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Archive for December, 2011

Cherlapalli BPO back in business

December 29th, 2011

The business process outsourcing (BPO) unit at the Cherlapalli Central Prison, the first of its kind in the country, has been reopened recently as the Postal Department, Tata Consultancy Services and the Electronic Corporation of India Ltd came forward to give work orders.

The BPO training centre, which had been closed for the last five months, was reopened last week. “We had to close it as the companies that offered projects could not deliver on the promise at the scheduled time,” KC Srinivas Rao, prison superintendent, told City Express.

However, he said, the companies had last week informed them that they would give work orders in a month. “They asked us to be ready. We have started training the third batch of 25 members,” he added.

The BPO has also got work orders from India Post and the Life Insurance Corporation recently and the schedules have been fixed. “We may get the orders in a month. Two trained batches are getting ready and the third batch is in the classroom,” Srinivas said.

Exuding confidence, E Anjaiah, instructor at the BPO, said the staff were ready for the challenge. “The equipment too is in place. The inmates are brushing up their skills,” he said. When the unit was set up in collaboration with Radiant Info Systems in May, 2010, it had promised much with TCS, the Electronic Corporation of India Ltd and the Postal Department, announcing their intention to work with it.

The BPO was set up with the aim of bagging work related to application management and development, data entry operations, testing and quality assurance and payroll processes. The unit took nine months to rig up its equipment.

So far, about 50 inmates were given training. An inmate, A Srinivas Yadav (23), said, “I have learnt all the basic computer skills here at the prison’s BPO for the last 10 months. I’m ready to work.” He said he would be released in a couple of years from the prison and he would try to get a job in a private BPO in Hyderabad.

Source:http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cherlapalli-bpo-back-in-business/215971-60-121.html

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Capgemini Procurement BPO: Realizing Platform and Category Returns From the IBX Acquisition

December 29th, 2011

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Continuing on in our analysis of Capgemini’s forthcoming February release of the IBX Cloud Procurement platform, we’ll first explore the native search/shopping ability. Reviewing our earlier posts, however, it’s important to remind readers that all of the shopping activity within the IBX platform occurs outside of the UI wrapper of the SAP SRM toolset (although all actions are tightly linked back into it). This has two key benefits. First, it completely changes the user experience to making shopping and search quicker and more intuitive, with better results across different search models — self-managed catalogs, supplier managed catalogs, punch-out, etc. Second, and arguably as important, it makes it possible for a user that rarely interacts with the system to walk up and use it on a periodic basis (e.g., quarterly) without need to call a help desk or go through an online training program.

When users shop in the IBX platform, they’re greeted with recommended products, vendors and even services based on their function and profile. Users can also “shop” in a free text manner using their own keywords )e.g., “printer, toner”) using a feature that corrects for miss-spellings using the same logic as a search engine. When it comes down to viewing products and the requisitioning process, the platform is flexible on the taxonomy it uses to display products and classify purchases (e.g., eClass, UNSPSC, NAICS, etc.) Display-wise, the IBX platform streamlines the amount of information it presents to a user back on an item (e.g., a notebook computer), providing the options to “nest” information in a variety of forms and drop-down structures. For example, just as someone would configure a purchase on the Apple or Dell site, the hard drive and RAM capacity options can be nested or stored in a drop-down menu so that users see multiple available configurations via a single search. It’s pretty slick — and light years ahead of what the standard SRM content management tools would enable a company to achieve without significant customization.

The February release of the IBX Cloud Procurement platform also allows for the relatively straightforward buying and configuration of known services within the re-skinned SRM shopping environment. For example, a user could create a forms-driven request for print services from a specific vendor, inclusive of category-specific services fields such as paper requirements (size, thickness, quality), color requirements (2 color, 4 color), etc. However, the form that IBX provides in this context is not to drive competitive bids (that is offered elsewhere in the IBX suite), but to issue a request to a pre-defined supplier that is already in the system.

In a competitive bidding context, users would use the RFQ options (also contained within the same UI environment) and deploy a similar forms-based request outside of the “services catalog” one would use to simply to configure a requisition without the need for competition-driven price compression. When it comes to additional features and capabilities, the IBX platform supports multiple punch-out scenarios and search features in a manner that is not altogether different from what solutions like Vinimaya can provide, at least when it comes to the basics of Federated capabilities inclusive of punch-out and cross-catalog simultaneous search.

Even though we only had time for a cursory hour-long demonstration of the upcoming IBX Cloud Procurement release, we came away impressed with how Capgemini has been able to continue to leverage the core expertise of the IBX team and develop using the foundations of what the provider had previously on its own. At the very least, potential SAP SRM users now have two official SAP BPO partners to chose from (Capgemini and Hubwoo) that have taken it upon themselves to improve upon the overall search, shopping and requisitioning experience of SAP SRM through delivering a new UI experience to frontline buyers. Add to these folks providers like BuyerQuest, Vinimaya, Simplifying IT and others — all of which can take users out of an SAP environment for the search, shopping and buying process — and it becomes increasingly clear that SAP SRM users (and potential users) have a wide choice of potential partners.

Still, IBX’s SRM and broader Spend Management platform capabilities combined with Capgemini’s procurement BPO services for procurement (inclusive of both category-driven sourcing and broader tactical and transactional buying services support services) combine to create a differentiated and unique one-stop shop for SAP customers looking at technology, transactional and process outsourcing for procurement. Moreover, these capabilities combined with Capgemini’s reputation in the market for aggressively pricing/bidding on BPO deals should make for an interesting 2012 on the competitive procurement outsourcing front.

Source:http://www.spendmatters.com/index.cfm/2011/12/29/Capgemini-Procurement-BPO-Realizing-Platform-and-Category-Returns-From-the-IBX-Acquisition-Part-4

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Aria Systems Adds New Products for Brands and Retailers

December 29th, 2011

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Nirvanna Designs sells autumn and winter accessories such as hats, gloves and cover-ups. Next to its wholesale operation Nirvanna opens seasonal retail stores at different locations during the months of October, November, and December. The short lifespan of these retail stores demands rapid operation mobility. Transaction flows and stock replenishment moreover occur on a daily basis demanding high levels of efficiency and accuracy.

Nirvanna Designs had a manual system in place which couldn’t accurately keep track of their speedy stock movement. The process of stock delivery, replenishment, and return was proving to be time-consuming and prone to human error. To illustrate, products are sold individually as well as in packs of three which required two barcodes per product, one to specify the product and the other to specify the pack, further confusing the inventory control and tracking process.

In addition at the end of every season the remaining stock would be returned to the warehouse. However, surplus stock would only be counted at a later point in time which would prevent its swift resale.

Nirvanna Designs decided it wanted to increase the speed and accuracy of its stock movement in order to optimize efficiency. Consequently, Aria Systems assistance was requested to improve this process.

Aria Systems established a simple yet effective and user-friendly barcode scanning system by introducing the automatic production of barcode labels for all products. This system basically allows you to scan the UPC barcode which will automatically be translated into the system according to style, color, and size as well as packs. The scanning system moreover ensures the speedy receipt of factory orders (receive Purchase Order) at the beginning of each season.

It moreover improves the process of replenishment (interlocation Purchase Order) throughout the course of the season and speeds up the count of surplus goods at the end of the season. Pen and paper are rendered redundant in this newly automated process. The scanning system can moreover be used to scan and pack merchandise before it is shipped to retailers from Nirvanna’s wholesale business.

Following an initial testing period the barcode scanning system is now in production mode. The new system ensures increased efficiency, accuracy, and speed by minimizing the risk of human error and introducing an automated method of inventory management. It moreover minimizes data entry efforts and manages the flow of merchandise between the main warehouse and the retail stores.

First customer in Spain
EKINSA Equipamiento Institucional S.A.U. in Madrid has placed an order for the Aria Workwear Clothing Management (WCM) module. EKINSA is a large service provider to many different industries throughout Spain. The module will enable Ekinsa’s clients to remotely manage their purchasing and reporting requirements online.

The WCM module will be linked to their Navision ERP system and eventually translated into Spanish for ease of use. Our first client went live on the Nov. 1, followed by a full rollout to all their customers in the coming months.

Outsourcing Service
Are you looking to avoid costly upfront software fees? Are you a seasonal vendor who only needs to exchange EDI documents during specific times of the year? Do you need to meet a retailer’s EDI requirement immediately? Or are you simply not able to support the software or personnel required to run an in-house EDI? There are many reasons that necessitate EDI outsourcing; this is why Aria offers the cost-effective Aria Systems EDI Outsourcing Service.

Aria EDI Outsourcing, in conjunction with FY Global, provides you with an end-to-end solution and will take care of your entire EDI operation. FY Global is an apparel distribution facility which offers services such as shipping, long & short term storage, and inventory tracking. FY Global is an Aria Gold Certified Partner. Aria supports all inbound and outbound transactions for more than 300 trading partners including retailers, suppliers, freight carriers (USPS, FedEx, UPS), factors, 3PL, and consumer e-commerce websites (such as Amazon.com, overstock.com, JCPenny.com, kohls.com).

All of Aria’s EDI engineers are highly trained, well versed with EDI technology and are always up to date with the newest advances. Aria Outsourcing ensures quick EDI compliance and helps you avoid unexpected and costly chargebacks.

With Aria EDI Outsourcing there is no need to be afraid of losing control of your company’s EDI department. You will still be able to monitor all of your transactions by logging in and reviewing your billing information. You will also receive notifications and reports updating you on all activities and transactions. We’re dedicated to providing you with world-class customer service and support. Aria’s professional customer service is personally committed to exceeding your expectations every day.

New consignment module
The main goal of Aria Systems’ new consignment module was to create a user-friendly and automated system in order to ensure reliable and accurate stock control. The module first downloads and processes the daily sales and returns data to the consignment holder electronically. What’s more it raises instant invoices and credit memos back to the retailer.

In order to run a replenishment routine and ensure that each consignment has the correct amount of inventory, optimum stock holdings are set per consignment. The replenishment scheme is controlled by the apparel companies’ merchandisers. By attributing a grade to the stores they can control the type and quantity of the products sent to each consignment grade.

This greatly simplifies the process of replenishment, the merchandiser only has to set up the optimum stock profiles three times for any number of consignments. The consignment module moreover gives the apparel company accurate inventory and daily sales figures per consignment, it automatically replenishes inventory, and it monitors product turnover making sure the correct products are in each consignment to maximize sales. Ultimately, Aria’s consignment module provides apparel companies with an accurate, efficient, and easy method of replenishment to regulate consignment stock control.

New sales director
Aria Systems welcomes Brian Hassett as the new North-East U.S. regional sales manager. Hassett will focus on sales team leadership, driving revenue, contributing to product selection as well as general management responsibilities.

Hassett joins the Aria team with 10 years of experience at Denver-based JD Edwards, a developer of AS/400/Open Systems (Oracle, Microsoft NT)-based ERP application software for manufacturing. He served as account executive responsible for the new system sales in the New East territory.

Hassett also comes to Aria with more than 15 years’ of sales experience in the software industry, consistently achieving over quota performance. He has held a managerial position at Fog Creek Software, a software company specializing in project management tools. Additionally, he also held management positions at Objectif Lune, Storis Management Systems and Munics information systems.

Source:http://apparel.edgl.com/news/Aria-Systems-Adds-New-Products-for-Brands-and-Retailers77644

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Phixios, Inc. Announces New Service

December 29th, 2011

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Phixios, Inc. has created a low cost service for customers to audit and verify their SLAs of their outsourced IT infrastructure. This service provides an independent verification of the availability of their outsourced IT infrastructure, including network (routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers) and servers (Windows, Linux, AIX, Solaris, HP-UX).

The Phixios IT Outsourcing Verification Service is a Cloud based service that provides “agentless” availability reporting. Customers can use the service to verify a specified portion of the outsourced infrastructure, or the entire outsourced infrastructure. The service provides monthly reports for availability of the systems and devices monitored as well as access to the Phixios portal to view ad-hoc availability reports. The service includes availability at a device level and a group of devices to show system level availability.

The low cost, per device service allows customers to verify the entire outsourced contract, or to verify designated systems each month. The service includes the flexibility for the customer to change what systems and devices are audited each month.

The service is designed to provide an independent verification of the availability SLAs that the outsourcing contractor provides.

Source:http://www.thehostingnews.com/phixios-inc-announces-it-outsource-verification-service-22322.html

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H-1B Workers Are in a State of Indentured Servitude

December 29th, 2011

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Our current high-skill immigration policy does more harm than good. To meet the needs of both the U.S. economy and American workers, the H-1B and L-1 guest worker programs require immediate and substantial overhaul. These programs are very large, accounting for about 1 million workers, and have a significant impact on U.S. labor markets. These impacts are especially significant in computer occupations, where they account for more than 10 percent of the workforce and are distorting the normal functioning of the labor, educational, and workforce development markets.

The goal of these guest worker programs is to bring in foreign workers who complement the American workforce. Indeed, many highly skilled and highly paid workers are brought in by employers to do so. However, loopholes have made it too easy to bring in cheaper foreign workers, with ordinary skills, who directly substitute for rather than complement American workers. The use of the programs for cheaper labor is substantial and growing, and they are clearly displacing and denying opportunities to American workers.

The problems in the programs stem from three serious design flaws that only legislation can fix. Administrative changes alone, such as stepped-up enforcement, while necessary, are not sufficient to correct the problems.

The first flaw allows employers to legally bring in foreign workers at below-market wages. How do we know that employers exploit this loophole? Employers have told the U.S. Government Accountability Office that they use the H-1B program because they are able to pay H-1Bs less than an Americans. The practice of exploiting the H-1B program for cheaper labor appears to be widespread. The GAO found that 54 percent of the H-1B visa applications were for the lowest wage level, approximately the 17th percentile. The wage differentials can be very significant, providing up to a 60 percent discount over American workers in some cases. The L-1 program has no wage floor, so workers are often paid home country wages. By far the largest sending country is India, where typical wages for engineers is a mere $10,000 per year. With this kind wage arbitrage, it’s no wonder that the firms exploiting this loophole are extraordinarily profitable and lobbying to expand the programs.

Second, employers do not have to search for American workers before hiring an H-1B or L-1 and can even replace American workers with H-1Bs and L-1s. News reports indicate that American workers are being replaced by H-1Bs at companies such as Wachovia, A.C. Nielsen, and Pfizer. In a well-known case that captured Congress’s attention, Siemens forced its American workers to train their L-1 replacements.

The third flaw is that the employer, rather than the worker, holds the visa, and as a result H-1B and L-1 workers are in a state of indentured servitude. Should they be terminated, H-1B or L-1 workers would have to leave the country immediately. As a result, H-1B or L-1 workers’ bargaining power is severely limited, and they can easily be exploited by employers.

Unsurprisingly, many firms exploit these loopholes for competitive advantage and profit, at the expense of American workers and the American economy. Some of these practices require a keen eye to observe, such as enabling age-biased hiring or using guest workers as a substitute for investing in workforce development. But others are more obvious, such as the use of the programs to facilitate the offshoring of high-wage high-tech jobs.

For the past five years, the top H-1B and L-1 employers are using the program to offshore tens of thousands of high-wage, high-skilled American jobs. The list is a who’s who in the offshore outsourcing business. Using the H-1B to offshore is so common it has been dubbed the “outsourcing visa” by India’s former commerce minister.

An even more disturbing outcome of these loopholes is that the programs have lost legitimacy among American high-tech workers who rightly believe their careers are purposely being undercut by government policy. This is especially worrisome since these workers are telling American students to avoid STEM professions, which threatens our future capacity to innovate and create jobs for the economy.

Another widespread misconception in the public discussion about employer-based immigration is that the H-1B is often mistakenly equated with permanent residence. But the employer has complete discretion over whether it chooses to sponsor its guest worker for permanent residency, and most of the largest H-1B employers sponsor very few of their H-1Bs for permanent residency. Just to provide one example: Between 2007 and 2009, Accenture hired nearly 1,400 H-1Bs, yet during that same time it sponsored a mere 28 (2 percent) of its H-1Bs for permanent residence. Clearly, many employers choose the H-1B program for cheaper temporary labor rather than permanent immigration. This practice may increase corporate profits, but it harms American workers and the American economy.

We can fix the flaws in the guest worker programs. Bipartisan legislation introduced in the last Congress by Senators Durbin and Grassley addresses the major flaws in the H-1B and L-1 programs. Passing it would create and retain hundreds of thousands of high-wage high-technology jobs with no cost to the taxpayer.

Source:http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-h-b-visas-be-easier-to-get/h-1b-workers-are-in-a-state-of-indentured-servitude

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Manpower outsourcing in South to grow 15 per cent: CII

December 29th, 2011

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The outsourcing industry in South India, which is around Rs 27,000 crore at present, would see around 15 per cent growth in addition to employees in future, with more focus on quality rather than quantity, according to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Among the other Southern States, Tamil Nadu tops in outsourcing employment.

As per the report on Manpower Outsourcing in Southern States, around 10 million (which is around 22 per cent) of the estimated workforce of around 45 million of the select sectors in South India are outsourced. The sectors of interest include banking and finance, fishing and poultry, government departments, IT and ITeS, manufacturing except public sector, retail and trade, service outlets in automotive, services, tourism and travel and transportation including shipping, rail and road.

The outsourced employee base in the region is four times the employment in the IT and ITeS sectors across the country and is comparable to the total workforce in registered manufacturing units. It is also nearly half the size of the total employees of Government of India.

Manufacturing, retail and government sectors are the largest users of outsourced employment. The organisations expect a shift in focus on quality, rather than quantity, which would create a more productive and flexible workforce.

“There has been a 30 per cent increase in the number of contract employees over the last three years and the organisations expect outsourcing to grow in future too.

According to the 132 service providers who were surveyed, the addition to employees that has been growing nearly 40 per cent in the last three years is expected to grow around 15 per cent in future,” says the report.

Around 30,000 units of staffing providers and contractors are registered with the Department of Labour, in South, while there is unregistered contractors in each state, who operate with less than 15 personnel.

There are around 8,500 organised staffing service providers in South India, with an employee base of 1.7 million and billings of over Rs 12,000 crore, in fiscal year 2010.

Recruitment by these contractors, is primarily from rural and semi-urban areas. Women constitute 5-6 per cent of the workforce while over 65 per cent of the workforce is in the age group of 20-30 years, added the study.

However, the sector is also facing challenges including increasing competitiveness in the market, higher attrition rate and lack of clarity in regulations. The government needs to address the regulatory issues and has to create a regulatory framework that would enable higher opportunities for the sector. Labour Act has to be made more uniform and comprehensive, added the report.

Source:http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/manpower-outsourcing-in-south-to-grow-15-per-cent-cii/460053/

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Is Mu Sigma the new wunderkind of outsourcing?

December 29th, 2011

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A little-known analytics firm has snagged $108 million (Rs 580 crore) in funding from two of private equity’s most venerable names, marking itself out as India’s newest rising star in the outsourcing business.

Mu Sigma’s deal with General Atlantic and Sequoia Capital is among the biggest for any analytics company globally and is seen as an endorsement of founder Dhiraj Rajaram’s dogged determination to build a large analytics firm that can rival the likes of Infosys for size.

“This is not a niche business, but a nascent business. We are still at the tip of the iceberg; there is a lot more to come,” Rajaram, who studied computer engineering at Anna University in Chennai and spent many years as a management consultant in the US, told ET.

Although none of those involved in the transaction would comment on the valuation, others who are part of the industry estimate it at around $500 million.

Mu Sigma, founded in 2005 and named after Greek symbols used as mathematical notations, expects turnover next year to exceed $100 million. In comparison, Infosys took 18 years to reach the milestone after its founding in 1981.

“I was a 28-year-old when I started this company and had zero connections. We have built quite a nice company in the past 5-6 years, but taking it to the next level will require us to do things that we have not done in the past and I recognised that,” said Rajaram, who also has an MBA from the University of Chicago. Mu Sigma is profitable, he said, but declined to provide more details.

“The perspective was that not only in the Internet community and Silicon Valley, but also in Main Street, in the board rooms, we have the right reach.”

Sequoia and General Atlantic have built a reputation for backing some of what are now the world’s best-known companies.

FOURTH ROUND OF FUND-RAISING

Apple, Google and Yahoo! are among the companies picked by the former while Facebook and New York Mercantile Exchange count among the latter’s star performers. The latest investment is the fourth round of fund-raising for Mu Sigma, which provides business intelligence, econometric tools and predictive modelling services to help clients such as Microsoft and Dell take major business decisions ranging from new product launches to decoding customer reaction. It employs 1,500 in Bangalore, Chicago (where it is based) and a few other cities in the US.

Sequoia, which took part in the third round earlier this year investing $25 million, has put in around $15 million this time with the rest coming from General Atlantic.

“Mu Sigma is an outlier most investors, including us, believed would not scale,” said Shailendra Singh, managing director of Sequoia Capital in India, adding Rajaram has proved them wrong.

Some of the latest cash infusion will be used to buy back shares from early investors such as Erasmic Ventures. Analytics is not a new business; rather it is a high-margin niche offering that usually comes bundled with IT services provided by the likes of IBM and Accenture or as an accompaniment to strategy advice by consulting majors.

“On the one hand you could think of us as consulting plus applied math minus the high cost. On the other hand, you could think of us as IT plus business plus applied math,” Rajaram, who moved to Bangalore in 2005 from the US to launch Mu Sigma with funding from a close network of early investors and personal savings. While other entrepreneurs would go on to build strong niche analytics businesses that were snapped up by larger companies such as WNS and Cognizant, Rajaram has been steadfast in his ambition to pioneer the next wave of outsourcing.

“My contention is that business analytics can be a large standalone business; perhaps the next IT services out of India,” he said. Forrester Research is of the view that the business intelligence market remains unaffected by the ongoing economic crisis and estimates the market to grow to $14 billion by 2014 from $9.4 billion now.

Raja Lahiri of Grant Thornton, too, said anyone who can provide analytics around big data will generate a lot of interest. “Big data is among the three to four emerging game changers in the next decade.”

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-company/corporate-trends/is-mu-sigma-the-new-wunderkind-of-outsourcing/articleshow/11286059.cms

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