The Outsource Blog

General discussion, news & views about Outsourcing and Offshoring

Archive for December, 2010

Infosys, Wipro, TCS want to hire fired ex-employees

December 14th, 2010

Once fired, now eligible to be hired. That’s the case for ex-employees of Indian Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) major player Infosys. Sources close to the Infosys BPO claims that the company management is asking the present employees to refer the experienced ex-employees who were fired during the recession.

A source speaking to TechEye on the condition of anonymity says: “We have been asked to bring our friends to the company which is normal in employee referral programs. But, what is interesting here is we have been asked to bring back the ex-employees who left the company during the recession phase.”

This aggressive hiring strategy is nothing this year as during the end of every year, companies do go for referral hiring. The exception here seems to be the lucrative incentives that human resource management is offering employees for bringing the ex-employees.

During the recession, Indian BPOs including Infosys sent a considerable of employees their pink slips.

Mostly, this practice of offering almost 100 percent increase in referral incentives is practiced by Indian majors. The other companies adopting the same policy are Wipro BPO and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).

More than 200,000 employees lost jobs during that period which most of the companies rubbished, creating doubt and uncertainty in the minds of many BPO employees in India.
Now, with business getting back on track, these companies are on a hiring spree.

What will be interesting to see is if these companies manage to build the trust that they have lost during the recession by firing the ones who were in need of jobs.

Source:http://www.techeye.net/business/infosys-wipro-tcs-want-to-hire-fired-ex-employees

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: Infosys TCS Wipro

Stefanini IT solutions completes acquisition of techTeam global, extending global presence, broadening suite of services

December 14th, 2010

Share

Stefanini IT Solutions Group today announced the completion of its tender offer to acquire the outstanding shares of TechTeam Global, Inc, resulting in a merger of the two companies to form a new subsidiary, Stefanini TechTeam.

With this acquisition, Stefanini will have a direct presence in 27 countries — up from 16 today, creating a broader global presence. The newly-formed subsidiary also brings together Stefanini’s traditional strength in areas like application outsourcing and software development with Tech Team’s expertise in service desk and BPO.

With the addition of TechTeam employees, the Stefanini IT Solutions Group will now have nearly 12,000 employees worldwide and revenues of $600 Million USD.

The acquisition builds on Stefanini’s existing relationship with TechTeam as a client and partner, which is expected to ensure a smooth and efficient integration of the organizations. Earlier this year, Stefanini and TechTeam formed a strategic partnership, and the success of that partnership led Stefanini to pursue a merger they believe will create even more opportunities for business growth.

“As our two companies worked together, it became clear that our geographic footprints and service portfolios were highly complementary, and we realized that Stefanini and TechTeam share similar customer-oriented cultures that will enable us to more effectively address emerging opportunities in global outsourcing,” said Marco Stefanini, founder, president and CEO of the Stefanini IT Solutions Group. “Stefanini’s acquisition of TechTeam and the formation of our new Stefanini TechTeam subsidiary aligns with several major trends driving growth in outsourcing: globalization, flexible and comprehensive services, rightsourcing and the emergence of Brazil as an economic powerhouse.”

Stronger Global Presence The addition of TechTeam’s offices in Europe and Asia Pacific complements Stefanini’s strong and growing position in Latin America and North America, giving Stefanini direct presence in 27 countries. Stefanini TechTeam will have a broader global reach and a combined 20 global accounts worldwide. Both Stefanini and Tech Team have experience managing global contracts with very large multinational companies, and the acquisition positions the combined company to increase this portfolio of global engagements with large enterprises.

More Comprehensive Suite of Services The acquisition of TechTeam brings together Stefanini’s offerings in application outsourcing and software development with Tech Team’s strengths in areas like Infrastructure Outsourcing and BPO. TechTeam has been a leader in IT outsourcing and business process outsourcing services for large and medium-sized businesses, with offerings like service desk, technical support, desk-side support, security administration, infrastructure management and related professional services. In 2009, the Black Book of Outsourcing ranked TechTeam number one globally in help desk outsourcing across both Tier 1 and Mid Tier customers, as well as number one globally in IT infrastructure outsourcing for Mid Tier customers. The acquisition will allow Stefanini to offer TechTeam clients and its own customer base a more comprehensive suite of services to meet IT priorities and/or to scale into new areas as their needs evolve.

Deeper Rightsourcing Options The acquisition strengthens Stefanini’s ability to offer clients the full spectrum of delivery options, including offshore, nearshore, onshore — no matter where a client is based, leveraging the combined companies’ development centers and other resources in regions worldwide. With the acquisition, Stefanini extends its position as alternative to the traditional Indian offshore model, offering a nearshore option for the U.S. — with the delivery centers in Latin America — as well as for Europe — with Romania-based deliver services.

Reinforcing Brazil’s Economic and Outsourcing Influence The acquisition of U.S.-based TechTeam by a Brazil-based company is evidence of the growing influence and power of Latin America in global business. Brazil in particular is increasingly recognized as an emerging force in business and the global economy.

“The Stefanini IT Solutions Group’s goal is to become a $1.2 billion company by the end of 2013, and we feel this acquisition of TechTeam will be a major contributor in our work toward that objective,” said Marco Stefanini. “We are confident that the formation of Stefanini TechTeam will enable us to improve the support we provide our clients — with a more comprehensive portfolio of services and a broader global reach — and create more opportunities for our employees to grow and prosper.

“At Stefanini, we pride ourselves on an entrepreneurial spirit — encouraging employees to work together to develop new business opportunities aimed at providing the best services possible to a growing base of clients — and the merger of our companies will provide an extraordinary opportunity to put this philosophy to work.”

Founded in 1979 and headquartered in Southfield, MI, TechTeam has approximately 2,200 employees across the world, providing IT support in 32 languages.

For more information on this announcement, please refer to formal acquisition news release.

Source:http://www.tradingmarkets.com/news/stock-alert/glba_gbps_stefanini-it-solutions-completes-acquisition-of-techteam-global-extending-global-presence-broaden-1364373.html

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: IT Outsourcing

Infosys BPO bullish on overseas markets

December 14th, 2010

Share

With global markets on a recovery trails, Indian outsourcing major Infosys BPO Limited is bullish on its overseas business and sees great potential in sectors like BFSI, manufacturing etc.

“Definitely, we see lot more conversations and interest, both from the US and Europe, coming back. In some sectors such as BFSI, the interest is definitely more than others and we see certain amount of interest coming back from Europe in the manufacturing vertical,” said D Swaminathan, Infosys BPO Limited’s managing director and CEO, during an interaction with CyberMedia News in Mumbai.

“Our platform for BPO, built over past seven years, is helping us in enhancing our abilities to handle the existing international clients and retaining them as well as get new clients. We serve clients across geographies and multiple verticals like telecom, manufacturing, retail, banking, and insurance,” Swaminathan said.

Talking about the company’s growth, Swaminathan pointed out that even during the bad period the company’s minimum growth was in the range of 13-14 per cent, while in the earlier years it used to be around of 30-35 per cent.

“But we believe that in the next year our growth would be around 17-18 percent. And in the next couple of quarters we are in the process of strengthening our business in verticals such as media & entertainment, healthcare and insurance,” he said.

The Bangalore-based firm has a total of 92 clients, and in the current fiscal it would probably cross the $400 million plus mark, according to Swaminathan. Among the clients, majority is from the US followed by Europe. He added that the markets in the US and Europe are catching up, followed by markets in the Asia Pacific region including China, India and Australia.

On the outsourcing policy shift by the US, Swaminathan commented, “There will always be an impact for a very short term, but I would assume that in the medium to long term, probably the impact would be normalize.”

He said the companies in the US are not just looking at competition there but also are looking at competition from outside the country.

“In the globalized world today, companies in the US are constantly looking at how can they make their operations and offering more economical,” he explained.
Moreover, he stressed that outsourcing is not related just to India but is related to do things more efficiently from locations where processes are economical, where talent is available and there too where clients can be served more efficiently. “So it is a sum total of this value proposition that drives outsourcing.”

Today the firm has over 19000 staffs, representing 42 nationalities. It has more delivery centers outside India that include China, Philippines, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, Czech, US and UK. On an average, Infosys BPO roughly hires 2000 people every quarter.

“We are hiring locals not due to policies but it is for the skills, knowledge and understanding of the client’s business. These locals can provide competitive advantages, values and differentiate work with their skills,” Swaminathan explained.

“The regulations such as confidentiality of data in the US don’t allow the data to move to other locations and so local laws needs to be respected and followed. Earlier it was a transactional kind of work irrespective to locations but today companies like ours and others are doing more on the value proposition where location plays a very important part,” he concluded.

Source:http://www.ciol.com/News/BPO/News-Reports/Infosys-BPO-bullish-on-overseas-markets/144574/0/

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: BPO Infosys

Govt should protect BPO workers’ rights—labor group

December 14th, 2010

Share

The labor department’s push for self-regulation in business process outsourcing (BPO) companies in the country will only embolden outsourcing firms to violate labor rights with impunity, a labor advocacy group warned Monday.

In a news release, Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (Eiler) said Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz’s promotion of self-regulation in BPOs essentially puts BPO workers closer to abuse of their employers as the government abrogates its role to protect and uphold labor rights in BPOs.

“We are seriously alarmed with Secretary’s Baldoz’s pronouncement since such move emboldens foreign outsourcing firms in preserving dismal working conditions in BPO hubs and in implementing worse forms of labor exploitation,” said Eiler executive director Anna Leah-Escresa Colina.

“If the government itself cannot protect BPO workers from dismal labor conditions and uphold workers’ rights in BPOs, how can we expect foreign firms to do so under self-regulation?” she added.

Eiler said Secretary Baldoz’s pronouncement that self-regulation will allow companies a “built-in flexibility to do business” bodes worse forms of contractualization, irregular work, and skewed pay schemes in the local BPO industry.

BPO firms are currently “centers of contractualization and irregular work” as it has 208,316 non-regular workers, or close to one-third of the total 731,548 non-regular workers in all industries. Non-regular workers include contractual, casual, seasonal, apprentice, and probationary workers.

“Also, there is no single existing union in the local outsourcing industry which employs around 600,000 voice and non-voice BPO workers, an alarming fact which self-regulation will definitely not address,” said Escresa-Colina. If self-regulation is encouraged where there is absence of worker’s organization to represent workers, it would merely be part of a “good publicity stint” for the BPO sector.

“Instead, self-regulation will point to stricter regulation of BPO workers’ activities and unfettered abuse of workers’ rights by these foreign companies. It virtually hands BPO firms all the power and mandate to do whatever they want to do with Filipino workers.”

“Rather than pushing for self-regulation in the BPO industry, what DoLE should do is to promote the rights of BPO workers inside the workplace. Supporting the House Bill 2592 (HB 2592) or the BPO Workers Welfare Act filed by Kabataan Party List would be a good step forward,” she added.

HB 2592 pushes for the recognition of BPO workers’ right to self-association and collective bargaining, as well as protection of employees from sexual and political discrimination, among others.

Source:http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20101213-308691/Govt-should-protect-BPO-workers-rightslabor-group

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: BPO Rights

ArcelorMittal may tap Indian IT cos for infrastructure play in Europe

December 14th, 2010

Share

The world’s largest steel maker ArcelorMittal is working on a plan to consolidate its IT infrastructure in Europe, a move that could throw up opportunities for home-bred software services firms.

The management is exploring partnerships with Indian companies Wipro and HCL Technologies and multinationals HP, IBM, CSC and Capgemini, according to European news reports quoting CFE-CGC, one of the major trade union groups in France.

However, ArcelorMittal spokesperson, Ms Lynn Robbroeckx, did not comment on whether Wipro and HCL Tech were in the reckoning.

In response to a Business Line questionnaire, Ms Robbroeckx said: “ArcelorMittal launched in May 2010 a study to adapt and optimise its information technology services in Europe. The analysis includes possible partnerships with key IT service providers to enhance service quality, deliver new solutions and reduce ongoing IT costs. This scenario could include a transfer of activity and staff.”

According to the CFE-CGC, the company has already informed the European Works Council that its IT outsourcing plans will result in the transfer of some 600 jobs, including 162 in France.

Said Ms Robbroeckx: “In this case, as a responsible employer, ArcelorMittal aims to minimise any social impact. Social dialogue with employee representatives is crucial here for decisions to be taken at a later stage.” The final recommendations to the Luxembourg-headquartered firm’s internal study will be received during the fourth quarter of the current fiscal, following which a decision on the outsourcing front would be taken.

ArcelorMittal, promoted by Indian-origin billionaire Mr Lakshmi Mittal, is keen to outsource the management of its entire European infrastructure, which includes the operations and maintenance of data centres, servers, PCs, networking, security. Industry insiders point out that the deal could be divided between two players and is estimated be worth a ‘couple of hundred million dollars’.

Players with significant offshoring capabilities could emerge as front-runners for this engagement because of the ArcelorMittal management’s thrust on reducing costs. Most of the European steel manufacturers are finding it difficult to keep pace with rising raw-material cost and declining metal prices on the back of waning demand.

“ArcelorMittal has had to contend with a lot of legacy IT infrastructure since it has grown through the inorganic (or acquisition) route in Europe. To start with, it makes sense for the company to outsource back-end work as against critical business processes,” said Mr Sudin Apte, Principal Analyst and CEO of advisory firm Offshore Insights. Indian IT companies will face stiff competition from global IT multinationals such as HP, IBM, CSC and Capgemini for this engagement largely because the home bred firms seldom take on their clients’ infrastructure and people on to their books.

Says Mr Alok Shende, Principal Analyst at Ascentius Consulting, “I see Indian IT companies as ‘challengers’ and not as ‘leaders’ for these kinds of engagements. In Europe there have been very few deals where in both the people and infrastructure of the clients have been taken onboard by Indian vendors.”

ArcelorMittal has been leveraging India and Poland for managing its back office functions for some time now. In August, Wipro had received a five-year outsourcing contract from the company to consolidate and migrate the latter’s messaging systems to a new platform.

It has also worked with Mahindra Satyam and Bangalore-based MindTree Consulting.

Source:http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2010/12/13/stories/2010121351880100.htm

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: Europe Indian IT

Business booming in Wipro chengdu and investing in local talent Wipro chengdu global delivery center one year anniversary

December 13th, 2010

Share

Chengdu, China, Wipro Technologies, the global leading company of consulting, system integration and outsourcing business of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), today announced that its global delivery center in Chengdu had enjoyed an increase in business from its global clients. In order to meet demand, the company will expand its Chengdu operation by developing its talent pool and creating further jobs.

“This achievement demonstrates that Wipro made the right choice in setting up the global delivery center in Chengdu,” said Girish S. Paranjpe, joint CEO of IT Business. “Our Chengdu center benefits from world-class infrastructure and a very capable team, supporting our ongoing drive to add value to our customers’ businesses, in line with our corporate motto – ‘transform business, transform life.’”

From its base in Chengdu, Wipro provides services to global clients from the US, Japan, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region and China. Established in late 2009, the center has secured facilities, laboratories, infrastructure and Offshore Development Centers for customer projects. Services are provided on BPO (Business Process Outsourcing), PES (Product Engineering Service) , BTS (Business Technology Service), EAS (Enterprise Application Service) and Testing for clients in a range of sectors spanning IT, telecoms, banking, financial services, telecoms, manufacturing and retail.

Wipro Chengdu will inaugurate its Telecom Lab on Dec. 8th as part of the Global Delivery Center One Year Anniversary Celebration. Sambuddha Deb – Chief Delivery Officer commented, “On the inauguration of the next generation telecom wireless lab; it will be a showcase to our telecom equipment services in Chengdu and will be the initial step towards our intensive growth plans in the telecom domain” On the Dec. 8th will also see the inauguration of ATG COE and mobility lab. ATG Center of Excellence provides subject matter expertise, test new product releases, best practices, tool suites and develop reusable components for global customers. Mobility lab mainly focuses on evaluating concepts and testing the concepts before the actual development and deployment.

Wipro’s Testing Services Business Unit has setup a Wireless CoE (Centre of Excellence) at Chengdu in July this year. The CoE shall focus on testing Android devices and applications.

Over the last one year, we have not just matured our processes in grooming generic technologies but have built pool of Niche technologies like Portals, DW-BI, ERP, Telecom, Android and eMobility which differentiates us.

Each of Wipro’s service lines is brought to market by industry-specific sales, consulting and delivery teams with many years experience delivering successful, technology-driven solutions that transform businesses making them more responsive and more profitable.

“Our staff is one of our most important assets. As an organization, we strive to nurture talent through providing training in a range of areas that equip employees with a variety of skill sets,” said Suchira Iyer, Country Manager of Wipro China “As well as rigorous training, our employees enjoy significant career opportunities, including the chance to work on-location with international customers. Our finely-honed internal processes form another of our strengths. All our teams in Chengdu work to Wipro’s world-renowned delivery process, and as a result, our partners are confident in our ability to deliver.”

Source:http://www.newdesignworld.com/press/story/244434

Share and Enjoy: