Archive for April, 2010

iGATE named to IAOP’s global outsourcing 100 list

April 27th, 2010

iGATE , the business outcome driven integrated Technology and Operations (iTOPS) company, has been ranked No 35 on the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals’ (IAOP(R)) Global Outsourcing 100(R) list. Winning the award for the second consecutive year, iGATE jumped rank significantly – from 59 in 2009.

iGATE was ranked on quality following a rigorous evaluation process of key criteria including customer satisfaction levels; demonstrated competencies; management capabilities; size and growth. The evaluation process mirrors that employed by many top customers in choosing their outsourcing partners.

“As the economy recovers, partnering with the world’s best outsourcing providers and advisors will be more important than ever. The Global Outsourcing 100 and The World’s Best Outsourcing Advisors help companies easily identify those partners that will help them emerge as leaders,” said IAOP Chairman Michael Corbett and chair of the judges’ panel. “Being named to The Global Outsourcing 100 and The World’s Best Outsourcing Advisors is a great recognition, particularly given the strong competition, and iGATE should be proud of achieving excellence in outsourcing,” he added.

Phaneesh Murthy, CEO, iGATE said, “It is an honor to be chosen as one of the best outsourcing providers in the world by The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). Our inclusion in this prestigious list is a testimony to the quality and value we bring to our customers.”

The 2010 Global Outsourcing 100 and The World’s Best Outsourcing Advisors lists with rankings are published in the special advertising feature produced by IAOP in the May 3 issue of FORTUNE(R) magazine. The service provider and advisor lists with rankings, as well as the new series of sub-lists, also are published on IAOP’s Web site, www.iaop.org.

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/igate-named-to-iaops-global-outsourcing-100-list-2010-04-26?reflink=MW_news_stmp

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Stream global services expands BPO operations

April 27th, 2010

Emerging business process outsourcing (BPO) player, Stream Global Services, has stirred optimism for the local industry with its plans to expand operations to eventually become one of the country’s top private sector employer.

The recent merger between NYSE-listed Stream Global Services and Ayala-backed eTelecare Global Solutions has been touted to have created one of the largest and most competitive companies in the global BPO industry in the Philippines. Stream provides sales, customer service and technical support for some of the most well-known global companies, from its 50 contact centers across 22 countries. It manages more than 100 million voice, email, and chat contacts a year from customers around the world.

Murray said that Stream will be investing significantly more in the Philippines this year. Site evaluations are also underway for expanding its current presence in the region. The company currently employs approximately 12,000 at eight sites in the country: two in Quezon City, two in Cebu and one each in Makati, Mandaluyong, Muntinlupa and Clark, Pampanga.

Stream’s expansion plans are in line with the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) forecast of a 26 percent growth in the BPO industry as economies recover from the recent global financial downturn.

According to the BPAP, the industry netted some US$7.3 billion in revenues in 2009, meeting its target annual growth projections of 20 percent despite initial anxieties over a decline in demand for outsourcing services due to financial straits in investor countries.

BPAP said the industry workforce similarly expanded by about 19 percent to 446,000 at the end of 2009 compared to the previous year. The Department of Trade and Industry predicts growth in employment numbers to between 650,000 to 900,000 at yearend. “We’re here to build a business of size,” said Murray, adding that the Philippines has the potential to surpass India as the leading outsourcing destination in the world. “The Philippines has a workforce that can serve high-value clients in back-office functions and also potentially in technology,” he added.

This ran in line with projections that the country, which represents 15 percent of the global offshore BPO market, is likely to emerge as a leading destination for non-voice BPO services. Notably, the Philippines offers diversified BPO services and takes on offshoring work in finance and accounting, human resource, marketing and sales, and legal services.

BPAP figures show voice services remained the largest revenue generator in the industry last year, posting $5 billion in profits–a 22 percent increase from 2008. On the other hand, game development registered the highest annual increase in revenues at 50 percent followed by back office or knowledge process outsourcing at 35 percent and the transcription subsector at 3.0 percent.

Revenue growth for engineering services was flat, whereas IT sourcing declined by 5.5 percent.

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/254677/stream-global-services-expands-bpo-operations

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How to avoid cost overrun in your it outsourcing strategy

April 26th, 2010

It ‘goes without saying that information technology is a field of activity, where a lot of problems can occur. It ‘also where most outsourcing is happening. This is because the company usually assumes a ‘business and do well, but on a big project there is a need for more activity. So we need to cooperate to ensure that all is well can be formed. In addition, we may have to employ more qualified. This happens if the deadline is not met or problems appear in the project. In this case, usually need to outsource. The problem is not easy to successfully build your strategy on IT outsourcing. Must be true or loss of money can be made. Let’s talk about cost overruns and how they are avoided, we’ll begin work on an IT project we have a special budget will outsourcing.When. This budget includes income and costs required to deliver this project finished.

When outsourcing is involved, we must be very careful. A lot of people do not have, payroll outsourcing, a strategy for outsourcing because they think all is to think simple. We can easily understand why we believe, because the facts seem simple to use. We need to set the people to do a task, and we can afford, pay an amount to produce a profit. Unfortunately, we tend to some facts overrun.First cause the cost is off, outsourcing, when we think about long, payroll outsourcing, forgotten. A lot of people forget. Most projects have a deadline to be met. period not to consider non-compliance may lead to cuts in pay or an attack on the entire project. In our mind, we believe that some time is needed to accomplish a task. The truth may be different in the sense that more time might be needed. In this case you will agree with renting or more persons or missing a deadline. Both cases are immediately translated into a loss of money.

Also, if your outsourcing strategy is not working properly to analyze what price you pay for what they are doing the third, you lose money, and could be faced with cost overruns. A correct understanding of its costs should be included in the IT outsourcing strategy before even thinking deal with a particular project.The bottom line is that every error can allow the passing of information technology projects. This is particularly true if the mix of outsourcing has been added. Since nobody wants to cost overruns, you should invest some ‘time to learn to build Properly IT outsourcing strategy in order to avoid problems.

“Outsource Method Saved Me Over 500% On My Staffing Costs”

Outsourcing can be a very costly and mistake ridden path if you don’t have the connections or know the pitfalls. When we Interviewed the CEO of RentACoder.com we were amazed at how many buyers get this wrong.

Source:http://outsource.devdd.com/2010/04/how-to-avoid-cost-overrun-in-your-it-outsourcing-strategy/

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Effective internet marketing strategy–automating and outsourcing

April 26th, 2010

You can never do it alone and on your own. Harnessing the use of tools that will make you work faster and reach more people as you go about the Internet marketing business is essential for your success. While you may be an extremely talented person, you can definitely use some help especially if you are aiming to reach consumers by the thousands in the Internet jungle.

There are two things that you need to learn about the Internet marketing business that, when used together, will yield you increased likelihood of business success. Automation and outsourcing are these two things. Let us look at each of them in-depth and see how they work together in making you a more efficient and productive Internet marketer.

Automation

At first, you may find some ease doing things manually. But as your business expands, you may find difficulty managing all the operations on your own. The memberships, which is of particular interest to the Internet marketer, has the capacity of building exponentially, and you may not be able to follow up on them as frequently as you would like if you do not make use of automation in your system.

Simple defined, automation is all about making use of mechanisms to be able to reach more people. Some people think that automation is a drab activity. But actually, you can render your automation techniques a personalized touch to it with help of software such as Super Squeeze Page Generator.

You can find that automation makes your life easier. You just have to paste some script or program that will help you manage more members and more activities in less time.

The last thing you need when you are doing Internet marketing is to be bogged down by the more menial aspects that do not really lead to you making more money and bringing in more people to your site. Automation helps solve part of the problem. But when the needs go from mere programming to actual human legwork, we go to its partner.

Outsourcing

Partner to automation, outsourcing is delegating specific tasks in your business to other people, possibly more qualified than you are to do that specific job. Some of the people you can outsource include writers, programmers, web designers and the like. People you can outsource for this job are known to specialize on the job, and spending money on them is little compared to the amount of work they will saving you from. You have to be able to get the best in these fields.

This increases your productivity and gives you more time to focus on what you do best, which is, Internet marketing at its very core. You no longer have to worry about not being able to meet standards in writing, designing and programming since you have already acquired the services of people who are good at it and know what they are doing.

Once you have done these two, you will find all your systems constantly updated, manned with the best hands from different industries, with you raking in the dollars that can help you become one of the few Internet moguls who learned to master these techniques in their business.

Source:http://www.imremarkable.biz/internet-marketing/effective-internet-marketing-strategy-automating-and-outsourcing.html

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LMS and outsourcing relationship management

April 26th, 2010

Companies outsourcing business processes should be well prepared for accomplishments. The only factor that can make the BPO strategy work is extensive preparation.

Outsourcing relationship management should be considered by executives managing BPO transition before proceeding further. ORM is “outsourcing relationship management” and it consists of IT infrastructure, management strategy and organizational structure. This business discipline should be taken into consideration before any BPO project is started. LMS training course on how to manage outsourcing management will be required for making the BPO strategy work.

Business process outsourcing includes outsourcing of work completed in-house to offshore or domestic service providers. Often, companies transition few employees to the outsourced group while few are made responsible for the service provider team. Companies and institutions face difficulties when it comes to governance of outsourcing services.

With an online ORM course, company executives can be made aware of skills to manage outsourcing relationships. Importance of ORM is realized too late by many companies.

Strategies of outsourcing become ineffective due to the lack of forethought and outsource governance. ORM crash courses are effective in the prevention of such failures.

Executives of a company must approach outsourcing relationships that corresponds with the company’s short and long term objectives. Through an LMS course, executives can learn the importance of ORM in avoiding failure. Executives, instead of tracking, reporting measures and penalizing service providers, should use this information to enhance future performance. If a system or process shows signs of failure, it will become easy to change it even before it starts. Other strategies are not as effective as the proactive approach. This will also prove beneficial in finding out the main cause of unsatisfactory outsourcing relationships.

Online ORM course consists of management strategy, IT infrastructure and organizational structure. Management strategy is all about identification of best service level agreement and relationship techniques for BPO strategy. Oversight mechanism and structure along with development of suitable in-house management is referred to as organizational structure. IT infrastructure includes supportive infrastructure through which a network of external service providers can be managed and monitored.

One of the critical elements of management strategy is contract management. It includes development of performance measurements, penalizing and prevention of failure. Current performance should be addressed and proactive solutions should be provided by these measurements. Quality assurance approach is included in contract management and it is responsible for governance of BPO group processes and service delivery. Always remember, service provider also has interest in gaining results like the company it serves.

Often service provider contracts are transitory, therefore processes and responsibilities of BPO transition term should be specified by them. The contract language should be flexible so that changes can be made and it should also include provisions for performance management.

Executives need to take up an LMS course that makes them aware of the risks and benefits associated with BPO. For instance, there are several risks associated with the use of Internet for the service providers. The Internet has an extensive reach and its anonymity calls for attention to the maintenance of intrusion detection, secure electronic systems, authorization and verification. With such risks in mind, understanding outsourced relationship management can help avoid potential risks.

Ultimately, ORM is the responsibility of the executives and it should be fulfilled well. However, in the end it is the party who loses or gains the most in outsourcing relationship that has to take the responsibility for achieving results.

Source:http://firstinforeview.com/wordpress/lms-and-outsourcing-relationship-management

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Outsourcing on the Rise -But Trouble May Lie Ahead

April 26th, 2010

With outsourcing becoming a necessary evil for business sector recovery and public sector spending reform post recession, appetite for outsourcing has increased by 20% from last year, but not necessarily offshoring, to the dismay of offshore supplier organisations, according to Op2i’s Outsourcing 2010 survey report released today.

Whilst interest in outsourcing has increased, focus has yet again shifted to cost reduction, with suppliers pressured to deliver more for less the U turn from strategic to tactical outsourcing has the potential to push outsourcing back a decade, if the industry does not heed the warnings.

There’s been a shift in the perception of the main driver for outsourcing, away from productivity and efficiency (from 40% to 34%) towards cost cutting (from 46% to 58%).

Both improved performance and quality appear to have dropped from 20% and 13% to 13% and 5% respectively. With a race to deliver services at the lowest cost, performance and quality appear to have been sacrificed. This may well have a detrimental effect in the longer run, as the market picks up and customers seek to differentiate based on quality and performance.

Whereas organisations were happy to invest upfront in transition and transformation activities with payback within 3 to 5 years, customers now expect payback within 18 months, and ideally don’t want to invest/spend any money upfront. The public sector seems hell bent on following a similar course.

With the success rate of outsourcing somewhere in the range 40-60%, (failing programmes being the result of poor decision or programme governance) we are likely to see the failure rate rise as more organisations extend this cost focus to decision and programme governance.

The best approach to reducing the risks from outsourcing remains the development of a partnership relationship between customer and supplier (at 72%). Strong contracts (at 11%) follow, but significantly dwarfed by the partnership approach.

There appears to be little change, albeit a slight increase in those considering good governance as being the best means of achieving a low risk outsourcing project implementation, from 46% last year to 52%. Governance (whether this is monitoring SLAs, escalation procedures or dispute resolution procedures) is ranked highly both within the business and academic world as a determinate of success. Whereas last year governance mediated by an experienced specialist was ranked highest, this year a governance model negotiated with the vendor features on top.

Op2i research suggests the key to successful cost focused outsourcing programmes is a rigorous approach to decision and programme governance across the organisation. Successful outsourcing is dependent on having an inclusive decision process that involves all stakeholders in both the decision and ongoing governance, and one which documents and links contractual and performance obligations to the original drivers for outsourcing. Op2i sees this as a critical measure for successful public sector expenditure reform through outsourcing.

Dr Bharat Vagadia, CEO Op2i commented:“There have been significant cost pressures on outsourcing deals, many renegotiating existing deals and new comers seeing cost cutting as the only real driver. Business transformation is dead for now, but may well reappear as organisations realise that a pure focus on cost will lead to adversarial relationships, and may well lead to lower quality”.

“The outsourcing decision making process must be done rigorously, otherwise you end up fighting a lost cause, trying to stop a runaway juggernaut. The decision making process must be all encompassing, assessing all options; for outsourcing is not always the answer”.

The research was conducted by Op2i amongst global outsourcing users, suppliers and advisors. The Op2i Outsourcing Survey Report 2010 is available for free download from Op2i.com.

Source:http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/outsourcing-on-the-rise-,1265088.shtml

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Mid-size IT companies on a route for consolidation

April 26th, 2010

When MindTree a mid-size information technology (IT) Services Company acquired Aztecsoft in May 2008, many thought this would indicate a trend in Indian IT, in terms of consolidation of small and mid-sized firms to allow them to viably compete with bigger ones.

The global recession, however, played spoilsport. It affected the appetite of prospective buyers due to sluggish demand for IT services and products. More, the acquisition targets were also conscious that they would get a raw deal if they put themselves up for sale, as reported by Bibhu Ranjan Mishra of Business Standard.

The jinx, it appears, has broken. Consider these examples. MphasiS, a subsidiary of HP in India, recently acquiring Fortify Infrastructure Services, a provider of offshore based Remote IT Operations and Management (ROM) services with a sizeable presence in Pune. In February this year, network security and management company Blue Coat Systems acquired 100 per cent stake in S7 Software Solutions, a Bangalore-based company started about six years earlier by a team of seven software professionals.

Going by industry sources and analysts, the next one year is expected to see a spate of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in IT and ITeS (IT-enabled services) in India. “We are seeing a lot of acquisition activity happening all over the place. There are large numbers of active discussions happening right now. Whether these will close this quarter or next quarter depends on a lot of other things. But, consolidation has begun in this market place,” says Amit Singh, Executive Director and Head of Technology Practice of investment banking firm Avendus Capital.

Post the recession, with the job market picking up, smaller and mid-sized companies are finding it challenging to attract talent. Besides, many in their early phase of growth are finding it difficult to attract investments, a challenge to their long-term sustainability.

Former Wipro COO A L Rao, now providing mentorship to a host of technology start-ups post his retirement from the company almost a year earlier, says attracting the right kind of talents has become a real challenge for smaller companies. “There is a real crunch of people with 3-6 years of experience, as companies in their early stage of growth cannot really survive by banking upon freshers. Only financially sound companies are able to attract them.”

According to Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on Private Equity and M&A activity, M&A transactions worth $155 million were concluded among small and medium enterprises during the first two months of 2010. This is an increase of 66 per cent over the corresponding period last year.

M&A in IT services is bound to increase. More, there is not much headroom for growth for small IT firms, who lack the ability in establishing themselves in niche areas like business intelligence, healthcare, remote infrastructure management, financial sector or procurement outsourcing. Because of their nature of business, these smaller players who lack innovations are finding it difficult to attract investment and scale up further.

“VCs used to invest in IT services substantially, may be two years back. But, that has come down quite substantially in the last two years. So, an SME getting venture or equity financing is no longer easy. And, if you are a generalist, things are far more difficult,” opines Arun Natarajan, Founder and CEO of Venture Intelligence. But if you are a specialist, providing services in areas like healthcare or banking, then that kind of specialisation has a far better chance of attracting venture capitalists, he adds.

Agrees, Sudhir Sethi, founder-chairman and MD of IDG Ventures India, “Many of the companies we have seen are lacking in innovation and lacking in services. This is the reason why they are not able to attract investment to scale up.”

According to data from Venture Intelligence, only three “generic” IT services companies (i.e. which focus on more than 1/2 verticals) Trianz, – Ontrack Systems and Infinite Computer Solutions – have raised VC funding, worth $27 million, since 2004. During the same period, there were a total of 38 VC investments into specialist IT services companies who raised $259 million.

Analysts opine that generic IT service companies and smaller companies would find the going quite tough. Many of the generic IT services providers will try to get into offering specialist services, to establish themselves in a niche segment. Those who failed to do so in terms of achieving sustainable growth and profitability will eventually be acquired by bigger players or get merged with similar or bigger players.

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/Midsize_IT_companies_on_a_route_for_consolidation-nid-67422-cid-3.html

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