IT Outsourcing India

Nokia has outsourced desktop management and help desk functions in 76 countries to Indian outsourcer HCL Technologies. HCL announced that the handset maker has signed a five year contract.The outsourcer has set up a new office in Helsinki, Finland, to deliver nearshore services to Nokia, in addition to delivering services from centers in Poland, China, the U.S. and India.

The contract includes multilingual helpdesk services in 13 languages, global account management, workstation packaging, creation and maintenance, workstation security management, and onsite support services delivered by partners, HCL said.

Indian outsourcers have typically not been able to get desktop management contracts because they do not have a global presence, and rely on local partners at each location, said Siddharth Pai, a partner at outsourcing consultancy firm Technology Partners International TPI in Houston.

A key factor in this relationship will be how much control HCL can exercise over its local partners, Pai said.

The Helsinki center will have 100 staff and will help HCL offer nearshore delivery of services to its other customers in the Nordic and Baltic regions, the company said.

Some Indian outsourcers like HCL have set up facilities in the U.S. and Europe to offer customers a mix of services delivered from locations close to the customer, and from offshore locations like India.

Source : http://www.offshoringtimes.com/

BANGALORE: India’s largest software exporter TCS is leading the race to win an outsourcing
contract worth $60-100 million Sony, the Japanese electronics giant struggling under huge losses and a high cost operating structure.

“As part of its attempts to reduce cost of managing IT operations, Sony is discussing a contract to manage its desktops and servers over 3-5 years,” a person familiar with the discussions told ET on condition of anonymity.

While ET could not independently verify the details of this contract, at least two people familiar with the development confirmed that Sony is evaluating vendors. When contacted on Thursday, a TCS spokesperson said the company would not comment on specific customer contracts yet to be awarded.

This is the first in a series of IT contracts - valued at over $250 million - to be awarded by the world’s second-largest electronics maker over the next two years. With this, Sony joins other global biggies like Citi, GE, BT and BoA, which are expected to award around $4-billion worth of new outsourcing contracts this year.

TCS is seen as a frontrunner because of its existing relationship with the electronics maker. “Sony also works with Satyam for SAP development and maintenance. However, current developments at the scandal-hit company are not going to help it win new projects,” said a senior executive at a top Indian tech firm requesting anonymity.

Tokyo-based Sony announced last week that the company would make savings of over $2 billion by reducing operational costs at its electronics unit, apart from undertaking several restructuring measures, including outsourcing. Sony projected a full-year operating loss of around $2.9 billion for 2009, the company’s first loss in 14 years.
TCS shares inched up 0.45% to Rs 509 on Thursday. The stock has gained 2.58% over the week and 6.74% over the month.

“Companies, which have not leveraged outsourcing beyond application development and maintenance, will expand their global outsourcing in terms of scale and scope,” said founder of Mindplex Consulting Sabyasachi Satyaprasad.

Customers such as Sony, with around $40 million offshore IT spend, are likely to outsource newer projects of infrastructure management and back-office work, as they derive cost benefits from their ongoing engagements.

Infrastructure management is going to be the next growth engine for Indian outsourcing companies, as more customers seek to outsource management of their IT infrastructure, including desktops and servers.

Source : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/

There are plenty of reasons to be positive about the role that outsourcing will play in the global economic resurgence. Here are some of our projections for the industry in 2009.

"Whenever there’s a downturn people outsource more, not less. Organizations want to take costs out wherever they can,” says Gartner (News - Alert) analyst Linda Cohen. In a late 2008, Gartner also reported that 44 percent of their survey respondents planned to increase their IT budgets in 2009, while 37 percent wanted to leave budgets at the same level. Only 19 percent of respondents were planning to cut their IT budgets.

As we face a more challenging economic climate, outsourcing will still flourish, only differently. 2009 could be a transition year for the industry, and as recent political, business, and technological changes continue to slowly pave the way for recovery, those who are gearing up for the eventual turnaround will benefit most. There are plenty of reasons to be positive about the role that outsourcing will play in the global economic resurgence, and following are some of our projections for the industry in 2009.

Cost will be the deciding factor

Two things will be on top of the boardroom agenda this year: bringing down operating costs and remaining profitable. Offshore outsourcing, which leverages cost-effectiveness, will figure prominently in corporate strategies within the next 12 to 18 months.

Outsourcing deals will be consolidated

TPI reported last year that there would be significant changes in the nature of outsourcing, such that multi-sourcing would be consolidated to, again, cut down costs. Buyers believe that dealing with a limited number of vendors will minimize vendor selection and management costs. Moreover, because due diligence will be cut down significantly, buyers can expect faster project turnarounds.

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It is a good time to look at outsourcing as a means to cut costs, launch new business ventures, and improve efficiencies.

 It is not a stretch to presume most people were happy to see 2008 come to an end, yet most analysts and experts predict 2009 is going to be worse. As we stumble into the New Year, executives are challenged with the cyclical routines of planning, budgeting, forecasting, and so forth. It is hard enough to do these tasks in normal times, but it becomes a nightmare in the uncertain economic environment we live in now, but outsourcing can help.

Given this uncertainty and chaos, it is a good time to look at outsourcing as a means to save money, propel new business ventures, and improve efficiencies. It is also a good time for CIOs to review, rationalize, and evolve their outsourcing programs. In light of this, the top three outsourcing initiatives for 2009 include:

1. Reviewing Deal Structures

Most current outsourcing deals and models are outdated and ineffective because they are people-based and not demand-based. Companies have a need for resources to do the work that is required; they negotiate a rate with a vendor; and determine contract durations. The contracts primarily follow a simple model: People x Rates x Duration.

It is easy to understand why a people-based model is being used today, since outsourcing (especially Indian outsourcing) grew out of the Y2K era. Companies first engaged outsourcing companies in staff augmentation models to address their Y2K needs, and hence, all subsequent outsourcing models have been people-based. While outsourcing companies have grown in leaps-and-bounds over the past three to five years in terms of their capabilities, there has been little evolution in deal structures.

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