IT Outsourcing India

KOVALAM: In the first wave of a global IT advancement labour arbitrage may have played a prominent role. But as the sector matures, true innovation is becoming the defining factor and India appears to be ideally poised to tap the opportunities , according to some of the global thought leaders.

“Global enterprises will migrate to the best-place , best-price combinations and India has a great chance. India is rising on the scale of strategic importance for whatever is happening here" , according to Scott Hartz, president and CEO of the Hartz Group, who had earlier been with PwC Consulting and it predecessor Price Waterhouse for 32 years. According to Mr Hartz, China was no pushover, but with regard to the IT realm there seemed to be some impediment in that country , which would confront it at least in the near term.

According to Robert A Damon, president, North America, for Korn/Ferry International, the geek image about the IT sector was changing and the product itself was not the all-important determinant of success any more.

“IT is only a ticket to dance, and that is different from dancing,” he says. Mr Damon, who has over 25 years experience in CEO-COO placements, says IT products of one company could easily be replicated by another, and that the culture and overall quality associated with the product delivery would be the key factors in future.

Satendra (Dan) Gupta, California-based CEO of UST Global agrees that cultural diversity gives India an edge.

According to him, India is uniquely suited for excellence in IT because of the diversity in the culture and thinking of its people. Randall Joseph Ottinger, author of Beyond Success: Building a personal, financial and philanthropic legacy, said, “True innovation” would count for success in future, adding that IT was becoming more cool than geeky.

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

The IT industry of West Bengal remains apprehensive about the impact of the Citu-sponsored industrial strike on August 20.

Most employees of IT companies operating from Sector V in Kolkata’s Salt Lake, the hub of BPO and IT companies in Kolkata, have been asked to come into office by 6am on August 20 and stay back overnight or till the strike is lifted.

BPOs and call centres, on the other hand, have made arrangements for employees to stay back after work tonight and leave only tomorrow after work.

Sector V houses some 300 IT companies. A few of the companies, which may not work or employees who may not turn up on Wedensday, will make up for it by working through Saturday and Sunday.

The state IT department, too, has not taken any measure to help employees reach their offices safely. Earlier, the department would issue stickers marked ‘essential services’ to the IT companies and vehicles that ferried employees.

But the department decided not to issue such stickers after some vehicles carrying the stickers were damaged by bandh mongers.

According to Debesh Das, IT minister of the state, people who do not wish to participate in the bandh will not be prevented. “Police and security arrangements of Sector V will be looked into by the administration and we are sure that no untoward incident will occur.”

It may be recalled that about a dozen party cadres heckled an IT employee, damaged the vehicle, which was ferrying the person home, and thrashed its driver for daring to venture out on a Left Front-sponsored bandh in June this year.

According to a spokesperson of Cognizant, "We have asked our employees who want to turn up on Wednesday to send request emails on Tuesday to the administration department. The department will organise cars to ferry employees before 6am on August 20. The employees will have to stay overnight or till the strike is lifted. The employees who will not make it on Wednesday will have to make up for it during the weekend."

Kalyan Kar, MD of Acclaris, said, "The state should not let bandhs affect the IT industry as we manage international clients who do not understand this concept of bandh."

According to Som Mittal, president of Nasscom, while the IT industry recognised the right of political parties to call bandhs or strikes, IT companies in turn expected politicians to understand the 24x7 nature of their business and compulsions of client deadlines.

Clearly, although the IT and ITeS sectors have been classified under ‘public utility services’ operating 24X7, the reality is far from this.

Source : http://www.business-standard.com/

MANILA—The Philippine outsourcing industry will need an extra 420,000 workers within the next two years as it bids to become one of the world’s leading outsourcing centers, business leaders said Friday.

The industry is targetting annual revenues of $12 billion to $13 billion by 2010, Business Processing Association of the Philippines chief executive Oscar Sanez said.

Last year the industry saw revenues of $4.9 billion and 300,000 people in centers mainly in Manila, although call centers have been set up in Cebu, Baguio and other cities around the country.

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CHENNAI: Despite the global economic slowdown and bad publicity against the industry, India’s outsourcing sector would retain its high growth rate, says R. Chandrasekaran, president of Cognizant India, a leading global and business process outsourcing (BPO) company. The number of foreign companies outsourcing jobs to India is increasing geometrically, the industry leader said in an interview.

According to him, lower salaries, compared to the global standards, is the unique selling proposition (USP) of India. However, he added: "On the global GDP linked purchase power parity grid, India is the fourth country ahead of Germany, the UK, Italy, Canada etc, according to the listings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. Doesn’t that indicate something?" Chandrasekaran also expressed confidence that India would catch up with the global pace in the IT industry and technological advancement.

"From mobile telephony that helps us keep track of vehicles that ferry our associates from home to jobs, to application of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), Nano and virtualisation methods, all in their infancy globally, our research is on a par with the world," he said.

Asked about the computer hardware prices, he said prices would come down further in two years as all "aspects of life will depend on computing per se" by that time. While he pointed out the crippling shortage of electricity in the country and particularly in Tamil Nadu, where Cognizant has units, Chandrasekaran said: "No matter what the world says, we are happy here. Further, shortages in some form or other are a global phenomenon."

Despite humble beginnings from a Tamil medium school, Chandrasekaran has built an empire whose last balance sheet showed an annual profit of $2.13 billion. Cognizant is the second company in India to have been accorded the honour of ringing the Nasdaq (US stock exchange) bell for the start of trade March 5, 2007. "In 2006, we grew 60 per cent but the rising rupee, the global slowdown and competition have trimmed it almost by half. Yet, our profits are close to $2.8 billion and we are India’s fastest growing services company in IT," Chandrasekaran said.

Asked about the company’s efforts to reverse brain drain, Chandrasekaran said he was one of those who started the process successfully. "Roughly 70 per cent of our top people are the best examples of reverse brain drain," he said.

Chandrasekaran said Cognizant was against making too many attractive offers to students before graduation as these result in dropouts.

"We invest in R&D in educational institutions, rewarding faculties for cutting-edge results and encourage systems of education like technical writing, content management, e-learning to prepare students for the future. Our collaborative ventures in Manipal have resulted in a new course in pharmacological methods," he said.

Asked about bad publicity against the IT industry, he said: "While our strict controls, sensitisation methods, constant monitoring have prevented any wrongdoing, some sections of the media play up minor aberrations as it’s fashionable to titillate underachievers by blaming the smartest guys and girls of India."

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