News of the Day

Hewlett-Packard Acquires HR Business-Process Outsourcer
Global CIO blog reported that Hewlett-Packard has acquired full interest in an HR business-process outsourcing firm formed as a joint venture between EDS and Towers Perrin in 2005 and called Excellerate HRO. Now that HP's wholly owned services unit, EDS, has full control over the venture, HP is likely to become more aggressive in courting outsourcing deals in the HR sector.

Horses for Sources Interviews Cognizant's CEO
One of our favorite blogs "Horses for Sources" posted an interview with the youngest IT and BPO industry leaders, Francisco D'Souza. Please use the attached link to read the first in a series of interviews.

Outsourcing News of the Day

RComm Awards Huge Outsourcing Deal to Alcatel-Lucent
BPOVoice.com announced that Reliance Communications (RCom) has awarded a $500 million (Rs 2,500 crore) operations and maintenance contract to French telecom infrastructure provider Alactel-Lucent. Last year, Reliance and Alcatel formed a joint venture for network management services, with the Indian company holding 33 percent and the French company owning the rest.

Gartner: Don't Sign Long-term Outsourcing Deals
Computer World UK.com posted a story advising that organizations renegotiating their outsourcing contracts should avoid long-term deals and look at cloud computing. This comes from the analyst firm Gartner. The next two years will be a “critical period” for the outsourcing and IT services market,” said Claudio Da Rold, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

IT Firms Face Delay in Payments from Foreign Clients
Offshore Outsourcing World Blog.com reported that a number of Indian outsourcing companies are facing difficulties as their foreign clients are delaying their payments. The firms are finding it hard to recover their money, as most of these firms are from the U.S. and Europe, which are largely hit by the recession, the Business Standard reports. Except Infosys, all the major Indian IT firms have shown a rise in the receivable income from the last three quarters.

Offshoring News

Research Agencies to Boost Outsourcing in the next 3 to 5 years
Source: Outsourcing Insider: Market research Outsourcing (MRO) is relatively new compared to other outsourcing segments. It has all the potential elements to grow into unprecedented levels, as current market conditions forced research cycles to be shortened in order to be more cost efficient. Data collection, processing and panel services are the top outsourced activities due their high offshorability. While project management, report writing and research design were determined to be the most difficult areas to offshore.

Research agencies are expected to boost outsourcing of non-core activities in the next 3 to 5 years, as shown in the data above. Industry experts estimate the potential for offshoring research services to be in the range of $8 billion to $10 billion in 2010. “This growth will be primarily driven by ‘rapidly growing’ and other ‘untapped’ opportunities”

Speed Sourcing: The New trend

Computer World.com announced that EquaTerra has introduced the concept of "speed sourcing" on its web site. As companies search for new ways to cut costs in challenging times, many are looking to third party IT services providers to trim expenses. Some are moving at a measured pace through the traditional process of selecting an outsourcer and negotiating a contract. But others, EquaTerra says, are jump starting their potential savings by "speed sourcing"--a new approach for choosing a service provider and sealing a deal in three months or less. To review the entire article please use the this link.