Why Firms Outsource (and Whether It Works)
Companies are hiring outsiders to handle many of their computing chores not so much to save money as to focus more on their basic busi-nesses. Yet the "outsourcing" doesn't always work out. An Accenture survey of 809 companies reports that 59% of firms that outsource do so to better focus on core capabilities, yet only 45% actually report reaping that benefit. That may be why only 46% of companies say they are satisfied with their outsourcing arrangements, while 21% are dissatisfied. Of those companies that did not contract out computing work, 26% simply did not want to cede control of their processes.

The Attacks Thicken
Attacks on known Internet security flaws are up slightly. Companies experienced an average of 38 attacks per week in the first six months of 2003, a 19% increase over the same period in 2002, according to a survey by Symantec Corp. Known vulnerabilities rose to 1,432, a 12% increase from 2002.

Tele-Connected?
Despite an increasingly mobile work force, more than 90% of companies still rely on slow dial-up connections to support remote staff, according to a META Group survey. Good News: by 2004, 40% plan to provide fast broadband connections to their "teleworkers," who doubled in number in just three years at the companies participating in the survey.

Awaiting Disaster
Despite perceiving increased threats from computer viruses, terrorism and employee misconduct, 17% of companies have no disaster-recovery system, according to a study commissioned by Veritas Software Corp. One-third of those that maintain systems have had to put them into action on some level.

A Global Pay Gap
U.S. and United Kingdom workers will make nearly 10 times the annual salary of counterparts in India this year, according to a survey by Information Technology Toolbox Inc. The gap
may be closing: 36% of Indian and 29% of Brazilian workers received raises of 20% or more, compared to just 4.7% of U.S. workers.