Source:www.business-standard.com

From just a 600 sq ft office in Basaveshwaranagar in Bangalore, about 100 researchers, mostly MBAs, researchers and post-graduates in commerce, statistics and economics, are busy with complex market research projects for large global firms based in the US, Canada, Mexico, UK, France and Australia.

Jasal Shah, the CEO of the company Markelytics Solutions says that the small place is almost ‘bursting at its seams’ with projects from abroad.

“We have two shifts to deliver the projects on time. But, we feel we have to spread out to newer locations to accommodate more people as we plan to add another 150 by the end of this year,” says Shah, a former IDC analyst and an early entrant to the growing market research outsourcing (MRO) space.

Over the last couple of years, the Indian landscape for outsourced market research is changing rapidly. While most of the global firms like Taylor Nelson Sofres (TNS), MarketTools and Greenfieldonline are operating large captives in India, many Indian companies are gearing up to tap opportunities in market research outsourcing.

India today has about 15 MR firms including large ones like Ugam Solutions, Annik Systems, Cross-Tab and Markelytics. Even BPO firms like WNS and knowledge process outsourcing firm like eValueserve have significant presence in this field.

Their customer list also includes large firms and Fortune 1000 companies. Cross-Tab, for example, claims to be serving customers like BBC, IBM, Microsoft, MSN, Oracle, Standard Chartered, Nike among others. Markelytics claims to have successfully delivered over 300 projects for over 30 customers across the globe, including SAP, BBC, Gallo and Gallup.

“I believe it is a high growth area and outsourcing has become an integral part of the strategic planning of all major MR firms. We have been doing this since 2000 and the capability in India has matured enough to handle more and more complex tasks in the industry,” said Rahul Sahgal, president & CEO of Annik Systems, a Gurgaon-based MR firm.

According to European Society of Market Research (ESOMAR), a global association of market research professionals, the global market research industry is estimated to be about $21 billion, of which 50 per cent can be outsourced.

The Nasscom-McKinsey ITeS report puts the opportunity in the MR domain in excess of $5 billion. Industry sources say that most of the MR firms in India are growing at more than 80 per cent year-on-year and expected to grow further in the next two years.

The lucrativeness of MR outsourcing can be gauged from the fact that Raman Roy, considered to be the pioneer of the BPO industry in India and ex-chairman & MD of Wipro Spectramind (now Wipro BPO), is among the promoters of Annik Systems. Roy has a 40 per cent stake in the company.

Looking at future opportunities, the Indian MR firms are busy strengthening their North American and European operations by roping in global experts to head their teams. Markelytics has roped in Fredrik Nauckhoff, a former president of ESOMAR, to its board. Nauckhoff, who has got over 30 years of experience in market research, will be responsible for heading Markelytics’ European operations.

Cross-Tab, another Bangalore-based market research firm, recently created the post of Global CEO to be based out of the US. The company has appointed Kumar Mehta, former director-research at Microsoft’s headquarters, as their global CEO.

Ugam Solutions has appointed Gregg Peterson, a former vice president of Millward Brown, as executive vice president, responsible for the North American operations. Says Peterson: “Over the past few years, India has performed spectacularly in the market research outsourcing segment. India has the right blend of talent, technology and work culture to cater to the growing needs of customers across the globe.”

Adds Jasal Shah of Markelytics, “Indians are considered more analytical, with very strong knowledge of mathematics, statistics. I feel this will be an added advantage to our capabilities of timely delivering large projects and proven record in the outsourcing sector.”

According to a recent research report by Kedar Sohoni and Aswin Mittal, both directors of Cross-Tab Marketing Services, over 80 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies are directly or indirectly looking at outsourcing large parts of their MR back-office works, including MR processes, to offshore locations like India. While a majority of the MR works presently being outsourced to India is in data processing and survey programming, as maturity levels of offshore locations increase, outsourcing of other components would also grow.

“The one area that we are yet to prove ourselves is in the computer-aided telephone interview (CATI) segment, a complex voice- and programming-based activity that has not yet gained as much acceptance as other activities. The next opportunities in this space will be more in analytics and data management. This will move companies up the value chain to provide more complex services,” adds Rahul Sahgal of Annik Systems.

Source:www.buiness-standard.com

Hexaware Technologies, the $187.22-million software and BPO company based in Pune is not only planning to set up a Rs. 150-crore campus at Pune’s Hinjewadi IT Park, which is expected to be fully operational by 2009, offering employment to around 3,000-software professionals, but it is also in an expansion mode with plans to acquire an East European software firm specialising in enterprise resource planning (ERP) for up to $40-million, a deal it expects to close by year-end.

Expansion is not restricted to acquisitions alone, and Hexaware’s 27-acre Chennai campus is to be operational by September 2007, while the Pune campus will be ready by March 2009. Rusi Brij, Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer confirms the news saying his firm has acquired 25-acres of land in the third phase of Pune’s Hinjewadi IT Park, and construction work is to start fairly soon. “The company recently built a campus in Chennai with an investment of Rs. 150-crore. The investment in the Hinjewadi facility will be around that mark,” he adds.

As well, he affirmed that Hexaware was in the final stages of negotiating a project to develop an application for postal services of an Asian country, while, refusing to disclose the name of the country.

According to Brij, Hexaware, like many others is planning to take the acquisition route, in a bid to leapfrog its business in USA and Europe, and will target firms that are in the $15-million annual revenue bracket, and with a client base in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) space. Hexaware, as per him, has a cash position of around $78-million and won’t require any external funding for the proposed acquisitions.

Last year’s acquisition of Fox Frame, a Mexico-based software firm in November 2006 for $34-million, helped Hexaware to accelerate its software testing business, so much so, the company made $13 million in 2006 in revenues from testing services, which are expected to cross $50-million this year, and income from the segment touched $10-million in the first quarter of 2007.

As well, the company’s Pune centre has been expanding steadily, with a headcount that has risen to 500 from its initial 250-employees, and which is expected to grow by another 350 numbers over the next few months.

The new Pune centre is being set up mainly to focus on its Japan-based clients and for projects dealing in the Java and .Net technology, on top of its ERP system implementation business.

Hexaware plans to expand its ERP services and trave, transport, hotel, logistics, banking and finance services to serve the US and European markets. Currently, the firm has four development centres in India, one each in Pune, Chennai, Mumbai and Gurgaon, including Germany and Mexico. Its Chennai facility that will be operational by September 2008 will, currently seat 3,000-people and will scale up to a 10,000-seater facility, within the next two or three years.

In addition, Hexaware Technologies is extending its Hexa Varsity plans and has already signed an MoU with Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) for training their students on enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. It has already tied up with Madras University and is looking at more such tie ups, as part of its larger vision for ‘Hexa Varsity‘ says Mr. Brij. Having designed the course which will be available as an elective for third semester students, Hexaware will also provide faculty along with other support to the institute.

There is no doubt, even India’s little IT jump start-me-ups are leapfrogging into the big league, even as they dream of overseas acquisitions that ensure they have come a long way, baby! So much so, all those IIT and engineering graduates MNCs et all queue up to add to their payrolls, are no longer keen to sign on with them, no matter how large the pay packet. The entrepreneurial spirit in them won’t let them add their names to another’s payroll, they would rather spring up a jump-start-me-up firm and have other names on their payroll on home turf, on home ground, in India itself!

That’s the spirit, way to go! After all, it is the Indian youth of today, those that have no understanding of a colonial hangover, those that are all set to conquer the world, those that have ensured India is no longer a hopeful wannabe star, but a major star in its own right, soon to be the Star of the Show!

Go conquer the world, it is your birthright! Show those Babus and politicians sitting in the corridors of power that despite their best efforts to slow India down, India is unstoppable and we who love her more than words can say, will ensure that like the the rest of the world, they too will be conquered, as all Indians are tired off and will no longer tolerate their corrupt shenanigans or crude displays of egotistical power. If, need be there will be a Rang de Basanti , to prevent corrupt Babudom and others from destroying a wonderfully unique country and people, there is none like in the entire world. In the words of Gurcharan Das, it is India Unbound, as is Indian youth!

Source: www.buiness-standard.com
Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18%, the Indian information technology and related services (IT/ITeS) industry, according to an IDC report, is predicted to become a $100-billion plus industry by 2011.

Moreover, domestic IT / ITeS, with revenues growing at 19.7% CAGR, is projected to touch Rs. 1,68,370-crore in 2011 (IT growing at 16.4% and ITeS / BPO at 40.4%), which means, domestic IT / ITeS revenues will be growing faster than export revenues over the next five years.

At an annual briefing session for the information and communication technology (ICT) industry held by IDC, the research firm stated the Indian IT/ITeS industry had clocked Rs. 1, 98,477-crore in revenues for 2006, up by an impressive 31% over 2005.

It is equal drives from exports revenue and domestic IT spending that has helped Indian IT industry to keep up the momentum it has been gaining since 2003.

On the domestic front, IT / ITeS spend has been estimated at Rs. 68,411-crore in 2006, a gain of 26% over 2005. The growth in domestic IT / ITeS spend has been primarily driven by enterprise investments in IT infrastructure, line of business applications, security products and services, IT outsourcing and managed services and by consumers in mobile and digital products (digicams, notebooks, smart handheld devices etc.).

‘The domestic IT / ITeS market has attained a significant size now but continuing with the same growth momentum for the next five years is not going to be an easy task. It will require the industry to create new user segments, identify new uses of ICT, define new relevance of ICT in the consumers’ life and help develop the ecosystem required for that by designing innovative products and services’, commented Kapil Dev Singh, Country Manager, IDC India.

Indian IT / ITeS continue to steam ahead without losing momentum, pulling other business sectors along in its wake. What Indian IT has done for the country’s economy is nothing short of a miracle. Indian techies have not only put India on the global map, they have shown India and Indians can outperform the world in any given field. By its exemplary example, India has shown other developing nations, those in the Asia-Pacific region, including Eastern Europe and the break-offs of the dismantled Czecoslavakian Empire that they do not have to live off charity from the developed nations.

While, they wish to emulate the success story of Indian IT, the truth is India has stolen a march it may not be easy to imitate!