Quick. You’ve been outsourced to CSC. Now what?

Imagine the uncertainty that outsourced employees feel when joining CSC for the first time. Angela P’Pool does, every time she acts as an ambassador for CSC. As part of the Ambassador Program, Angela welcomes newly outsourced employees to CSC, walks them through their new position, and calms any concerns they may have.

“What I like most about being an ambassador is providing comfort to people who feel uncertain. When they’re outsourced to CSC, there are so many things up in the air. Benefits, paychecks – their first thought is, ‘How am I going to provide for my family?’ You’re talking about their livelihood, and change is going to throw up a red flag.

As ambassadors, we travel to the client site, and are assigned a list of employees joining CSC. We walk through the building, identify the employees, introduce ourselves, and tell them about CSC. Then we address any concerns or issues they might have. After we have touched each person, we continually go back and make sure they’re comfortable.

I’ve had a lot of people change their minds about the transition. Instead of feeling threatened and unhappy because they’ve been outsourced, they feel wanted again. You can almost see the worry lifted off their shoulders. It improves morale, which improves productivity and carries over to the client’s employees as well.

I really enjoy meeting these new people and letting them know that CSC will be there for them.”

Because the emotional and physical stress of a combat injury can be devastating for warfighters and their families, CSC has partnered with CharityWorks, a Washington, D.C.-based philanthropic organization, to help raise money for the Fisher House program. The “CSC Gives Back to Military Families” campaign will run through August 31.

Mike Laphen, CSC Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer: “I am pleased to announce that CSC has partnered with a CharityWorks to support their fundraising efforts to provide that ‘home away from home,’ and give back to our military and their families in a personal way for the sacrifices they have made for the freedoms we all share. This year, CSC will host the CharityWorks Dream Ball on September 27, 2008, to honor the work of the Fisher House and encourage other companies and organizations to also join us in supporting this important fundraising event.”

The goal of the campaign is to help CharityWorks raise $2 million to build a Fisher House on the grounds of the Veterans Medical Center in Washington, D.C. The Fisher House program offers “comfort homes” across the nation where America’s military families can stay free of charge during extended treatment for a serious illness or lengthy physical and/or occupational therapy. Employees who give $100 or more will be eligible for a special raffle where the winner and guest will be invited to attend the CharityWorks Dream Ball.

For more information on Fisher House, visit the CharityWorks Web site.

Paul Ferguson, program lead for a CSC account in the UK, recently completed the London Marathon. He ran for “Tommy’s the Baby Charity,” which funds medical research and provides pregnancy information to help parents have a healthy pregnancy and birth.

“The marathon itself was a great day. For those that don’t know, the streets of London are crowded, and the support really helps. It was my first marathon, and my running partner and I completed it in 4 hours and 40 minutes.  The weather was typically English: calm sunny morning at the start and windy and hail stoning at the end. I have already committed to do London again next year, and will continue running for my chosen charity at the Dublin Marathon in October.

I wanted to run for a charity that is working to reduce as much as possible the number of babies born prematurely, miscarried or stillborn. To learn more, visit my Web site.”

CSC CIO David McCue has been named one of Computerworld’s 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders. The 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders honors notable IT executives who are driving strategy and innovation at their organizations. Among his many initiatives, McCue is currently focusing on supporting CSC’s Project Accelerate, equipping his increasingly virtual workforce, and deploying IT solutions that can be tailored to fit CSC’s diverse employees and business units. McCue recently talked to us about his goals for CSC.

“To be CIO of large multinational company, you have to have a good sense of the businesses of all your divisions – and their drivers. I deal with 91,000 people, a wide variety of industries, and dozens of countries. What may make perfect sense to one group might not make any sense to another group.

My priority is to make sure our employees and business units have tools they need individually and collectively to be successful, to be empowered to achieve results for our clients. CSC is organized in terms of an extremely aggressive virtual workforce. Many face-to-face meetings have been replaced with faceless virtual interactions. The challenge in this virtual world is to move toward classes of IT services that are conceived, designed, managed and delivered globally, but with appropriate business unit tailoring and implementation. IT must enable, rather than restrain.

Project Accelerate requires us to look for ways to deliver faster, and that has changed the way I approach my job. I always say, ‘Let’s not let perfect get in the way of better.’ By that I mean it’s better to deliver a series of incremental improvements early on, so the client can start seeing immediate benefits, than to wait and deliver everything in a ‘big bang.’ CSC has been used to large, seven-year outsourcing projects, where you could spend 15 months making a transition. We simply don’t have that luxury anymore. We’ve got to bring things to fruition faster.

What I like most about my job is the challenge of juggling the multitude of projects we’ve got going at once. It’s definitely not boring. I also enjoy being able to make a difference, for individual employees, and for our business. I want to make the whole CSC greater than the sum of its parts.”

CSC helped raise awareness about global warming when offices across Australia switched off all non-essential electrical devices on 29 March as part of the global environmental campaign, Earth Hour.

Earth Hour, an energy saving awareness initiative, encourages people to turn off lights and electrical appliances for an hour to help combat global warming. CSC got involved in the event by switching off all non-essential lighting, air conditioning and signage in its buildings from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. We joined 3,955 businesses in Australia, including our customers.

CSC Australia’s participation in the event ties into its new environmental program: Green Way. The program, which was formalized in December 2007, is part of the organization’s commitment to minimizing climate change and aims to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions by 25 percent by 2010 from our 2007 levels.

How CSCers Marked Earth Hour:

“I attended a candle-lit picnic at Bronte Beach with friends,” said Environmental Sustainability Lead Anthony Ogilvie. “We even saw a group having a three legged race down a candle-lit runway.”

”We ended up lighting candles in the living room and playing a family game of monopoly,” said CSC Australia’s Vice President of Financial Services in CSC’s Health & Public Sector Matthew Day. “Monopoly was drawn to a close at 9.30 with no clear winner, but I was confident that I had a pipeline and strategy to triumph on a future occasion.”

“Last year’s Earth Hour triggered me to think about my energy usage and, since then, I have replaced all of my halogen down lights with LED lights,” said Network Systems Programmer Peter Hart. “This has reduced my energy usage from about 300 watts to 28 watts!”

“We ran around the house unplugging all electronic devices and sat down to dinner by candle light,” said Vice President of Human Resources Christiane Moloney. “The hour turned into an evening of relaxing and chatting about social issues. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience!”

“I went to Sydney’s Star City Casino to watch the city skyline ‘shut down,’ said Business Analyst Vivek Srinivasan. “There was a band and lots of people on the balcony watching the lights turn off across Sydney. It looked amazing.”

Learn more about CSC’s Green IT initiatives.