester employee says there is fear over future
IBM layoffs here in the U.S., but it is quite a different story as the company
bulks up its operations in China and India.
"There are TONS of new IBM jobs opening in China," she said. "It's going crazy
over there. The number of IBM China positions listed on Project Match has
really jumped in the last three months. Five years ago, IBM had about 1,000
jobs in India. My husband just read that they have 90,000 employees there now."
For years, IBM has sought to employ its work force over a world-wide platform.
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