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General discussion, news & views about Outsourcing and Offshoring

Archive for September, 2010

Eraring energy renews outsourcing contract with logica

September 29th, 2010

Energy generation company, Eraring Energy, has renewed the contract to outsource its IT services for an additional three years with Logica.

The agreement will see the continued end-to-end support for Eraring Energy’s whole IT environment, including service desk, infrastructure, network, application, enterprise resource planning, and database services, services which has been outsourced to Logica since 2002.

Eraring Energy manager information technology and telecommunications, Mark Edwards, said Logica had been reliable during a period of change in the NSW energy sector, helping to improve business and reduce operational costs.

Logica assisted with the virtualisation of Eraring Energy’s IT infrastructure, and is in the process of implementing an enterprise backup solution to reduce operational costs and retrieval time by switching from a disk to tape solution to a disk to disk solution.

According to Logica’s chief executive of Asia Pacific, Colin Holgate, the energy sector in Australia is undergoing a period of change as it attempts to capitalise on new technologies to improve energy production and distribution to lower the environmental impacts.

Source:http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/362609/eraring_energy_renews_outsourcing_contract_logica/?fp=4194304&fpid=1

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Strategies for outsourcing ebooks

September 29th, 2010

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The first step in outsourcing an ebook with a great deal of success is taking the verification process seriously and choosing the most qualified choice to compose the ebook. When looking for an applicant to write an ebook, place a detailed advertisement indicating the exact project needs including topic, size, landmark goals and ultimate deadline. This is very important as it ensures individuals understand of every one of the requirements before they apply.

You’ll probably still get a great number of applications from those people who are not qualified but that is where meticulously screening the job seekers becomes essential. In looking at applications pay specific attention to the quality of samples offered, how much relevant work finished and the capacity of the applicant to following the guidelines in the ad. All of these factors will make simpler your testing process by enabling you to eliminate people who don’t follow recommendations or provide high quality types of importance to the project.

Next filter the list of applicants to a few who are most skilled and interview these applicants more. E-books can usually be written by applicants from remote areas so there’s not often a requirement for in person job interviews particularly if there is a geographical distance between the candidate and the customer.

Telephone job interviews and online interviews are sufficient replacements. After the interviews ascertain which, if any, of the prospects is most skilled and offer the opportunity to finish the undertaking to this choice. When none of the individuals seem ideal it might be important to continue looking and testing new individuals.

Be Involved in Establishing the Format

Once a professional article writer is recognized for a specific project, it’s time to begin developing an outline for the venture, if this has not already been accomplished. The internet marketer needs to be greatly involved in doing this for them to ensure the ebook involves all of the information they think is essential. Asking the author to contribute ideas to the outline is appropriate but it is acknowledged that the client will provide nearly all these details in lieu of relying on the writer to take action.

Keep Ultimate Editing Rights

Lastly the customer must always maintain final editing privileges in any ebook they commission. They could cooperate with the copy writer during the process of writing the book however after conclusion the ebook must be reviewed and edited cautiously. This process should include editing the ebook for syntax and sentence structure, flow and also fashion, accuracy of content and any elements regarded worth focusing on by the customer. The client is the one in the end accountable for the info in the ebook and he must do his best to guarantee the e-book he offers is not only interesting and useful but also accurate. This is particularly crucial in scenarios where health-related concerns are usually talked about.

Another essential reason to maintain final editing rights would be to make sure all stipulations by marketers are met accordingly. Many ebooks are subsidized by individuals or firms that expect their website, products or perhaps services to be recommended in the e-book in return for their sponsorship. For this reason care need to be taken to look at the final edition of the ebook to guarantee the sponsor’s requirements are met and that direct rivals are certainly not touted as being superior to the sponsor.

Source:http://expertstalking.com/19847/strategies-for-outsourcing-ebooks/

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IT spending continues to rise

September 29th, 2010

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Over half of IT leaders plan to ramp up budgets in the coming year, with only 16 percent planning cuts. So says the latest CIO Economic Impact Survey, which polled over 250 IT leaders about their spending plans and business outlook at the end of the summer. The survey also indicates 64 percent plan to increase IT capital spending in the next year, up 8 percent from April.

CIOs will direct new budget dollars toward multiple investments, including applications (50 percent), Web and mobile (42 percent), and compensation (40 percent).

Preston J. Penn Sr., CIO of Penn Telecom Group, said he is increasing spending on improving technology. “We are looking to improve how we communicate and to bring new services, such as voice over IP.”

The recession seems to have spurred adoption of alternative IT models. More than half of those surveyed said they chose cloud, on-demand services and software as a service because they reduce hardware infrastructure costs (53 percent) and provide scalability on demand (52 percent).

Phil Baughn, CIO of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is among those looking to alternative IT. “Budgets have been dramatically decreased because of the economy, so normal plans to refresh older technology have been stagnant,” says Baughn. “We are looking outside the box.”

In terms of staffing, 41 percent of respondents said cloud offerings have helped reduce personnel costs and only 35 percent plan to increase spending on full-time in-house workers. Offshore outsourcing is steady, with 71 percent of CIOs keeping budgets the same for short-term projects.

There has been some activity in increasing top-line revenue growth, with 16 percent of respondents assigning 21 percent to 30 percent of funds to such projects.

Overall, signs of a recovery are gaining, with 48 percent of IT leaders saying their businesses have stabilized and are returning to growth. Meanwhile, 35 percent plan to increase IT capital spending in the next six months with 29 percent planning to increase IT project spending.

Source:http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/092810-it-spending-continues-to.html?hpg1=bn

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Chinese vendors catching up with Indian peers

September 29th, 2010

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Chinese software services companies are fast learning to compete with their counterparts in India on certain verticals and may have already started to take away business from some of them. A US-based analyst firm and part of the privately-held financial institution, SIG (Susquehanna International Group), in its recent report, has said companies such as Microsoft , Samsung and Cisco Systems are moving some of their work to Chinese companies because they not only offer comparable services but also at 25 per cent discount compared with Indian IT vendors.

The report says that Chinese vendors have developed enough skills in outsourced R&D, testing and product development for them to wean away clients from Indian vendors. It says Microsoft, Cisco, Nokia and Samsung are among a longer list of technology and manufacturing customers that now outsource such services to China and some of these customers are also customers of Indian IT companies.

Pricing discount

It named two Chinese companies, HiSoft Technology (HSFT) and VanceInfo Technologies as those who have posted year-on-year growth of over 50 per cent during the first half of 2010 for providing services such as outsourced R&D, testing and product development to Western clients. It said Wipro was one such Indian vendor which is facing “meaningful” competition from China.

“We estimate China can offer comparable services at a 25-50 per cent discount to Wipro ($26/hour for Wipro, $16/hour for VIT / HSFT),” the report said.

Though Wipro did not respond to queries because it is going through a ‘silent period’ ahead of the announcement of its quarterly results, a top official with another major Indian IT company, Cognizant, said that each of these countries brings its own capabilities to the table. “In an increasingly globalised and virtualised world, countries are not merely competing against each other, but are in fact complementing each other’s strengths. While Indian IT services companies are ahead in a few areas, Chinese companies bring their own set of unique capabilities,” Mr R. Chandrasekaran, President and Managing Director, Global Delivery, Cognizant Technologies, said.

Much ahead

Looking at the potential China offers both in terms of pricing as well as talent, the Infosys Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, had in an earlier interview with Business Line said China will become the company’s biggest development centre outside India.

An analyst with KPMG, Mr Kumar Parkala, however, said India will continue to remain a preferred destination for customers. “India is quite ahead in outsourcing and many of the Indian IT companies have been around for decades,” Mr Parakala said.

The SIG report also pointed out that Chinese vendors are still new to the market and that many leading technology and manufacturing companies contract Wipro for its deep business process knowledge and domain expertise.

Source:http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4539001

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Nigeria-India IT CEO summit:exposing nigerian market to foreign investors

September 29th, 2010

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DESPITE challenges, when the National Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) of India, the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the IT business-processing outsourcing, (BPO) industries in India and the top Nigerian IT CEOs gathered in Lagos last week for IT Future 2010: the Nigeria-India IT CEO Summit; it was obvious that the Nigerian market place is where to be for off shoring and outsourcing businesses.

A cross section of participants at the just concluded Nigeria-India IT CEO summit 2010. Photos by Emeka Aginam
The event with the theme: Empowering IT CEOs for ofshoring and outsourcing projects is part of the broad strategy to empower Nigeria IT CEOs in collaboration with its international counterparts to tap into the huge potentials for IT/BPO outsourcing growth in Nigeria.
Running in its 5th series, the IT Future is part of the commitment of ITAN to retool the Nigerian ICT industry industry for global competitiveness in the 21st century knowledge economy.

For one thing, the IT CEO summit may have succeeded in bringing ICT industry stakeholders together for the purposes of networking, broad synergy, capacity enhancement and strategic focus on the huge current and future potentials of the IT industry to enable, empower, and enrich the Nigerian economy.

Attracting no fewer than 24 Indian IT CEOs from the National Association of Software and Services Companies of India, the summit is a follow-up to the recent workshop by the National Economic Management Team (NEMT) and the World Bank aimed at growing the Nigerian Business Process Outsourcing sector with the aim of creation jobs and wealth as part of broad strategy for the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals and the attainment of the Nigerian Vision 20: 2020.

However, even as the current demand for offshored services come from developed economies, speaker after speaker at the summit organized by the Information Technology (Industry) Association of Nigeria (ITAN) in conjunction with the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), the World Bank, the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA) Africa Regional Secretariat with optimism agreed that Nigeria can be transformed into Africa’s offshoring hub if the opportunities are well utilized.

While most speakers believed that offshoring is likely to create billions of jobs globally primarily for the youths, the summit among things looked at the following:

*Progressive development of the Nigerian internal outsourcing businesses and industry

*Locking-in of Nigeria as the hub of IT-BPO in Sub-Saharan Africa as it meets the Indian Investors’ desire to serve Europe and America ITES ever-growing market

*Match-making Indian and Nigerian IT CEOs in a B2B for investment, partnership and networking.

*Exposure of more CEOs to the Off-shoring and Outsourcing business potentials

*Exposure of IT CEOs to critical IT funding sources and opportunities

*Improving on IT CEOs project management competencies

*Collection of important up-to-date industry data.

Meanwhile, the ITAN President Dr Jimson Olufuye earlier in his address told the capacity audience that Nigeria is the nation to be in Africa for investment. “We have abundant and cheap human resources, big market, stable government and a near double digit economic growth. Therefore, you should congratulate yourselves for being in Nigeria today. This is where to be in Africa nowhere else will give you peace of mind for your investment than Nigeria.

“Given the enormous human and natural resources at our disposal, we only need to add critical and sustainable managerial and technological competencies to achieve the desired results to create jobs, increase information flow and advance learning; thereby enabling, empowering and enriching our economy”

While encouraging the Indian CEOs who were on ground to explore the Nigerian market, he said that the timing of event coincides with the urgent search by the Federal Government of Nigeria for avenues to substantially increase internally generated revenue (IGR) at all levels of governance in the country, adding that no service sector offers a better opportunity for achieving this than outsourcing.

For Ani Bakht, CEO, Eastern Software who is also the leader of delegation of NASSCOM, with optimism noted that the country’s market is very attractive for foreign vendors.

According to him, India will continue to work closely with Nigerian IT professionals, adding that developing ICT professional services offshoring opportunities should be a high priority for developing country such as Nigeria.

“We are ready to work with the Nigerian companies. The market is big. Nigeria is a big economy. The environment is good contrary to what is being heard outside the country. We will explore the market and will comply by the rule of the game. Countries wishing to attract offshored investment must create strong economic and good environment” he said.

In the view of Dr Umar Binodir, the Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, (NOTAP), foreign vendors coming to Nigeria for technology transfer must abide by the rule of the game, adding that Nigeria was ready to collaborate with NASSCOM.

According to him, the rule of the game is that is is now compulsory for foreign investors to strictly adhere to the laws guiding technology transfer to achieve easy entry into the Nigerian market. “There are new laws and regulations sponsored by the Federal Goverment of Nigeria through National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP for Technology Transfer agreements” he added.

Even as he sounded tough to NASSCOM members of the rule of the game, he noted that it is the mandate of NOTAP to register all technology transfer agreements having effects in Nigeria.

“It is a corporate body with a mandate to implement the acquisition, promotion and development of technology and at the same time correct certain imperfections in the acquisition of foreign technology into the country. In 1992, the name of the Office was changed to National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) by Decree No. 82 of 1992″ he said.

Similarly, the former President of Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria, (CPN) Prof. (Mrs) Adenike Osofisan while warning foreign vendors on illegal operations in the country

noted without mincing words that foreign IT companies interested in investing in Nigeria must register with the Computer Professionals’ (Registration Council) of Nigeria (CPN). That is the rule of the game, added.

“We encourage NASSCOM to invest in Nigeria which has continued to attract foreign investors as a result of the large market but the rules are there. Nigeria is a good place to invest as long as you follow the guidelines” she explained.

Meanwhile, the summit after series of deliberations that on the following to chart an effective roadmap for ITES/BPO outsourcing sector for a robust and sustainable Insourcing & outsourcing industry in Nigeria:

*There is need for CEO’s of IT companies and IT heads of banks/ telecoms etc to undertake Quality Awareness training towards the attainment of global quality standards.

*ITAN and NASSCOM will partner to articulate an appropriate framework for IT – BPO outsourcing in Nigeria while avoiding drawbacks in the NASSCOM experience.

*Nigeria needs to adopt process, quality models, framework and certifications such as CMMI. Quality creates the foundation for the growth of IT/BPO industry. Quality itself is not the differentiator but creates conditions for differentiation.

*Process is the glue between people and Technology. Therefore People, Processs and Technology form the success indices for organisational performance. These critical factors must be addressed adequately.

*There is a dearth of critical Nigerian IT industry data and there is need for ITAN to spearhead periodic collation of such data desirous for investment and industry growth.

*The potential for reduction in overseas (especially in US) outsourcing business is increasing and as such there is need to grow internal outsourcing businesses through the development of white papers and advisory to government throughout Nigeria.

*The state of the Nigerian educational system is not impressive based on global universities standards and ratings. There is therefore need for University administrators in Nigeria to make the universities visible on the internet, shore-up the educational standards and collaborate with the industry associations (eg ITAN) to enhance digital competitiveness.

* Innovation and creativity are key to Nigeria’s realization of Vision 20 2020 and competing beyond 2020.

*There are new laws and regulations sponsored by the Federal Goverment of Nigeria through National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP for Technology Transfer agreements. It is compulsory for foreign investors to strictly adhere to these laws to achieve easy entry into the Nigerian market.

*Foreign IT Companies interested in investing in Nigeria must register with the Computer Professionals’ (Registration Council) of Nigeria (CPN) and participate actively in building local IT Industry capabilities through corporate membership of ITAN and individual membership of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS).

*There is need to create a software system that will capture, evaluate and monitor basic infrastructure lapses in all the local government areas of Nigeria and NOTAP will provide support for these efforts critical to combating the high poverty levels in Nigeria.

Source:http://www.vanguardngr.com/2010/09/nigeria-india-it-ceo-summitexposing-nigerian-market-to-foreign-investors/

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IT Vendors Slow To Adopt Social Media

September 29th, 2010

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Despite their technical acumen, only one-third of IT vendors are using social media as part of their marketing and partner communications strategies, according to a study by Amazon Consulting.
Technology vendors are beginning to increase their use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube, with 45% now experimenting with social media in their partner communications, the study found. But 32% of those polled said they do not know how to effectively use these tools with their partners, Amazon Consulting said.

When it comes to solution providers, only 14% use social networks to find partners or foster partner-to-partner collaboration, the study found. However, 40% of solution providers use social media for customer acquisition and 28% use the technology to seek-out new employees, Amazon Consulting said. In total, 70% of solution providers use social media for some aspect of their business, the study determined.

Channel partners expect to expand or move into social media for marketing and partnership opportunities. In fact, 46% plan to market their solutions and services to customers; 27% plan to network with similar-minded people involved in the same markets, and 23% will look for complementary solution providers for potential partnerships, the survey found

Neither solution providers nor IT vendors have many systems in place to measure social media’s success or failure.

“More than half of solution providers (52%) don’t track the revenue impact of using social media vehicles. And although many vendors are wading into the waters of social media to support specific product launches or major events, a sizeable percentage (32%) indicated they have a lack of understanding of how to use social media effectively with their partners, or they are lacking demonstrable ROI in their activities here to date,” Amazon Consulting said.

Businesses across industries continue to grapple with the benefits and risks associated with social media. Regardless of vertical market or area of expertise, most small and midsize companies are using these technologies to promote their businesses, according to Daryl Willcox Publishing

Source:-http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227500890

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Top in-demand jobs bared

September 28th, 2010

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In the next three years, the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry will generate the most jobs for Filipinos in the country.

This, according to the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), is a result of President Benigno Aquino III’s working visit to the US, where he tapped foreign companies to invest in the Philippines. The President has said he brought home more than US $2 billion worth of investments and at least 43,000 new jobs for Filipinos.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said that because of new foreign investments, among the top in-demand jobs in the next three years are the following:

call center agent
customer service assistant
technical support staff
forklift operator
accounting clerk
mechanical engineer
sales clerk
driver
cashier
production worker
“It is good news, and that will really help in job generation… and address the poverty that continues to confront us,” Baldoz told reporters after the Senate’s deliberations on her agency’s proposed budget.

Baldoz also said the DOLE has begun setting up a “national skills registry” or job mapping that will help graduates match their skills with available jobs.

Senate finance committee chair Franklin Drilon said during the hearing that one of the DOLE’s problems in the past was its inability give sound advice to the youth and their parents regarding jobs.

Baldoz hopes new investments will give Flipinos a “genuine option” on whether to stay in the country or work abroad.

“The President looks forward that he could really set up the infrastructure for the revival of the economy,” she said. “This might not be done overnight but he is really determine to address the problems that hinder investments from coming in the country.”

Senators are also happy at what President Aquino brought home to the country from the US.

“This is a show of confidence in our president by foreign investors,” Drilon said.

Senator Ralph Recto, meanwhile, noted that the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) US $434-million grant to the Philippines is the highest amount ever given by the MCC to a country.

“This is a seal of good housekeeping insofar as this administration is concerned,” he said. “Nakikita natin na malaki ang interes sa Pilipinas, malaki ang pagasa na lalong lumaganap ang economic growth.”

Source:http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/business/09/28/10/top-demand-jobs-bared

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