The Future of the IS Discipline: Further Reflections

Rudy Hirschheim
Ourso College of Business & Center for Computation and Technology Louisiana State University
Presentation to LSE Department of Information Systems 10 July 2006

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Is there a future?
Emasculation
"With dollars and people moving from corporate IS units to business units (and even further out to IT industry firms), central IS units (not just hardware) have been downsized. Corporate IS groups that once hired hundreds of people are today mere shadows of their former selves - sometimes only five or six people. (Markus 1999, p.184)

Press Reports
Wall Street Journal article suggesting if you are in IT, you need to find another job Bradburys Silicon.com article IT Department Headed for Extinction?

Dropping IS student numbers

Most schools are experiencing a dramatic drop in IS majors. And not just in the US. Many Business School Deans no longer support a vibrant IS department. IS PhD grads are having a hard time finding academic jobs.
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Shrinking Student Numbers

Konrad (2005) notes that recent computer science graduates aren't even looking for jobs in IT anymore since they believe that there are no IT jobs left in the US. Worse, citing a recent Gartner Group report, she suggests that 15% of the IT workers will drop out of the profession by 2010, and that the worldwide demand for systems developers will shrink by 30% during the same period. In a survey of PhD-granting computer science departments in the United States, the Computer Research Association found that the number of new undergraduate majors dropped 18 percent in 2003 (Frauenheim & Yamamoto 2004). Datz (2004) reported the drop in undergraduate computer science and computer engineering programs to be 23% from 2003 to 2004. Vegso (2005) noted that the percentage of incoming undergraduate students in US universities who indicated they would major in CS declined by over 60% between 2000 and 2004, and is now approximately 70% lower than it was in its peak during the 1982-83 time period. Similar declines have also been anecdotally noted in the IS field resulting in a reduced demand for IS faculty (Frolick et al. 2005).

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Is this just cyclical?

Saw the downturn in IS hiring before
early 1990s IS had to take its fair share of the downsizing Economy driven, when the economy came back so too did IS jobs

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Some say it is a more deep routed problem

The IS students we turn out are the problem: cant think, cant write, cant communicate Need business knowledge not technical knowledge
Havent we heard this all before? Wasnt this why IS programs were created? Doesnt this also conflict with what recruiters seem to ask for? There is a disconnect between the CIOs wants and the recruiters for the companies

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But will they hire?

The question is if we do deliver what they want, or say they want, will they hire our students?
recent CIO magazine article suggests otherwise (see previous point)
http://www.cio.com/archive/011505/edit.html

Seems they hire 5+ year experienced people from consulting companies and /or vendors

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from the editor: Jan. 15, 2005 Issue of CIO Magazine

The Story You Won't Find Here

CIOs don't want to talk about the future of the entry-level IT job
BEGINNING THIS ISSUE, CIO sports a new table of contents, reengineered to focus on what you care about most: topics. Regardless of whether an article is a magazine feature or column, or a story or an interactive tool on CIO.com, you'll find it listed under the relevant topic heading on our new TOC. Our departmentsTrendlines, Essential Technology and othersare also indexed by topic. Let me know how this works for you. But there's one feature story you won't see in this issue's table of contents. We had planned to write about the evolution of entry-level IT jobs in this era of offshore outsourcing. With so many low-rung programming and maintenance positions being outsourced, we wondered what kind of jobs would be available for our newly minted MIS and CS grads in 2005 and beyond. Something more specialized, more business-oriented? What kind of opportunities would ensure a steadyif not robustflow in the IT career pipeline? We assumed most CIOs would be thinking about this, that some would be concerned, and at least a few would have strategies in place. They weren't, and they didn't. The story editor's explanation of why, after weeks of reporting, we had no story: "Whatever concern some CIOs may have over not hiring people for entry-level jobs is, at best, wishy-washy and mostly lip service. They really don't care. There's some vague talk of creating new, entry-leveltype positions in order to have a talent supply for the future, but no one's doing it; no one has concrete thoughts about how to do it, and no one is all that concerned about the future in the first place." One CIO that our reporter talked to said she didn't need entry-level people. She'd fill her higher-level analyst positions by hiring talent groomed at other companies. Of course, this pragmatic strategy falls apart if the companies across town have CIOs who also don't need entry-level people. So who'll be hiring and breaking in the entry-level people who will eventually migrate to the companies that outsourced all their low-level jobs? Perhaps it will be the small businesses that can't take advantage of offshore economies because of their size, or maybe it will be the big outsourcers themselvessuch as IBM Global Services. So be it: The future of the IT profession resides with small companies and IBM. I'm not sure if that's a comforting thought. But you don't care anyway. Do you? Rick Pastore, Editor Rudy Hirschheim, 2006

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What is the market?

Seems the IS market is soft, but will it rebound? Answer: Depends on who you talk to See the unscientific Ives survey results

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Supply and demand for IS students*

Here is the summary from the brief survey participated in by large state supported programs with large undergraduate B-School populations. They include Washington State University (WSU), Louisiana State University (LSU), University of Virginia (UVA), University of Central Florida (UCF), University of Georgia (UGA), Indiana University (IU), Oklahoma University (OU), and the University of Houston (UH). The good news, if there is any, is that our problem appears to be evolving from one of too few jobs to one of too few students. Student disinterest appears to be increasingly caused by the perception, rather than the reality, of too few jobs. While off-shoring might have been a factor in the loss of jobs it now runs the risk of being the consequence of the lack of graduates to fill available jobs.

*from an informal survey conducted by Blake Ives

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(1.) Are You Still Seeing a Fall Off in Student Majors or Has It Begun to Level Off or Even Increase?
WSU: The official count as of yesterday is 170 official majors. I suspect we'll be above 200 next year. We dipped to 90 I believe a couple years ago. Our business school now has more people trying to get in than it has the last four years (more than we can accommodate), so we're going to start doing a new enrollment management process to limit majors. While in our heyday we were in the high 400's (in terms of MIS majors), I suspect with enrollment management (and filtering on GPA) we'll target maximum growth at about 250 MIS majors. UVA: We saw a fall off of approximately 50% of our IT concentrators from our highs in 2000 to this year. The fall off does appear to have leveled off this year. LSU: IS student numbers at LSU continue to fall, although as a proportion, the decrease is pretty small now. We are currently at about 25% of what we were in the dotcom era. There is a feeling that the decrease has bottomed-out, but we're not sure when/if we'll see an upswing.

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(1.) Are You Still Seeing a Fall Off in Student Majors or Has It Begun to Level Off or Even Increase?
UCF: Our majors have dropped from 700 in 2002 to 300 this year. We have bottomed out but we see no increase as yet. Our MS/MIS program is down from 100 to 86 students. IU: Yes, we saw a significant drop -- in 2000 or so, we'd graduate 250 CIS majors; this year, slightly less than 100. I am hopeful that we are stabilizing, but the jury is still out. UGA: We are still seeing some fall off, but there is a topping up process within the Bschool. Those who can't get their major of choice are being sent to MIS, but it turns out that these students don't seem to care to much and are doing quite well and staying in the major. UH: Our incoming class of majors is the smallest in recent years (60) and approximately 15% of peak (400) our peak year.

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(2.) Roughly What Proportion of Your Students are Getting ISrelated Jobs?
WSU: Things are much better than 2 years ago. We are seeing SIGNIFICANT recruitment and internship opportunities. The companies are back in strength. Anybody good can get a job. LSU: No, demand is soft. Fortunately, there aren't many students we have to find jobs for... that is the good news. The bad news is that we're not seeing an upswing in demand. UCF: About 80% of our MIS graduates are working in MIS. The good students have multiple offers. Yes, demand began picking up about 6 months ago. IU: The job market is improving; the problem is, I fear, that we do not currently or in the near-term have enough students to deliver.

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(2.) Roughly What Proportion of Your Students are Getting ISrelated Jobs?
UVA: Roughly 90% of our IT concentrators got at least one job offer last year. The average number of offers per IT concentrator was 2.2. The average reported salary for IT concentrators was $46,393. UVA: We do seem to be experiencing a slight increase in recruiting at the undergraduate level this year, and a significant increase in job postings directed at the graduate students. UGA: We see an increase in demand, but I have no numbers. Recruiters are more active and good students get multiple offers. UH: Most of our most recent group of majors to graduate got IT related jobs. Typical salaries for those with no previous experience is in the low to mid 40's. Several students got multiple offers, with many of the turned down offers coming from programming body shops.

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(3.) What, If Anything, Have You Done to Increase the Numbers of Majors and has the Innovation Worked?
WSU:
(a.) We have put one of our best teachers in our intro section (b.) We changed our MIS club (student MIS social organization) to a Mu Iota Sigma Professional student organization, which will have officers selected by faculty (who will then be given scholarships). The idea here is to pick the best and brightest who can serve to communicate the MIS to the other students and make us more visible to the student body. In addition, in association with Mu Iota Sigma we're going to have the MIS Honor Roll (top students in our discipline). For both the officers and honor roll, we're going to publicize those people internally in our BSchool (bulletin board pictures, visiting classrooms, etc.). (c.) We took one of our most popular teachers and put him in charge of Mu Iota Sigma (d.) We also have plans for a MIS new-board on a central walkway in the b-school. The idea here is flat panels with rotating MIS content (here's jim bob working in a MIS career at Boeing..., here's the upcoming course offerings, here's where our recent grads got jobs), photos of item "b." above, photo's of faculty, faculty research, etc... The concept here is visibility to students.

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(3.) What, If Anything, Have You Done To Increase The Numbers Of Majors And Has The Innovation Worked?
LSU: We have done a lot of talking!!! We are trying to change the direction of the program more towards project management, security, and networks. We've talked about adding a course on 'Sourcing' but frankly our changes have been very, very modest. We've also talked about dramatically changing the program towards 'business processes'. With the rise in BPO, it seems that we in IS are best positioned to understand business processes, and given that most (all) are ITenabled, we are the natural field to teach/research this area. UCF: We have changed our curriculum adding an ERP Implementation (SAP) and a Data Mining classes but it's too soon to tell if that has had an effect. We also have begun to promote MIS as a major in the required College of Business MIS course. This has helped slightly. UVA: We are in the process of rolling out a new set of IT courses that are designed to be more interdisciplinary in nature, and offered in a more flexible (easy to access) structure. - COMM 420 - Project Management (all Commerce students, required of IT) - COMM 421 - Financial Systems Engineering (finance) - COMM 422 - Database Management (IT) - COMM 423 - E-Commerce (marketing) - COMM 424 - Innovation & Technology (all Commerce students) - COMM 427 - IT Project Practicum (IT) - COMM 428 - Data Communications (IT) This curriculum is designed to prepare IT concentrators for job types 3, 4, & 5 in the IT Job Pyramid (from a recent Business Week)..Early indications are that these changes will result in at least a slight increase in IT concentrators.
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(3.) What, If Anything, Have You Done to Increase the Numbers of Majors and has the Innovation Worked?
IU: After a significant analysis of recruiting, student perceptions, etc etc. I significantly revised the requirements for our CIS major, largely to make it "easier" for students to double major, e.g., Accounting-CIS. This is rather popular with Kelley undergrads. I also introduced a new "business info systems" co-major. This is really a minor (we don't have minors) consisting of 4 core IS courses. My goal here is to service the other majors, e.g., Marketing, and increase enrollment in core courses. I need to minimize preps for faculty. Both changes were implemented this year so it is a bit too early to assess. UGA: We have tended to try offering service courses for other areas (e.g. accounting) OU: The new interdisciplinary (open to all business undergraduates as well as MIS) courses we have introduced are: -- E-Business (focusing on the net-enabled extended enterprise) -- Project/Relationship management -- Technology Management (similar to the Innovation and Technology at UVA) -- Business Data Modeling (an Excel based course focusing on building models used in finance, accounting, supply chain, etc.) UH: We are preparing a marketing campaign to convince students that there are jobs and that they pay well. We are following up with students that dropped out of our introductory course to find out why. We are bringing in speakers to talk to the intro class about careers in information systems. We may conduct focus groups of students in the introductory class that have not yet selected majors. We are looking for ways to demonstrate that IT careers are "cool" and "fun."
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(4.) Is The Problem One of Supply (Too Few Students) or Demand (Too Few Jobs) And, How Serious is the Problem Identified?
UVA: The primary problem seems to have been perceived demand. That is, students have a perception that there won't be many IT-related jobs available when they graduate (due to offshoring, post dot com era, downsizing of IT, etc.). I am concerned that the smaller number of IT concentrators will result in a supply problem, causing recruiters to look elsewhere, and a downward spiral effect. LSU: The problem is VERY real.. it isn't a myth. What worries me is that many CIOs, or at least the CIOs of the big companies, don't seem too concerned about where their talent comes from. Most seem to hire (when they need to hire) from consulting firms. They let the Accentures of the world 'train' talent, which they then 'buy' later on an 'as needed basis. IT organizations seem too quick to turn activities over to third party providers, particularly offshore providers. This may likely come back and bite them in the proverbial ass, but by then, they will have all moved on leaving the mess for someone else to clear up! UCF: I think the problem is the perceived lack of employment opportunities. IU: Too few students. OU: we are experiencing a pickup in companies hiring ... We have more jobs than qualified MIS majors right now. The problem we are facing is dispelling the widespread view (in some cases, perpetuated by our colleagues in other departments) held by business undergraduates (and, perhaps, their parents) that there are no jobs when in fact there are very good jobs available.

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Computer Information Systems

CIS Ranked Top in World!
Study Ranks Robinson Computer Information Systems Department Top in the World - June 06, 2005 continued

CIS Makes Top Ten Again (graduate and undergraduate programs)!

Once again the CIS Department graduate program is ranked as one of the ten best in the nation. For public universities, the CIS Department ranked fifth. According to the US News & World Report, for the third consecutive year, the MIS program was rated as one of the ten best in the United States. continued

CIS Alumni Spotlight

Colonel (U.S. Army Retired) Joseph "Tom" Catudal (MS/CIS, 87), formerly the U.S. Army's CIO in Iraq, is appointed CIO of Segovia, Inc. According to Col. Catudal, My MS/CIS from GSU gave me a super platform by which I have developed the successes in information and communications technology (ICT), Chief Information Officer (CIO), and now Senior Vice President level appointments. continued

Great Time to Consider a Career in Computer Information Systems

Will there be incredible and unrecognized new opportunities for information systems students? Read on!

Shortage of Information Systems Graduates

The potential of this opportunity is improved because the number of new computing graduates has decreased dramatically. The shift is not unlike those of the late 1980s, when for example, Northeastern Universitys Computing program saw (in 1987) a 40% drop in freshmen. By the mid-1990s this decline became one of the reasons for a nationwide shortage in IT workers. Todays decreasing enrollments in such programs nationwide, like those of the late 1980s, could mean that a resuming demand for IT workers would meet with an unfortunate and significant shortfall.

Careers Available to Computer Information Systems Majors

Corporate careers for majors in Computer Information Systems continue to be strong and varied. The jobs and salaries reach far beyond programming. Entrepreneurs will also emerge through many similar roles over time in their own companies. These are careers specific to information systems majors. Like other business majors, there many additional opportunities in general management leading to other executive positions up to, and including, Chief Executive Officer (CEO). continued

Copyright 2005 Computer Information Systems Department, Georgia State University. All rights reserved.

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Shortage of Information Systems Graduates

With graduate and undergraduate programs ranked in the top-ten nationwide by US News & World Report, the Computer Information Systems Department in The Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University is well placed to prepare students for an opportunity largely unseen at the moment: for reaching a high-demand job market with ideal job skills sought by employers.

Ideal Class Sizes and Availability

The enrollment change means that the overtaxed IT education delivery system is encountering welcome relief. CIS classes, once notorious for wait-lists and first-day filling at registration periods, are now much more available. Our classes are now typically the smaller and more intimate groups that the Robinson College prefers, and our students are receiving even more personal attention from our faculty. The quality of our program, ranked in the top ten in the nationand first in the southby U.S. News & World Report, is improving still further. This may be exactly the right time for a career in Computer Information Systems. We present to you a large, top-ranked program with more available seats in smaller classes; one that will be graduating students ideally prepared into a high-demand area with a projected severe shortage of graduates. The time may have never been better!

IT Job Prospects
U.S. careers in Information Technology (IT) have continuously had better-than-average job security. Unemployment of IT workers (now at 5.23%) is still below national average (5.8%) for 2002. The employment growth of computer professionals was among the leaders as the economy climbed up its heated growth in the late 1990s; but it did not lead the economy down. In the first quarter of 2003, for example, unemployment of electrical engineers rose to 7.0% while computer and system analysts dropped to 4.9%. In December of 2001, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their 2000-2010 employment projections, forecasting that eight of the ten fastest growing occupations would be computer-related, commonly referred to as information technology occupations. These jobs included software engineers, support specialists, network analysts, database administrators and systems analysts. BLS is still relying on these projections; their 2002-2003 edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook forecasts much greater growth than average for most computerrelated careers. It shouldnt be surprising that BLS is sticking to its guns. The new decade is still young, and the BLS forecast for the 1990s correctly predicted much faster growth for eight of its top 11 growth jobs.

IT Sector Economy
When business heats up, information systems are the first to boil. It is likely that information strategy and electronic commerce will enable leading businesses to be first out of an economic downturn. For example, analysts at Standard & Poors estimate that worldwide e-commerce will exceed $1.6 trillion in 2003, up more than 52% from 2002. In their August issue, Business Week reports that the first half of 2003 saw corporate technology spending grow by 4%, forecasting a total of 6% in 2004, and close to 10% in 2005. Emerging from the recession, corporations are becoming more profitable and their technology spending is increasing. Based on these data, Business Week argues that the information technology industry is ideally positioned for strong growth. There is tremendous growth in new and innovative products such as smart phones, web services, wireless networks, and digital televisions. The number of US households with broadband connections now exceeds 20 million. We will soon need a workforce to build business information systems that take strategic advantage of these widespread new technologies. The effects continue to be worldwide. The OECD Observer in May 2003 reported that the most recent data reaffirmed global ministerial support for information technology growth as a core strategy for national economic productivity and leadership. The report went on to say In fact, the shrewd advice would be for policymakers to double their efforts to help firms seize the benefits of IT.

Impacts of Offshore Outsourcing

As IT becomes more global, offshore outsourcing of software development may reshape the demand for IT workers in the U.S. in ways that favor business-school graduates. Estimates of firms that will be considering outsourcing IT functions overseas this year run from 15% (ITAA) to 80% (Gartner). Forrester Research is forecasting that by 2015, 472,632 white-collar jobs in IT and mathematics will shift from the U.S. to countries with lower labor costs. The incredible demand for IT workers suggested by BLS and others will overcome this offshore resource with barely a bump. For example, according to ITAA, IT managers expect to hire 493,491 IT workers into new jobs in the next 12 months. This figure suggests that one-in-twelve new jobs could go overseas during the next decade. Thus, overseas outsourcing might be part of a solution to the impossible growth of U.S. IT jobs, when coupled with continued strong growth of certain US IT jobs.

Business Knowledge Stays at Home

According to the ITAA forecast, not all IT jobs will go offshore equally. The most likely kinds of jobs to be shipped overseas in the immediate future are software development (programming) and technical support. It is more difficult to outsource the skills necessary for IT organizations to partner with business units and conceptualize technology solutions. Kept for U.S. workers will be the business-oriented systems analysis and design jobs. Based on interviews with more than a dozen Fortune 1000 CIOs and other large IT organization leaders, Computerworld reports that the ideal domestic IT worker is someone who combines business savvy and broad technology acumen. Demand is likely to increase for business-oriented graduates in the computer information systems arena, such as those from the highly ranked Robinson College programs at Georgia State.

Richard Baskerville Professor and Chairman Computer Information Systems Department Robinson College of Business Georgia State University

http://www2.cis.gsu.edu/cis/about/shortage.asp

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So what?
What do we really know? Not much There are (at least) three possible scenarios Scenario 1:
Im OK, your OK. We simply look at the historical trend line, assuming that it is a good predictor of the future

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Dot.com effect
IS student numbers

late 90s

2005

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Scenario 2: IS is a Commodity*
Nicholas Carr is right IT Doesnt Matter But havent we heard all of this before? cf. Dearden, etc. IS is a commodity is old hat, it is just another attack on the fieldold wine in new bottlesnothing new here
* What exactly is a commodity? Is a commodity an 'input' or an 'output'? Also what is the relationship between 'commodity' and 'economies of scale'..... answer: nothing. But a more interesting issue is not what is or is not a 'commodity' but the act of 'commoditization, i.e. rationalization (see scenario 3). That is, how does an organization 'commoditize' its business processes? In a sense, that is what organizations do when they implement ERP. This also drives BPO. Rudy Hirschheim, 2006

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Scenario 3: Commoditization of Work

Carr was wrong, the IS function isnt a commodity but significant parts/processes of IS work are being commoditized through IT for better or worse IT may now be a root cause of the crisis Need to pay attention to the mediating role of IT that differentiates IS from other business disciplines; Consider for example:
IT as Enabler of Sourcing
IT is clearly an enabler that has opened up new strategic options for structuring IT and business operations

IT as Enabler and Catalyst for Commoditization

Modern IT has allowed extending the market logic of commoditization to white collar work - clerical work initially and now all the way to business processes (BPO). Hence, IT has served both as a medium and catalyst of turning subjective skills and know-how into a market commodity
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Scenario 3: Continued
IT as Enabler of Offshoring
IT is clearly an enabler that has opened up the opportunity for offshoring, and not just IS workit will expand to include many/most/all business processes

Where does it end?

Is the ultimate nature of the application of IT (i.e. automation and informatization) the commoditization of management (and engineering)? If not, what exactly cannot be commoditized?

Does offshoring/outsourcing lead to extinction?

Where does the next generation of managers come from? Is anyone worried about this?

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The Real Concern

Wall Street Effect = Short-termism, driven by capitalism and greed What is the long term effect?
Could it be an Enron-like implosion? Searching for the latest silver bullet of the day, this is management fadism
Probably good for consultants cf. from insourcing to outsourcing to backsourcing

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Where does this leave us?

Are we the next OR?
Ackoff, Checkland, etc. warned of the dangers of irrelevance. we too must be concerned dont forget our external market* consider Computer Sciences view of things:
Computer science is just as good a first major as ... English, Economics or Historyyou can go on and do anything [Prof. J. Wing, Head of CS at Carnegie Mellon] many CS students dont even know what SQL is [Keselman, CTO of McKesson]

But there is a key difference: IS is so ingrained/ embedded in all business processes it is hard to see it going away but it is changing Need to focus on business processes or the IT enabling of business processesthe good news is that we do this already with ERP, BPR, BPO, etc.
* But have they forgotten about us?
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Where does this leave us: Faculty teaching issues

Need to realize the market has changed
We dont produce coders but analysts someone who understands business processes and the ability to recognize how IT can enable them Key skills revolve around project management - how to manage global projects involving internal and external resources, across diverse cultures, geographic distances and value systems Many have argued that IT careers in the West should focus on: requirements analysis, business process design, contract management, business relationship management and architecture planning. To that add: IT strategy, system auditing, and security
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Where does this leave us: Faculty research issues

If one assumes teaching follows the jobs (we teach what students need to get jobs), and research follows teaching (assuming that teaching is used to fund faculty research), then what? If India becomes the new Silicon Valley, what does this mean for the West? (besides the obvious reduction in International students coming to our programs)
India may well become the world leader in IS teaching but will this translate into world leadership in IS research? And what would the new research priorities be if this were the case? Would we take academic jobs in India so we could continue our research work?

What about IT innovation? Will this too be the dominated by Chindia? Most researchers (in the West) believe IT innovation will continue to come from the West. But is this true?

Consider the book by Ashutosh Shashabalaya Rising Elephant (2005) Jeffrey Gartens [Yale Business School Dean] BusinessWeek article (Jan.31, 2005) The High-Tech Threat from China Lyytinen and Tilson claim that Korea and Japan are at least 6 years ahead of the US in the wireless innovation area

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The most likely scenario

Darwinism: the best way to avoid extinction is through evolution IS will evolve because it has to Hirschheims 3 Rs: reflection, reposition and renewal Reflection: Organizations need IS talent because they can not risk outsourcing/offshoring key intellectual propertythus IS will survive but with a different set of competencies Reposition: Perhaps the field could align itself with Business Strategy this is a natural fit given that IT enables business strategy and involves relationship/contract/project management, and innovation Renewal: The bottom line: there is good news in that the field recognizes its need to evolve; cf. the discussion in MISQ, JAIS, CAIS plus the recent book by Lyytinen and King

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Broad IS Challenges
IS governance how to manage the increasingly complex set of relationships and vendors who provide IT products and services domestic and offshore vendors, SBU IS units, corporate IS units, contractors, and customer desires IS alignment how to align IS strategy with business strategy Process outsourcing which processes to outsource? Commodity vs. strategic processes IS succession where does the next generation of IS leaders come from when most IS is outsourced?

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FOUR GREAT FATALLY FLAWED NOTIONS

The CIO is dead (career is over to call India office) IS is withering away There are no jobs in IS The centralized IS organization is dead

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Bush Lays Off Congress; will Outsource Lawmaking to India

Washington - Citing the growing cost of running the Federal government and the need to cut costs in order to reduce the budget deficit, President Bush announced today that he was laying off all 535 members of Congress and transferring lawmaking operations to a legislative support center in Bangalore, India. "Hey, outsourcing is the way to go these days," said Bush at an impromptu news conference where he announced the decision, adding, "the American people want to see less government waste. Since every one of those ex-Congressmen had a salary of $150,000, this move will cut our costs by over $80 million per year, and that's not even counting what we'll save on health insurance and retirement plans." Sources indicate that the Indian replacements will be paid approximately $250 per month. The outcry from the newly laid-off Senators and Representatives was swift. Ex-California Senator Diane Feinstein said, "This is absolutely outrageous. How can a bunch of replacements over in India run Congress? What do they know about filibusters and committee hearings?" As she was being escorted out of the Hart Senate Office Building by U.S. Capitol Police officers, Feinstein complained that the newly-terminated lawmakers were only given ten minutes to clean out their desks and leave the building. "I think it's a great idea," said Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking from a secure undisclosed location. "The American people were fed up with that expensive do-nothing Congress which didn't always give the President everything he asked for. Our new Indian replacements will be much cooperative to the President, which is what we all want." Asked whether the outsourcing may be unconstitutional, Cheney noted, "That's up to the Supreme Court to decide, but as you know, they usually see things our way." The new members of Congress seem thrilled with the attention they are receiving. Speaking from the offices of All-India Legislative Support Centre Ltd. In Bangalore, new Mississippi Senator Ramchandra Shektar Gupta told reporters, "The Indian people are very hard working and we will do our best as U.S. Congressmen and Congresswomen. And we are going to have some fun too. Just think: we have $2 trillion of the American taxpayers' money to spend!"

Source: The Baked Beaver

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