Source: www.verivox.de

NIIT Technologies, a medium-sized IT company, provides offshore IT solutions for the banking applications development, implementation, migration, conversion, testing and ongoing maintenance/enhancements of mission critical software applications and thereby facilitate cost reductions even in economically difficult times. The company, which focuses on the finance and insurance sector can draw on an experienced and highly-qualified management in New Delhi and also on its well established state-of-the-art process/quality focussed 12 offshore development centres across India.

Thanks to its industry expertise, NIIT is able to offer companies affordable IT services and solutions in the offshore sector. Depending on the type and size of the project and taking the transaction costs into account, their technically impeccable IT solutions generate cost savings between 40 and 70%. Furthermore, the outsourcing of projects turns fixed costs into variable costs, thus enabling companies to respond to market fluctuations with greater flexibility, agility and speed. A number of renowned companies trust in NIIT’s strategy, including the ING Bank (ING) or the KBC Bank.

NIIT uses a knowledge portal to record project developments. That way customers are able to check on the current status of their respective project at any time. The company offers superior software services (CMMi Level 5 certified) in all areas of modern application development. “Language and cultural differences are often perceived as a problem of offshore projects, but most companies tend to overemphasise these issues”, explains Shantanu Banerjee, Country Manager ( BeLux ) from NIIT. “Through our local offices, we ensure that we follow the European standards on security, data protection and legal issues and also maintain a strong customer interface/relationship.”

Almost 30 years ago, American IT companies started having large parts of their products developed offshore, i.e. in countries with lower production costs than in the US. Companies not producing offshore are losing their competitive edge and this does not only apply to the banking sector. In Europe, British companies are the spearhead of offshoring, but continental Europe is catching up. Over the past three years, the number of people employed in the offshore sector increased by 18 times.

Even though about one third of companies choose China for their offshore activities, India is the number one provider of offshore services. One reason for this is the targeted recruitment and training programme of the Indian government, which creates a large pool of highly-qualified IT experts.

NIIT has more than 25 years of experience in customised IT solutions and services. The company’s areas of expertise include application development and management, i.e. the re-engineering of existing applications and the migration & maintenance of mission critical large/complex legacy applications. NIIT is truly vertical/domain focussed and offers these IT services in select industry verticals like Banking & Finance, Retail, Travel & Logistics and Manufacturing. NIIT also has capabilities in the area of Managed IT security and IT infrastructure services delivered from its offshore development centres. The independent operations in the area of application development and consulting generate synergies that allow NIIT to offer an extensive portfolio of expertise and services.

Source: www.moneycontrol.com

The world’s largest IT training company, New Horizons, announced that it will offshore global content development to the Indian joint venture. New Horizons India (NH India) will create content for internal training material that will be used in 60 countries across the globe, and also offer the same services to both Indian and global customers who require customized content. This also marks New Horizons’ foray into the content development space which until now, it had outsourced to vendors in the US.

To execute the high managing business New Horizons India is likely to invest an initial $ 10 million over the next three years. A 13,000 sq ft. state of the art development centre has been set up in NOIDA, in the National Capital Region, for which staff of 200 has been hired in the first phase. By the end of 2009, New Horizons India will increase this headcount to 1000, taking its overall staff strength to over 3000 in India. Speaking on the announcement Mark Miller, President and CEO New Horizons Worldwide Inc. said, ‘We believe that the market for content outsourcing is a $ 1 billion opportunity worldwide, and we are confident that New Horizons India will be able to leverage their expertise in technical training as well as the strong Indian intellectual resource pool to capture a significant share of this market.’

With innovation driving global technology change more rapidly than ever before – and businesses IT adoption cycle down to three years from five a decade ago, the need for content in the IT space alone is overwhelming – and ranges from user manuals to internal technical guides, process manuals etc. Added to this is the opportunity in the internal communications arena which is also fast becoming a specialist field. ‘And this is just the beginning of the consolidation possibility in the hitherto fragmented arena of content development.’, said Mr. Ajay Kumar Sharma, President and CEO, New Horizons, India, adding that “Knowledge process outsourcing will be the key growth driver in the global outsourcing opportunity, and India is perfectly suited to leverage this trend to accelerate its positioning as the global knowledge hub. We at NH India are proud to be leading New Horizons foray into this segment, and believe firmly that a combination of our skilling abilities and available skillable talent will both prove success factors in this venture.’

The content development centre in NOIDA will provide content for over 500 titles, spanning both IT and non IT segments. The former includes Instructor led proprietary course material, Technical documentation, User Manuals and E-learning material while the latter includes content for K12 segment text books and career development programs in the non-IT space as well as customized content for Internal customers of fortune 500 companies. ‘To begin with, the titles will be developed in English, but going forward NH India plans to add multilingual capabilities too.’ Mr. Sharma added.

The knowledge process outsourcing industry in India is now big business and India is no longer just a hub for cost-effective, English-speaking ‘bodies’. It is emerging as a goldmine for high-level skills, too. KPO outfits are helping global firms source high-skilled work out of India in a cost-effective and efficient manner .According to industry estimates KPOs in India will grow to $12 billion by 2010 from $0.72 billion in 2003. There will be over 2.5 lakh KPO professionals by 2010 compared to the current figure of 25,000 (source Evalueserve) .As India slowly builds its brand in the global marketplace; companies have started offering more high-end jobs to India. New Horizons which is known for its tested training methodologies, highly qualified faculty, and strict adherence to international training standards is looking at riding this tide to deliver world class content.