Outsourcing Times

IBM Calcutta increases employee strength

By Priya Venkatesh, Staff Writer

Are you into IT? Do you know the employee strength of IBM in India? As an individual one is seldom aware of the fact that IBM has 14 offices across India with over 43000 employees.

IBM has promulgated the addition of 3000 more software developers at its Calcutta development center shortly.

With the enormous increase in the employment rate in the field of IT, informationweek reports that NASSCOM expects to have 25% more growth of IT in the wake of the year 2007.

Read more on 'IBM Daksh - Marching Ahead' in one of our previous post to know how IBM has expanded its operations in India via Daksh.

Indian IT stocks creep incredible heights amidst tight competition!

-- By Priya Venkatesh, Staff Writer

Do you get involved in the stock market? Did you have a look at the results of the third quarter? Here are the details of outperforming stocks of the stock market as on date!

Share prices of the IT vendors, Wipro, Satyam, Infosys & TCS have crept incredible heights very recently! While the European and American counterparts struggle hard to sustain the high value of their stock prices & are at 100.4 & 98.3, Indian IT companies have gone up to 117 recently.

Sourcingmag.com accounts this to the gain that the companies have incurred in bagging larger contracts from overseas. Shares of CTS seem to outperform its Indian peers since the share value of the company has crept up by 50% this year.

Read one of our previous post on 'Build infrastructure to sharpen outsourcing edge, says the Indian P.M' to know more about the initiatives taken by the Indian government to encourage outsourcing!

Build infrastructure to sharpen outsourcing edge, says the Indian P.M.

If you reflect on the recent statements emerging from the government echelons in India, you will be convinced that outsourcing ranks pretty high on the agenda for the government.

Look at the recent statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, for instance. Speaking at a conference on ''Building Infrastructure'', the Prime Minister said that the government is willing to pitch in to overcome the infrastructure deficit in India. He said that the government is finalizing a policy that will put the framework in place for a massive infrastructure improvement drive.

Quite rightly, Manmohan Singh identified the power sector as the major pitfall, and stressed the need to overcome the power crisis that is reigning in several parts of the country. India Daily quotes the P.M:

The bane of power sector seems to be the high transmission and distribution losses which account for almost 40 per cent of the electricity produced. No civilised society nor a functional commercial entity can sustain losses on such a scale.

Indian state government does the outsourcing act

The relatively recently born state of Jharkhand in eastern India favors the outsourcing path in core infrastructure sectors such as roadways and town planning. The steady growth in population has all but stagnated life in the many towns in this state, and the government has finally woken up to the necessity of improving the civic amenities and building efficient road networks.

The government is looking for investors from across India to step in and take the outsourcing bait, and thereby to help improve life in Jharkhand. Outsourcing could help the state tide over the increasing population pressure, and also ensure that the non-planned and planned expenditure of the state is put to tangible use.

The Times of India has more on the development.

Dell plans to embark upon India!

Are you into outsourcing? Do you involve yourself with IT enabled services? Have you got ideas about the major subcontracting destinations across the globe? Have you heard about the next outsourcing move from Dell? Read on to know the expansion plans of Dell in detail. Dell, the pioneer in computer manufacture has set up new plans of expanding its computer monitor manufacture operation in Tamilnadu, India.

As per the reports from crmbuyer, a proposal to this effect has been ratified between the Management of Dell and the state government of Tamilnadu, India. The operations are expected to commence in the wake of the year 2007 at Sriperumbudur in Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.

Read my previous post on 'How India is able to circumvent the security issues in Outsourcing' to know why the wave of outsourcing is moving towards the Indian subcontinent.

Circumventing the security issues in Outsourcing!

Are you one of the lots who outsource work to Indian firms? Do you have fear and anxiety regarding the privacy and security of the data being outsourced? Are you ambiguous as to whether India can be accounted as a trustworthy subcontracting destination? If yes, go ahead to read the measures Indian firms have taken up to resolve these issues.

From the perspective of the Indian government, it is working with NASSCOM to bring in stringent laws on par with US for continued privacy/security issues. Indian IT firms do understand that privacy issues will not only tarnish their image amidst competitors but will also tarnish the established brand name of India as an efficient outsourcing destination. Mid cap and large cap companies in India have come up with innumerous ways of handling the concerns related to data privacy and security.

• Palm readers are being used to restrict access to work places at IT Firms.
  Internet and Intranet access has been removed from machines that are into the domain of the client.
• USB Port access has been taken out at the work place to avoid the data security breaches across the organizations.
• Visitors are not allowed to enter the workplaces in the IT Firms.
• Telephonic conversations are being recorded for security reasons.
• Surveillance cameras inspect and take care security breaches at the work place.

Click here to get an insight on Outsourcing to India.

IT heavyweights discuss the outsourcing flight path

As we have seen in an older post titled "Western European IT outsourcing bounds ahead through mega deals", it is least surprising that IT continues to be the one industry that is making rapid strides, attracting many offshore mega deals. India is very much a part of this world phenomenon. 

This was reflected at the IT conclave organized by the Industrial Interaction Committee of the MBA program at IIT Kanpur, where several of the top IT heavyweights traced the development of outsourcing in India from its days of infancy to its present mature state.

Mr. Ramakanth Desai, Senior Vice President, Business Strategy and Innovation at Wipro, reflected on the initial phase when cost arbitrage was the key attraction that Indian IT players had, and looked at the status today when big deals are being struck by service providers in India. The BPO industry obviously continues to play a major role in the paradigm shift, with a growth rate of about 50% per annum.

Other speakers focused on issues such as the global mindset of Indian managers for a vibrant outsourcing industry, project management as a key to the success of the IT industry, the utilization of IT as a strategic tool for increasing business competitiveness, and the rather sordid tale of corruption in the IT industry.

For more details on each of these subjects, click here.

Rationale behind the IT Outsourcing to India

Outsourcing work to developing countries like India is becoming the order of the day.

Apprehensions apart, as individuals have we analysed the factors that add fuel to this fire of outsourcing to India, lets get a deeper into this and analyse the situation.

As per the reports from itoutsourcingindia, the factors that re-iterate the essentiality of outsourcing to india can be summarized as follows:

• Abundance of human resources with the required technical expertise and excellent communication skills.
• Economic factors are another add-on.
• Highly reliable communication lines provided by VoIP service providers pave way to uninterrupted communication between countries.
• The time zone provides a helping hand for getting our things done at India during our late night hours.
• Adherence of Indian IT firms to global quality standards like SEI CMM, PCMM and Six Sigma Practices
• Tax deduction offered by Indian government to pioneering ventures in the field of Information Technology.

And lots more......

Click here to know more on IT outsourcing to India.

Government must pitch in to boost EPO

The engineering industry is an important part of India's manufacturing sector, and is poised to attain new heights in the foreseeable future. According to a report, the Engineering Process Outsourcing (EPO) market in India can potentially rise to US$ 40 billion by 2020, which will more than double India's market share in this category.

However, this is all mere target practice. To get the actuals up there, the government needs to come forward with heavy investments in the EPO sector. EEPC Chairperson Rakesh Sharma has struck the right cord by stating that the government needs to address industry deterrents such as taxation issues, so that the Indian EPO sector can sharpen its competitive edge.

For more information, click here.

Sluggish mood could cost India its outsourcing advantage

The sooner Indian outsourcing vendors emerge from their complacency, the better for the market. Having carved out a sizeable portion of the global outsourcing market, Indian vendors seem to be sitting back on their success, making little or no effort to cover fresh territory. Take the field of HR outsourcing, for example. Out of an estimated $80 billion global HR outsourcing market, India accounts for a miniscule part of the pie.

The biggest fear of HR outsourcing companies in the West is data privacy and data security. However, the security aspect doesn't seem to figure high enough on the priority list of India's outsourcing service providers. As Business Standard reports, the lack of data privacy concerns has kept most of the HR outsourcing bigwigs away from India:

The biggest problem—and this is why the HR outsourcing industry in India is on the back foot—is the government’s and the industry’s failure to tackle issues like data security and data privacy. Most foreign companies insist that their outsourcing agreements contain detailed and precise contractual specifications regarding data privacy and protection. This is where Indian HR outsourcing companies face a major handicap.

Then, there is the other aspect of human resources—Indian salaries are rising at 14% per annum, and this could even out the positive incline that Indian vendors are enjoying at the moment. India's cost advantage might disappear in a few years' time.

Before that happens, Indian companies need to pull up their socks and tighten other business processes, such as the security concerns, so that they stay afloat—and swim—in the global outsourcing market.