There are lots of IT people in Ohio. I used to work at Westfield when they were working on the building. It’s down the street from the home office in Westfield Center, OH. Also, Westfield is rarely described as “innovative”. I’m sure the employees are laughing about it being called the Center for Innovation…
A lot of companies outsource IT services…this is considered consulting. Regarding employment, I just read about Westfield being named as one of Ohio’s best employers by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. And the last I checked, they were also listed as Medina County’s largest employer.
At least one global organization, ACORD, considers Westfield to be innovative…Westfield got an award this year for innovative implementation of ACORD XML standards.
ACORD and Innovative .. there’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one. XML copies of paper forms .. way to get into the 21st century.
From talking with former Westfield IT people, they tell me all hard core systems development is done off shore in India; their days are filled with explaining the concept of insurance to Indian developers. Is it cheaper or can they not attract IT people to Medina? I think THEY think it’s cheaper.
I am very concerned about the out sourcing going on by most of the American corporations. They are hiring “the best and brightest” from India which happens to be one of the “largest English speaking countries in the world”. Well let me tell you my experience is that they are NO smarter than anyone else and speaking with them takes a tremedous amount of effort to understand them – this applies to most of them. They do work cheaper but that is changing rapidly. Westfield has “strategically” aligned with the Satyam company from India. They have outsourced the absolute heart of their system. Satyam has tremendous power over them and in time will flex it. I’m sure they always wanted to own an insurance company. The current I.T. management was “created” in the late 90’s by basically casting out 99% of the then current management and moving themselves in. Most of them did not have a clue about what Westfield I.T. applications were about they just wanted to get up that ladder any way they could and they did so with help from some ex-CAPGEMINI bullies. I tell myself every day that I hope these people don’t bring this company to it’s knees. There are still some good people there so there is hope but people like Mr. McManus need to take a hard look at what is going on.
I could spit nails when I think what they have done to a once solid I.T. department. Men like Dale Smucker would never have let this happen and if McManus were in charge (like he should be) this would not have happened either. I could go on forever about this but I’ll stop.
Westfield fired IT people that DO and promoted all the IT people who just talk. Back in late 1999, the doers were 1 for every 10 talkers. Now, the ratio is 1 doer for every 100 talkers at best.
Westfield should stop selling insurance to people who roll their sleeves up and get the job done. Since doers aren’t good enough to work for Westfield, why should they be insured by Westfield?
Last I heard, all the Westfield IT development jobs were in India. Is this place in Ohio? Or are the sprucing up their digs in New Dehli?
There are lots of IT people in Ohio. I used to work at Westfield when they were working on the building. It’s down the street from the home office in Westfield Center, OH. Also, Westfield is rarely described as “innovative”. I’m sure the employees are laughing about it being called the Center for Innovation…
A lot of companies outsource IT services…this is considered consulting. Regarding employment, I just read about Westfield being named as one of Ohio’s best employers by the Ohio Chamber of Commerce. And the last I checked, they were also listed as Medina County’s largest employer.
At least one global organization, ACORD, considers Westfield to be innovative…Westfield got an award this year for innovative implementation of ACORD XML standards.
ACORD and Innovative .. there’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one. XML copies of paper forms .. way to get into the 21st century.
From talking with former Westfield IT people, they tell me all hard core systems development is done off shore in India; their days are filled with explaining the concept of insurance to Indian developers. Is it cheaper or can they not attract IT people to Medina? I think THEY think it’s cheaper.
I am very concerned about the out sourcing going on by most of the American corporations. They are hiring “the best and brightest” from India which happens to be one of the “largest English speaking countries in the world”. Well let me tell you my experience is that they are NO smarter than anyone else and speaking with them takes a tremedous amount of effort to understand them – this applies to most of them. They do work cheaper but that is changing rapidly. Westfield has “strategically” aligned with the Satyam company from India. They have outsourced the absolute heart of their system. Satyam has tremendous power over them and in time will flex it. I’m sure they always wanted to own an insurance company. The current I.T. management was “created” in the late 90’s by basically casting out 99% of the then current management and moving themselves in. Most of them did not have a clue about what Westfield I.T. applications were about they just wanted to get up that ladder any way they could and they did so with help from some ex-CAPGEMINI bullies. I tell myself every day that I hope these people don’t bring this company to it’s knees. There are still some good people there so there is hope but people like Mr. McManus need to take a hard look at what is going on.
I could spit nails when I think what they have done to a once solid I.T. department. Men like Dale Smucker would never have let this happen and if McManus were in charge (like he should be) this would not have happened either. I could go on forever about this but I’ll stop.
Westfield fired IT people that DO and promoted all the IT people who just talk. Back in late 1999, the doers were 1 for every 10 talkers. Now, the ratio is 1 doer for every 100 talkers at best.
Westfield should stop selling insurance to people who roll their sleeves up and get the job done. Since doers aren’t good enough to work for Westfield, why should they be insured by Westfield?