MaSSSoftech

More than half of US companies do not allow employees to visit social networks such as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter while at work, according to a new survey.

Fifty-four percent of the chief information officers (CIOs) for 1,400 companies surveyed across the United States said workers were "prohibited completely" from visiting social networks while on the job.

Nineteen percent said employees were allowed to visit social networks "for business purposes only" while 16 percent said they allowed "limited personal use."

Ten percent of those surveyed said there were no restrictions on visiting social networks at work.

The survey of 1,400 companies with at least 100 employees was released this week and was conducted by an independent research firm for Robert Half Technology, a California-based provider of information technology professionals. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6 percent.

Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology, said "using social networking sites may divert employees' attention away from more pressing priorities, so it's understandable that some companies limit access.

"For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes," he said.

Information technology (IT) bellwether Infosys Technologies announced its results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2009-10.

As is the practice, the company beat its target (guidance) it had set during the first quarter results on almost all counts. Known to be a conservative company, Infosys likes to set a lower guidance and beat it than set out a high target and not achieve it.

The company’s quarterly revenue stood at Rs 5,585 crore, up 2% from the previous quarter while it recorded net profit of Rs 1,540, up 0.85% in Q1.

The company also raised its full-year revenue and earnings per share (EPS) guidance.

Management speaks

After declaring the results, the Infosys top management comprising of CEO S Gopalakrishnan, COO SD Shibulal, CFO V Balakrishnan and Director – HR Mohandas Pai, among others, spoke to CNBC-TV18 in an exclusive interview on the company’s business and whether the slowdown in the IT sector was behind it.

“Customers are starting spend more money,” the Infosys management said, but added, “However, we continue to remain cautious on business.” A key challenge for the company ahead would be the volatility of rupee, it said. “The government must manage rupee volatility better.”

Infosys good numbers were a combination of better business and also internal factors, the management said. “We added 35 new clients in the second quarter and revenues from the top-10 clients were up 6%,” it said.

Infosys, which had recently hiked payscales of staff, also said the higher wages would impact the company’s margins by 200 basis points (2%).

It added that even as pricing had become stable and clients were not asking for renegotiations, an upside to pricing was still some time away.

On business ahead, it said: “FY11 [client] budgets are likely to be flat to marginally higher.”