Archive for September, 2010

TechXpress wins IT outsourcing contract from CCSD

September 27th, 2010

TechXpress has won an IT outsourcing contract from the Cambria Community Services District, or CCSD, for providing technical support services for its computer network system.

TechXpress’s ongoing IT services will involve overseeing the day-to-day operations of the CCSD computer network by means of its NetGuard IT managed services offering.

The service contact includes 24X7 monitoring and maintenance, security consulting, data backup management, user help desk support and software training, strategic planning, and special public agency discounts on hardware and software.

Tammy Rudock, CCSD’s general manager, said: “TechXpress performed a thorough audit of our IT system, which was not only expeditious, but the results were intelligibly and professionally presented. This is an excellent resource for the Cambria CSD.”

Source:http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4533178

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Wipro, Oracle tie up for fusion applications

September 27th, 2010

Wipro Technologies the global consulting, system integration and outsourcing business of Wipro, and Oracle announced the launch of joint development initiative on next generation Oracle Fusion Applications.

Wipro is one of the select partners handpicked by Oracle product development to be involved in this joint development program. Wipro has made significant investments around Oracle Fusion Applications which includes, embedded product development and strategy initiatives- focused on gaining deep hands-on product knowledge and expertise by working directly with (Q,N,C,F)* Oracle fusion applications product development and in-depth structured product training, including functional business applications and technical foundation architecture training focused on application co-existence, integration, customization, and deployment best practices.

The investments go a long way in extending Wipro`s leadership on the Oracle applications stack. It uniquely positions Wipro to engage and deliver successful Oracle fusion applications implementations, be it standalone, upgrade, or co-existence with Oracle applications unlimited solutions.

This solution will benefit customers on diverse set of applications portfolio, including Oracle Applications Unlimited products (e.g. Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle PeopleSoft, and Oracle CRM), with an automated data migration and synchronization with Oracle fusion applications and hence be able to execute end to end business processes with embedded Industry best practices.

“Wipro, as a co-development SI partner has demonstrated the highest levels of functional application domain and technological architecture expertise and has gained the deepest embedded exposure to Oracle Fusion Applications prior to its release,“ said Steve Miranda, designation Oracle Corp, “Wipro is uniquely positioned to participate in Oracle Fusion Applications early adoption client engagements, including delivering co-existence and upgradeable service offerings, and best practices implementations,“ he added.

“Wipro has been at the forefront of technology innovation and has made significant investments in Oracle Fusion Applications that help customers reduce adoption effort, lower costs and speed-up time to market.“ said Arup Ratan Chakraborti, global head Oracle alliance, WIPRO “I am pleased with how Oracle Fusion Applications are shaping up and are sure to offer considerable value to clients,“ he added.

Shares of Wipro gained Rs 0.25, or 0.06%, to trade at Rs 446.30. The total volume of shares traded was 72,229 at the BSE (1.26 p.m., Monday).

Source:http://www.myiris.com/newsCentre/storyShow.php?fileR=20100927133401203&secID=fromnewsroom&secTitle=From%20the%20News%20Room&dir=2010/09/27

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SMEs too loyal to staff to outsource IT jobs

September 27th, 2010

I did a blog post last week about the potential for SMEs to outsource IT in large volumes.

I have since had some interesting reaction from the National Outsourcing Association (NOA), which predicted in January that this would be the year of SME outsourcing.

It seems there are lots of things holding this back, such as loyalty to staff. But the next year and a half will see SME’s outsource more IT.

Bharat Vagadia, the NOA’s SME Director said: “Although it’s true that the SME community has not embraced more strategic outsourcing in the way we had envisaged at the start of the year, the signs are still promising. There are a number of reasons why SMEs have not yet warmed to outsourcing, including the fact that they are typically extremely loyal to their employee base. Many SMEs also need educating as to the value of outsourcing and offshoring, and with limited budgets in place, they can feel that they are not able to seek the right level of advice.

“However, I still think that we’ll see SMEs wake up to outsourcing in the next 12-18 months. The underlying drivers are all in place to make outsourcing a success in the sector, and more and more suppliers are beginning to target SMEs, as it’s obvious that there’s an opportunity there for them. For example, Tata are rolling out a dedicated SME offering in India as a testbed which, if successful, will make its way over to the UK. Increased interest from suppliers should mean an increased level of education for end-users – and that could be the breakthrough that’s needed for outsourcing to succeed.”

Source:http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/inside-outsourcing/2010/09/smes-too-loyal-to-staff-to-outsource-it.html

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Offshoring IT is not making UK computer scientists the largest unemployed group, says BCS

September 27th, 2010

This blog has been focussing quite heavily on the potential damage to the UK IT industry caused by offshoring work to lower cost locations.

I recently quoted the latest figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) which revealed that recent Computer Science graduates have the highest proportion of unemployed recent graduates. Some 17% of 2009 graduates of computer science are unemployed say the figures. And many of the other 83% might not be doing a job related to their degree.

This blog post has had a lot of reaction. Although the majority of comments came from the “offshoring is destroying the UK IT profession” camp there are counter arguments.

I have contacted the British Computer Society (BCS) to get its view and got some interesting feedback.

Bill Mitchell, director of BCS Academy of Computing, says it is not the case of offshoring and outsourcing is destroying the UK IT industry it is just that the low skilled jobs are being outsourced.

And he said the HESA figures are misleading because only 71% of the computer scientist category is pure computer scientists. “The figures are correct, but they aggregate various IT related degree courses under the title of Computer Science.

Mitchell is very positive about the job opportunities for pure computer scientists at good universities.

Here’s what he had to say:

“If you have a low skilled job there is a higher chance of your job being outsourced but if you are a software developer developing complex software you are very much in demand.”

“When I’ve spoken to anybody from a good university they say almost all their graduates are getting jobs.”

“We have spoken to several businesses and they say there is a shortage of computer science graduates.”

“One or two of the large companies we have spoken to are going to Eastern Europe or the Middle East because there is a shortage of Computer Science graduates in the UK.”

“If you look at all industrial sectors across the European Union 25% of all business spending on R&D is spent on IT. This compares to 13% on pharmaceuticals.”

Here is the breakdown of the computer science category according to HESA.

Broadly-based programmes within computer science 0.15%
Computer science 71.11%
Information systems 20.10%
Software engineering 7.71%
Artificial intelligence 0.68%
Others (no figure)

“The term Information Systems is also confusing. It means very different things to different Universities, so that the amount of computing content in a CIS degree is very variable,” add Mitchell.

Source:http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/inside-outsourcing/2010/09/offshoring-is-not-making-uk-computer-scientists-largest-unemployed-group-says-bcs.html

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Bharti Outsourcing, Bulk SMS, Luxury Cars, SM updates, Stock markets, USD Vs Gold, 3G, Retail Sector and more…

September 27th, 2010

Bharti Airtel functions very differently from how other Indian Telecom Operators operate – They are the only ones who outsource all functions of their company apart from Sales/Marketing and Finance this seems to have worked for them quite well.

TV programming has changed over the years – This decade of TV programming has no doubt belonged to reality TV…every channel has more than one reality shows. The same goes with Cricket, there is just too much of it – Are you bored ?

Have you seen Competitive Advertising – Jet Airways, Kingfisher and Go-Air hoardings are one of the best examples of it.

Bharti Airtel quitting Sulk SMS has been in news for quite a while – But other Operators are not shying away from it – Infact, they are pushing it aggressively.

With the growing job market, even attrition is on the rise, Is there a way to curb this attrition ?

Till now, majority of cars sold in India are low cost small economy cars, but the trend is slowly changing – Luxury car sales are seeing impressive numbers

Here is a question to all Social Media Addicts – Are Social Media Updates route for Escapism and uncontrolled expressionism?

Finally, Indian Stock Markets witness the magical 20,000 figure on sensex – What next ? Yes, one thing is, we are seeing IPO rush now..

US Dollar has been on turmoil over past few days, While Gold seems to getting more shinier than ever – Its USD Vs Gold price war !

3G is now just round the corner – It has capability to bring about sea-change in our life.

I am excited about the Samsung Galaxy Tab launch next month – Check out the official video..

Mumbai-Delhi boast most expensive streets in the world! Does that make any difference to us?

Source:http://trak.in/tags/business/2010/09/27/bharti-outsourcing-bulk-sms-luxury-cars-stock-markets-usd-vs-gold-3g-retail-sector/

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India- a global outsourcing hub

September 27th, 2010

Outsourcing has materialized itself as an option for business models across the world as it is being unwaveringly associated with productivity and growth. India has inadvertently established itself in the exponent position as being the most favored destination for getting all the outsourced assignments done. With an immeasurable resource of professionals, India affords to trim down the cost of effective services like bookkeeping by at least 40% and still uphold its stand on quality. Apart from this, a firm democracy that is booming unhindered for the last sixty years, an afloat economy with a notable GDP rate of 9.2%, excellent state of art technologies, rapidly improving infrastructure and above all its growing acceptance as a quality service provider makes India doubly lucrative as an outsourcing destination.

Indian outsourcing vendors have today developed competencies to scale operations or to deliver on clients’ requirement in a professional manner.

Companies today across the world have started realizing that outsourcing today is not just an option for them but is a tool that is inherent to its survival strategy in the market. And as off shoring assignments are moving up the value chain, talent rich country like India provides the hope to the world.

This is one of the key reasons of the sudden rise of hotels in India. With international business tourists visiting the country in great numbers and with the count increasing by the day, India hotels are satisfactorily catering to the varying preferences of the discerning travelers. And it is not only business tourists but also leisure tourists that have resulted in the cent percent occupancy of all the hotels in India.

There are countless leisure hotels and luxury hotels under the star categories that are part of big hospitality chains. These leisure hotels and luxury hotels are popular in the world map for the world class facilities and limitless hospitality offered. Besides, India has also emerged as a medical tourist hotspot, attracting medical tourists from the neighboring countries. As there is no dearth of India hotels, tourists coming to this country never face any accommodation problems.

Source:http://travel.ezinemark.com/india-a-global-outsourcing-hub-16919c0061d.html

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How to use outsourcing and virtual assistants with these 3 main areas of business

September 27th, 2010

The contracting of Virtual Assistants (VA) is the next big step for allowing businesses to cut costs while operating in an efficient manner. And companies like Moving Ahead Communications are bringing affordable outsourcing through their Virtual Assistant Plus programs, changing the face of outsourcing as we know it.

A Virtual Assistant provides any combination of tasks including administrative, technical and even creative services to their clients, acting as an independent contractor. They work from their own offices, cutting out the costs of office space, operations costs and employment taxes, all of which usually fall to the responsibility of the employer. However, this type of outsourcing allows businesses to reduce expenses and redirect certain tasks to Virtual Assistant so that key employees can focus of vital responsibilities.

Research

Research is a vital aspect of marketing and valuable time can be wasted within a company by employees who do not have the training and skills to conduct efficient research or who are tasked with multiple duties where research is a fraction of their responsibilities. By outsourcing a Virtual Assistant to utilize research tools such as those offered by eBay, and Best Sellers at Amazon.com, and do nothing but research, a company can maximize its efficiency and stay ahead of the game.

Google Adwords and Adsense tools can be outsourced to a Virtual Assistant which means that there are no distractions stemming from other responsibilities. With this type of focus, a company can get very timely information on their market, what people are searching for and what they want to buy. When the VA delivers the information in real time, companies can get a jump on the competition. In marketing, timing is everything. It is imperative that a company receive up to the minute information on their target market, what is moving and what is losing ground. An employee who is torn between research and a dozen other tasks can not give this vital assignment the time and attention that is needs to keep the company at top notch competitive status.

Product Creation

While research tells a company how to fulfill the 4 P’s of marketing, Product, Price, Place (distribution) and Promotion, the product is what generates the profit. Many products can be constructed by Virtual Assistants. Videos and EBooks are two prime examples of products that a business can outsource the majority of the creation process. Virtual assistants can even offer a service or a product on demand where specs are provided. For instance, an eBook company can take requests from clients. The company can then turn around and contract the Virtual Assistant to write the eBook to spec.

Other products may not necessarily be sold for profit, but may be use to attract customers and drive traffic to the company so that they will be exposed to the actual product. Autoresponders and various website visitor freebie give-aways like free eBooks can also fall into the category of products even though they will not directly contribute to the company’s profit margin. Ecourses are another popular product that can be a free offering from the company or one of its products used for profit.

Sales & Marketing

A product can be top of the line, something that everyone needs or wants, but it does no good if no one ever sees it – if there is no promotion. A Virtual Assistant can be outsourced to conduct various aspects of the marketing process such as design and create websites, set up and manage affiliate programs, conduct the company’s online campaign and do various other sales and marketing tasks. Article marketing and blogging are both very popular and very effective methods of marketing. The Virtual Assistant can focus all energies on the marketing process, attending to details that may normally be ignored or missed by employees who are tasked with a variety of responsibilities.

The Virtual Assistant can focus solely on driving relevant traffic to the company’s website and can draw interested eyes to the product. They can help to increase the company’s website ranking in the search engines. They can perform many duties including direct sales and sales calls. There are many options for promotion like ezines and newsletters, do social networking and email campaigns. The experts at Moving Ahead Communications can devise a plan for any business and any form of marketing campaign.

By outsourcing vital tasks to Virtual Assistants, businesses can delegate non core operations to experts that exist outside of the business. Moving Ahead Communications is breaking ground in providing businesses of any size a one stop shop for outsourcing through Virtual Assistants. From administrative duties, press releases, copywriting and marketing, to web content, auto responders and other tasks, Moving Ahead Communications meets the needs of businesses where it counts and they allow those businesses to utilize outsourcing and Virtual Assistants through three primary areas of business, research, product creation and sales and marketing, thus cutting costs and increasing efficiency and production.

Source:http://iambrotherluke.com/how-to-use-outsourcing-and-virtual-assistants-with-these-3-main-areas-of-business/

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