Part of state's (Montana's) Internet work sent to Poland

[Newsjock]

http://missoulian.com/articles/2004/11/17/news/mtregional/news06.txt

By ROBERT STRUCKMAN of the Missoulian

Some of the behind-the-scenes work for the Big Sky state's "Made in Montana" Web page is contracted out to workers in Poland.

Not Poland, Mont. There's no such place.

It's done in the European nation to take advantage of low labor costs.

... While the content of the state's official Web site, www.discoveringmontana.com, is managed by the state, the services that the site offers are not. Those have been contracted to a Montana subsidiary of an international corporation, said Jeff Brandt, the top officer at the state's Information Technology Services Division.

The subsidiary is Montana Interactive, wholly owned by a company that used to be called National Information Consortium, but is now known by its acronym NIC, said Helena-based manager Rich Olsen. NIC subsidiaries run Web services for 17 states.

... "Outsourcing has this bad reputation. If somebody is going to move a factory overseas, I can see how that is deserved. But we're a better partner for Montana because we can call in those extra services" when needed, Olsen said.

more

[htuttle]

1. I guess Montana didn't forget Poland

However, given that there's no jobs in Montana, it's criminal that the state outsources any work at all.

[UL_Approved]

2. Our state capitol outsourced its software to Pakistan

About 6 years ago, the government of the state of Montana decided to get a new software package for management. They outsourced it to Pakistan. The systems administrator in Helena, the capitol, found so many security holes that the software was replaced. I'm sure that when you dig, this happens all over the place.