Source: www.itvarnews.net

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) everywhere are now poised to fully participate in the global economy by requesting bids, awarding projects, and building trusted relationships with service providers around the world, thanks to a new Web platform that has been launched: LimeExchange, the first socially networked marketplace for global talent.

“Small and medium-sized businesses haven’t dared to outsource due to legitimate concerns over risk, cost, and complexity,” says George Searle, CEO of Lime Spot LLC. “LimeExchange has cracked the code of outsourcing, making it simple for any business to build tight productive relationships with talented service providers anywhere on earth.”

LimeExchange is the first talent marketplace designed to help SMBs, entrepreneurs, and individuals to outsource, connect and collaborate globally. Through LimeExchange, SMBs gain the same competitive advantages of outsourcing, previously enjoyed only by larger companies, such as a flexible workforce, lower-cost labor, and access to specialized skills.

“There’s no reason why businesses and service providers of all sizes shouldn’t be able to participate in the benefits of globalization, whether on large projects, or small one-off projects,” Searle says. “LimeExchange connects two fragmented communities smaller businesses and smaller service providers through the power of social networking. We are bringing the competitive advantages of outsourcing down to the individual.”

LimeExchange breaks the mold of first-generation online services marketplaces, going beyond mere matching of buyers and sellers or providing simple “feedback” rating systems. Instead, LimeExchange is a relationship-based services marketplace, meaning it provides contemporary social networking and project management tools members need to establish, build, and sustain profitable business relationships online.

Businesses can sign up and post their projects on LimeExchange for free. They’ll receive free proposals from LimeExchanges global pool of professional service providers, contractors, and freelancers. Using LimeExchange’s “Connect” social networking features, buyers can make well-informed decisions about service providers before they award a project.

Source: www.allheadlinenews.com

KeyCorp, owner of KeyBank, is outsourcing from 200 to 400 technology and product-support jobs to India.

Alan Buffington, a Key vice president for enterprise systems development, revealed the plan to employees during an electronic “town meeting” on Friday. According to Timesunion.com, the official said the exact number of jobs to be outsourced will depend on the outcome of the bidding for the outsourcing contract.

Three Indian firms are vying for the contract, each offering a different number of employees who will take over American jobs.

The outsourcing is to be undertaken to save KeyCorp an estimated $10 million annually. Buffington said cost-cutting is necessary in the light of financial problems besetting the financial services industry.

KeyCorp’s fourth quarter net income in 2007 was down to $25 million from $146 million in the same period in 2006. It posted a net income of $919 million last year compared to $1.056 billion in 2006.

The company has about 19,000 employees in the U.S.