Some of the key new features introduced with this release include:

A New Prebuy Module: Allows buyers to construct various media plans for a campaign, compare the plans and identify which one best meets campaign goals, and activate that plan so buys can be placed.

Advanced reporting capabilities: Supports multi-channel marketing. Users can easily compare broadcast, online, mobile, print and other marketing channels.

Shortcuts: Automatically create and email PI payout reports to all stations and media outlets with active PI contracts.

“The 2012 release of MMS is part of InfoTech’s ongoing dedication to offering our direct response clients state-of-the-art applications,” said Derek Viglianti, InfoTech’s EVP of Marketing Systems. “We are constantly responding to client needs, while using the most advanced Web technology available.” Regarding future releases, Mr. Viglianti said, “We have many more features on the way, including reporting on iPad and other tablet devices.”

Source:http://www.marketwatch.com/story/infotech-releases-2012-version-of-media-management-system-2011-10-19

Pakistan’s attractiveness as a destination for offshore locations for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has decreased over the last two years and the country’s global ranking fell by eight positions, according to Global Services Location Index (GSLI) ranking report published by AT Kearney.

The significance of reports like these lies in their ability to deter customers from markets. Basically, rankings are used by people and corporations while considering outsourcing.

Infotech CEO Naseer Akhtar said that this will have a negative impact on BPO business growth because the world looks at such rankings before “engaging with right partners.”

GSLI, established in 2004, gives each country a score based on a combination of scores in three categories – financial attractiveness, people’s skills and business environment.

While this might be a worrying phenomenon for the growing BPO industry in the country, Systems Limited CEO and Pakistan Software Houses Association Chairman Ashraf Kapadia said that rankings were just perceptions, saying that a significant proportion of Systems Limited income comes from BPO, and Pakistan’s BPO industry was still growing.

The report also states that the country is far away from market leaders in the category of people’s skills and their availability.

Pakistan ranked fourth with Vietnam in the category of financial attractiveness and ranked lowest in terms of infrastructure and security, according to the report.
Kapadia said that the perception of troubled security discouraged people from choosing Pakistan for outsourcing. “We have never lost a day of business due to security issues, but we lose out on the perception front,” he said.

Akhtar, however, believed the ranking may have decreased because of two reasons – researchers had not been able to capture the correct data and methodology. “I think we should ask AT Kearney as to how they collected the data on which they based their results,” he said.
He pointed to marketing as the second reason, saying that stakeholders including governments, business forums and relevant associations had been unable to market Pakistan properly.

Source:http://tribune.com.pk/story/160588/business-process-outsourcing-ranking-plummets/

3i Infotech, a global information technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) company, today announced enhanced capabilities and a new partnership to help corporate clients keep pace with a rapidly changing revenue collection environment and shifting consumer preferences. By focusing on optimizing the entire end-to-end cash collection process, 3i Infotech serves as advisor, facilitator and integrator for companies concerned with the growing costs and management requirements of their many billing and payment channels.

“We are dedicated to helping clients handle changing consumer billing and payment habits through the intelligent application of technology and key partnerships with top tier service providers,” said Kathy Hamburger, Chief Executive Officer and President, 3i Infotech, BPO & Developed Markets.

“Whether it’s managing multiple existing billing and payment channels for clients or guiding them through the integration of new presentment and cash collection capabilities, we simplify their complex processes while relieving administrative, operational and cost pressures.”

As part of this strategy, 3i Infotech separately today announced a partnership with Zumbox, preceding the upcoming NACHA Payments conference on April 3-6 in Austin, TX. This partnership enables 3i Infotech clients to send electronic bills and other customer communications via Zumbox’s digital postal system. Zumbox is a prime example of 3i Infotech’s larger effort to provide clients with a wide array of billing, payment and technology options for their customers, whether delivered by 3i Infotech directly or through one of its ever-expanding list of partner relationships.

Currently, companies assembling an electronic revenue collection strategy have to wrestle with a fragmented marketplace involving a multitude of vendor and technology relationships. Alternatively, 3i Infotech acts as a single resource to manage those relationships, implement new technologies and serve as a guide to help determine the best approach for each individual company. For example, 3i Infotech can act as a central revenue collection hub for clients. Taking a single billing file from the client, 3i Infotech splits the file among multiple outbound delivery channels based on customer preferences. When the corresponding inbound payments are received from different sources and processed, paper and electronic payments of all types are consolidated into a single A/R file and returned to the client. All the while, the client has complete visibility and control over the entire process through an intuitive web interface.

These new services and partnership fall under 3i Infotech’s Global Billing & Payments Center of Excellence (CoE). The CoE leverages the company’s deep domain expertise and global resources to best serve companies interested in optimizing their entire billing and payment lifecycle. 3i Infotech’s services extend beyond electronic channels to paper billing and remittance, document processing, data management, software, and IT services for a truly comprehensive solution.

3i Infotech will be discussing additional details of this new partnership at booth #309 at the NACHA Payment Conference.

Source:http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/3i-Infotech-Extends-Electronic-Billing-Payments-Strategy-With-New-Partnership-Services-1419603.htm

Indian infotech giant Wipro Saturday said it won a five-year outsourcing contract from Vasan Eye Care, a unit of Tamil Nadu-based Vasan Healthcare group.

“The scope of service includes entire IT infrastructure management, encompassing data centre management and end-user support services,” Wipro vice-president for managed IT services Kiran Desai said in a statement here.

Headquartered at Tiruchirapally in Tamil Nadu, Vasan Eye Care delivers ophthalmic care to over five million patients across the southern states.

With about 500 ophthalmologists and 3,500 paramedical staff, the group has a network of 75 hospitals in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

“As we are synonymous with world-class eye care and expertise, we are outsourcing our entire IT infrastructure management to Wipro to achieve our vision of becoming the world’s largest eye care provider,” Vasan chairman and managing director A.M. Arun said.

“With our expertise and experience in managing IT infrastructure and applications, we will help deliver superior service to customers of Vasan Eye Care,” Desai said.

Source:http://www.southasiamail.com/news.php?id=91801

Scrambling to cope with rising wages, worsening attrition and people-led growth, India’s top technology firms are for the first time beginning to explore sub-contracting of projects to smaller vendors.

Though they account for less than a per cent of the total projects delivered by TCS, Infosys and Wipro, officials and experts tracking the sector say these companies could sub-contract up to 5% of their work over the next five years.

The prime drivers are mitigating the risks of high attrition and wage inflation. These projects involve mostly commoditised skills and do not need complex programming expertise or understanding of a particular domain.

“Some executives from our own company are proposing that they can launch sub-contracting business provided we give them assured business. We have started two pilots,” said a senior official at one of the top five Indian technology firms.

Outsourcing majors are also loathe to add more staff on their payroll and hence sub-contracting work — to firms like Magna Infotech — becomes an important option. Magna Infotech was acquired by Bangalore-based staffing firm Ikya for Rs 100 crore last week. Having found a partner to take care of working capital, Magna now plans to increase its headcount from 5,000 to over 10,000 over the next few years. The company serves some of the top multinational outsourcing firms and is seeing increased interest from Indian tech firms to sub-contracting.

“We are ready to inform customers, wherever needed, on sub-contracting. Many Indian outsourcing customers do not mind,” said the head of domestic IT business at one of the top 10 Indian tech firms. Already, the Indian contracted staff market is expected to become around $2.5 billion industry in five years.

Globally, companies such as IBM have been subcontracting commoditised projects to smaller, niche vendors such as Infinite Computer Solutions over past many years. While ET could not verify the quantum of work currently sub-contracted by IBM, several officials and experts tracking the company said the Big Blue gives away at least 15% of its work to professionals outside of its payroll.

“Given the fact that there are more ups and downs and that there is a need to expand the bench for contracts without taking any hit on the bottomline, you will see more of sub-contracting,” says Sid Pai, managing director of outsourcing advisory firm, TPI India.

Experts such as Rodney Nelsestuen of TowerGroup say that for sub-contracting to drive growth, a level of trust is essential with the US customers. “At one end of the spectrum, one might see the day when an outsourcing company doesn’t own their production but contracts all of it out. That is, a new type of vendor may emerge that takes on an outsourcing contract but essentially sub-contracts most or all of the work,” Nelsestuen says.

“Once a level of trust is established, US companies may become comfortable with the process. While I don’t have an estimate on the size of this market as a part of overall outsourcing spending, sub-contracting may be a means to grow the entire business for a vendor since they can offer additional services at reasonable prices and with a quick start up by tapping sub-contracting vendors,” he added.

As demand for more temporary IT staff gains momentum, firms such as Magna will face challenges of taking it to the next level. Another driver for hiring more temporary staff is that IT firms want to arrest their linear-people-led growth. Moreover, temporary staffing helps in bringing down people costs by at least 25%.

Experts say sub-contracting can be a means to reduce ‘bench’ strength, or additional resources that are not always employed in projects. Based on the continued growth of outsourcing, this specialisation may be the way of the future and may offer smaller, boutique firms a better chance at survival.

For some, like software programmer Anirudh Jain — who worked with a Pune-based tech firm until last year — working on a part-time, sub-contracted project means more flexibility. “There’s no swiping the card business, no dealing with bureaucratic managers at the top. I now work for 8-10 months every year, and travel around for rest of the year,” Jain, 28, says.

But not everybody is comfortable working for an unknown firm, where projects are not exciting enough. “It’s a good proposition as an entrepreneur. But as a professional, I would rather work with either an exciting start-up or an Infosys instead of some subcontracting firm,” says Trishna Shankar, a software programmer based in New Delhi.

But for many customers, sub-contracting to unknown vendors by primary contractors is worrying. Moreover, sending projects to another, smaller vendor also means risks that need tighter controls.

“Some of our banking customers are particular about where the data moves. So, this won’t sell with them,” said another official at a Bangalore-based mid-size tech firm. “End of the day, the genesis of Indian IT industry is based on staff augmentation and sub-contracting, so it’s been used for a long time,” says Pai.

Source:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/enterprise-it/strategy/Big-IT-cos-sub-contracting-projects/articleshow/6946385.cms

Larsen & Toubro Infotech has set up a new office in Dubai, which would serve as the company’s Middle-East regional office and solution center.

The office located in Dubai’s largest dedicated free zone for the outsourcing industry Dubai Outsource Zone would serve as the regional hub and provide an entire range of end to end information technology services and solutions.

Mr Sudip Banerjee CEO of Larsen & Toubro Infotech said that “The decision to move our operations to this strategic business hub is a part of our global strategy to strengthen and accelerate our Middle-East focus and we are confident that we will be able to leverage this decision to establish ourselves as a major provider of IT services and solutions to our esteemed clients in the region.”

Mr Malek Al Malek MD of Dubai Internet City and DOZ said that “We strive to provide our business partners with world class facilities and a location that empowers them to leverage Dubai’s strength as the regional business hub. DOZ offers incentives to companies, enabling them to capitalize on the limitless opportunities that arise out of being based in such a unique destination.”

Mr Malek added that L&T Infotech will benefit from the host of services at the business park, including networking avenues with similar companies and state of the art infrastructure.

Source:http://www.steelguru.com/middle_east_news/Larsen_and_Toubro_Infotech_opens_new_office_in_Dubai/171154.html

Rishad Premji, the older of the two scions of Wipro Ltd’s billionaire chairman Azim Premji, inched closer to the top job at India’s third largest software exporter.

On Wednesday the junior Premji stepped into a new role as the chief strategy officer of the company’s information technology business-the cash cow of the multi-billion dollar Wipro empire. He is slowly making his way into the crucial decision-making circles of the group.

The 33-year old Harvard graduate will work with incumbent K.R. Lakshminarayana and fine-tune his skills to decide business strategies for both Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech–the global and local IT arms of Wipro which account for about 88% of Wipro’s revenue—before taking over the post on his own in January.

Mr. Premji joined Wipro in June 2007 as a business manager at the company’s banking, financial services and insurance business. Last year he moved into the post of general manager of treasury and investor relations. Analysts and Wipro insiders have long considered him next in line for the crown.

His father, once India’s wealthiest man and still among the most moneyed in the world, took his family’s business, which was originally just a vegetable oil trading company and turned it into an IT behemoth.

If Rishad wants to run the family business he has to be ready to deal with the ongoing struggles in the competitive software and outsourcing industry, analysts said.

“The challenges at the top position would mainly be in capturing market share, dealing with currency fluctuations and increasing protectionist sentiment,” said analyst Harit Shah of Mumbai-based Karvy Stock Broking.

With some years under his belt working with the rank and file, he looks set to dive straight into the boardroom and guard the family jewels-Wipro Technologies and Wipro Infotech, analysts said.

Source:http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/09/02/wipro-crowns-its-prince/

ITC Infotech is working with Oracle to provide Loyalty & Marketing based BPO services. As per the BPO initiative agreement, ITC Infotech will have the non-exclusive license to use the Loyalty & Marketing program solution offered by Oracle.

B. Sumant, Managing Director, ITC Infotech, said, “We are extending our value proposition on loyalty services to our customers by working closely with Oracle. Loyalty is a key growth area for ITC Infotech and we are witnessing significant traction in this area. Companies across the board are looking at enhancing customer relations and strengthening customer retention.”

ITC Infotech plans to expand its services to the BPO market globally through this working relationship. Oracle’s cutting edge offerings will support ITC Infotech in providing customers loyalty, marketing & customer relationship management (CRM) solutions in an outsourced business process model.

Commenting on the announcement, Tibor Beles, Vice President, Oracle Business Process Outsourcing, said “Our BPO Powered by Oracle program focuses on creating and developing relationships to provide enhanced services to our end customers through working with BPO service providers that have deep domain expertise and strong execution capabilities. ITC Infotech has carved a niche in the loyalty and marketing services arena, and the new Oracle-based offering will be extremely well positioned to address a growing demand for comprehensive loyalty outsourcing services.”

Source:http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/ITC_Infotech_teams_with_Oracle_to_extend_business_value_-nid-70692.html

Mid-sized enterprises in the US, Europe and Africa, which until now never outsourced to India, are looking at offshoring due to cost pressures in the post-recession period.

Many enterprises in the Fortune 500-2000 bracket are in talks or signing deals with smaller Indian IT service providers, which will help boost their revenues in the medium term. IT CEOs hold the view that new outsourcers will add to their company’s volume growth, further strengthening the Indian IT industry’s recovery.

Top officials of IT firms and analysts told FE that the new outsourcers include Unity Bank of Nigeria and First Community Bank (FCB) of Kenya. Unity Bank is one of Nigeria’s leading retail bank with 222 business offices. It is already in JV with 3i Infotech.

A few Indian service providers are believed to be in advanced discussions with an insurance firm in Egypt, and also in talks with New York Commercial Bank, SWIFT, CLS Bank and Deutsche Post, Germany’s postal services provider.

SWIFT is a Belgian firm providing secure financial messaging services while CLS Bank provides multi-currency cash settlement systems. CLS has already partnered with IBM to develop and manage its IT applications and infrastructure.

Confirming the new trend, mid-tier IT firm MindTree said first time outsourcers boosted its June quarter revenues by 1.5%. The firm acquired 31 customers during the period, four of which were new ones. Sonata Software added nine clients during the quarter, two of them being first time outsourcers. 3i Infotech spoke of a strong pipeline from enterprises which were once off-shoring shy. The firm is pursuing three deals in the UK and five in the US.

“Mid-sized enterprises who have survived the recession believe they need to drive more efficiency. Lot of first time offshorers are coming to India and they are a lot more comfortable working with mid-tier IT players,” CEO & MD of MindTree Krishnakumar Natarajan said.

Companies in Germany and France are under cost pressures, said Som Sarma, global IT services head of 3i Infotech and former European operations chief of Satyam. “Traditional German firms have outsourced some work but have not taken the advantage of offshoring in a big way. Language was a major factor. These firms are now realising that their existence will be sustainable if they come up to global cost capabilities,” he said.

“We are seeing first time outsourcers in the Outsourced Product Development (OPD) space. A customer wanted to modernise his product offerings and star.

Source:http://offshoresoftwaredevelopmentodctestingoutsourc.blog.com/2010/08/09/mid-size-firms-eye-indian-bpos-for-outsourcing/

In today’s digitally emerged and technically enhanced business world there will be none who doesn’t know about Information Technology. Even an illiterate says its computers related stuff as an answer to a question of what IT is. Such is the advancement of IT in our day to day lives. Even a third grade student knows how to operate a computer and play games in it.

Thanks to the software boom that metamorphosed India to a modern & higher level. That boom changed the lives of many young talents in India providing them the never before employment opportunity and enabling them to spend like never before. In totality this revolution or more precisely an unexpected transformation increased the purchasing power or purchasing capacity of an average Indian. India, best known for saving the earnings, stood top among the amount of international money transfers from across different countries to itself.

Speaking about IT Jobs, there has been a constant dip in the number of software jobs available in India and abroad. Due to the plunge in the Indian economy there have been many layoffs and salary cuts of different employees in different companies across the globe. What was a boom seven years back is now an acute plunge or what they call a disaster.

There has been more unemployment since the layoffs of different software professionals. There are many IT Jobs like software consultant, computer engineer, software engineer, program manger et al. in various companies like TCS, WIPRO, HCL InfoTech, 3i InfoTech, CTS and many others. During the recession times, there have been about one lakh lay offs only in Indian IT sector. Such pathetic was the situation at that time during the recession. IT Jobs also include Hardware installation technician, network administrator, system administrator et al.

With recession recovering in the days to come IT professionals hope to be reinstated in their jobs or at least taken back into their company. The dip was mainly because the stopping of huge number of outsourcing projects by United States to our country of which many of them are IT projects. This was an action taken by the current president of United States Barrack Obama in an intention to increase the employment opportunities in his country. If the outsourcing of IT projects by U.S companies to Indian IT firms is stopped then they (those U.S companies) have to outsource their projects to the domestic companies there which will require more work forces for the U.S IT firms.

In order to overcome this lack of manpower they (U.S IT firms) will have to recruit people which will in turn improve the employment opportunities for the local people. So, with the recovery of Indian IT firms there soon is going to be plenty of IT Jobs opportunities for the young talents.

Source:http://www.snapnews.co.uk/worldnews/it-jobs-opportunities-for-the-young-talents/

Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East IT Business of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services, today announced that it has been named the leader in the Managed IT Services market by Springboard Research, a leading Market Research firm. The report titled “Indian Managed IT Services Market,” provides comprehensive insights and practical outcomes for the Indian managed IT services market from an end-user and supplier perspective.

According to the report, the IT managed services market in India is expected to reach US$3.8 billion in 2013 from US$1.6B in 2009, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 22.8% — higher than the growth rate of overall IT services market. As per the report, Wipro has the highest market share in India.

Wipro’s significant focus on large customer acquisitions with specific domain centric solutions has catapulted the company in to the leadership position in Managed Services. Wipro has built a healthy pipeline across industry verticals and strengthened its presence by winning strategic deals and launching new solutions.

The year 2009 saw some marquee wins and multi-year deals being signed by Wipro, the most visible of them being, a multi-million dollar outsourcing contract from Unitech Wireless (A Unitech Telenor company) and another from Lavasa for developing India’s first and complete e-city. In October last year, Wipro also won a 10 year total outsourcing deal from Delhi International Airport (P) Limited (DIAL) to provide world class IT Infrastructure and Services for Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), New Delhi. In the government space, Wipro won a large e-governance contract from Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for automating healthcare administration benefiting millions. Some other key wins include two mission mode projects under the National e-governance plan (NeGP) for Maharashtra and Gujarat State Data Centers.

“These significant and transformational deals, demonstrate Wipro’s growing maturity in the domestic market.. We are pleased with the findings of Springboard Research which is testimony to our superior delivery capabilities, process maturity and governance frameworks in managing large, complex and multi technology environments, effectively,” said Vice President, Managed IT services, Wipro Infotech, Kiran Desai.

Source:http://www.webnewswire.com/node/540937

Wipro Infotech, the India and Middle East IT Business of Wipro Ltd and a leading provider of IT and business transformation services, has announced that it has been named the leader in the Managed IT Services market by Springboard Research, a leading Market Research firm. The report titled “Indian Managed IT Services Market,” provides comprehensive insights and practical outcomes for the Indian managed IT services market from an end-user and supplier perspective.

According to the report, the IT managed services market in India is expected to reach US$3.8 bn in 2013 from US$1.6B in 2009, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 22.8% — higher than the growth rate of overall IT services market. As per the report, Wipro has the highest market share in India.

Wipro’s significant focus on large customer acquisitions with specific domain centric solutions has catapulted the company in to the leadership position in Managed Services. Wipro has built a healthy pipeline across industry verticals and strengthened its presence by winning strategic deals and launching new solutions.

The year 2009 saw some marquee wins and multi-year deals being signed by Wipro, the most visible of them being, a multi-million dollar outsourcing contract from Unitech Wireless (A Unitech Telenor company) and another from Lavasa for developing India’s first and complete e-city. In October last year, Wipro also won a 10 year total outsourcing deal from Delhi International Airport (P) Limited (DIAL) to provide world class IT Infrastructure and Services for Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA), New Delhi.

In the government space, Wipro won a large e-governance contract from Employee State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) for automating healthcare administration benefiting millions. Some other key wins include two mission mode projects under the National e-governance plan (NeGP) for Maharashtra and Gujarat State Data Centers.

“These significant and transformational deals, demonstrate Wipro’s growing maturity in the domestic market.. We are pleased with the findings of Springboard Research which is testimony to our superior delivery capabilities, process maturity and governance frameworks in managing large, complex and multi technology environments, effectively,” said Vice President, Managed IT services, Wipro Infotech, Kiran Desai.

Source:http://www.indiainfoline.com/Markets/News/Wipro-Infotech-leads-the-Indian-Managed-IT-Services-market/4854722257

Authentic Infotech has been offering technology enabled business solutions for various industry verticals such as educational institutions, business enterprises and government organizations worldwide. Some of their specialized offerings include Online Business Identity creation, Search Engine Optimization, Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Web Portal Development, E-commerce Solutions, Custom Application Development and Outsourcing Services.

Since Authentic Infotech is already providing IT and Business consulting for various organizations, this merger provides mutually beneficial business opportunities for both Authentic Infotech and Hitzsoft Technologies. Through this merger, Authentic Infotech becomes an end-to-end solution provider, which provides both consulting service and the products required for the businesses.

“Software applications for mass email, bulk sms, etc., have become one of the essentials for businesses to reach more people directly and promote business cost-effectively. Until this merger, we have been prescribing some third-party applications to our clients as part of our business consulting service. Now, with this merger, we can offer Hitzsoft applications to meet our clients exact requirements” said Ms. Ayesha Sadiq, Sr. Vice President – Authentic Infotech.

This merger has brought the industry expertise of Authentic Infotech together with the technical expertise of Hitzsoft. While creating more business opportunities for these two companies, this merger is also expected to bring more benefits for businesses worldwide to harness the power of technology.

Source:http://www.pr.com/press-release/208735

Denmark’s largest pension fund company, ATP, has expressed a desire to outsource its internal information technology (IT) management and back-office works to Indian service providers.

It is understood to have issued request for proposals (RFPs) for technology upgrade and support works worth over $500 million (Rs 2,300 crore). Most Indian IT outsourcing companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro, HCL and L&T Infotech, have responded, according to sources privy to the development.

The contract, according to the sources, include two different components one for mainframe and IT infrastructure support and management, which includes setting up and managing of data centres, and the second one is for hosting SAP services, with complete maintenance and environmental support. It is understood that ATP was already working with a leading global tier-I supplier (not from India) for its IT infrastructure management and support. However, they decided to cancel the contract and go for a fresh bid, not being satisfied with the services from the existing vendor.

“The RFPs had gone to 18-20 companies, of which they are in the process of finalising the final names. They are expected to finalise the names in the next couple of weeks,” a highly placed industry sources told Business Standard.

Even though ATP has initially decided to float the contract through the government (Denmark) channel, they had to open it due to European Union (EU) guidelines. Since the contract mandated setting up of huge data centres in Denmark and Copenhagen, a lot of Danish players have also participated in it. Indian IT services companies, including TCS, Wipro and HCL, run huge data centres for their clients in most European countries, including the Nordic region.

It is also understood that Nordea, a financial services group headquartered out of Copenhagen, is also looking at outsourcing to Indian software vendors. The company is in the process of finalising multi year IT outsourcing contracts, which will fetch a revenue of $70 million per annum.

The IT services market in the Nordics is estimated to be $10-12 billion and is growing at a compunded annual rate of 5 per cent. The Nordic region, according to a recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers, is witnessing high ICT adoption and R&D investments, and is gradually opening up to offshoring as a means of sustaining organisational competitiveness.

Due to high cost structures, enterprises in most of the Nordic countries, including Denmark,Finland and Sweden, are looking at low cost destinations like India. This gives them a cost advantage in the range of 30-40 per cent, says industry sources. They add that Indian IT outsourcing services’ providers are finding the financial services space in Europe and Nordic region a lucrative proposition.

“Last quarter alone, we are seeing a very good traction in terms of deal outflow from leading European banks. We are expected to see a flurry of activities in the financial services and insurance space in Europe, in areas such as mutual fund, hedge fund and private equity,” said an analyst working with a leading consulting company.

Source:http://sify.com/finance/it-majors-vie-for-500-million-danish-pension-fund-contract-news-technology-kbibOzfjjga.html?scategory=Technology

Infotech Enterprises Ltd. will take over the India design office of U.S. chip maker IDT Inc. for “no payment,” Infotech Chairman B.V.R. Mohan Reddy said Friday.

He didn’t give any financial details, such as whether Infotech is taking on any debt or other liabilities.

The office is a captive business process outsourcing unit of California-based IDT and has 32 employees.

“They thought a third party could do a much better job and sold it to us,” Mr. Reddy, who is also managing director, told Dow Jones Newswires.

IDT executives didn’t immediately respond to emailed questions.

IDT has been restructuring its operations as the chip industry worldwide struggled during the global economic slowdown with customers cutting back or shelving technology spending.

Infotech will integrate the captive business process outsourcing center into its hitech business unit, which primarily designs chips.

Infotech will get assured business from the acquisition for the next 15 months, and the unit will start adding to the company’s revenue beginning Dec. 7, said Mr. Reddy.

“That’s an ideal fit into our environment,” Mr. Reddy said.

Infotech caters to the engineering and automotive sectors and develops chips for the semiconductor, telecom and computing equipment markets.

Source:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704007804574575423793941170.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

3i Infotech, a global technology solutions and services provider, announced the appointment of Parag Patankar as managing director and CEO for 3i Infotech BPO.

Patankar joins 3i Infotech from Development Credit Bank Limited where he was executive vice president and chief operations & technology officer.

Commenting on the appointment, V Srinivasan, MD & CEO, 3i Infotech, said Patankar’s deep knowledge of BFSI industry, coupled with his long experience in technology and operations relating to BFSI, will be able to add immense value to 3i Infotech BPO.

Underlining the recent consolidation of the company’s BPO units in India under the 3i Infotech BPO brand, Anirudh Prabhakaran, executive director & president-South Asia, 3i Infotech said, “Having the benefit of Patankar s rich experience in successfully driving business growth will help us further improve our competitive advantage in this field and optimize our business performance.”

In his earlier assignments, Patankar was part of the core team that set up the Retail Financial Services business of ICICI Bank in 1997 and 3i Infotech (formerly ICICI Infotech) in 1999. He also co-founded Apnaloan in 2000, a technology-enabled vendor neutral distributor of financial services and served as its director, CIO and business head till 2005.

Commenting on his new role, Patankar said, “I am delighted to join 3i Infotech and take up this new role as the company gears up to aligning its BPO thrust with its extensive range of software products and IPRs and grows into a leading player in the market.”

According to the IDC report (2009), India s domestic business process outsourcing market is set to touch $6.82 billion (around Rs 31,700 crore) by 2013.

Source:http://www.cxotoday.com/India/News/Parag_Patankar_to_Head_3i_Infotech_BPO/551-107753-913.html

Business is picking up for L&T Infotech in the second half of the 2009/10 fiscal year and should improve further next year, the chief executive of the outsourcing firm said in an interview on Wednesday.

The unit of leading engineering and construction firm Larsen & Toubro would start hiring again, looking to raise current staffing of nearly 10,000 by up to 10 percent before the end of the fiscal year next March, Sudip Banerjee said.

“It is too early to call a victory, but obviously the signs are much better now than they were three months ago,” Banerjee told Reuters.

“We have certainly got many more billed in the last 2-3 months and customers are also asking us to gear up for more. So the next three months are also looking promising.”

Banerjee also said it was time to restart planning for an initial public offering of the firm, after it had been put on hold for about a year.

L&T Infotech provides IT services to banking, financial services and insurance, energy and petrochemicals, manufacturing and telecom sectors. Its clients include Chevron, Sunoco, cement firm Lafarge and Hitachi.

Source:http://in.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idINIndia-44043920091118