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Information Technology and Globalization
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Bill gates new technology investment
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IT Services in Developing Nations
Stephanie Schmitt
Aarti Dinesh
Vijay Gummadi
Mark Tegtmeyer
Information technology has become the driving force within the current economy. Every business function and form of communication is handled through a constantly changing IT environment. Previously, only large, industrialized countries reaped any type of major benefit from conducting business with other countries. Today, even developing nations are feeling the fruits of such relationships. The reason for this is information technology.
The entire world functions in unison now instead of each country or business sector individually. By focusing on core business competencies, it is easier to penetrate the sectors of highest value to your organization. Offshore outsourcing provides a high value outlet for eliminating costly common business functions.
Unindustrialized nations are now understanding the importance and impact of this industry and taking full advantage of it. They know that no westernized country holds a candle to them in terms of cost, and they are slowly but surely adding quality and efficiency to that list as well. Taking all these advantages into account, it will be hard for any corporation to ignore them for long.
Being a business executive, one must be constantly thinking about new and innovative methods or strategies that make their business better than the competition. One of the most lucrative assets a company can have in order to entice buyers is lower costs. This is why so many companies already have, and many are considering, turning to offshore outsourcing of their basic non-core business functions.
When considering such a method, many factors must be examined to make sure the move is truly beneficial to the company. Issues that may seem very basic and fundamental could turn out to be the most complex and difficult to handle if they are easily skimmed over. To avoid having to deal with any of those scenarios, it is necessary to cover all bases at the beginning.
When deciding what country to offshore specific functions to, the same types of factors must be considered. Any country will be able to do what you are looking for, but which one will do it for the lowest cost, and provide the best service simultaneously? Currently, India is running a solid lead next to any other offshore destination. Their experience, quality, low cost, and government support have made them the chosen site of many American and European companies.
Information technology has dramatically impacted developing nations in recent years. Over the past decade or two, these countries have been able to make great strides in becoming global participants. Before IT, developing nations had little to no say in global policy and economics; today they have leverage with their IT capabilities and therefore posses a greater voice to be heard. The world has flattened tremendously over this time period causing the need for globalization among organizations. If a company does not participate globally, there is little hope for them to succeed. After all, it has become just as easy to video-conference with someone halfway around the world as it is to talk to the person who sits right next to you everyday.
A symbiotic relationship has formed between the needs of developed nations and areas in developing nations that have responded. This response has spurred intense economic and technological advancement within those areas.
It is no surprise that offshore outsourcing is the main component of IT's impact on developing countries. They are still a source of cheap labor that many westernized nations flock to with the thoughts of saving money. Some of these nations have numerous years of experience, and therefore provide not only a competitive service as to quality, but still manage to reduce costs greatly due to much lower wage rates than countries like the United States or most of Europe.
Although recently companies may not have expanded their client base to a global level, they have developed a global support network by leveraging the advantages of off shore outsourcing their non-core capabilities to areas in developing nations that have sprung up to support that market niche. By understanding that niche and what issues companies focus on to make the decision to offshore, we are better able to understand how those nations have responded to develop the information technology infrastructure that has stimulated other IT growth within the country.
Cost, Continuity, and Other Major Business Functions Must be Addressed
The consideration to move any process or component of a business to an overseas location is based on the fundamental goals and requirements of any business. That is to say, businesses should use the same criteria to examine overseas locations as they do when evaluating local options, and that the decision to outsource or offshore should only occur if the decision results in strategic advantages that match the company's goals.
Fundamentally, companies examine first the basic business capabilities of a site to weigh opportunities. First, due to the length of the ongoing relationship, a primary concern is for the lasting cost savings and strategic advantages that a site can provide. Locations should not just be examined for what is currently capable, but what also is likely to occur in the near, medium, and long term future. This also leads into issues of continued reliability of the proposed services and trends in competition and wages in the area.
As countries and areas are developing their IT capabilities to support other businesses, a careful examination must be made of the erosion of any wage advantage that a particular area has. While some areas may in fact initially be more costly than another, over the long term run of a contract relationship and with the immense costs of switching providers or areas, any long term trends will be significantly more important than short term savings.
These sunk costs are also a major determining factor in choosing a location. While any decision that proves to be irreparably misaligned should be terminated, a large weight should be placed on the forethought involved with actively managing these costs throughout the relationship. Another comparable concern is the switching costs of changing from one provider or location to another. In the case of one provider of the service, ensuring there is capable competition available in the immediate area provides some assurance that the continued relationship will remain an competitive one, but also as necessary there will be another service provider available that can assist to keep transfer costs down.
As support costs of the relationship can easily mount, it is necessary to examine the macroeconomic costs of the relationship. It is evidenced in subsequent areas here, but more specifically, local political and economic areas of expertise must be established, as well as, where applicable, physical facilities, international banking, learning curves, etc. In the case of any switch from one location to another, re-establishing these may provide greater additional costs than maintaining the relationship.
The same cost consideration ideas are carried across specific providers as well. It is important for the individual service providers and locations capable of providing conditions that are agreeable to the company. The providers and locations should have functions and resources available that match the needs of the company. Also, they need to be able to offer scalable options that compete against companies' in house capabilities and changing requirements, and favorable contract terms for the relationship to include: contract length, services provided, cost, flexibility or rigidness of the contract, and protections for the company.
A final key business consideration is the capabilities and experience of both parties in determining what the true goals, objectives and metrics of the situation will be. It is necessary for a successful relationship to have these clearly assessed, outlined, and stated prior to the agreement of the relationship to ensure a successful outcome. 3, 4, 5, 6. 7, 11, 12
Physical Infrastructure Characteristics of Transportation and Support Capabilities is Key
The next key concern for companies is the physical infrastructure of the location and its ability to support the necessary business and the IT processes.
While Americans take for granted electricity, it can be a major concern overseas. As power resources and grids have developed, they have not always kept pace with industrial advances of the economy. In particular, large IT centers have developed within existing urban areas but also near outlying areas that now being developed to be supported by national utility companies. It is also important to note that IT is completely dependent on electricity. With overseas companies providing database management, server capabilities, software development, and communications support for companies all over the globe, very little work can be supported for more than a few minutes during any power interruption.
Backup alternatives and redundancies should be closely examined to ensure that can support the requirements of the business. A regularly utilized method within the United States is for onsite generators to be readily available and capable of providing immediate power in case of an outage and of supporting the power requirements of the company's core applications and hardware for extended periods of time. This can also mean separating power lines inside the facility: one line for business critical applications and hardware such as servers and communication lines, and another for non-critical uses such as lighting, elevators, and dining facilities.
Similarly, telecommunications access has to be at an acceptable level. While new technologies allow for voice communications to occur over internet lines, and mobile telecommunication access is rising in urban areas, regular and international phone access is required as well. Many overseas support centers can be call centers, and it is also important to regularly be able to contact by phone other office support as well. Phone capabilities should not only include sufficient and cost effective international calling, but also minimize voice "lag time" for users that are located on opposite sides of the globe.
Another issue that is often widely ignored for businesses in the United States is transportation. Access to international transportation can be important depending on companies' requirements, but what can be more important is an urban mass transportation system. Business parks can be developed within existing urban areas, but in some countries, they are developed adjacent to the city's outlying areas. In these cases, it is important that employees have reliable transportation to the facilities. Disruptions can cause problems with real time systems that require immediate attention.
Additionally, depending on the industry and function involved, the physical environment and facility are important. While some operations may occur at a desktop level, some functions may require specialized facilities, or in the case of a large numbers of servers at one location, it may require additional cooling capabilities, and some facilities require protection against extreme weather, flooding, or earthquakes.11
How Technologically Advanced and Compatible is the Offshore Site
Perhaps one of the most fundamental concerns for any outsourcing decision is ensuring that the organization or location being outsourced to is more technologically and more strategically advanced than you. It is important that companies have the most technologically up-to-date capabilities to support your long term goals. Their hardware and software should be technologically sound, and have sufficient capacity for additional requirements, as well as sufficient safeguards against changes in technology.
Similar to changes in technology, potential service providers or locations need to be investigated to ensure that they can match your existing technology platforms and applications. While most office applications are compatible with one another, it is not always the case with specially designed software that has been created for a specific use or company. Additionally, applications or hardware that is supported by this provider or location may interact with applications and hardware that has not been contracted out, and it most be recognized upfront how supported and unsupported lines will be drawn and what is necessary.
International communication bandwidth is also a primary concern depending on the business processes supported. As a wide variety of businesses can be supported, it is important to determine exactly how large and small will routine communications be, as well as how large they may potentially be, if even only on an occasion. In the case of routine office applications such as tax returns, the normal communication requirement may be very small, and only a couple pages. This routine transmission, though occurring hundreds of times, is comparably small and easily supported through even outdated technology channels. Lag time is not a concern, as the transmission may not even be viewed right away. Moving into higher requirements, are processes that maintain company databases or operating systems. The number of occurrences is relatively few, but the communication size is rather large, and it may be required to take effect immediately or available extremely quickly. Finally, in some instances there are applications that require immediate real time surveillance and occur millions of times per second to support a large client base. The bandwidth must be able to support this large size of communication, millions of times over, with absolutely no lag time.
As more of business is critically dependant on information technology, aggressive misuse and abuse of technology can cause severe implications for businesses. An absolute necessity for service providers and locations to provide is security management capabilities. As processes convert from limited point of access internal networks to communications betweens networks, it is important to ensure that cutting edge technology is in place to safeguard these networks. Failures in security management can cause substantial economic losses.
Additional possibilities for economic loss can be increased substantially if service providers and locations are not aptly prepared with disaster recovery capabilities and business continuity plans. While any circumstance requiring the need for these cause substantial losses initially, losses will be magnified if not properly prepared for. The critical information and processes of businesses must be properly backed up using methods that would ensure that a disruption would not affect both systems, and that the back up system would have a means of being reached and supported by staff.
Technical certifications are additionally a large concern for most companies. While university degrees do provide a substantial background to work from, advancing technology has mandated additional specialized universal technical certifications to ensure that the proper training was received in order to work with a specialized technology.2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14
Financial Institutions can have a Critical Position in the Future
While banking may not be the first concern that is thought of when considering an overseas location, it is an important one. Any business that is going to work internationally will have to establish an international banking relationship or trust the banking relationship of the service provider it is working with in order to facilitate the commercial transactions between the two.
Similarly, in developing a relationship that will provide growth opportunities for the service provider, it is important for strong banking institutions to be in place to finance the growth opportunities, through hardware, software, and personnel requirements of the provider. Mechanisms for ownership can also critical for companies wishing to establish joint ventures overseas or offshore their business processes.11
Government Support can Lead to a Much Smoother Transition
Government support is perhaps the largest uncontrollable factor of any overseas operation. Very little can be done to change international relations or policies. Only by being conscious of these factors can a company hope to be prepared for the political environment of an overseas location.
First and foremost at least a superficial understanding must be had of international relationships between countries. While as Americans, we may have a strong relationship with a potential country, it is important to also examine the relationship between that location and the location of other overseas operations or manufacturers that will be affected.
Once that is identified, further investigation must be done in specific regulatory compliance, statutory guidelines, and taxation policies that will affect your company and operations. While most national governments may be supportive of developing IT support, local government may pose an entirely different set off issues and concerns on top of the national government.
While some of the processes sent overseas may not be strategic or business critical, they may be closely guarded, proprietary, or copyrighted. Fears of software piracy have been a major international concern as businesses move overseas. Not only is it important to be aware of national and local policies, but it is probably more important to investigate the enforcement rates of those policies, and cultural acceptance of them. Without acceptance or enforcement intellectual copyrights may be useless, and the economic benefit may be quickly degraded by copycat software and processes.
Similarly, best practices in business processes often provide a strategic advantage. Companies must closely supervise the sharing of those practices and how they are used by a service provider. A single service provider may provide process support to two competing companies, as either company shares its best practices, they are easily carried over to the competing company by the same service provider. The strategic advantages are then lost. It requires both political and service provider safeguards to assure that this type of strategic advantage loss does not occur or is at least minimized.
Finally, it is also extremely important for a stable political arena to be in place, one that is independent and lasting. As business relationships are built over time, it is important to ensure that political changes do not force a change on the relationship.5, 7, 8, 11
The Qualified Employee is the Backbone of any Business
As additional industries send different operations overseas, it is important to examine the labor force that supports information technology as an enabler. One of the first issues to examine is the availability of diverse skills in the labor pool. While traditional roles of software development, database management, and helpdesk support are regularly supported, more industry specific tasks are required as well. Administrative processing is regularly done, as well as finance, banking, accounting, engineering, automotive, aviation, etc. It is immensely important that workers have a background in the industry they will be working and then learn the individual skills of the IT environment that they work in, versus the other way around.
This diversity of skills does not come easily, and substantial employment pools are necessary to meet this need. It is important not only to find the most qualified employees, but to retain them as well, and at minimized wage rates. As employment pools grow tighter, competitive wages increase and so does employee turnover as other companies offer more money for their expertise. This can erode both the learning curve and advantages from wage rates.
Quality of service covers concepts such as coverage hours which can range from local work hours, to U.S. market hours, to even 24x7 hour support; and minimized service disruptions due to boycotts, strikes, or other interruptions. Quality of service incorporates most importantly language barriers and cultural understandings of the companies and processes they support. This can be everything from understanding of terms, buzz words, and lingo; to matching senses of urgency, and where that particular process fits into the bigger picture of the company.
As we focus on the relationship between IT in developing nations and how they have developed in conjunction with the outsourcing and off-shoring needs of businesses, we can see how developing nations have responded to those needs to build an IT infrastructure in support of that relationship.1, 4, 5, 7, 11
Problems with Offshore Outsourcing
Just as there can be many perks to offshoring business functions, problems may arise as well. These are not prohibiting factors, just simply things many companies fail to address prior to making offshore decisions. If they are dealt with beforehand, the transition can be a smooth and easy one. Language barriers can be a huge roadblock. The most important part of business is communication, and if no one can understand each other, you are cutting that important aspect out right away. Someone involved in the offshore plan should be able to speak the language of the country they are offshoring too and vise versa to ensure an easier transition.
Cultural Differences Can Create Easily Avoidable Problems
Cultural differences is another major issue that must be addressed. This can cover everything from work ethic to coding documentation to something as simple as how meetings are conducted. Something that may be a perfectly accepted gesture in the United States during a business meeting may be considered rude or improper in another country. If these types of things are not understood beforehand, the whole venture can start off on the wrong foot and cause many bumps in the road ahead.
Control Can be Maintained if Proper Steps are Taken
Control is something many business leaders fear they will lose if they participate in offshore outsourcing. Being that you are in a completely different country that the people who are doing work for you, this is an easily understandable concern. This is why service level agreements are so vital to any IT project. Making sure that everything is covered in a precise manner should be a top priority so that control can be maintained.
Excess Costs can Creep into any Structured Business Plan
When most companies are considering offshore outsourcing, they have one goal in mind: saving money. While this is very feasible, they tend to overlook many excess costs that may arise. Yes, the wage difference is huge, and will allow for cost savings, but you have to look at more than just that tiny piece of information. Costs can creep up from things as simple as travel. Constantly having to travel to the country you are offshoring in can be an expensive event. All costs must be considered and compared to current budgets before an effective decision can be made.24
Global Country Comparison
The following chart gives a general overview of many common offshore destinations used today in terms of cost and quality relationships. It is apparent that India is currently the best choice as a destination with its low cost and high quality supply. Two other countries that will be looked at a little more closely are China and the Philippines. China maintains the lowest cost, but their quality is lagging behind many other countries. The Philippines lies in between China and India. It is a little higher costing, but with a decently qualified workforce.
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Source: "The Offshore Nation"25
India by Far Handles the Majority of Offshore Outsourcing Work
India is currently exporting about $12.2 billion in IT services each year. Originally, India had very poor communication and problematic government policies and procedures. The Ministry of Information Technology was created with the single purpose of eliminating these problems and making India and IT "superpower." Their goal they are currently striving for is for India to achieve $60 billion in software exports by 2008. This may seem like a lofty goal, but it is definitely in reach for the country who focuses all of their attention on Information Technology.26
There are currently 23 firms worldwide that are CMM-5 certified. Of those 23, 15 of them are Indian firms. Almost ¾ of the worlds most highly certified software companies are Indian showing their extreme commitment to being the best offshore destination in the world. There are many other factors that make India such a desirable destination including their IT experience, highly educated and English speaking workforce, and their heavy government support. All of those factors are items that have been mentioned earlier as necessary factors in choosing to offshore. India has managed to capture the most important ones moving themselves to the top. McKinsey conducted a report noting that if work was contracted to India, there was a cost savings of 40-60%, quality improvement of 3-8%, and productivity increases of 20-150%.27 This is an interesting bit of information to those who thought offshoring was simply decreasing their costs. Not only is it doing that, but it is also increasing quality and improvement at the same time.28
China is Becoming a Major Player as an Offshore Destination
China's offshore outsourcing market is still very immature. It is similar to India about 10-15 years ago. Piracy rates in China are extremely high; upwards of 90%. That can be a large deterrent to possible offshore customers who fear their software will be pirated and lead to additional costs. While China maintains the largest world population, they're citizens are not as experienced or sophisticated in IT work as other countries such as India. The majority of China's programmers are only knowledgeable in low level coding and maintenance of existing systems.
China has also not created the reliability and trustworthiness that India has. They have not been able to prove themselves as a credible offshore destination. They're quality control standards are not close to that of India. China has one CMM-5 certified company, while India maintains 15 of them. Because of the immaturity in this industry thus far, China is being used more by countries such as Japan and India as an offshore destination. India used to be the country that the US and Europe would offshore simple tasks to; now they are in turn offshoring those to China and concentrating more on sophisticated higher level programming and software. Only time will tell how China will grow and respond to increasing offshore demand, but for them to compete with India in terms of quality and reliability, much more work is needed.29
The Philippines has Become a Recent Up and Comer
The Philippines is a much smaller country than India or China, so naturally its capabilities will not be able to reach as for. They are more knowledgeable and experienced in the areas of human resources and call center operations. Although they cannot handle the sophisticated projects of many Indian firms, they do have one large advantage; they are a highly westernized nation. Being a US protectorate for nearly 50 years enables them to have a wide understanding of western culture and language. The Philippines is actually the third largest English speaking nation in the world. This can provide much incentive for companies who do not wish to struggle much with cultural differences and language barriers.
The Philippines biggest problem lies in the fact that they simply lack the size and scale of India and China. They will never be able to fully compete with these nations because of their small size. They may become more specialized in one specific area of expertise and create a niche market for themselves. Where India has roughly 800 software companies, the Philippines has only 30. They also have no CMM-5 certified corporations within their country, leading many to believe it is poorer quality as well.30
The chart above displays the total number of IT exports among major offshore outsourcing nations around the world. It can be seen that India by far has the largest with $12.2 billion. The other two countries that were mentioned, China and the Philippines come in the third and fourth largest respectively. Surprisingly, Canada has the second largest amount of IT exports at $8.2 billion per year.
The Indian Incentive
In the last 15 years, India has seen a phenomenal change that has helped boost the economic growth and fully enable market potential. A large part of the change is attributed to factors such as government policies and availability of skilled manpower.
India's Population is Second Only to China
India has a population over one billion (1,080,264,3888), and is the world's most populated nation next to China.32 India maintains a strong advantage over China however, due to its extremely large percentage of young people. Roughly 35% of the total population is under the age of 15.33 Although China may possess a larger population, the majority of their citizens are in an older age category. The middle class population is currently expanding by 30-40 million people annually, which is largely attributed to remarkable increases in the purchasing of consumer durables during recent years.
In terms of GDP, India's growth rate is set to continue between 6% and 8% annually.34 Over the past 15 years, India has been the second fastest growing country in the world, after China, averaging above 6% growth per year. Growth accelerated to 7.5% last year, and will most likely follow the same course during the current year. Many observers predict that India could continue to grow at this high rate over the next decade. The GDP per capita as of 2005 is listed at $3,400.32
Geographical Advantages include a 24/7 Work Environment
Indian companies and IT service providers work around the clock. "The government sleeps at night and the economy grows," says Gurcharan Das, the former CEO of Procter & Gamble in India.34 Because of time differences between India and its offshore business partners, much more work is able to be completed in a shorter amount of time.
Diversity and Culture Vary Throughout the Country
Doing business in India is very different than doing business in the United States. Each Indian state has its own culture, language, and laws and regulations. Most states of India have welcomed and embraced people from all over the world who are looking to outsource their operations to India.
Hindi is the national language of India and the primary tongue of 30% of the population; however there are 14 other official languages. India is also the second largest English speaking manpower resource in the world. More copies of the "Times of India" written in English are sold in India than the amount of "USA Today" copies sold in the United States.32
India is the world's largest and most diverse democracy. As one of the poorest countries in the world, it has sustained a democratic government for nearly 60 years.34 This, along with the large English speaking population, combine for the largest advantages India has over other similar developing economies. The liberalization and privatization that took place after 1991, allowed India to open its doors and welcome private and foreign companies. Since this time, there has been swift acceleration of the privatization process and reconstruction of public enterprise.
Labor May be Cheap, but Quality is not Sacrificed
Due to lax government regulation post 1991 coupled with cheap labor, companies have managed to cut their costs tremendously. This cheap labor however does not equivilate to poor quality. The quality of work and intelligence of the Indian population is of the highest caliber.
Strong Emphasis on Education has led to Highly Skilled Workforce
Math and science, coupled with English proficiency are among the most important educational aspects in India. This has given rise to a skilled work force to meet the growing current IT demand within the country. India produces 300,000 engineers and 150,000 IT professionals annually. There are approximately 150,000 IT professionals in Bangalore alone, compared to 120,000 located in Silicon Valley. India maintains internationally recognized higher education institutes like the IIT (Indian Institute of Technology), IIS (Indian Institute of Science), AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences), and the latest venture constructed by the joint efforts of McKinsey, Wharton School, and Northwestern's Kellogg School, known as ISB (International School of Business) located in Hyberabad.35
Government Laws and Regulations Continue to Support IT
After the liberalization, privatization, and globalization in 1991, India's IT industry has grown exponentially in comparison to other Indian industries. Although the majority of the time India's growth is chaotic and largely unplanned, somehow out of all the chaos and commotion, things get accomplished. The following are some significant features of the governmental policy that have encouraged and lured multinationals to do business in India.
• Reduced import duty on computer software from a high 114% to nothing
• Conducive foreign investment environment that provides freedom of entry, investment, location, choice of technology, imports and exports
• Dividends from Indian companies' tax free in the hands of the shareholders
• Corporate tax rate for the domestic companies reduced to 30% from existing rate of 35%
• Incoming tax holiday – 90% until 2010; customs and excise duty exemption of 100%
• Central sales tax reimbursement
• Minimum floor rate on sales tax
• Exemptions from stamp duty and electricity duty
• Reduction in property tax, service tax – exemption
• IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) laws in place36
Major Indian IT Hubs
Bangalore is the most preferred IT destination for its year round salubrious climate, excellent social, cosmopolitan culture, and education and health facilities. Bangalore is located in the state of Karnataka, which has historically been known as a location for technology and research and development based institutions. Karnataka also boasts the best available IT infrastructure in the country. Infosys, known as the Microsoft of India, is a Bangalore based IT company, along with Wipro Technologies. Karnataka state started up the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Bangalore and now houses six new private technology parks covering an area of six million square feet.37
Another major IT destination is Hyderabad, whose government had already created a quality infrastructure to facilitate the developments of IT parks in the city. STPI centers have erected in over 21 different locations across the country with the majority of the IT industry concentration in Bangalore, Noida, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Pune. This reflects the natural technology clustering effect that has taken place in other technology clusters such as Silicon Valley, Boston, Dallas, Ireland, Sweden and Tokyo. Some of the key states for technology parks in India and their attractiveness are shown in the table below.
The Problem with Piracy
Piracy is the unauthorized use or reproduction of copyrighted or patented material. India has a full fledged copyright law known as the Copyright Act of 1957. The law contains elaborate provisions protecting copyrights in computer programming software. A new
study released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) concludes that countries with the highest software piracy rates stand to reap the greatest economic gains by protecting intellectual property rights. In 2004, the world spent more than $59 billion on commercial packaged PC software, up from $51 billion in 2003. Over $90 billion was actually installed, up from $80 billion the previous year.38
These are the results of the BSA study of global trends in software piracy in 2005. The results confirm that software piracy continues to be a challenge. In 24 countries, the piracy rates exceed 75%. Unfortunately, the high piracy region of the world is also the highly developing IT outsourcing areas, including China and India, where the IT market is growing at 15% or more. Globally, business and consumers will spend more than $300 billion on PC software over the next five years. Looking at the current piracy statistic during the same five year period, almost $200 billion worth of software will be pirated.38
Currently, India comes in 20th in global software piracy rankings. Their IT exports are more than triple the size of their domestic market, but they still manage to maintain a 73% piracy rate despite the world class software development skill and government efforts attempted to curtail piracy. This could in turn lead to the inhibition of locally packaged software growth. The BSA Vice President, Mr. Jeffery Hardee, said "reducing India's piracy rate by 10 points over a four year period could create 50,000 high wage jobs and increase local revenues by more than $1.6 billion."39
The above chart displays the basic research formula to measure the piracy rates and dollar losses experienced by countries. This was the formula used for the study conducted by IDC and BSA. The pirated software amount can be found by subtracting the packaged software put into use for a given year from the packaged software that was paid for during the same year. (source??)
Bill Gates predicts that Asian software piracy will be under control within the next 10 years. According to Mr. Gates, when piracy starts hurting Indian and Chinese technology markets, rather than helping them, these countries will quickly make cutting piracy rates a top priority.40
The Need for Quality Infrastructure
The infrastructure in India has improved drastically in recent years, playing a major role in the rapid development of IT software and the ITES/BPO industry. Good telecommunication facilities are pivotal to the growth of the software industry, which has led the government to take measures towards making this one of its top focus areas.
Recent measures enacted by the government are allowing private players to invest in the power sector. This has proved to be very successful in leading towards lower costs and higher quality power.
Telecommunication in Pivotal for Enabling a strong IT presence
Telecommunications, one of India's fastest growing industries, consists of both services and equipment. Telecommunication services, in turn, include fixed line telephones, mobile telephones, and Internet and broadband services. The total number of telephone subscribers, including both fixed and mobile lines grew by 34.34% to reach 124.78 million by the end of December 2005. Of this, fixed lines grew by 8.85% to reach 48.84 million subscribers, and mobile lines grew by 58.17% to reach 75.94 million subscribers. The Internet is the backbone of the IT industry. Internet subscriptions in India have increased tremendously. By the end of December 2005, the subscription base grew by 22.94% to reach 6.70 million. During the same time period, the Broadband (speed > 256Kpbs) connections grew by 1821.28% to reach 0.903 million subscribers.41, 42
One of the major reasons behind this rapid growth in the telecommunications industry is the fact the technology has become much more affordable. For example, mobile tariffs in India are the lowest in the world. Because of these low costs, averages of 3 million subscribers were added every month during the last nine months of the fiscal 2005-2006. Analysts believe these huge numbers are bound to increase in the coming years. The government has to take several other constructive measures to ensure the high growth rate in this sector. The most predominant among these being to allow 100% foreign direct investment in this sector which currently stands at 75%.41
The following table shows the current trends in the Indian Telecom Industry.
| |Dec-05 |Growth Rate |
|Fixed line telephony |48.84 M |8.85% |
|Mobile Telephony |75.94 M |58.17% |
|Total (Fixed & Mobile) |124.78 M |34.34% |
|Internet Subscribers |6.7 M |22.94% |
|Broadband Subscribers |0.903 M |1821.28% |
Power has Become a Major Key to Continuing IT Growth
India is the world's 6th largest power generator. The installed capacity is 124,311 MW as of January 2006. India's per capita consumption of 606 KWH per year is among the lowest in the world (world's average per capita consumption is around 2500 KWH per year). Power consumption has had a compounded annual growth rate of 9%. In India, demand has always exceeded supply. For this reason the government plans to add another 100,000 MW capacity by the year 2012. As of today only 85% of Indian villages have access to reliable power and the remaining 15% are waiting for light. Of the total installed capacity, thermal power accounts for 66.4% of capacity, hydroelectric power for just over 25%, and nuclear and non-conventional plants account for 2.7 and 4.9 percent respectively.43, 44
In the wake of rapid economic growth, the government has come up with initiatives to meet the growing power demands of industries. Special measures have been taken to ensure that all IT parks across the country are given a quality and uninterrupted power supply. In order to attract further investment in the IT industry, several state governments provide power to IT companies at a subsidized rate.
The Roadways of India are Continually Carrying More Traffic
India has a widespread road network that covers more that 3.3 million kilometers, making it the second largest in the world. Roads make up an important component in transportation as they carry an estimated 70% of freight and 85% of passenger traffic in the country. Traffic on the roads is growing at 7% to 10% annually, while vehicle population has been growing at around 12% annually during the past five years.42, 45
The Indian road network is divided into two categories
• Urban Network and
• Non-urban Network – further divided into 3 mail classes
➢ The National Highways (NH)
➢ The State Highways (SH)
➢ The District Highways
National highways have a total length of 65,569 kilometers. While they account for only 2% of the total road network in terms of length, they carry around 40% of total traffic. This shows the importance of national highways and to what extent they are currently over capacity.
In order to meet the growing demand for roads, the government has started the National Highway Development Project. This project began in 1999 and is one of the world's largest road development projects. Under this project, all the major national highways are being upgraded to six lanes.42, 45
Air Travel Continues to Develop Along with IT Industry Growth
India is one of the fastest growing civil aviation markets in the world, second only to China. In 2004-2005, the total number of passengers was around 59 million, which saw a growth rate of 21.7% over the previous year. The domestic passenger segment grew by 24.4% to 39.9 million, while the international passenger segment grew by 19.4 million. The country has a total of 126 airports, consisting of 14 international airports, 8 custom airports, 24 domestic airports, 26 civil enclaves at defense airfields and 54 other small airports.42, 46
Because of the recent rapid IT growth, two state of the art international airports are being built in Hyderabad and Bangalore. The government has also started a huge program for modernization of existing airport infrastructure in the country. As part of this program, airports in New Delhi and Mumbai have been leased out to two separate joint venture companies. These joint venture companies plan to modernize the airports to world-class levels and operate them. Other major airports are to follow with this large expansion.47
One of the major significant developments has been the entry of low cost carriers or "no-frills" airlines, which are 30 to 35% cheaper than the traditional flights. Because of these, low cost air travel has become more easily accessible to a larger segment of society. Air Deccan was the first airline company to come up with this idea in India. The success of Air Deccan has prompted several other airline companies to venture in this segment, resulting in further reduction of air travel cost.42, 46
IT – ITES Industry
The Indian IT-ITES industry can be divided into two segments; IT services and software and ITES–BPO hardware segments.
The IT industry has seen remarkable growth since 2000 and has also recorded a cumulative aggregate growth rate of 28% between 2000 and 2005. The IT industry's contribution to the national GDP has grown from 1.2% in 1997-1998 to an estimated 4.1% in 2004-2005. The industry is showing no signs of slowing down as witnessed by aggregate revenues of $28 billion for the year 2004-2005. From an employment generation perspective, the total number of IT and ITES professionals employed in India has grown from 284,000 in 1999-2000 to over 1 million in 2004-2005, growing by over 200,000 last year alone.42, 48
Some of the multinational firms operating from India include IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Novell, Computer Associates, Oracle, AT&T, Fujitsu, Motorola, EDS, SAP, Computer Vision, Digital, Hewlett Packard, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices, and many more. Of the Fortune 500 companies, 220 of them have established their presence in India.
The following charts give a graphical representation of the current composition of the IT industry in India and what recent growth patterns have looked like.
Indian companies have been consistently performing well and delivering outstanding products to their clients. All major Indian firms have been considerably increasing their market share over the years. The following is a list of the top 20 Indian IT companies according to their software exports.
A brief company profile of the top three Indian IT companies is as follows:
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
• Established 1968
• Over 59,000 Associates
• Revenue for FY 2005 was US $2.24 billion
• First company in the world to receive an integrated enterprise wide CMMI Level 5 and PCMM level 5 assessment.
• Global presence – Operations in 47 countries, 160 offices across the globe.
• Ranked 9th in the ASTD best Awards Program.49
Infosys Technologies Limited
• Established in 1981
• Has over 49,000 employees.
• Revenues for the FY 2005 were US $ 2.09 billion.
• Attained SEI-CMM Level 5 in 1999.
• Global presence – 36 offices in 17 countries and 37 global development centers.
• Was ranked No. 10 on the Business Week IT 100 (June 2005).50
Wipro Technologies Limited
• Revenues for the FY 2005 were US $ 1.813 billion.
• Global presence – has global delivery centers in 38 countries.
• Was the 1st company outside the USA to receive IEEE award.51, 52
Information Technology has transformed the world into a Global Village. Today the world is extremely connected, anything that happens in a remote area of the world will directly or indirectly effect everyone. If the NYSE goes down, its repercussions are immediately felt in the European and Asian markets. This virtual integration of world markets in just one simple example. It is undeniable that Information Technology has become the backbone of globalization in the recent past.
Developing countries who already have a good footing in IT, such as China, India and Philippines will continue to play a major role in the world economy. These countries are not only a source of highly qualified and low cost labor but also a huge source of a virtually untapped market. Globalization is not only boosting trade between developed and developing nations, but also helping foster good relations between these countries. Developed countries are outsourcing many jobs to to developing nations, which are performing these tasks more efficiently and with higher quality. Developing countries are becoming economically stronger and beginning to buy into more sophisticated technology, making globalization a winning situation for all involved parties.
India will continue to play a leading role in the field of information technology, thanks to its illustrious educational institutes and positive government initiatives. The government should continue to take corrective measures in certain areas, such as reducing the unwanted bureaucracy which has always been an impediment to development. More efforts should be directed toward developing infrastructure, so it is more conducive for foreign investment. Major Indian IT companies moving in the right direction will soon become the world leaders in the field of information technology.
1) Phadnis, C., "Driving a Smart Bargain" Businessline, Chennai, May 8, 2002 pg 1
2) Kamel, S., and Hussein, M., "The Emergence of E-Commerce in a Developing Nation" Benchmarking, Bradford: 2002. Vol. 9, Iss. 2; pg. 146-154
3) Prahalad, C., Krishnan, M., and Donker, A., "The Building Blocks of Global Competitiveness" Optimize, Manhasset: Sep 2004, pg 30-36
4) Raghuvanshi, G., "Worth a close-up: There's nothing distant about the remote management opportunity, it's happening here and now, and worth a closer look. A word of caution though, it's a game for the big guys." Businessline, Chennai, Apr 21, 2004, pg 1
5) "Outsourcing: India must tighten data protection norms" Businessline, Chennai, Nov 26, 2003. pg 1
6) Priyadarshini, R., "Making inroads into managed services" Businessline, Chennai: Jun 25, 2003. pg 1
7) Savitha, R., "I'll take it all" Businessline, Chennai: Jul 16, 2003. pg 1
8) "ADP plans to invest $2 m in India tech centre" Businessline, Chennai: Jun 26, 2003. pg 1
9) Sharma, S., and Gupta, J. "Socio-economic influences of e-commerce adoption." Journal of Global Information Technology Management. Marietta: 2003. Vol 6, Iss; pg 3
10) Kumar, V. "A way in the network" Businessline;Chennai Aug 28, 2002. pg 1
11) Nair, K. and Prasad, P. "Offshore Outsourcing: A SWOT Analysis of a State in India" Information Systems Management, Boston: Summer 2004. Vol. 21, Iss 3; pg 34, 7 pgs
12) Kumar, V. "All in one dance: Today's chief information officer has to bring the arms of different technologies and services together on one platform for coordinated action" Businessline; Chennai Apr 21, 2004. pg. 1
13) Pandey, U. "Human touch still key to keeping clients" Knight Ridder Tribune Business News. Washington: Mar 20, 2006 pg 1
14) Thibodeau, P. "Offshore Firms Target IT Infrastructure Outsourcing" Computerworld; Framingham: Jan 23, 2006. Vol. 40, Iss. 4; pg 6
15) Connolly, C., "Moving it offshore" Decision: Ireland's Business Review. Dublin 2006, Vol. 11, Iss. 2; pg 16, 4 pgs
16) Hickey, T., "Outsourcing Decisions: They're Strategic" Computerworld, Framingham: Jan 31, 2005. Vol. 39, Iss. 5; pg 40 pg 1
17) Ramanujan, S., and Jane, S., "A Legal Perspective on Outsourcing and Offshoring" Journalof American Academy of Business, Cambridge. Hollywood: Mar 2006. Vol. 8. Iss. 2 pg 51, 8 pgs
18) Puliyenthuruthel, J., "Bangalore: Tech Eden No More" Business Week. New York: Nov 1. 2004. Iss. 3906; pg 57
19) Belluci, N., "Expanded global infrastructure" Med Ad News. London: Nov 2005. Vol. 24 Iss. 11; pg 18 1 pg
20) Rosario, M., "Right IT infrastructure crucial for business" Business Times. Kuala Lumpur. Jan 25, 2000. pg 18
21) "Special Report: Democracy's drawbacks – Reform in India" The Economist. London: Oct 29, 2005. Vol 377. Iss. 8450 pg 23
22) Matt Ledyard, on assignment: Special Projects for Reuters America LLC. in Bangalore, India, interviewed in person by Mark Tegtmeyer, 30 March 2006; conducted at St. Louis office
23) Additional information gathered during personal long term interaction with Reuters Data Center Operations in Bangalore, India; as well as personal interaction with employees familiar with the transition and operation of the Reuters Data Center Operations in Bangalore, India.
24) american.edu/initeb/js5518a/Pitfalls.htm
25) Vashistha, Atul and Vashistha, Avinash, "The Offshore Nation; Strategies for Success in Global Outsourcing and Offshoring." McGraw Hill 2006. pg 15
26) stpn.html/about_us.html
27) samachar.in/biz/featarchives/2612003.html
28) american.edu/initeb/js5518a/Country-analysis-india.html
29) american.edu/initeb/js5518a/Country-analysis-china.html
30) american.edu/initeb/js5518a/Country-analysis-philippines.html
31) "Mapping Offshore Markets Update 2005" NeoIT: September 2005. Vol 3, Issue 8 pg 4
38) Second annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy study
42) Ernst & Young, "Doing Business in India." global/content.nsf/India/Home
43) artdisplay.asp?cat_id=403
44) "Indian Electricity Scenario, Power Sector at a Glance."
48) nasscom/org/artdisplay.asp?cat_id=794
50) investor/pdfs/IR_Presentation.pdf
Ranking (2004) Software Piracy Losses
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Showing results by narrator "Elisabeth Hopper"
In The Baby Loss Guide Zoe provides a supportive and practical guide to walk people through their darkest days of suffering and give them hope for the future. Through practical advice interlaced with personal stories from individuals who have been there, she explores the different types of baby loss, the major myths and assumptions around baby loss and the grieving process and tackles the big taboos such as intimacy following loss, returning to work and trying for another child.
Helen has had to leave everything she's ever known behind: her home, her family, even her own name. Now, returning to the UK as Ellen Newman, she moves to a small coastal village, working as a nanny for Donovan, a criminal psychologist. Attractive, caring and protective, this single father and his sweet daughter are a world away from Ellen's brutal past. But Ellen can't shake the feeling that something's wrong.
Tired of your boss bropropriating your ideas and presenting them as his own? Wondering if the pursuit of having it all has in fact resulted in having not very much? It is time to start channelling the spiky superwomen of history and conquer the s--t show that is the modern world. It is time to turn to women like Mae West and Agatha Christie, Hypatia and Cleopatra, Coco Chanel and Cixi. In this irreverent guide they will help you figure out how to cope with impostor syndrome, dispatch a love rat, stand up for yourself, get politically engaged, kill it at work and trounce FoMo.
Georgia loves wine, reality TV and sitting on the sofa after work. She does not love heights, looking at her bank account and going on dates or activities that involve sports bras, and she will never, ever take a risk. That is until her braver, bolder big sister finds out that she won't be able to tick off the things she wanted to do before turning 30 and turns to Georgia to help her finish her list. With the birthday just months away, Georgia suddenly has a deadline to learn to grab life with both hands. Could she be brave enough to take the leap - for her sister?
Beautiful story, very hard to put down!
Feeling stressed, anxious or burnt out? Sophrology is a transformative health-care philosophy that is designed to help people achieve a calm, alert mind in a relaxed body. Inspired by Eastern philosophies and classical relaxation techniques, sophrology will help you to become consciously, actively aware of yourself, how you feel, what you want and the environment around you.
Summer has never been so scandalous.... When Violet moves to Swallow Beach, she inherits a small Victorian pier with an empty arcade perched on the end of it and falls in love immediately. She wants nothing more than to rejuvenate it and make it grand again - but how? When she meets hunky Calvin, inspiration strikes. What if she turned the arcade into an adult-themed arcade full of artisan shops?
Sarah has no memories. She just knows she was found, near death, on a beach miles from her London home. Now she is part of a medical experiment to see whether her past can be retrieved. But bad things seemed to have happened before she disappeared. The police are interested in her hidden memories, too. A nice man she meets in the supermarket appears to have her best interests at heart. He seems to understand her - almost as if he knows her.... As she fights to regain her memories and her sense of self, it is clear that people are hiding things from her.
Alice is turning thirty and is stuck in a rut. Her friends are all coupling up and settling down, while she's still working as a temp, trying (and failing) not to shag her terrible ex, getting thrown out of clubs, and accidentally sexting her boss.... She decides to throw caution to the wind and jets off on a round-the-world adventure to #FindTheFun and find herself. Of course, she's no more likely to find the answer to true happiness on the beach in Thailand than she is at the electric beach in Tooting, but at least in Thailand there's paddleboard yoga.


text:
Award winning short film set in Donaghmore up for new prize
Published: 09:26 Wednesday 01 November 2017
A short film set in Donaghmore, which has been selected to screen at 14 International Film Festivals to date, has been shortlisted for a prestigious award at the Birmingham Film Festival.
Writer, director and producer of the film, Kevin McSorley, who lives in Killeeshil, said he was honoured that his film had secured the nomination for Best Short Film.
Starring Conor Grimes and Niall Cusack, There's Something about the Virgin Mary tells the story of bar owner Johnny Davis as he struggles to attract customers to his empty village bar.
"Being shortlisted for such a prestigious award is a fitting reward for my cast and crew, who worked tirelessly on long day shoots in Donaghmore to make the film become a reality", said Kevin, who is managing director of Arcella Films. "I also want to thank Northern Ireland Screen for funding the film and for their steadfast support."
The film, which is set in a bar in Donaghmore and the local church, has already won an Audience Award at The Shortz! Film Festival in Chico, California in July.
Five of the film screenings are in November: The Birmingham Film Festival, The Kansas International Film Festival, The Crystal Palace International Film Festival London, The Waterford Film Festival and at The Carlow International Film Festival.
The film was also selected to screen at: The Chicago Irish Film Festival, The St Patrick's Film Festival London, The Baton Rouge Irish Film Festival, The San Antonio Film Festival Texas, The European Short Film Festival Berlin, The San Francisco Irish Film Festival, The Wexford Film Festival and at The Disappear Here Film Festival, in Ballyliffin.
Kevin has ten years experience working in broadcast television, has an MA in Documentary Practice.
For more information visit: www.facebook.com/TheresSomethingAboutTheVirginMary, or https://theressomethingaboutthevirginmaryshortfilm.com.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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CA Prop 65 Chemical Warning: WARNING: This product can expose you to chemicals including cobalt which is known to the State of California to cause cancer. For more information, go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov/furniture.


text:
US 3rd Cir./
DIFIORE v. CSL BEHRING LLC
DIFIORE v. CSL BEHRING LLC (2018)
United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.
Marie DIFIORE, Appellant v. CSL BEHRING, LLC
No. 16-4297
Decided: January 03, 2018
Before: VANASKIE, RENDELL and FISHER, Circuit Judges. ARGUED, James A. Bell, IV, Jennifer Calabrese, Bell & Bell, 1617 John F. Kennedy Boulevard, Suite 1020, One Penn Center, Philadelphia, PA 19103, Counsel for Appellant ARGUED, David S. Fryman, Kelly T. Kindig, Ballard Spahr, 1735 Market Street, 51st Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103, Counsel for Appellee
OPINION OF THE COURT
Marie DiFiore asserted claims against her former employer, CSL Behring, for retaliation in violation of the False Claims Act, and for wrongful discharge under a theory of constructive discharge in violation of Pennsylvania state law. The False Claims Act ("FCA") includes an anti-retaliation provision for employee whistleblowers who engage in activity protected by the FCA. The District Court granted summary judgment to CSL Behring on the wrongful discharge claim because DiFiore had failed to show constructive discharge as a matter of law. For that same reason, the District Court did not permit DiFiore to argue that constructive discharge was an adverse action suffered in retaliation for protected activity. The FCA retaliation claim proceeded to trial. The judge instructed the jury that the FCA retaliation provision required that protected activity be the "but-for" cause of adverse actions against DiFiore. The jury found in favor of CSL Behring. DiFiore appeals the District Court's jury instruction using the "but-for" causation standard, the grant of summary judgment, and one additional jury instruction. For the reasons that follow, we affirm and hold that an employee's protected activity must be the "but-for" cause of adverse actions to support a claim of retaliation under the FCA.
A. Factual Background
DiFiore worked for CSL Behring from 2008 until her resignation in 2012, first as an Associate Director of Marketing/New Products, and then, after a promotion in August 2011, as Director of Marketing. While at CSL, and particularly after her promotion, DiFiore became concerned about the activities of CSL and its employees in marketing drugs for off-label use and including off-label use in sales forecasts. Off-label use is the unapproved use of an approved drug, or the use of a drug for purposes other than those that have been approved by the FDA. The incidents that prompted DiFiore's concerns included comments about off-label marketing strategies, relationships with medical device manufacturing companies, and discussions about fines issued to another company for off-label marketing. DiFiore expressed her concerns to her supervisors, and she contends that CSL initiated a third-party compliance audit in part because of her complaints.
DiFiore alleges that as a consequence of her protected conduct, she suffered the following six adverse employment actions, all of which took place after her promotion to Director of Marketing.
1. January 2012 Warning Letter
DiFiore and another employee, Allan Alexander, were both on the launch team for a new drug. In the first month of this team's formation, DiFiore and Alexander clashed twice. In the first incident, Alexander and DiFiore had a disagreement over the telephone that culminated with Alexander abruptly hanging up on DiFiore. DiFiore complained to her supervisor about Alexander's unprofessional behavior. In the second incident, DiFiore and Alexander had a disagreement at a team meeting that was so heated that the supervisor had to order a break. Afterward, DiFiore met with the supervisor and another manager to discuss her behavior, and DiFiore claims they "scolded" her. Subsequently, both DiFiore and Alexander received warning letters from Human Resources in January 2012. After this incident, CSL hired an employment coach, at a cost of about $45,000, to work specifically with DiFiore to develop her skills in leading the launch team.
2. February 2012 Performance Review
In a February 2012 mid-year performance review, DiFiore received "needing improvement" evaluations in several areas, including team leadership. Before her promotion, she consistently received "strong" or "outstanding" evaluations. In response to this review, DiFiore wrote a letter expressing her belief that the criticism and lower ratings were due to her complaints about Alexander and her statements to auditors regarding compliance matters.
3. February 2012 Warning Letter
Also in February 2012, DiFiore received a warning letter regarding her nonpayment of her company credit card. The credit card company had canceled her card because it was more than 180 days past due. DiFiore stated in her deposition that this warning letter was "appropriate." DiFiore did not know whether anyone in a similar situation was disciplined, but she believed that others had not received discipline for similar conduct. She offered no evidence to support that belief.
4. Deteriorating Relationship with Supervisors in 2011 and 2012
DiFiore claims that beginning in approximately October 2011, her relationship with her supervisors and other management began to deteriorate because of her protected activity. She alleged that one superior became "hostile," started documenting her work activities, reprimanded her for complaining too much, and told DiFiore she was "too black and white" and that she needed to "understand shades of gray" as a supervisor. Another superior "completely avoided" DiFiore and refused to make eye contact in the hallway. Other supervisors criticized her during meetings that she was responsible for leading. DiFiore alleges that her supervisors "became 'hypercritical' of skills that had never previously been called into question."
5. Change in Duties in Early 2012
In March or April 2012, DiFiore was removed from a committee. The parties dispute the significance of her committee participation as a job responsibility. Both parties agree, however, that her annual review included participation on this committee as an element of her overall job performance. She was also instructed to stop attending meetings with a particular drug manufacturer client.
6. May 2012 Performance Improvement Plan
In May 2012, DiFiore was placed on a Performance Improvement Plan ("PIP"). This plan extended the employment coach hired by CSL to work with DiFiore for an additional 45 days. The PIP identified the following areas for improvement: effectively leading her drug-launch team; improving communications and follow-up; developing effective plans; asking questions when unclear about assignments; submitting assignments in a timely manner; avoiding intrusion into others' areas of responsibility; and demonstrating an ability to "navigate organizational dynamics." Under the PIP, DiFiore was required to improve in the designated areas within 45 days or she could be subject to discipline up to and including termination.
DiFiore argues that by placing her on a PIP, CSL indicated to her that she would be terminated. To support this assumption, DiFiore explains that of the 23 employees CSL identified as having been on PIPs since 2008, fourteen resigned. Of those fourteen, thirteen resigned without severance. Only four employees completed their PIP, and no employee at DiFiore's level or higher had successfully completed a PIP.
DiFiore received the PIP on a Monday. Two days later, she reached out to a supervisor and an HR employee and requested a meeting to discuss an amicable separation. This meeting was scheduled for that Friday, but was canceled at the last minute without explanation. The following Monday, the first business day after the canceled meeting, DiFiore submitted her resignation letter.
B. Procedural History
DiFiore alleges that CSL wrongfully discharged her under Pennsylvania law and retaliated against her in violation of the FCA, 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h). After discovery, CSL moved for summary judgment. The District Court granted summary judgment on the wrongful discharge state law claim and held that DiFiore could not rely upon constructive discharge as an adverse action in her FCA claim. However, the court denied summary judgment on the retaliation claim.
After briefing on the issue, the District Court issued an Order that it would instruct the jury that the FCA retaliation claim required "but-for" causation. At the conclusion of the jury trial, the judge instructed the jury on the adverse action element of DiFiore's retaliation claim, instructing them to consider the totality of the circumstances and specifically listing four of the actions—the two warning letters, the mid-year performance review, and the PIP—DiFiore alleged were adverse to her.
The parties did not dispute whether the FCA applies or whether DiFiore engaged in protected conduct. Instead, they disagree over whether DiFiore produced sufficient evidence that the allegedly retaliatory conduct rose to the level of adverse action as required by the FCA.
The District Court exercised jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1367(a). This Court exercises jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291. DiFiore presents three issues on appeal. First, she argues that the District Court applied the incorrect standard of causation for her FCA retaliation claim when it instructed the jury using the "but-for" standard of causation instead of the "motivating factor" standard. This Court exercises plenary review over whether jury instructions state a proper legal standard. Woodson v. Scott Paper Co., 109 F.3d 913, 929 (3d Cir. 1997). Second, DiFiore argues that the District Court incorrectly granted summary judgment to CSL on her claim of constructive discharge. We review the District Court's grant of summary judgment de novo. Montone v. City of Jersey City, 709 F.3d 181, 189 (3d Cir. 2013). Third, DiFiore argues that the District Court abused its discretion when characterizing the alleged adverse actions in its instruction to the jury. We review for abuse of discretion whether jury instructions are confusing or misleading. Woodson, 109 F.3d at 929.
A. The Causation Standard
The District Court correctly applied Supreme Court case law when it instructed the jury using the "but-for" causation standard for DiFiore's FCA relation claim. See Gross v. FBL Fin. Servs., Inc., 557 U.S. 167, 176, 129 S.Ct. 2343, 174 L.Ed.2d 119 (2009); Univ. of Tex. Sw. Med. Ctr. v. Nassar, 570 U.S. 338, 133 S.Ct. 2517, 2533, 186 L.Ed.2d 503 (2013). Under the FCA's anti-retaliation provision, an employee is entitled to relief if she was "discharged, demoted, suspended, threatened, harassed, or in any other manner discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment because of lawful acts" conducted in furtherance of an FCA action. 31 U.S.C. § 3730(h)(1).
The parties dispute what causation standard applies to the statutory language "because of" in § 3730(h). To prove retaliation under the FCA, a plaintiff must show (1) that he engaged in protected conduct, and (2) that he was discriminated against because of his protected conduct. Hutchins v. Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, 253 F.3d 176, 186 (3d Cir. 2001); U.S. ex rel. Hefner v. Hackensack Univ. Med. Ctr., 495 F.3d 103, 110 (3d Cir. 2007). The District Court ruled that DiFiore was required to show that her protected activity was the "but-for" cause of an adverse action, while DiFiore contends that a lower standard applies and she should have only been required to prove that her protected activity was a "motivating factor" in the adverse actions taken by CSL.
DiFiore argues that this Court's decision in Hutchins controls and compels the application of the "motivating factor" standard. 253 F.3d at 186. This argument fails because the language DiFiore relies on in Hutchins was dictum. Id. In Hutchins, we affirmed a grant of summary judgment in favor of an employer on an FCA retaliation claim because the employee failed to prove that he engaged in protected conduct and that he had put his employer on notice of possible FCA litigation. Because he failed to meet these elements, we never applied the causation standard, which we recited in dictum as the "motivating factor" standard. Id. That dicta does not compel us to apply the standard here.
Even if the "motivating factor" standard had been part of our holding in Hutchins, the Supreme Court's subsequent decisions in two cases, Gross and Nassar, undermine the rationale for applying that standard. These intervening decisions would, in any event, allow us to reconsider contrary prior holdings without having to resort to an en banc rehearing. In re Krebs, 527 F.3d 82, 84 (3d Cir. 2008) ("A panel of this Court may reevaluate the holding of a prior panel which conflicts with intervening Supreme Court precedent.").
In Gross, the Supreme Court held that the ordinary meaning of "because of" in the Age Discrimination in Employment Act required a plaintiff to prove that age was the "but-for" cause of the employer's adverse action. Gross, 557 U.S. at 176, 129 S.Ct. 2343. The Court prefaced its analysis with the premise that "[s]tatutory construction must begin with the language employed by Congress and the assumption that the ordinary meaning of that language accurately expresses the legislative purposes." Gross, 557 U.S. at 175, 129 S.Ct. 2343. The Court went on to consider dictionary definitions of "because of" and explain that "the ordinary meaning of the ADEA's requirement that an employer took adverse action 'because of' age is that age was the 'reason' that the employer decided to act." Id. at 176, 129 S.Ct. 2343. The Court therefore held that disparate treatment claims under the ADEA require a plaintiff to prove that age was the 'but-for' cause of the adverse employment action. Id. at 180, 129 S.Ct. 2343.
After Gross, the Supreme Court again addressed causation standards in the context of retaliation claims. In Nassar, the Supreme Court held that the use of "because" in the Title VII anti-retaliation provisions requires a plaintiff to prove that the desire to retaliate was the "but-for" cause of the adverse employment action. Nassar, 133 S.Ct. at 2527–28, 2533. The majority analyzed Title VII as prohibiting two separate categories of wrongful conduct and applying distinct causation standards to those categories. The first category—status-based discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin—could be proven using the motivating factor standard because the language prohibiting this type of discrimination expressly required the lower burden. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a), (m) ("an unlawful employment practice is established when the complaining party demonstrates that race, color, religion, sex, or national origin was a motivating factor for any employment practice, even though other factors also motivated the practice"). In contrast, the language of the second category of prohibited conduct—employer retaliation on account of an employee having opposed, complained of, or sought remedies for discrimination—contains no language specifying the lower standard of motivating factor. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a).
To interpret Title VII's anti-retaliation provision, the Court looked to its earlier decision in Gross for guidance. The Court held that the word "because" in the Title VII anti-retaliation provision had the same meaning as the words "because of" in the ADEA. Consequently, Title VII retaliation claims require proof that the protected activity was the "but-for" cause of the adverse employment action. Nassar, 133 S.Ct. at 2533. In arriving at this conclusion, the Court also relied on traditional tort causation principles. It held that those principles apply to federal statutory claims of workplace discrimination because the "but-for" causation required for tort claims "is the background against which Congress legislated in enacting Title VII, and these are the default rules it is presumed to have incorporated, absent an indication to the contrary in the statute itself." Id. at 2524. Against this background, the Court held that the motivating factor test only applied to status discrimination under Title VII because the language of the statute explicitly required it. Because such language was not present in the anti-retaliation provisions of Title VII, "but-for" causation applied.
Here, the District Court concluded that it was compelled by Nassar to apply "but-for" causation to DiFiore's FCA retaliation claim because of the "identical language" in the FCA, the ADEA, and Title VII. The court relied on Nassar's logic and instructed the jury that DiFiore's protected activity must have been the "but-for" cause of any adverse employment action she suffered.
The District Court's reasoning was sound given not only the Supreme Court's precedent, but also given our own case law addressing the effect of Gross and Nassar in the context of FMLA retaliation claims. In Egan v. Delaware River Port Authority, the plaintiff asserted a FMLA retaliation claim, 851 F.3d 263, 266–67 (3d Cir. 2017), urging that the district court should have given a mixed motive instruction, requiring less than "but-for" causation. The FMLA regulation at issue in Egan prohibited employers from considering the use of FMLA leave as a "negative factor" in an employment decision. 29 C.F.R. § 825.220(c). We concluded that the regulation, "which uses the phrase 'a negative factor,' resembles the 'lessened causation standard' in [the Title VII prohibition against status-based discrimination] and it stands in contrast to the 'because' language in the ADEA (at issue in Gross) and Title VII's anti-retaliation provision (at issue in Nassar)." Egan, 851 F.3d at 273. Based on this language, we applied a lessened causation standard requiring plaintiffs to show only that the use of FMLA leave was a "negative factor" in the adverse employment decision.
Unlike the language of the FMLA anti-retaliation regulation, the language of the FCA anti-retaliation provision uses the same "because of" language that compelled the Supreme Court to require "but-for" causation in Nassar and Gross. For this reason, the District Court correctly instructed the jury that to find retaliation, it had to find that DiFiore's protected conduct was the "but-for" cause of the adverse employment action.
For the foregoing reasons, retaliation claims under the FCA require proof of "but-for" causation. We affirm the District Court's instruction to the jury employing that standard.
B. Constructive Discharge
In reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we must "do as the district court was required to do." First Jersey Nat'l Bank v. Dome Petroleum Ltd., 723 F.2d 335, 338 (3d Cir. 1983). That is, we must determine whether the record contains any disputed issue of material fact, resolve any such issue in favor of the non-movant, and determine whether the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Id.
DiFiore filed a state common law claim for wrongful discharge.1 Wrongful discharge requires that a plaintiff prove either actual discharge or constructive discharge. Because she was not discharged, DiFiore was required to prove constructive discharge. In addition to her state law claim, DiFiore asserts constructive discharge as an adverse action for FCA retaliation purposes. We conclude that the District Court's grant of summary judgment in favor of CSL on DiFiore's wrongful discharge claim was proper, as was the District Court's ruling that the grant of summary judgment foreclosed DiFiore's argument that constructive discharge was an adverse action under the FCA.
Under Pennsylvania law, constructive discharge occurs when working conditions are so intolerable that a reasonable employee is forced to resign. Kroen v. Bedway Sec. Agency, Inc., 430 Pa.Super. 83, 633 A.2d 628, 633–34 (1993); Helpin v. Trustees of Univ. of Pennsylvania, 969 A.2d 601, 614 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2009), aff'd, 608 Pa. 45, 10 A.3d 267 (2010). The concept of constructive discharge is essentially identical for retaliation claims under federal statutes: it occurs when "the employer permitted conditions so unpleasant or difficult that a reasonable person would have felt compelled to resign." Wiest v. Tyco Electronics Corp., 812 F.3d 319, 331 (3d Cir. 2016) (brackets omitted).
DiFiore failed to prove constructive discharge under both Pennsylvania law and federal law. In Clowes v. Allegheny Valley Hospital, we overturned a jury verdict and held that the employee was not constructively discharged when she alleged conduct that essentially amounted to close or even "overzealous" supervision. 991 F.2d 1159, 1162 (3d Cir. 1993). DiFiore complains of similar conduct. She may have been subjected to difficult or unpleasant working conditions, but these conditions fall well short of unbearable. Importantly, DiFiore did not sufficiently explore alternative solutions or means of improving her situation. She made no attempt to comply with the PIP. When a meeting to discuss the PIP was canceled, DiFiore chose to resign rather than reschedule. She prematurely abandoned her attempt to meet with CSL about the Performance Improvement Plan. She did not demonstrate that she had no option left but to resign.
When the District Court decided that no reasonable jury could find that DiFiore's working conditions were so intolerable that she was forced to resign, it correctly disposed of both her Pennsylvania wrongful discharge claim and her contention that a constructive discharge was part of CSL's retaliatory conduct under the FCA. We affirm the grant of summary judgment.
C. Specific Jury Instructions
We exercise plenary review over jury instructions for misstatements of applicable law. Franklin Prescriptions, Inc. v. New York Times Co., 424 F.3d 336, 338 (3d Cir. 2005). When considering whether an instruction is misleading or inadequate, however, we review only for abuse of discretion. Woodson, 109 F.3d at 929. As long as "the instructions are accurate in substance and understandable to lay persons, the failure to use the exact words requested by counsel is not reversible error." Williams v. Mussomelli, 722 F.2d 1130, 1134 (3d Cir. 1983).
DiFiore contends that the District Court's inclusion of four primary incidents in the jury instructions—the two warning letters, the mid-year performance review, and the PIP—may have confused the jurors and led them to believe that they were not permitted to consider evidence of other incidents beyond those four events. DiFiore's argument fails.
The District Court correctly instructed the jury that its determination should take into account the totality of the circumstances. The court instructed that the four events occurred "among other things," and it described DiFiore's allegation that her supervisors began to treat her in a hostile manner after she raised her concerns. These instructions do not misstate the law and do not mislead, prejudice, or confuse the jury.
For the reasons explained above, we affirm the orders of the District Court.
1. Under Pennsylvania law, the discharge of an at-will employee is a tort if it would violate a clear mandate of public policy. Weaver v. Harpster, 601 Pa. 488, 975 A.2d 555, 562 (2009). However, we need not reach the issue of whether there was a discharge in violation of public policy, because there was no "discharge" at all. DiFiore does not argue that she was actually discharged, and we conclude that she was not constructively discharged either. Rather, DiFiore resigned.
FISHER, Circuit Judge.


> I wonder if someone could dash off a "one-line"
> and thus would demonstrate to the dopey provider tech.
> support person that the problem is on his end?
hpcgilimit.pm module that can't be found. Can anyone help?
Next by Date: Re: [tlug] PC vendors.


We developed a full brand, identity and digital presence for Scotland's first potato vodka, winning a Double Gold Medal for packaging design out of 1,500 entrants at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2015.
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On the first day of our shoot we hiked miles across fields of potatoes and barley, reaching waterfalls, woodland and hilltops to capture views of the whole farm estate. The second day involved capturing every stage of Ogilvy Vodka's production process and the team members involved, including the farm dogs, Fly and Star.
The first bottles were produced at the end of 2014. After only three months on the market at select stockists and bars, Ogilvy Vodka stood out from more than 1,500 entrants at the prestigious 2015 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, winning Double Gold Medal for packaging and a Silver for spirit. Competing at the International Wines & Spirits Competition, Ogilvy's success continued as it received a Bronze medal for Packaging Design.
Whitespace joined us at the start of our journey to create a premium vodka from the humble Scottish potato. They took the time to thoroughly understand our business and market so they could work in partnership with us every step of the way. Their advice has been invaluable, their enthusiasm infectious and their design top-quality. To receive global recognition so soon after launch is a great achievement for all of us.


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