The babies come home — six babies, three girls and three boys come home to Pennsylvania. We named them Alexis, Aaden, Hannah, Collin, Leah and Joel. 

“On the day of July 18, I looked around the condo…” (See page 111)

May 10, 2004 — the sextuplets are born. Let the naming begin. They had to stay in the hospital because they were premature (premies). All the challenges we were faced with were worth it when we saw them born and healthy. (Though a bit small).

“On the morning of May 10, 2004, the first of the sextuplets were born.” (See page 76)

November 2004 — I am pregnant with six babies! What am I going to do?  I never expected this to happen to me. But I will love them all, anyway. Of course! 

“On the Friday before Thanksgiving of 2003… I knew that potentially six lives would be riling on me.” 

October 8, 2000 — Cara and Madelyn are born! Twin girls! My dream come true. Now Jon and I can both take care of a baby at the same time! We’ve always wanted twins.

“Finally on Oct. 8, 2000… the arival of our two bright-eyed beauties!” (See page 18) 

St. Patrick’s Day 2000   — Jon and I found out we were having twins! We are so excited! 

“We had been scheduled for an ultrasound appointment on St. Patrick’s Day of 2000… We were expecting twins!” (See page 17)

June 12, 1999 — Jon and I get married! It was a beautiful sunny day, just like the bright future ahead of us. 

“Our wedding day: June 12, 1999″ (Page 13)

My Favorite Things to Do (And Important Events)

Spend time with my family
Raise my eight children
Chat with my husband
Attend my job as a nurse
Travel
Planning and Organizing
Relaxing

Scott lives in Danville California, my former home town. It’s a beautiful suburb of San Francisco and home to Bishop Ranch, the corporate headquarters of several Fortune 500 companies. It’s where Scott gets his ideas on life inside the cubicles.

The Day You Became A Better Writer

I went from being a bad writer to a good writer after taking a one-day course in “business writing.” I couldn’t believe how simple it was. I’ll tell you the main tricks here so you don’t have to waste a day in class.

Business writing is about clarity and persuasion. The main technique is keeping things simple. Simple writing is persuasive. A good argument in five sentences will sway more people than a brilliant argument in a hundred sentences. Don’t fight it.

Simple means getting rid of extra words. Don’t write, “He was very happy” when you can write “He was happy.” You think the word “very” adds something. It doesn’t. Prune your sentences.

Humor writing is a lot like business writing. It needs to be simple. The main difference is in the choice of words. For humor, don’t say “drink” when you can say “swill.”

Your first sentence needs to grab the reader. Go back and read my first sentence to this post. I rewrote it a dozen times. It makes you curious. That’s the key.

Write short sentences. Avoid putting multiple thoughts in one sentence. Readers aren’t as smart as you’d think.

Learn how brains organize ideas. Readers comprehend “the boy hit the ball” quicker than “the ball was hit by the boy.” Both sentences mean the same, but it’s easier to imagine the object (the boy) before the action (the hitting). All brains work that way. (Notice I didn’t say, “That is the way all brains work”?)

That’s it. You just learned 80% of the rules of good writing. You’re welcome.

It’s one of the biggest things we’ll be launching this year,” said DeVard, who acknowledged that Verizon is playing catch-up in the fields of online and social networking. “We were asleep at the wheel a bit,” she said. Verizon will spend 15 percent of its marketing budget online this year, and she said that may not be enough.

HP, IBM and BMC Software have blogs. They are all pretty serious organizations.

New “dotmobi” internet domain names will go on general sale on Tuesday in an attempt to drive the use of mobile devices as platforms to surf the web.

More than 13,000 names have been registered in an initial period reserved for trademark holders as part of an initiative parts of the telecommunications industry believe will encourage web use on mobile phones and devices such as the BlackBerry, reported by the Financial Times of London.

But critics across a broad swath of business, the law and academe are railing against the proliferation of new domains, which they claim are costly and a cause of fraud.

A consortium that includes Microsoft, Nokia and Vodafone is promoting “dotmobi” but others in the technology industry have voiced concerns. A senior lawyer at Verizon Communications, the second-largest US telecommunications group, said there was no “particular business need” for “dotmobi” and the company had only registered verizon.mobi to prevent others taking it.

“What we would not want to happen is for this name to be an infringer’s paradise,” said Sarah Deutsch, associate general counsel for Verizon.

She added: “Most of the new domain names have been failures and the vast majority of valuable real estate still rests in ‘dotcom’.”

It doesn’t take a marketing genius to see the potential for dotmobi. Today at lunch do your own head count of mobil users.

The leaders in this space are the ‘new and improved’ IBM and the giant HP. Others joining the inner circle are Microsoft, BMC Software and CA, followed by hundreds of medium-sized service-oriented companies that often partner with HP and IBM in customizing their solutions. IT departments are transforming from fire stations to a vital business function such as finance and marketing.

Web 2.0 is spreading to the board room. Blogs and podcasts are now being used by IT companies to communicate and exchange real world ideas. It’s no longer just for the rantings against Microsoft, Yahoo and Google as discussed on the likes of The GillmorGang and other geek blogs.

TalkBMC is one of the first out of the gate. You can chat with software heavy hitters such as Tom Bishop, the CTO of BMC Software. They share their thoughts on ITIL implementations, CMDB optimization, and the big picture. This info can help you greatly in your career. You will understand the key areas that IT can contribute to an organization’s management. Don’t wait to be outsourced. Check it out.

http://talk.bmc.com/blogs/blog-bishop/cto/

Why Mumbai? Is there more unrest in this busy city than other business hubs in India? “Mumbai was picked as a target for symbolic reasons, it is the financial center of India,” said Sushi Reddi, CEO of AppLabs, an application testing company with major operations in India. “The bombings in Mumbai were tragic, but they did not have a lasting impact. In fact, the media reported things were pretty much back to normal the next day,” Reddi explained.  In fact, when visiting India’s IT Web sites in the following days, bloggers were reporting things were back to normal within hours.

“Terrorists can strike anywhere, the Middle East, Spain, London, Bali, the Twin Towers… and name a part of the world that is safe from natural disasters,” said John Nicholson, an attorney in the Global Outsourcing Group of Pillsbury, Winthrop.  

Hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, bombings, even pandemics have to be factored in to your outsourced IT disaster recovery plans. Nicholson, who has negotiated scores of offshore deals, suggests that your team document the scope, service levels and pricing up front. The documentation should be detailed so that it is absolutely clear who is responsible for doing what and it has to include a disaster backup plan.  

“Every one of our offshore outsourcing deals includes a documented disaster recovery plan,’ Nicholson stressed.  

Not all outsourcing plans go forward. Apple sent shock waves throughout India’s IT network when they abruptly pulled out of a large IT deal with no clear reasons why.   When asked, spokesperson Kristen Huquet, stated “We have reevaluated our plans and have decided to put our planned support center growth in other countries.”  Meanwhile, IBM, which has billion-dollar investments and some 40,000 employees in India, remains committed to the offshore model. Their Web site posted a statement saying they did not suffer any casualties from the attacks and they intend to continue with investments in India. Another positive sign came from Google just weeks later. They are greatly expanding service and testing campuses in
India.   

Not all outsourcing functions are equal  

Reddi distinguishes between types of offshore outsourcing functions and the amount of critical backup processes. His company’s application testing has secure backup, but not to the degree of continuous backup that is required for business process operations, such as credit card billing, payroll or helpdesk services in finance, insurance and hospitals, where ongoing services are crucial. With these vital services, if there is a disruption, it has an immediate impact on the organization’s customers. The fundamental hurdles that have faced outsourcing centers in developing markets, unreliable telecom, utilities and adequate facilities have been overcome. The large IT players such as IBM, HP and BMC have invested in high-tech campuses, ensuring the infrastructure at their hubs is state-of-the-art.  “AppLabs does the testing work for some of the largest IT companies in the world. Certain firms such as IBM have global service connectivity on their India campus. They don’t have to rely on the infrastructure in place,” Reddi highlighted. What may come as a surprise, the biggest challenges to outsourcing are not terrorism, undeveloped infrastructure or natural disasters, but the cultural and communication interchange.

A joke making the rounds

“I have a joke about the culture. IT business units in India have four words for ‘yes’ and no words for ‘no,’” Reddi remarked. It illustrates the eager-to-please attitude of
India’s IT work force. But the “can-do” lip service may cause missed deadlines and larger bills for protracted projects. Nicholson agrees that the cultural interchange between teams may be the biggest challenge. “They want to provide good customer service. I’d ask them, could we do it? They always say, ‘yes, we can do it!’ But I was billed for their time. We had to come to a cultural understanding. I had to know not only if they could do it, I had to know if it was one hour’s work or 1,000 hours’ work, before they say ‘yes,’” Nicholson illustrated. “The first time you ask an offshore vendor to work a weekend, they will do it for the sake of the new relationship. The second time they might say ‘OK, but you know we get paid for this.’ The third time you ask, they will say, ‘sure,’ and hand you a change order for more money.” Nicholson said.  “You need to set expectations realistically. You need to create a culture that brings problems to the surface, and does not bury them,” he added.   In a recent Accenture study, two-thirds of a sample of U.S. executives said that miscommunication arising from cultural differences has caused problems with offshore outsourcing. Different communication styles were identified as the key factor causing problems between onshore and offshore workers by 76 percent of the managers questioned. Different approaches to tasks, different attitudes toward conflict and different decision-making styles were cited as the other main cultural factors that frequently cause upsets when managing an offshore outsourcing relationship.Another challenge comes from the difference between IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing, (known as ITOs and BTOs).  Every company does things a bit differently. When a company first engages in outsourcing an operation, they are allowing a vendor to take over business processes halfway around the world. There is a loss of control. One of the top concerns of companies new to the process is: “How safe is our data?” “Most companies like the idea of business process outsourcing, but it is very hard for them to give up a process they created. It’s hard for a company to change and standardize their business processes to an offshore vendor’s processes,” said Nicholson. He further explains the differences. “IT became the poster child for outsourcing. These are the services running your data center, managing your IT helpdesk, managing your servers, providing IT services to your company,” he said.“Business process outsourcing is newer to table, this includes payroll, check and credit card processing, insurance claims, HR, and a new one bubbling up is facilities management,” Nicholson explained.  He predicts the BPOs will be high growth areas. “Communicate beforehand, during your deal’s negotiations, and after. You need to set expectations realistically, and be able to deal with problems when they come up. Making outsourcing deals takes time. A major BPO can take six months to implement,” said Nicholson. “You need to deal with problems as they come up. You document the ‘as is,’ then you document the ‘to be.’ Communication is the key,” Nicholson concluded. Make sure your offshore vendor meets your requirements in all the critical areas related to your operation. Check the details, including access controls, data encryption, backup and recovery plans, as well as those that are human resource related.  It’s no secret that the prime motive of most corporations to jump on the offshoring wave has been to take advantage of the huge wage gap between industrialized and developing nations; India is the biggest, with China and the Philippines coming up to speed. The key advantages India has over other countries is a large labor pool of well-trained English-speaking workers, who are highly motivated, and much less expensive – some 40-60 percent of what workers charge in comparable jobs in the U.S. But a more progressive, strategic view of global outsourcing is starting to emerge as managers get a better understanding of its potential. Many companies are discovering offshoring is really about corporate growth, agility, making better use of their skilled staff at headquarters, and its not just about cheap wages abroad. Of course, the labor savings from outsourcing can still be substantial. But it’s becoming secondary to the enormous gains in productivity, speed to market, and total revenues that can be achieved by fully using offshore talent in the digital age.  Now many companies are outsourcing with the quality of the work force rather than just cost in mind. Google’s recent announcement about setting up a large service campus in addition to an R&D center in Bangalore reflects this new positive attitude. Google is well known for high hiring standards. The company’s move is motivated by the large engineering and English-speaking talent pool in India and is not a cost cutting move.Revenue across India’s booming offshore IT software and services industry grew by 33 percent over the previous year, hitting a new high of $13.3 billion in 2005.The annual figures from India’s IT trade body NASSCOM, for the fiscal year 2005/06, also shows a 37 percent rise in the country’s business process outsourcing revenues to $6.2 billion.Nicholson sees no time in the foreseeable future that India will ever catch up in costs with the US. He also sees China, the Philippines, and even Russia as rapidly growing outsourcing options with capable IT centers, giving India competition.  That helps control hyper wage inflation.  “The biggest service companies in India are already preparing for the future when the cost advantage evaporates in India, by opening up shops in China,” Reddi observed.  

By Greg Michael

I parachuted into a huge, $1.5 billion  IT enterpirse software corporation. I escaped from the rapidly disintegrating world of old media. Now inside, it’s a gleaming campus with restaurants, banks, healthclubs,  herb gardens, bikes and scooters, I work  with  people with high IQs, real geniuses, many are millionaires from their start-ups being bought up. Some make the PC guy on the new Mac commercials look cool.  I am the Geek Whisperer.  

I can actually talk with them and understand what they mean by ITIL, CMDB, BSM, SOS, SOX, bots, vlogs, blades, dashboards, ‘self-healing’ and ‘lights out.’ Yes, it is a different world. Let me help you understand. Send me the ‘root causes’ that confuse you, and I will help translate, I really can communicate with them. We will all benefit in the long run with this cultural exchange. We might even convince some of them not to wear socks with sandals.

UPDATE: My contract is nearly up at the software giant. I’m grateful for the IT ‘boot camp’ experience. Our biggest product launch is over. The stock price has risen 30 percent and projects have slowed down to a normal pace.