Source: www.bcs.org

Cost saving and mobile employee bases are two main reasons why experts predict outsourcing will rise in 2008.

Vice president of strategic outsourcing programmes at Unisys, Joe Hogan, said that the drive for new technologies such Apple’s iPhone, combined with the need to reduce costs will likely see a boom of outsourcing from countries around the world.

“Next-generation devices, which have a tremendous capacity to revolutionise productivity, should go to employees whose jobs touch customers every day, and who require real-time information to capture those customers and keep them happy,” he explained.

According to Information Week’s Mary Hayes Weier, countries in like India will see great benefits as outsourcing contracts will employ many workers and raise the salaries of their IT professionals.

“Service providers in India … [are] going as far as to retain science graduates to become technologists and scouring the rural regions of India for talent,” Ms Weier said.

According to her however, more offshore work in the future will go to Latin America, China, Eastern Europe than India as its IT pool diminishes.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk

India has long been known as an outsourcing hub for call centres and computer support. Now a new BBC children’s series airing this week will cement its position as a global centre for animators.

With a £10m budget, India-animated Freefonix is one of the BBC’s biggest ever animation projects. The futuristic tale of mismatched musicians was two years in the making across three continents and involved more than 200 people.

The Bollywood-BBC tie-up on Freefonix is the first of many, according to the series’ UK-based producers Cinnamon Entertainment. Managing director Anthony Bouchier says more readily available funding and skilled animation teams are drawing TV show-makers to India.

“We saw that there were opportunities not only to outsource but to actually get investment for animation out of India. In the UK there is a major problem with animation for children because the broadcasters do not have sufficient budgets to finance animation, so it all has to come from private sources,” he says.

Bouchier believes Freefonix, a 40-episode series launching on Friday, is the first of its kind for the 7-11 age group. “The BBC are involved in some very exciting projects and the majority of those are financed out of India. India is coming to the rescue of BBC animation.”

Cinnamon is part of a new breed of media company specialising in making the most of tax breaks and subsidies available in various countries.

Created by Magnus Fiennes, brother of Joseph and Ralph, Freefonix was financed with funding from sources including Indian private equity investment, The Isle of Man Film Fund and the BBC.

The scripts were written in the United States and UK, the voices were recorded in the UK, the music and general production work was done in the UK and the Isle of Man and then a team in Paris modelled the characters and backgrounds. The whole thing was then sent to Trivandrum in Kerala, southern India, where it was animated. The final post-production was done in Ireland.

Freefonix is testament to the way the production process for animation projects has been revolutionised by the internet, which allows teams in various countries to swap files instantly and to communicate on videolink services such as Skype.