Source: www.business-standard.com

US-based Sapient Corporation, which provides IT services to global clients, plans to expand its Indian operations over the next one year apart from tapping the domestic market for business growth.

Of the 6,000 people employed by the $490 million company, 3,800 are based out of the three centres — Bangalore, Gurgaon and Noida.

“India has emerged as being critical to the growth of the company. It will continue to drive growth with more people being recruited for various positions,” Sapient India Managing Director Sandeep Dhar told Business Standard.

The company employs 1,000 people at its Bangalore office, 400 in Noida and the rest in Gurgaon.

“However, in future, the Bangalore and Gurgaon centres will witness growth in terms of manpower. Next year, we intend to recruit 1,000 people for the Bangalore office alone. At present, India accounts for 70 per cent of the company’s overall operations. We expect the workload to increase once the company bags new clients,” he added.

Though Sapient has development centres in Los Angeles, Munich, Dusseldorf, Miami and New York, according to Dhar, the Indian development centres are the fastest growing for the company.

“India is part of the company’s globally distributed delivery model. Several teams and business practices are led from the Indian office. They handle the projects end-to-end,” he pointed out.

Sapient, which provides business and IT strategy, business applications, business intelligence, marketing and outsourcing services, derives 75 per cent of its revenue from North America and the remaining 35 per cent from Europe.

The company offers its services to technology, telecommunications, energy, financial services, automotive, healthcare and life sciences, education, consumer/retail products and, travel and hospitality sectors.

It also caters to federal, state and local government clients in the US and in provincial and other government entities in Canada and Europe.

The company is now keen on tapping the Indian market for growth. “The Indian economy is growing at a healthy rate. This has created business opportunities for companies like Sapient. We are targeting a dozen clients in the first year in IT consulting and financial services,” Dhar said.

Source: www.1888pressrelease.com

Outsourcing projects from India is not a very recent phenomenon. Many offshore companies now and then resort to Indian SEO services for improving their page ranks on search engines.

Website-submission-optimization, an emerging name in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry has now announced the initiation of its Indian SEO services outsourcing division, WSO India. This Indian division is now functioning painstakingly with a full-fledged unit of hard-core professionals with over several years of experience in SEO services and internet marketing.

“We are aspiring to provide outsourcing in India a new meaning, else than being a mere cost-cutting activity. Outsourcing SEO services from us in India would mean getting best and most professional services, while saving as much as 90% of total SEO expenditure.” Expressed by management team members (USA).

The Indian division of WSO is managed by a dedicated team of SEOs & Web management professionals. Some of the basic activities carried out in India along with SEO services include web developing, content writing, designing, link popularity & PPC.

Mr. Mukesh Kapoor, VP, WSO India said that they are working dexterously while upholding a constant interaction with their clients for various projects. He also revealed that their Indian development division is supported by direct telephonic support, chat support, e-mails and online web conferences from US office.

WSO is among one of the leading Search Engine Optimization companies which has gained over 600 satisfied clients dispersed globally, with its sincere dedication and vast knowledge. Managed by a team of indisputable SEO professionals, the company has expanded its footprint globally with clients chiefly concentrated US of A, United Kingdom, Japan and Canada. WSO works in tandem with the SEO guidelines laid by major search engines like Google, MSN, and Yahoo etc. Besides SEO services the company also offer other promotional services like PPC, online advertising and more.

Source: sify.com
Can an average Indian still aspire to a BPO career?

Over the past decade, the Indian BPO segment has witnessed significant transformation. Starting with basic data entry tasks, the industry graduated to a high proportion of voice-based services and a range of back-office processing activities. The last 3-4 years has seen the scope of services expanding from rule-based decision making to include increasingly complex processes involving research services requiring informed individual judgment. Today, a career in this sector offers the best in class compensation, in addition to being a long-term career option. With the industry’s transition to higher value-added activities, including feature rich and non-voice transactions such as invoice processing, exciting opportunities will be generated by this knowledge-based industry. As India moves ahead as the leading, high-end destination for BPOs, it will create platforms and opportunities for professionals like MBAs, CAs, lawyers, doctors and PhDs with specific domain knowledge.

But, haven’t the skill requirements changed?

At a basic level, a graduate from any field can be a likely candidate for a job in a BPO if he/she has the right skill sets. For more specialised BPO services such as legal process outsourcing, HRO, accounting etc, companies are hiring professionals with degrees in law, accountancy, at very competitive salaries.

But the basic skill sets good communication abilities, logical thinking, team work skills and computer skills - have remained the same.

How is the ITeS-BPO sector in India different from the ITeS-BPO sector anywhere else in the world?

Over the last 4-5 years, India has strengthened its leadership position as the premier offshore BPO destination and now has an estimated share of 46 per cent of global BPO industry.

India’s young demographic profile is an inherent advantage complemented by an academic infrastructure that generates a large pool of English- speaking talent. Talent suitability concerns are being addressed through a combination of government, academia and industry-led initiatives.

India has a strong track record of delivering a significant cost advantage, with clients regularly reporting savings of 25-50 per cent over the original cost base. The ability to achieve such high levels of cost advantage by sourcing services from India is driven primarily by the ability to access highly-skilled talent at significantly lower wage costs.

Stakeholders of Indian BPOs recognise foolproof security as an indispensable element of global service delivery. Individual firm level efforts are complemented by a comprehensive policy framework established by Indian authorities, which has built a strong foundation for an ‘info-secure’ environment in the country. These include strengthening the regulatory framework through proposed amendments to further strengthen the IT Act 2000, NASSCOM’s cyber lab initiative, scaling up the National Skills Registry (NSR) and establishing a self-regulatory organisation.

The enabling policy environment in India was instrumental in catalysing the early phases of growth in this sector. Policymakers in India have laid special emphasis on encouraging foreign participation in most sectors of the economy, recognising its importance not only as a source of financial capital but also as a facilitator of knowledge and technology transfer.

The Indian ITes-BPO sector is facing stiff competition from China and the Philippines. How should the BPOs gear up?

Comparison of India vis-à-vis key locations reveal that cost of BPO is 4-185 per cent lower in India than the popularly cited alternatives, as is evident from a detailed comparison across eastern Europe, Philippines, Mexico, China and South Africa. On the basis of comparing full-time employee (FTE) costs for like processes, Indian operations remain more cost-effective across a range of popular ‘alternate’ locations.

With retail, manufacturing and other sectors booming, will BPOs still be a major contributor to the Indian economy?

Till date, India’s offshoring industries have played a major role in transforming India from a slow-growth economy with recurring balance of payments problems to a fast-growth economy generating ample foreign exchange surpluses. Much more lies ahead.

By 2010, IT-BPO industries would generate $60 billion in export revenues, account for 17 per cent of incremental GDP growth, pay for a massive infrastructure build-out, and sustain around nine million jobs. The BPO sector alone would provide employment to about 1.4 million people.

Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com

India is shining. And shiny things catch attention. Indian multinationals are peeling their eyes away from the allure of North American and European markets to the sub-continent.

Even as global giants such as IBM, HP and Accenture boast of their Indian deals and pump in investments into the country, industry experts tut-tut that Indian IT multinationals have missed the bus, or, at the very least, been set back by a few years when it comes to the domestic market.

Indian IT services firms are being widely acknowledged for their performance on global ground, being hailed as `outperformers’ and `formidable competition’. Gartner’s report on TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Satyam and HCL Technologies revealed that they accounted for 1.9 per cent of the total IT services market in 2006, up from 0.5 per cent in 2001. But Infosys’ India business dropped in the last quarter to 1 per cent. Wipro Infotech, the India, Middle East and Asia-Pacific IT business unit of Wipro Ltd, claims that the domestic market contributes to 90 per cent of its revenues. The unit’s contribution to Wipro Ltd in the half year of fiscal 2007 stood at 18.7 per cent. India contributed to 9.4 per cent of TCS’ $4.3 billion in fiscal year 2007, and is now hovering between 8 and 9 per cent.

The Bharti-IBM deal was the first marquee deal that made everyone in the industry do a double take. FMCG major Dabur going with Accenture and Bank of India with Hewlett-Packard confirmed the fact that global MNCs were ruling the domestic market roost. The Bangalore-based food business Britannia chose HP and the Government of Karnataka awarded its e-governance project to the company.

For IBM in India, the growth is stupendous. “Compared to Brazil growing at 19 per cent and China at 14, our India division is leading the pack with 42 per cent growth in the January to June period,” says Sandip Patel, Partner, IBM Global Business Service. “We made a conscious decision to pursue India as a market and have invested in making our centres here a microcosm of our global organisation,” says Patel. After Idea Cellular, CEBT, Delhi International airport and Karur Vysya Bank, the IT behemoth is now creating a health superhighway with the Apollo group. “The project is under way, in keeping with market research,” he says. Healthcare will be the fastest growth subvertical in the public sector, according to analyst firm Springboard Research. The highway will connect 150 hospitals. “It is a very India-relevant project as our health system is still evolving,” he shares. Integrated solutions for microfinance and retail markets are also on the anvil. “Our future is a very healthy pipeline of deals. We will double our growth by 2010,” he says.

HP has 30 deals of various sizes in India and its business is growing fast, says Marshal Correia, Director, Outsourcing Services, HP India. The five-year contracts with Andhra Bank and UCO Bank and the collaboration with Infosys for the United Bank of India deal are the jewels in its portfolio. The $100.5-billion enterprise is investing heavily in its global delivery centre, and in tools, processes and people.

WIPRO, INFY AND TCS

The second largest software maker Infosys has formed a separate business unit to focus on India and tap the growing domestic market. “We have been exploring India for the last couple of years and we thought that we need to bring in a renewed focus to India and that is the reason why we have created an independent business unit,” said the chief executive, Kris Gopalakrishnan, at a press conference recently. The company is yet to announce the head of the unit. The company expects the India business to become significant - contribute over 5 per cent - in the next five years.

TCS, which has won seven deals since the beginning of this fiscal (April, 2007) says India has been and will continue to be a key market for it. “We have seen sustained demand for our service offerings in the domestic market in the past,” says a spokesperson. From HDFC Bank to Reserve Bank of India’s Public Debt Office to the largest core banking solution implementation in India for State Bank of India, TCS has a sound portfolio of domestic clients. It recently bagged a $140-million deal from Bharat Sanchar Nagam Ltd (BSNL). This multi-year engagement involves setting up of complex data networks across the vast BSNL footprint in North and West of India and includes deployment of Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) components such as customer relationship management, billing, mediation and directory enquiry, among others. Wipro Infotech has won 10 outsourcing contracts in India over the last two years. Two top ones were HDFC Bank and Dena Bank, both decade-long projects worth approximately $80 million and $60 million, respectively. A third similar-sized deal was not disclosed. Colgate Palmolive, Sanmar and Optimix are other deals bagged. Wipro will provision IT infrastructure for HDFC Bank and handle total outsourcing of Dena’s core banking operations over a 10-year period. Other clients include BSNL, ITC, Indian Oil and UB Group.

“Given the IT market investments and growth rates, India is clearly identified as a priority market for us. We clocked about $650 million last year in India in gross sales. We are growing twice the market and we have strong senior management talent dedicated to the domestic market,” says Suresh Vaswani, President of Wipro Infotech. He takes pride in that despite the presence of global counterparts, “we were adjudged by independent market research as the fastest growing domestic IT solutions provider in 2006-07.”

According to a recent media report, the company holds strong in the infrastructure space and is the largest Network Integrator in India. “We are the largest system integrators in India for pretty much most of the global technology innovators, e.g. Cisco, Nortel, Microsoft, SAP, Sun. Our ability is in combining the best of both worlds - knowledge and experience gained from global IT deployments as well as deep knowledge of the Indian environment gained through 27 years of focus on this geography.” TCS claims its project management capabilities, large and complex mission-critical projects execution capability and global experience give it the success. Indian customers, like their global counterparts, are extremely demanding, shares TCS. The Indian giants are on a spree, and the current leaders of the domestic services market are cautious. “Our competition - Infosys, Wipro and Accenture - have had a limited focus on Indian market. But this has changed recently and we are watchful,” says Patel of IBM.

WHY INDIA? WHY NOW?

The country’s scorching economic growth, with 8-9 per cent gross domestic product (GDP) and sudden rise in investments in almost all sectors of the economy - from telecommunications, oil and gas and defence to the booming financial services, retail and real-estate verticals - are drawing attention. Businesses are leveraging IT for transforming and differentiating themselves through efficient operations, superior customer service and ability to launch new products and services quickly. This has made India a key attraction.

Indian enterprises are investing in significant business transformation initiatives to achieve global competitiveness, and IT is proving to be a key lever for the same. “A few years ago, only multinationals in India were our clients. But now the number of Indian clients is on the rise,” says Marshal of HP. Infosys says, “We want to definitely grow the Indian market, of course it is a natural hedge for the appreciating rupee. India and China are large economies that are growing fast and we want to make sure that we have a play in them. As a global company, we must. Last, many of our multinational global clients are entering India in a significant way and we want to support them in India.” The company expects financial services, telecom and manufacturing to be the drivers of growth of the domestic market. “Retail could also give explosive growth,” according to Gopalakrishnan.

The total domestic spending on outsourced IT services across service lines that include IT Consulting, System Integration, Application Development, end-to-end Outsourcing, Maintenance and Support, and IT Education and Training is expected to reach Rs 23,800 crore by 2009, according to analyst firm IDC. Partha Iyengar, vice-president, analyst and regional research director of Gartner, says the low priority of domestic clients to Indian MNCs has been a major concern area for the domestic industry over the past few years. “It’s heartening to see that the view of India as a domestic opportunity has recently changed. This bodes well not only for India but also for the longer term prognosis for service providers. Infy’s staunch anti-domestic stance has now changed. Leading service providers will be able to compete more aggressively now. The challenge will remain - initial public posturing is fine, but we will need to watch if the best resources are being put to work here or will India be a training ground for opportunities elsewhere,” he says.

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Source: www.lawyersweekly.ca

It’s already happened for a variety of manufacturing, accounting and information technology companies who seek cost advantages that Canadian industry can’t match. How easily could legal services follow suit offshore?

More easily than you might think. Consider: when my editor asked me to write this story, he told me to buy a long-distance phone card and charge it back to the newspaper. After all, he figured I’d spend plenty of time on the phone to India, the poster child for knowledge process outsourcing (KPO).

I never bought a phone card. I didn’t need it. Many offshore legal service providers have offices in the U.S. staffed by North American representatives. The one time I did need to call India, my contact, Ram Vasudevan, CEO of legal service provider Quislex, was very happy to call me between other calls he had scheduled during the late hours of his Indian night, which corresponds to an Eastern Daylight Time morning.

Nobody argues the facts: offshore legal service providers have the talent and the infrastructure to meet their clients’ business needs. They’re ready to serve Canadian lawyers. Are Canadian lawyers ready to take them up on it?

Perhaps. Chris Goodridge, director of corporate development and legal counsel for Torstar Corp., admits that continually rising legal fees have him trying to do as much work as possible in-house. Although Torstar hasn’t gone the outsourcing route, Goodridge didn’t rule it out.

Offshoring, a form of outsourcing, initially attracts interest because it’s cost-competitive. Service providers work on different continents where labour costs are substantially lower.

Knowledge process offshoring became practical only recently. According to Thomas Friedman’s tome The World is Flat, a trillion dollars of broadband capacity was strewn all over the globe during the Information Superhighway 1990s. When the dot-com bubble popped, opportunistic service providers acquired the wires at fire sale prices, and today they deal with far lower overhead than that which plagued their predecessors. Connect highly commoditized computing capacity and advanced workflow software to those fast wires and you have the express lanes that permit internationally dispersed teams to collaboratively drive a project.

The cost advantage Indian knowledge process outsourcers enjoy doesn’t seem set to disappear anytime soon. Consider: widely quoted statistics put the number of lawyers in India at one million, and Indian law schools graduate another 80,000 each year. Economics 101 dictates that wherever supply outstrips demand, prices fall or, at worst, stay stable. All things being equal, India’s legal industry should continue to reap huge crops of talent from which KPOs can pick the cream.

Their learning curve isn’t particularly steep, either. Indian lawyers receive training in English, in a common law system that has its roots in the U.K., the same place as that of Canada, the U.S. and Australia. Vasudevan himself worked for a major firm in New York, and in this he isn’t unique — many Indian lawyers gain experience in English-speaking countries before signing on with firms in their home countries.

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