I am Moving On...

I would like to thank all of our visitors, readers and contributors for their continued support and input. Effective June 30, 2009 I am moving to another project and will no longer manage this blog site. I have enjoyed the time and effort put into this initiative. We are proud of the fact that we were named as one of the Top 100 Blog Spot for Outsourcing and Offshoring in 2009 by O-desk.com. I wish everyone the best in this dynamic and challenging economy. The blog will remain active for the foreseeable future.

Sincerely,

Lou LaFrate

Offshoring News

IT Companies Expanding in Latin America
Driven by customer demand, Indian IT firms such as TCS, Infosys, and Patni are enhancing their ‘near-shore’ delivery capabilities in Latin America. This would also help them explore the emerging markets in the region. Last week, TCS opened its seventh Latam delivery centre at Queretaro, Mexico, where Patni Computers also chose to locate its first centre that was launched on Monday.
Source: Offshore Outsourcing World Blog.com

Acquiring Outsourcing Companies: Not for the Squeamish
This article was posted by E-Commerce Times. com a while ago but the content is still very relevant for any company looking to offshore business processes. The author explains that the effects of the recession on outsourcing companies have made them attractive targets for acquisition, but with opportunity comes risk. There are distinct differences between the way things are done in India vs. the United States, and they can impact the true value of a company.

Special Effects Outsourcing Grows in India

News Max.com reported that outsourcing to India, long dominated by software engineering and back-office work, is expanding in new terrain: special effects for movies. India's rise comes at a difficult time for U.S. special effects outfits, some of which have buckled as the 2008 L.A. writers strike cut productions and the financial crisis curtailed financing. Executives in India say cost pressures are pushing studios to send more work to India, where special effects projects are up to 40 percent cheaper than in the U.S. This is limited in nature bu shows that many processes cn be outsourced given the right circumstances,

Indian Firms Acquire 143 US Companies, Create 30,000 Jobs

Offshore Outsourcing World Blog.com ran a story about acquisitions made by Indian companies across various sectors over the last two years. In 2007-08 alone, 94 deals between the range of $0.8 million and $1,005 million were concluded with the disclosed value in 55 deals totaling $4,432 million, according to the joint study released by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and Ernst and Young.

News of the Day

Indian CEO Warns White House on Proposed Visa Curbs
The Wall Street Journal reported that one of India's most powerful businessmen is warning U.S. government and business leaders that proposed curbs on U.S. work visas are protectionist measures that could spark a major trade dispute with India. During a visit to the U.S. last week, Azim Premji, chief executive of Bangalore outsourcing giant Wipro Ltd., met with officials including White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers. The visa issue threatens to increase trade frictions between the U.S. and India, which are already trying to resolve disputes over agriculture and other sectors.

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.

Globalization and Outsourcing news

Is Offshoring Helping the US Economy?
Information Week posted an article that discusses the impact of offshore operations on the US economy. It's an interesting read where the author provides information supporting the premise that it does and has solicited feedback.

Globalization has Helped Redefine "Experience"
Mass High Tech.com explains, in an article posted last Friday that due to the nature of today's economy employees who have a global perspective and an understanding of business issues will fare better than those with only technological mastery.

A Unique Perspective on Managing Through the Offshoring Trend

Facing Tomorrow's Challenges Calls for Right-brain Thinking
An article published by Wharton.edu brings up an interesting point about the education process and how it needs to be modified to help students manage in today's environment. The author explains that today's pace and nature of change call for a shift in the way we think about education. Daniel Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, discussed this fact in a keynote speech at a recent Wharton Evolution of Learning Symposium. In a world where jobs can be sent overseas, tasks can be automated and the feverish pace of technology can render even last year's innovation obsolete, students will have to learn how to think differently than their parents in order to survive and prosper.Hide all

Today's News Updates

Rio's Indian Deal is a Wake-up Call for City Firms.
Times Online.com advised that Rio Tinto's decision to recruit Indian lawyers to handle a significant portion of its legal work is a wake-up call to Britain's big law firms. The move will be closely watched by other big companies, some of which spend upwards of £50 million a year on legal costs and have been grumbling for years about whether they get value for money from their outside lawyers.

Significant increase' predicted for legal outsourcing
IP Review On-Line announced that offshore legal support services will see a major increase in their work volumes as they mature. This prediction comes from a new report titled: Legal Services Outsourcing: What Do Law Firms Think? Conducted by business intelligence provider ValueNotes – one of only two quoted sources on legal process outsourcing (LPO) market size – the study indicates that law firms are becoming more familiar with the sector as they work to offset costs.

Recession Drives Retailers to Outsourcing
VNUNET.com posted a story advising that the retail sector is investigating third party suppliers to ease financial pressures. IT and business process outsourcing will become an increasing trend in retail as firms in the sector struggle to survive in the downturn, according to research from analyst Datamonitor. According to Datamonitor retail technology analyst Christine Bardwell, retail businesses are cutting down on staff and inventory – the two key focus areas for the sector – to mitigate efficiency and cost pressures. “Many retailers are looking to technology and services to help cut the cost of managing inventory, non-critical business processes and store operations,” said Bardwell.

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.