The Outsource Blog

General discussion, news & views about Outsourcing and Offshoring

Posts Tagged ‘Global’

More Gujarat IT companies seek global visibility by participating in CeBIT

February 8th, 2012

More technology companies from Gujarat are now seeking global visibility by increasing participation in international exhibitions.

Of the 23 Indian companies participating in CeBIT (Centrum fur Buroautomation, Informationstechnologie und Telekommunikation i.e. Centre for Office Automation, Information Technology and Telecommunication) to be organised in Germany, eight are from Gujarat.

Local players believe ecosystem for IT industry is coming up in the state and that is encouraging the companies to directly hunt globally for partners and clients.

“This is a good score,” said deputy director of Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), which subsidises the expenses of the companies.

Considered as the barometer in state of the art information technology CeBIT will be held during March 6-10 at Hanover. Ahmedabad-based OpenXcell Technolabs, Cygnet Infotech, Radix Web, Elsner Technologies, SP Technolab, Matrix Comsec (Vadodara) are amongst the list of IT companies expanding their horizon in international market by exhibiting their capabilities in mobile application, game development, web application development, internet marketing, telecom and security solutions.

OpenXcell MD Jayneel Patel believes that CeBIT is an opportunity for smaller companies to get in direct touch with present and potential clients. “Unlike US, companies in Europe like to know their business partners very well before entering into contract. CeBIT is a good place to network with them,” he said.

Over 3,00,000 visitors and 4,200 companies from over 70 countries are likely to participate in CeBIT. Gujarat has over 1,000 small and medium IT companies, mainly relying on outsourcing and scouting for orders using internet. At CeBIT they will showcase their strengths to the visitors in a direct interaction. “Many of the companies in Gujarat are in business for over a decade and have experience and confidence to participate in global events to realise their global dreams,” Minesh Patel, MD of SP Technolabs.

Vadodara-based Matrix Comsec, producer of hardware and software for telecommunications and security solutions is participating in CeBIT for the ninth time. Company officials say the exposure has enabled them to gain business. “Earlier only one or two companies participated in CeBIT. The number of companies is growing steadily,” the Sajeev Nair, head of products (telecom) at Matrix told ET.

Jaimin Shah, former president of Gujarat Electronics and Software Industries Association (GESIA) feels that although the participation is on rise, it is much less compared to the potential Gujarat has for IT industry. “Ecosystem of IT industry is slowly getting build in Gujarat. We have the best infrastructure in terms of availability of power and affordability of real estate. Now talent is also available. More companies should participate in such shows,” he said.

Source:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/more-gujarat-it-companies-seek-global-visibility-by-participating-in-cebit/articleshow/11805787.cms

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: Global Gujarat IT

SEI Selected by Asset Value Investors to Provide Fund Outsourcing Services

February 6th, 2012

Share

SEI announced today that it has been selected by Asset Value Investors (AVI) to provide full fund administration and trustee and custodial services for the investment manager’s new Irish Qualified Investment Funds (QIFs). AVI, a London-based global manager, launched the QIFs to offer its investors a regulated product while still being able to maintain the flexibility of its investment strategies.

Among the key reasons AVI selected SEI was the company’s Manager Dashboard technology, which provides both aggregated and detailed views of data across multiple product lines via a secure website. The Manager Dashboard also provides AVI with analytical tools to enhance its decision-making process. Additionally, SEI’s Investor Dashboard technology makes it easier for AVI to provide flexible, transparent, and institutional-quality investor reporting through a secure website. SEI’s expertise in servicing QIFs, along with the company’s global presence and brand, were also attractive to AVI.

SEI’s comprehensive outsourcing solution encompasses fund administration, accounting, investor servicing, and Irish trustee and custody services. The scalability and adaptability of SEI’s solutions allow for the long-term, consistent support of AVI’s requirements as the manager diversifies its product line-up and investor base.

Philip Masterson, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Development, Europe, within SEI’s Investment Manager Services division, commented:

“AVI is a well-established organisation that has been successfully managing funds for over 25 years. Its business has thrived because it has been able to anticipate and adapt to market needs. In this ‘Era of the Investor,’ investors are demanding greater transparency and better reporting, and we have designed our solutions to meet those needs. We’re pleased to be able to support AVI’s future growth and provide a strong foundation on which to diversify the firm’s portfolios.”

Kimmberly Lau, Business Development Director of Asset Value Investors, added:

“SEI’s global presence, technology, and scalability were critical for us as we sought an independent administrator. We wanted a strategic partner with the expertise, technology, and foresight to help us create a better experience for our investors while also helping us gain efficiencies. We’re pleased that SEI will be filling that role.”

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/sei-selected-by-asset-value-investors-to-provide-fund-outsourcing-services-2012-02-06?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: Global Outsourcing

Global Outsourcing Outlook In 2012

January 31st, 2012

Share

January is an exciting month and being the 1st month of the year, people ponder what would likely be the business scenario for the year. I always look forward on what the experts and research groups may forecast for this year particularly in the outsourcing industry.

In the article I wrote at the beginning of 2011 -January 27, 2011 to be exact in this same paper – I mentioned that 2011 will usher in growth in new set of industries such as healthcare and financial services. And rightly so, the year 2011 results show the popularity of the banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI) business process outsourcing and BFSI applications outsourcing (AO). In fact for 2012, Everest Research Group forecasts growth of about 15% in BFSI globally depending on global economy and majority of this will be driven by the capital markets BPO which is seen to account for the 20% growth. This growth will most likely be led by emerging economies in Asia Pacific and Latin America. Just as in 2011, BFSI will continue to dominate the market with North America being the dominant buyer in terms of geography – Europe and Asia Pacific following behind with growth seen to be faster than the industry average.

The other areas of the market predictions of Everest Group include Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) and HR Outsourcing (HRO) to mention a few and the paper also include a forecast of the whole Global Outsourcing. I will focus more on FAO and HRO since these are the more popular ones in our country today.

For 2012, FAO is seen to bring in 15% growth in the market in Annualized Contract Value (ACV) year on year (YoY) though the cycle to reach a done deal will still remain long. Reason for outsourcing will not just be cost arbitrage but also process transformation. As forecasted in 2011, this year will still be more a phased approach rather than a “big-bang” approach. The over-all ACV is predicted by Everest to cross the 700 mark and will be in the range of US$4.5-5billion. The growth will also spur on the increase role of technology and more inclined for platform and what we call in our Company – SaaS (Software as a Service) proposal catering to SMEs.

Knowledge outsourcing (analytics, internal audit, risk assessment, IT audit, etc.) will continue to increase as its favorable results show in 2011. In the Philippines, knowledge outsourcing has become popular too, as more and more companies turn to outsourcing to leverage on the provider’s expertise. There will also be an emergence of FAO delivery locations outside of India with the increase in services offshore.

In HRO, high growth is expected to continue in standalone single process outsourcing, such as multi-country payroll, benefits and recruitment outsourcing. Multi-country payroll outsourcing will increase among multi-national companies.

Uncertainty in the global macroeconomic and political environment will slow down outsourcing activity in the early part of 2012. Recovery is seen toward the end of the year when business confidence returns. Our country (Philippines) will continue to ride in the bandwagon of outsourcing growth in the above industry segments together with India as established markets, although this growth will not happen in the early part of the year but towards the end of the year with both countries to experience again the labor market pressure (which is really a good problem for the two countries) due to the demand at this period.

In the Philippines, tier 2 cities for outsourcing will continue to grow in outsourcing business and this same thing will also happen to tier 2 cities in India. Tier 1 cities however will dominate Central Eastern Europe and Central and South America.

Outsourcing is a major dollar earner if not the number 1 dollar earner for the Philippines. We have to improve our labor market since from the forecast this year and in the recent years, labor market pressure is a significant constraint in both countries (India and the Philippines). To remain an established market and continue to be the dominant player in the outsourcing industry we should be able to anticipate this concern and find ways to be ready to tackle the demands.

(The writer is the Chairperson of FINEX Publications Committee, VP-Chief Business Development Officer of KPS Outsourcing, Inc and Partner- Inventor, Miranda & Associates. The views expressed herein are her personal views and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of these institutions.)

Source:http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/349802/global-outsourcing-outlook-in-2012

Share and Enjoy:

Comments »

Posted in News

Tags: Global Outsourcing

Didata largest IT services provider to SA

January 24th, 2012

Share

Dimension Data, the global specialist IT solutions and services provider, has been positioned by BMI-TechKnowledge (BMI-T) as the largest provider of IT services to the South African market.

“In its latest IT services market sizing and forecast (2010-2015)report published in December 2011, BMI-T recognised that Dimension Data was still the largest provider of IT services in SA in 2010, accounting for 15.4% of the total IT services market, up from 14.8% in 2009,” the company said on Tuesday.

Business Connexion’s share of the IT services market declined to 9.1%, excluding the UCS deal (from 10.8% in 2009), while T-Systems accounted for 7.1% of the market, the company added.

According to BMI-T, the South African IT services market was valued at R33.8 billion in 2010, reflecting a year-on-year growth of 8.5%. The market was expected to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 9.5% over the five-year forecast period, reaching a total of R53.3 billion by 2015.

“The reason we have grown is because of the quality of our people and their desire to deliver exceptional services to our clients,” Brent Flint, services executive for Dimension Data Middle East and Africa said.

The outsourcing market segment accounted for the largest percentage of the total IT services market. This could be attributed to the increase in the demand for managed services as well as for hosted application management and hosting infrastructure services.

With the move towards managed services, clients now have the choice of outsourcing only selected areas of their IT environment, with the flexibility of simultaneously signing smaller outsourcing services contracts with different service providers, for different IT areas.

“While some players in the South African IT services and outsourcing market struggled to compete, with some placing big bets on signing government contracts, Dimension Data displayed the best non-acquisitive growth out of all the regional players in this space,” Clinton Jacobs, BMI-T senior analyst and report author noted.

In addition, he pointed out that networked managed services proved to be a stand out area for Dimension Data, with strong growth in the IT outsourcing sector and Systems Integration project work. At 15%, Dimension Data had the largest share of the systems integration activity area, accounting for approximately R958 million of total revenue.

Dimension Data was able to draw on the synergies between itself, Internet Solutions and Plessey to enable cross-collaboration across many solutions and services, all to the ultimate benefit of its clients.

BMI-T reported that the maintenance, support and upgrade service segment was expected to account for the largest portion of the total IT services market, while hosting was expected to reflect the fastest growth rate over the five-year forecast period, with a CAGR of 18.1%.

Managed services were also expected to reflect a significant growth over the forecast period, with a CAGR of 14.6%.

“As more companies realise the importance of focusing on their core business processes and the internal skills needed to support them, this will help them evaluate what should be run internally and what should be outsourced or run as a managed service. Dimension Data accounted for 23% of managed services revenue in SA, with an estimated amount of R1.5 billion for 2010,” Jacobs said.

Another segment that reflected a good year-on-year increase was hosting, which grew by 19.5%, reaching a total of R2.5 billion in 2010. Dimension Data accounted for 41% of the total hosting revenues, with an estimated amount of R1 billion for 2010. The full outsourcing segment accounted for 18% of the IT services market, reflecting a decline of 2.5% from 2009.

“Growth in the managed services market can be attributed to an increasing demand from organisations to gain access to the best IT skills in the market, without the cost and administration of employing them directly,” Flint said.

“With the Dimension Data service models and significant investments we have made in our systems, we’re able to replicate and provide services to organisations that were traditionally only available to very large companies,” he added.

This came on the back of the recent announcement by Gartner that Dimension Data had been positioned in the leaders quadrant of the magic quadrant for communications outsourcing and professional services global report.

Source:http://www.moneyweb.co.za/mw/view/mw/en/page292518?oid=560347&sn=2009+Detail&pid=287226

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: Global IT

Indian IT industry to grow despite global crisis

January 9th, 2012

Share

The Indian IT industry is hopeful of maintaining its growth momentum in 2012 despite global economic uncertainty and concerns over the fallout of the sovereign debt crisis in Europe.

“The Indian IT sector, especially software services, will do well to sustain the growth momentum as demand for its offerings in export and domestic markets continue to be favorable despite uncertainty, arising mainly out of the Euro crisis,” a top industry representative told IANS ahead of the third quarterly (Oct-Dec) earnings season.

Asserting that the market conditions were not as bad as they were in 2008-10 when global financial meltdown reduced the industry’s growth to single digit (six per cent) in fiscal 2009-10, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) president Som Mittal said software exports would be in line with the projected 15-17 per cent to generate about $70 billion in 2011-12 as against $59 billion in 2010-11.

“We are cautious about the outlook for the ensuing fiscal (2012-13) due to concerns over the Euro crisis. Though we don’t know how it (crisis) would play out eventually, we are optimistic that our services will be in demand as clients will continue to engage us for their business operations, which are non-discretionary,” Mittal said.

The results season starts Jan 12 when bellwether Infosys will announce results for its third quarter ending Dec 31, 2011.

Analysts are also upbeat on the overall performance of the software services sector owing to the long-term contracts of IT projects and the transformational jobs they are involved in providing more for less.

“As evident from their robust performance during the first half (April-September) of this fiscal, we expect the topline growth of the IT majors to be higher than a year ago and sequentially better than the second quarter due to increase in service offerings, client acquisitions and new lines of business such as cloud computing, mobile applications and outsourcing of more IT-enabled services, including remote infrastructure management and data mining,” an analyst told IANS.

A sharp depreciation of the rupee to 53 from 49 against the US dollar during the October-December quarter is also expected to improve the operating margins and profitability of the software export firms despite anticipated losses in hedging at a higher rate.

“Benefit from a depreciating rupee will only be a short-term gain on exports but continued volatility in the forex (foreign exchange) market is a cause for concern as it will have an impact on the overseas operations of IT majors and budgets in exploring businesses in emerging markets. Sharp fluctuations in shorter cycles are detrimental either way,” Mittal noted.

Notwithstanding the looming Euro crisis, the latest data on job gains in the US, which accounts for over 60 per cent of the Indian IT exports, augurs well, though the pace of economic recovery has been slower than expected.

“Job gains or losses in the US are largely in the manufacturing, transportation, retail trade and construction sectors and not in the services sector, which continues to be healthy. Increase in employment in other sectors indicates signs of recovery and investments,” Mittal said.

According a research study by an international bank, the Indian IT vendors are in a position to pitch for multi-billion dollar deals that are due for renewal this year and compete for large annual contracts that are up for grabs in new service lines.

“In hard times, when companies across verticals look for cutting costs and focus on core business, they will scout for partners to manage their non-core activities such as IT services, which means more business for our sector,” Mittal added.

Source:http://news.ciol.com/News/News-Reports/Indian-IT-industry-to-grow-despite-global-crisis/158652/0/

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: Global Indian IT

IT firms seek better facilities

January 4th, 2012

Share

Representatives of city-based IT and ITES firms deplored the lack of proper infrastructure and other facilities in Vizag, which of late, has been emerging as one of the fastest developing cities in the country.

At a meeting held here on Tuesday, members of the Rushikonda Information Technology Park Associa-tion (RITPA) urged the local MP and Union minister of state for human resource development, Ms D. Purandeswari, to take steps immediately so that IT imports from city could improve.

Association representative O. Naresh Kumar pointed that IT exports from Hyderabad was recorded at Rs.36,000 crore while the rest of Andhra Pradesh amounted to only Rs.1,000 crore, which shows that Vizag’s contribution is minimal due to lack of proper facilities.

“IT SEZs here are struggling to reach the set targets due to poor facilities like lack of drinking water, uninterrupted power supply, public transport, dedicated telephone lines and other facilities,” said Mr Naresh.

Other representatives felt that domestic business should be improved in the light of the global slowdown and cities like Vizag would play a very crucial role.

They also said that many multinational companies that have set up IT operations in India were not deploying outsourcing personnel due to the tax structure where 10 per cent TDS is being deducted on payments received from domestic works and the levy of income tax on profits and sales tax on software, while all these taxes are exempt on exports.

Speaking at the meeting, Ms Purandeswari assured all possible help to make Vizag an IT destination. “This is first time that the association has brought their problems to my notice. Most of these issues are related to both the Union and the state governments. If IT companies come forward I will try setting up a soft skill training centre, under private-public-participation,” she added.

Source:http://www.deccanchronicle.com/channels/cities/regions/visakhapatnam/it-firms-seek-better-facilities-729

Share and Enjoy:

Comments Off »

Posted in News

Tags: Global IT

Navigating the global headwinds

January 2nd, 2012

Share

The year 2011 has been one of the worst years for the Indian rupee. The rupee has virtually crashed, posting the biggest annual loss since 2008. From 44.81 on December 31, 2010, the rupee depreciated to 53.11 against the American dollar on December 30, 2011. This is a huge loss in the rupee value — close to 16 per cent drop against the dollar. For the IT (information technology) industry, too, the rupee slide can prove a big challenge in the days to come.

The IT industry is already facing myriad concerns which have, of late, made the global environment tough for the Indian IT, ITeS (IT-enabled services), outsourcing and call centre outfits.

Can the Indian IT juggernaut ride the headwinds and the volatility in the global economy? As they ring in a new year, these companies have to ponder a lot and calculate the collateral damage to their business arising out of assorted negative implications of events in 2011. Surely, the men and boys in the industry will be identified sooner than later by the way the leadership of these companies navigate the global headwinds.

A unique angle

“I think the global foreign exchange fluctuations are having a unique angle. The appreciating yen against the dollar is making more Japanese pack their bags and travel. A stronger Australian dollar against the Singapore currency is forcing reverse traffic from Australia to Singapore for shopping. Indians are wary of travel now with the dollar and the pound sterling at such high numbers,” points out a CEO of an IT infrastructure management company, who shuffles around the globe regularly. “The year 2012 will produce pronounced woes due to this imbalance even to the IT industry,” he argues.

A spate of not-so-encouraging initiatives — the subtle visa curbs imposed by the U.S., the rising anger within America against outsourcing work and the move by law-makers to slip through a bill that penalises companies that move jobs outside the U.S. — have all made for an inclement global environment for the Indian software industry. With the elections round the corner in the U.S., things appear to be going tough for the software firms.

To add to their discomfiture, the U.S. has accorded the most favoured nation status to Colombia, which is doing every bit to attract BPO (business process outsourcing) work. “There will be an added impact of the recent free trade agreements (FTA) that improve upon the WTO’s General Agreement on Trade in Services, especially in Colombia,” sources point out.

The U.S. is trying hard to promote telecom trade with Colombia. “The FTA will allow Colombian companies to provide services at a higher quality. Colombia now has the MFN status along with other Andean nations. Higher levels of intellectual property protection will also be implemented that will be applicable to every kind of services, but particularly on the IT side and some BPO services,” they add. All these bound to have a dampening effect on the Indian companies.

Coming as it does against this anti-outsourcing sentiment, the big slide in the rupee may force the IT industry to re-work its game plan. Sources aver that there could be a bit of rebalancing. As a consequence, the ‘Indian outsourcers’ could end up creating more U.S. jobs to address the sentiment. One has to wait and watch as to what cost implications would this have on the Indian companies. As the Indian firms are turning to be global players, they could not possibly brush aside global concerns.

Given the emerging tough environment, which is getting tougher by the day, the domestic software industry may even think of efforts to insulate themselves against all kinds of adverse factors. “Most customers are hurting themselves.” They could soon start a campaign for renegotiating, feels a top functionary of an IT company. Let us say customer `A’ pays Indian vendor `A’ $ 4,000 per man month. Let us also assume that the rate at the time of signing the contract was Rs. 45 per dollar. When the rate goes to Rs.50, the customer would like to peg it to $ 3,500 per man month. “Today, we have a flat rate. Now, savvy customers are asking for a table where they take a rolling average of the last three months’ conversion price and peg the per person rate based on that three month average,” points out a top IT source. Is it feasible? A definite answer will depend on the ability of the Indian companies to bargain. One thing, however, is sure at the moment. The domestic IT firms are headed for a `heady’ few quarters.