[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Hmm, isn't that 2K budget per person per month, why isn't anybody pointing it out?

Yeah, before writing grandiose statements, just a bit of calculation and common sense never hurt anyone.

[mmmjgm]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Hmm, isn't that 2K budget per person per month, why isn't anybody pointing it out?

Originally Posted by phamilyman

Yeah, before writing grandiose statements, just a bit of calculation and common sense never hurt anyone.

sorry guys, my bad, (i was not wearing specs) a 2k budget per head is again extreme in this situation.

Well, I ain't the one cutting costs, the grandiose part is the permission to spend so much per employee, i may be segmenting here however its a bit high.

Cheers

[phamilyman]

oh please.

It means about 15-20 rs per person per day on coffee/tea etc - ie 600.
Rest lunch per day even at Rs 50 would come to 1000.

So yes, maybe 1500 would be okay - but its not that high either. There are hajaar other costs - like useless meetings, business class travel and all

[amitk26]

From my observation in these times Admin guys are instructed to cut costs and they do not have control on actual big ticket items such as meetings , travel , Software , Hardware etc.
So what they can cut is air-conditioning , Lights, toilet papers and F&B.

I think on cost cutting front instead of Tea- Coffee - Lunch I think Admin should look at the printers . In all the offices I have seen 75% of printouts are useless and costs of printing over a month is astonishing.

In my company there is little impact on these things as we are still an
profitable electronics giant but In days of recission every one has to do belt tightening.

In our Indian Subsidiary we started conscious effort to reduce overseas travel , recruitment is frozen except for specific cases.
In my project I have taken initiative to reduce tools cost by promoting FOSS tools such as Vi and Eclipse for editing and cross referencing instead of Source Insight and Visual Studio. Open Office Draw instead of Visio , Remote GDB instead of Lauterbach trace 32 etc.
At corporate level we have moved to GIT from Clearcase for version control.
Earlier each project used to raise requisition for build servers but now system admin is maximizing use by shared between multiple teams using virtualization instead of investing in new machines.

Software and hardware cost is actually a big portion and can be controlled if people know how to control.

[mmmjgm]

Originally Posted by amitk26

From my observation in these times Admin guys are instructed to cut costs and they do not have control on actual big ticket items such as meetings , travel , Software , Hardware etc.
So what they can cut is air-conditioning , Lights, toilet papers and F&B.

I think on cost cutting front instead of Tea- Coffee - Lunch I think Admin should look at the printers . In all the offices I have seen 75% of printouts are useless and costs of printing over a month is astonishing.

In our Indian Subsidiary we started conscious effort to reduce overseas travel , recruitment is frozen except for specific cases.
In my project I have taken initiative to reduce tools cost by promoting FOSS tools such as Vi and Eclipse for editing and cross referencing instead of Source Insight and Visual Studio. Open Office Draw instead of Visio , Remote

Software and hardware cost is actually a big portion and can be controlled if people know how to control.

You hit the nail on the head amit, as the indirect costs vs their amortization over the proposed project period states a lot on the balance sheet.

Rather than cutting down

@ phamiilyman - well in my industry our tea/coffee budgets are more like 100 ~200 a head, per month, may be in the software industry there are higher allocations, however for me and my industry background its high.

We can only state upon what's divulged on the forum, as we do not have specifics of business travel, F&B expenses and the real cost - attrition, nothing much can be deducted.

Really speaking the actual need of the hour on a global scale is how can you add capacity without a direct and proportional increase in costs.

Coming back to the topic, why do innocent hard working people have to bear the brunt of the recession and all this taam jhaam of cost cuts why now ?

[lambuhere1]

Infosys cuts variable pay - Software & Services-News-Indiatimes - Infotech

Infosys has cut the variable pay for employees, with the cuts being deeper at the higher levels. For senior executives, the variable pa
y, which constitutes nearly 50 per cent of their total compensation, has been slashed by 58 per cent.

“Some boardroom executives have even taken a 70 per cent to 85 per cent variable pay cut,” said T V Mohandas Pai, head of HR in Infosys. The company's hiring has been steadily declining.

In Q4, it added (net) only 1,772 people, compared to 2,772 in Q3, and 2,586 in Q4 of 2007-08. In the whole of 2008-09, it hired (net) 13,663 people, down from 18,946 in the year before.

The company maintained that it will not seek to trim its payroll by laying off software professionals. There will, however, be no salary hike this year, as the company plans to keep its operational costs under control.
“We are not laying off anybody and there are no such plans,” said Infosys Technologies HR-director, TV Mohandas Pai.

Infosys plans to hire 18,000 professionals in the current fiscal, including almost 16,000 fresh graduates and experienced hires. It will also recruit around 1,000 non-Indians outside the country to increase the number of foreign professionals in its workforce

[PatienceWins]

Originally Posted by lambuhere1

Infosys plans to hire 18,000 professionals in the current fiscal, including almost 16,000 fresh graduates and experienced hires. It will also recruit around 1,000 non-Indians outside the country to increase the number of foreign professionals in its workforce

This is good news. I am surprised looking at the numbers.

[Nitin]

Originally Posted by amtak

Have just put down my papers in my present company. Will join the new one on 7th May, 09 with a higher position but a reduced compensation. Trying to appear for other interviews as well where I get the same position but a higher compensation!

Good luck with the new job,amtak. Wish you the very best! A jump may be scary in these times, but go for it with all your heart.

Originally Posted by PatienceWins

This is good news. I am surprised looking at the numbers.

Thats true. Looks too good to be true, but I did read on TOI that India hopes to have a lot of jobs in the offering by the end of the year. A ray of hope,during these dark gloomy days!

[vivekiny2k]

now infosys has a HUGE inventory of middle and middle-senior level managers and not enough freshers to support them. while it recruits freshers, I won't be surprised if it offloads middle and senior level management. (anybody who joined between 1998-2005 fallls in that categary)

[Rocky_Balboa]

Off all the ~150 employees in my org, about 45+ are managers and 20 are support staff. And not all managers manage! Beat that!

[spadival]

Originally Posted by vivekiny2k

now infosys has a HUGE inventory of middle and middle-senior level managers and not enough freshers to support them. while it recruits freshers, I won't be surprised if it offloads middle and senior level management. (anybody who joined between 1998-2005 fallls in that categary)

Same is true for all the big 4 Indian IT companies - TCS, Wipro and Satyam. Indian IT Industry just had the wrong model for career progression
Everyone wanted to be a manager and not a techie, because management was where the money(i.e good salary) was.

Now look where it got us into.

[amitk26]

Originally Posted by spadival

Same is true for all the big 4 Indian IT companies - TCS, Wipro and Satyam. Indian IT Industry just had the wrong model for career progression
Everyone wanted to be a manager and not a techie, because management was where the money(i.e good salary) was.

Now look where it got us into.

Well this was true for service companies , I think people used to become managers too soon , In my organization the criteria is 10 years of Job experience and grade 1 or 2 for last 2 appraisal cycles to avoid too many managers syndrome.
Also Technical manpower need to get same respect at senior level almost all established companies have technical ladder for this purpose.
It is high time Indian Service providers think about technical ladder to promote people with technical bent of mind with same salary , power and respect as the managerial ladder counterparts.

[amtak]

Originally Posted by Nitin

Good luck with the new job,amtak. Wish you the very best! A jump may be scary in these times, but go for it with all your heart.

Thanks a lot Nitin. In fact, I appeared for another interview yesterday. Keeping my fingers crossed now.

[Digital Vampire]

Originally Posted by Nitin

50% cut? Holy cow! I know that something's better than nothing, but this is a bit too drastic. Any plans of working elsewhere on the side?

As of now, no plans of working elsewhere...Been running too much and I need a good 2 months break and then I have too many personal projects which I left midway to complete That should keep me occupied for the next 6-8 months or so.

[ntomer]

Originally Posted by Nitin

50% cut? Holy cow! I know that something's better than nothing, but this is a bit too drastic. Any plans of working elsewhere on the side?

If given an option, I'd be happy to take this offer. There had been so many things which I would have loved to do, but couldn't due to my job. I would treat this as an opportunity for skills upgrade, and to live my life the way I want to for some time :-)

\N