Fast-Growing Indian Analytics Sector Needs More Workers

February 28, 2007

Analytics is an emerging area in the Indian Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) sector. While the overall KPO space is expected to grow at 50%, analytics could witness 70-80% growth, according to experts. However, this rapidly growing area is facing the same challenge as that of other IT/ITES related segments — finding the right qualified talent, especially in niche areas like financial analytics.

Training Recent Grads

The answer to this issue by most analytics companies has been to recruit IIT and IIM graduates who are considered to have good analytical aptitude and train them, though there are no specific analytical programmes in these institutes. However, with growing demand, companies are now expected to tie-up with foreign universities for niche executive programmes or organise in-house curricullum for training.

Joydeep Mukherjee, head of knowledge services practice, Infosys BPO said, “As the financial markets become more global and products become complex, investors and FIs will expect higher level of analysis of trends based on technical data. Growth will remain dependent on high-end competency. So, Infosys BPO is now planning to customise its training for analytics by building own curricullum. The training process will be for areas like financial/retail/ insurance analytics and is expected to roll out in the next 12-18 months.”

Wipro addresses the supply side with a campus hiring programme. “Once the candidate is hired, we have rigorous training schedule, domain specific training modules and on the job training,” says Ramit Sethi, senior vice president, Wipro BPO.

Growth Ahead

According to reports, the entire Indian KPO sector is expected to employ more than 2,50,000 KPO professionals by 2010, compared with the current figure of 25,000 employees and about 5,000 people in analytics. Foreign universities are now gearing up to meet this demand. UCLA Anderson School of Management plans to start a course in financial engineering management in the US from January 2008.

“We came to India to speak to other institutes about the new course. We realised that the demand is much more than the current supply. Our interaction with corporates told us that the need is to introduce a similar course in India. We may in the future introduce a 4 week intense version of the course in India,” said Judy D Olian, Dean and John E Anderson Chair in Management, UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Universities 21 (U-21) Global, a world-class online graduate school that offers management programmes with flexible duration also sees a huge demand for a similar course. “We allow students to choose their study hours. This flexibility allows people with work experience to enhance their skills,” said Jeremy Williams, director, pedagogy and assessment, U-21 Global.

Source : www.offshoringtimes.com

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Develop business skills to survive offshoring challenge, IT staff urged

UK IT professionals have been urged to develop business and management skills, following new indications that the rate of offshore outsourcing is increasing.

Computer Weekly revealed last week that the number of work permits issued to overseas IT workers had reached an all-time high of 32,251, up from 22,000 a year ago. A major driver for this was identified as offshore companies bringing their own staff to the UK to work on outsourcing contracts.

The trend has highlighted the need for UK IT professionals to develop management, communication and business-­focused skills, industry experts said this week.

“Those who are trying to compete on technical skills, where it is cheaper to train in India, are operating at a disadvantage,” said Philip Virgo, strategic adviser at the Institute for the Management of Information Systems.

Future generations of IT professionals will need to develop both business and technical skills, or have the capability to manage outsourcing contracts, if they are going to add value to employers, he said.

Elizabeth Sparrow, chair of the British Computer Society working party on offshoring, said IT professionals must face up to the changes that offshore outsourcing would bring.

“There are a lot of positive things we can do. The surveys we have done with employers consistently show that they want to employ more IT professionals in the UK. But they are looking for a different combination of skills than they have in the past,” she said.

“They want interpersonal skills, project management skills and relationship management skills. The ability to know how to source IT work, when to buy from overseas, and managing outsourcing agreements.”

Sparrow added that employers needed to be aware that they should train for longer-term skills, not just short-term technical skills.

Virgo also highlighted the importance of training and called on the government to offer tax breaks to businesses and individuals who invest in training.

The estimated 100,000 IT professionals in the UK working on large systems integration would be most affected by offshore outsourcing, said Virgo. However, offshoring would have relatively little impact in the City of London, aerospace and pharmaceuticals, he said.

Source : www.offshoringtimes.com

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