Source: business.scotsman.com

TELECOM Service Centres (TSC), Scotland’s largest contact centre company, is embarking on a worldwide acquisition trail with ambitious expansion plans for Australia and the United States. Adding to its nine-strong network of UK sites, which stretches from Aviemore to Yorkshire’s Dearne Valley, is the priority for TSC’s chief operating officer, David Ewing, who has set up a “growth team” to cast an eye over acquisitions in English-speaking territories.

The company is also hoping to increase its presence in India through organic expansion and is actively looking at businesses that will complement its call-centre offering.

Ewing said: “TSC is now in a different place. We have set up a growth team to concentrate on acquisitions to delivery.

“We have a global remit and our capability in India not only gives us huge financial stability, it opens the door to new marketplaces like the United States and we are determined to take advantage of those opportunities.

“We are looking for companies that provide frontline services and back-office functions such as human resources, procurement outsourcing and we are very optimistic,” he continued.

“The contact-centre market is largely untapped. There are so many services that impact on the customer and the bottom line and we can provide these services for our clients.”

Launched with just seven employees in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute in the mid-1990s, TSC expanded with further sites in Dunoon, Greenock, Falkirk and Aviemore. In 2003, the firm was the subject of a £24 million management buy-in, funded by the venture capital arm of Lloyds TSB. Further sites in Shawbost on the Isle of Lewis, Glasgow, Dearne Valley in Yorkshire and Kilmarnock are now operational and staff numbers have almost doubled in the past three years to more than 3,000.

Last year, Lloyds Development Capital exited in a £40m deal which saw TSC merge with Hero Ites, the contact arm division of the £2 billion Hero Group conglomerate based in New Delhi. Part of the merger deal involved the retention of the TSC senior management team who now run the Indian arm of the contact-centre operation as well as the UK business.

Earlier this year, the company out-performed the sector with a rise in both turnover and profits as it continues to attract new business with blue-chip clients including Vodafone, T-Mobile, HSBC and Hewlett-Packard. For the year ending 31 August 2007, turnover increased by 12 per cent to £55.1m with profits up £3m to £5.1m.

Ewing, who spent 15 years with Scottish Gas, says he is not satisfied with TSC being “Scotland’s largest contact-centre company, the fourth-largest in the UK and the largest independent” in the UK sector.

He said: “We are really good at growing our existing client base but the future involves looking at how we transform our business. I have now been in the contact-service business for over 25 years and companies need to be flexible.”

Creating further opportunities in India has been bolstered by the merger last year bringing an 800-seat site in Gurgaon, near Delhi, under the control of Ewing and the Scottish-based existing management team.

The model of business process outsourcing is constantly changing, observes Ewing, but the main point should be the aim of adding value. He said providing quality voice services, together with a widening of service provision, will allow TSC to achieve new growth targets. Ewing also believes the industry in India will continue to expand despite some negative press around call-centre staff not understanding clients.

He said companies underestimate how much time it takes to train staff.

“It can take a very long time to get people up to scratch with translations and we spend lots of time making sure the translations and operating model is agreed with both,” he added. “However, in the UK, the main challenge to our growth is not complaints about customer service, but labour availability and I do worry about the poor quality of our education system.”

Source: www.iht.com

NEW DELHI: To understand India’s economic rise, look to its cars.

The iconic Indian automobile of a generation ago was the Ambassador, a noisy, boxy clunker that was ubiquitous despite its ungainly 1950s style.

Compare that to the newest Indian-owned line of cars, the famously sleek and sophisticated Jaguar, which the biggest Indian auto maker, Tata Motors, bought Wednesday, along with Land Rover, in a landmark $2.3 billion deal.

The vehicle upgrade could be a metaphor for the transformation the entire country has gone through in recent years, as the so-called “License Raj” - the stifling state-run socialist system widely blamed for shackling the Indian economy - came to an end, giving rise to a new middle class whose appetite for consumption has reshaped India and spurred a national economic boom.

Now, Indian companies are taking that money and shopping overseas for acquisitions as part of a strategy meant to announce India’s arrival on the global stage.

“It’s a matter of survival,” said Ashutosh Goel, an analyst with the brokerage firm Edelweiss Capital. “To succeed and thrive you have to be a serious global player and not only focused on the domestic market. You can’t remain a purely Indian player.”

Nearly all the leading corporations here - including Reliance Industries and the outsourcing company Wipro - are looking overseas, and reports of Indian acquisitions of U.S., European, and Asian brands have become common.

Many see the newfound assertiveness as a reflection of the general feeling in India that the once-stagnant underachiever now belongs among the international elite. “Indian companies have been in the mood for overseas purchases for a few years now and that coincides with the boom in the economy and the general feel-good factor here,” said Anjana Menon, an editor at Mint, a leading Indian business newspaper.

At the same time, the robust economy and looser regulations have attracted widespread foreign investment, increasing competition and forcing Indian companies to expand overseas to seek sales, analysts said.

Beyond Tata Motors, the crowded car market includes Maruti Suzuki - majority owned by Japanese automaker Suzuki Motors - Hyundai Motor of South Korea, Honda Motor of Japan and U.S. automakers Ford and General Motors.

International companies are interested in more than selling just cars, however. Coca-Cola, which was booted out of India in the 1970s to make way for the local brand Thums-Up, came back in 1993, after the economy opened to foreign investment, and now owns the former rival. In gleaming new malls across India, customers can select German washing machines, Korean air conditioners and Japanese televisions.

Tata, the country’s oldest and largest conglomerate, is the most striking example of an Indian company on an acquisition spree. With roughly 100 companies in everything from salt to software, it has led the charge that has made India an international player.

Tata has emerged from its own economic doldrums with high-profile moves like the purchase of the British steel maker Corus for $13 billion, as well as tea, hotel and automobile companies, sparking an outpouring of national pride. “The Empire Strikes Back!” was one of many headlines Thursday that trumpeted the purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover, brands founded in Britain, the former colonial power in India.

India’s economic rise can be traced back to 1991, when it began shifting toward a Western-style market economy. The boom was led by the outsourcing and technology sectors, which forged a connection between Indian companies and overseas markets.

The new opportunities gave rise to an educated and ambitious middle class, which has lustily embraced consumer culture. “The middle class Indian from a decade ago was more of a saver and he’s a spender now,” Menon said. “There’s a generational shift and there’s more money in people’s wallets and they’re freer to spend.”

Companies like Tata have reaped giant profits that freed them to pursue acquisitions. In five years to March 2007, annual group sales at Tata more than doubled to $29 billion, excluding Corus.

Tata announced the Land Rover and Jaguar acquisition with very little fanfare, apparently anticipating an anti-India backlash. In a sign of how times have changed, Indian companies that once lobbied the government for protection against foreign competition now find themselves battling protectionist sentiments abroad.

Source: www.outsourcing-pharma.com
BioReliance has established itself in the Asia Pacific with the opening of its first office in the region, in Tokyo, Japan.

David Dodd, president, CEO and Chairman of BioReliance told Outsourcing-Pharma.com that the company choose Japan as a launching point because the country holds extensive opportunities and growth prospects due to its existing pharma/biopharma industry, which is currently ranked number two in the worl behind the US.

He added that the company has had a successful and historical business built out of Japan, and the country and provides a “point of entry” to the entire, high-growth opportunities in the surrounding region.

“With an established and growing business already in Japan and other Asian Pacific countries, BioReliance has served this region successfully for many years,” said Dodd.

“However, as these markets continue to flourish, we believe that, with a full-time and expanding presence, we can more rapidly serve the needs of our pharmaceutical/biopharmaceutical clients in this region, while increasing new business relationships.”

Although Dodd said he could not disclose the specifics of the company’s current clients in the region, he said that “in general, we have business with all of the top 20 pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies; however, newer, smaller clients provide us accelerated growth as we work to assist them in their protocol development, activities and management of their various testing services.”

With a staff of three, the new Tokyo office will initially serve as a base for BioReliance’s technical/scientific team for conducting client and scientific seminars, account development and other business development opportunities.

“We are targeting a large number of clients for further development and initial development from this office,” said Dodd, who added that the company has high growth plans for the entire region, both in commercial development, as well as, potentially, in adding testing facilities and staff on-site, within the region.

The new Japan operations add to BioReliance’ existing presence in Rockville, Maryland, where it is headquartered and has primary facilities, along with sites in Glasgow and Stirling, Scotland.

The company employs more than 700 people globally and claims to be the world’s largest specialist provider of contract biologics safety testing, good manufacturing practice (GMP) manufacturing and preclinical testing services.

Source: www.topnews.in

Telecommunications (BT) has made announcement about the successful completion of the acquisition deal to get hold of Frontline Technologies Corporation Ltd for about $202 million.

The communications solution provider said that the new company will commence its operations shortly under the new name ‘BT Frontline.’

In a declaration, BT said, “In Asia Pacific, BT would conduct business as usual under the BT brand-name. Frontline would operate alongside BT as BT Frontline.”

“By using this co-branding approach, BT Frontline would be able to maintain and leverage the regional brand equity and goodwill of the Frontline name,” it added.

BT Frontline offers IT infrastructure services, IT consulting, systems integration and IT outsourcing to local, regional and international clients in the financial services, transportation, manufacturing, telecom, education, healthcare and public sectors.

BT Frontline brings around 5,000 skilled and professional people to BT Asia Pacific. After the BT Frontline’s acquisition, the total number of BT Asia Pacific employees has increased to over 27,000, directly employed or working in joint ventures, in the region.

BT Frontline also has significant divisions and associate companies that will keep on operating under their subsisting trade names such as Accel Frontline (India), MDCL Frontline and G-Able Co. Ltd.

It has also established various joint venture (JV) companies as a part of its strategic partnership with Sun Microsystems in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam.

Allen Ma, BT Asia Pacific president said, “For our MNC customers operating in the region and for regional companies expanding globally, our accelerated move into the IT solutions space will provide a single supplier relationship with a broad portfolio of managed network and IT services in China, India and SE Asia.”

Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com

Mumbai, March 27 Concerned about a looming economic downturn, client organisations are pressing outsourcing firms for price reductions of up to 23 per cent as they negotiate extensions of long-term deals. A reduction of this quantum could result in the failure of many outsourcing contracts, suggests a study by UK-based Compass management consulting.

The research states that pricing pressure is increasingly driving renewal renegotiations. Companies are demanding rate cuts of 15 per cent to 23 per cent across-the-board, without consideration of whether existing services are being delivered at a fair market price, Compass said. These findings are the result of a 12-month analysis of 120 global deals worth over $60 million each by Compass.

Of significance

The findings assume significance as majority Indian IT vendors such as TCS, Infosys, Hexaware and BPO firms such as Firstsource, EXL, HTMT and others have been talking about their ability to increase billing rates in new engagements with clients, enabling them to counter the double whammy of the rupee appreciation and a recession in the US.

For their part, vendors are, in many cases, agreeing to price discounts upfront – in exchange for long-term agreements, according to Compass.

“Clients are plucking aggressive price targets from the air with no due diligence around the competitiveness of existing service and with no regard to what the business needs,” said Ms Geraldine Fox, Director of sourcing services at Compass.

losing proposition

Negotiating for short-term price reductions in exchange for long-term agreements – without a detailed understanding of existing costs, services, and requirements – is a losing proposition. The cuts will eventually become unsustainable, leading to a de-motivated supplier, a poor working relationship, and poor service quality, the study said.

By comparison, between 2005 and 2007, clients were significantly less inclined to focus solely on cost reduction when renegotiating contracts, said Ms Fox. With 8,000 engagements in 32 countries, Compass is a global management-consulting firm specialising in business and IT performance improvement for Fortune 1000 organisations.