The habit of winning major deals and securing contract extension doesn’t seem to end for the IT major CSC Inc. . The company’s information technology  outsourcing agreement with Sempra Energy has been extended recently for another three years.

Under the extended agreement, CSC will continue to provide IT support to Sempra’s California utility business unit and corporate center in Southern California, which will in turn provide support to the 11,000 desktop devices and operate the IT Service Desk. The company did not provide the pecuniary details of the contract extension.

Second in the line of recent deal wins comes the $317.0 million contract awarded to the IT major by the “National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration”. Under that agreement, CSC will develop a new weather modeling computer system for NOAA. This new technology will help NOAA to improve the accuracy of its climatic forecast.

We believe that through this deal, CSC has forayed into a new line of business, which is expected to generate huge volumes in the coming days, as government agencies and state weather departments across the globe are in the process of automating their weather forecasting technology.

The constant flow of new business strengthens the revenue base of the company in the coming quarters. We believe that CSC’s aggressive marketing, the high quality of its solutions and greater customer satisfaction are doing wonders for the company.

CSC reported encouraging fourth quarter results and provided a positive outlook for fiscal year 2010. Moreover, the company won $4.3 billion worth of new business awards during the fourth quarter. Of the three lines of business, North American Public Sector  accounted for $1.4 billion of new business wins, Business Solutions and Services  $0.8 billion and Managed Services Sector  $2.1 billion.

The company is constantly growing through acquisitions that enhance its services portfolio and expand its operations in new markets. It has a steady flow of new business, especially in the government vertical and is financially sound. On the other hand, the tough competition that the company faces in the IT and cloud computing space from big players such as Accenture and Hewlett-Packard  makes us cautiously optimistic on the company.

Source:http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/34686/CSC+%96+On+a+Growth+Trajectory

Information Technology (IT) companies can outsource their overseas jobs to units in the special economic zones (SEZs), a move that will help SEZs become BPO centres.

“IT units in the domestic tariff area can carry out their jobs in SEZ units,” the commerce ministry said in a communication to the SEZ development commissioners

The government has also allowed employees of IT units in SEZs to work from home or off-site locations. “Off-site employees of SEZs may be permitted to work from home or from some place outside the SEZ,” the letter dated May 21 said.

Earlier, this relaxation was given to only “decapacitated” employees or those who were travelling. The decision comes following representations from IT companies and professionals, SEZ developers and other stakeholders.

Industry people said, with the flexibility, employees would be able to attend to customers’ problems even when they were away from SEZs. “Free movement of IT people is very important. We welcome any policy that takes away operating complexities,” Nasscom president Som Mittal said.

Over half of the 580 SEZs approved are in the IT-related sectors.

IT units in the SEZs enjoyed a host of tax incentives and were likely to have surplus capacity while the units in the domestic tariff areas (outside SEZs) face the space problem for accommodating the manpower, industry sources said.

The country’s software and business process outsourcing exports were estimated to have touched $50 billion in 2009-10. BPOs are mostly concentrated in Bangalore, Gurgaon, Pune, Hyderabad and Noida.

Earlier, the SEZ rules had provided for the sub-contracting facility. However, it was limited to the units engaged in goods and not in services

Source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/it-firms-allowed-to-outsource-jobs-to-sezs/396110/