This page provides links to offshore outsourcing news articles published in November 2004. Please note that over time some links may become broken as the various web sites are updated. We endevour to keep the links up-to-date, but inevitably some broken links will occur.

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You can also read November's News Reviews and Press Releases.

News Archive

11 November 2004 Keane sees India as strategic location for global growth

The Financial Express

[Keane] sees India as a strategic location for the company's worldwide growth and expects that 60% of its worldwide workforce will be in India in the next few years...

...It also believes that offshore outsourcing will be the best bet and the company will continue to outsource from India...

10 November 2004 China raises interest, India's hopes

Asia Times

...India's inflation rate has seen a consistent rise in the past six months - after almost five years of tranquility on the price front - with 2004 poised to end with an average inflation rate of over 7%, compared to less than 5% for the whole of 2003. So when China recently started taking monetary steps to cool its scorching economic growth, India's economic planners were more than just glad, they were relieved...

9 November 2004 Offshoring to force 'huge culture change,' say CBI

Infoconomy

Offshore outsourcing will force a shift in occupations and skills, but the threat posed to the economy may have been overestimated, the president of the UK's Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has told his organisation's annual conference...

...the employment sector must undergo a "huge culture change" to withstand competition from nations offering cheap low-skilled labour, but said he is confident that the UK could provide more jobs than it will lose offshore, as long as an emphasis is placed on skills...

...a CBI survey found that only 15% of UK businesses offshore-outsource their call centres, far less than those who outsource manufacturing, design, research and development.

9 November 2004 EU, India to forge strategic partnership

EurActiv

By the end of 2005, the EU and India will have developed a comprehensive action plan for strategic partnership, it was agreed at the fifth EU-India summit in the Hague on 8 November. The EU's declared aim has been to bring its relationship with India to the "same parity, density and quality" as with the US, Canada, China, Russia and Japan, all of which have concluded strategic partnership agreements with the EU.

Efforts to boost trade were also discussed at the summit. The EU is India's largest trading partner and the largest source of foreign direct investment. "We both have agreed that the volume of trade between the EU and India and the flow of investments is far below their potential and that there are problems and therefore we both have to find a way to solve them," said Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh...

9 November 2004 Lloyds TSB to hire more in India

BBC News

...The bank said it expected to have up to 2,500 employees in India by late 2005, up from a target of 1,500 by the end of this year.

However, it stressed that any UK workers whose jobs were moved would be redeployed within the group...

9 November 2004 Bank moving 1,000 jobs to India

Daily Express

...Lloyds TSB said it was confident it could achieve the transfers through natural wastage and redeployment of UK staff to other roles.

It said the jobs would come from its insurance, Cheltenham & Gloucester, information technology and group operations activities....

9 November 2004 Banking giant to transfer 1,000 jobs to India

Daily Mail

...However, unions attacked the move, saying they believed it would pave the way for the eventual transfer offshore of up to 10,000 jobs...

9 November 2004 Reuters to relocate jobs to India, Singapore

The Times of India

Reuters, the international news service, is to relocate 50 jobs from its American and British operations to offices in Bangalore, Singapore and Toronto.

Most of the jobs being moved are editorial, providing further evidence that the relocation of jobs to cheaper bases overseas is spreading from manufacturing industries and call centres into more professional sectors, including the media and financial services...

9 November 2004 Russia Seeks to Boost Software Production

eWeek

Russia is seeking to slow the brain-drain of computer specialists and increase software production, a top government official said Friday, in an effort that some hope will help diversify the country's oil-dependent economy...

..."Russia has the highest percentage of highly qualified engineers in the world, however the country's share in the international software market is only 0.6 percent,"...

9 November 2004 NCR opens support centre in Mumbai

News Today

...[NCR]has announced the inauguration of its new customer care centre (CCC) in Powai, Mumbai, spread over an area of 48,000 sq ft, with an investment of around $six million...

has announced the inauguration of its new customer care centre (CCC) in Powai, Mumbai, spread over an area of 48,000 sq ft, with an investment of around $six million...

9 November 2004 India gives higher pay hike than China

The Economic Times

India has shown the highest average salary increase in the Asia-Pacific region during 2004, beating China , Korea and Japan...

...Information technology industry in India witnessed the highest average salary increase at 14.5 per cent and as many as 89 per cent of participating companies linked salary hike to performance ratings...

...The respondents also projected greater salary increases for 2005, it said, adding there was a stark reduction in the number of companies projecting pay freezes next year...

9 November 2004 GE to sell 60% of Indian BPO operation

NetworkWorldFusion

...After GE divests 60% of its stake in GECIS, the Indian company will continue to serve GE under a multi-year contract. GE will continue to use and expand on the services GECIS provides...

...By selling off a part of the equity in Indian software and BPO subsidiaries, multinational companies aim to cash in on investments and pass on the management to others, without losing access to the services captive operations in India provided...

8 November 2004 Study: Offshore Costs Vary Widely

Communications Convergence

...The Global Pricing Guide To Offshore Outsourcing, published by Datamonitor, compares the risks and rewards of the 10 major offshore and nearshore contact center outsourcing locations...

6 November 2004 McGraw Hill to set up base in Hyderabad

Business Standard

...The chief minister has agreed in-principle on the proposal of McGraw Hill for establishing their ITES campus at Hyderabad and making it as their headquarters in India...

5 November 2004 CompuCredit finds success with offshore business process outsourcing

NetworkWorldFusion

...CompuCredit's primary BPO drivers included cost-reduction, the ability to focus on core competencies, improved service levels, and shortened times to market for new products...

5 November 2004 Software could be classified as goods for levying tax: SC

Web India 123

The Supreme Court today rejected a petition filed by Tata Consultancy Services challenging a Andhra Pradesh High Court order, which held that software could be classified as goods for the purpose of levy of sales tax on it...

5 November 2004 Out of sight, out of mind?

News.com

...Of course, so much of the offshoring debate between the candidates was phony that you could excuse the electorate for not paying attention. Academic elites are of two minds (about outsourcing)--as is the technology industry, with senior management and its employees as divided as ever...

4 November 2004 Bush win: US firms to outsource more to India

Express India

..."It is good news. American firms will be more bold in terms of not hiding that they are benefiting from outsourcing to Indian it offshore providers," Wipro Technologies President (Enterprise Solutions) Sudip Banerjee said in Bangalore on Thursday...

...India's IT and BPO exports last fiscal stood at USD 12.5 billion and are expected to register a 30-32 per cent growth to touch USD 16.3 billion in 2004-05.

"For every dollar saved in outsourcing, US companies are investing USD 1.2 into new business; new R&D which ultimately benefits their economy...

4 November 2004 Indian techies hail Bush win

The Times of India

..."Bush's track record during his presidential tenure has proven that he is a proponent of free trade. We are confident that President Bush will continue with his pro-trade stance during his second term,"...

4 November 2004 Business; Optimism in Indian IT sector as Bush wins second term

Kerala Next

...The industry expressed confidence that Bush would continue with his "pro-trade stance" during his second term as president and take cognisance of "business economics" by continuing to support outsourcing...

3 November 2004 In healthy Indian job market, developers want it all

NetworkWorldFusion

...the Hyderabad subsidiary of Kenexa, a Wayne, Penn., provider of recruiting services and software, recently plowed through 500 applications to fill six positions, according to Raghuveer Sakuru, managing director of the subsidiary...

...Large scale hiring of staff by multinationals such as Accenture and IBM for their Indian software operations created a shortage of experienced engineers, particularly in Bangalore, which has emerged as India's IT hub. The engineer shortage is expected to get worse as local outsourcing companies increase hiring to meet an outsourced services serge...

3 November 2004 HCL to up headcount in Northern Ireland

NDTV.com

...Indian IT major HCL today said it will add 300-400 more jobs during this fiscal at its business process outsourcing (BPO) centre in Northern Ireland...

...HCL BPO already employs 1100 people at the call centre in Belfast, an operation it took over from BT (British Telecom) in 2001, retaining the entire 290 employees...

3 November 2004 Outsourcer beware

NetworkWorldFusion

...India, eager to preserve its outsourcing industry, is scrambling to demonstrate that it takes foreign intellectual property seriously. But just because the country has established intellectual property laws, does not mean that the laws will be enforced...

..."We were misled by the lawyers we consulted with before opening the facility," says Jolly. "We were told that there are patent, copyright and IP protection laws in India. They failed to mention that the laws are impossible to enforce."...

...Two years ago, the FBI and India's Central Bureau of Investigation ran a sting operation that snared a former worker for an outsourcing company for doing business with design software maker SolidWorks...

3 November 2004 Ratan Tata launches undersea cable in S`pore

Business Line

...Tata group chairman Mr Ratan Tata today launched a $100 million undersea optical fibre cable here linking Singapore to India.

It is an important milestone and the cable can give five terrabit per second capacity of bandwidth. The 3100-km long cable will prove quite crucial for the growth of bandwidth to provide important links with the world, he said...

3 November 2004 Roche sets up R&D centre in China

Business Line

...Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Roche, has announced the opening of its new global R&D centre in east Chinese metropolis, Shanghai to enhance its presence in the world's most populous nation and develop new clinical drugs for the world market...

...The Shanghai centre, which is to employ about 40 scientists, will also work in cooperation with Roches other four global R&D facilities to select new clinical drugs for Roche's global strategy...

2 November 2004 US Election 2004: Kerry or Bush? No effect on offshoring

silicon.com

...India's IT industry and new research from analyst house Meta Group predict it won't matter who gets into the White House...

..."Despite each party's position about the merits or ills incurred from offshore outsourcing, the fact is that offshore outsourcing is a manifestation of an ongoing and long-term economic evolution that will not be greatly impacted by either candidate."...

...New research from analyst Datamonitor into the growth of offshore call centres tips the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to become the most established and stable locations in Europe, especially with the deregulation of the telecoms sector in Hungary. But the report warns that Hungary still lags behind its neighbours in terms of a western business culture...

2 November 2004 RP remains 'cheapest' site for offshore outsourcing

inq7.net

THE PHILIPPINES along with India and Argentina remain the "least expensive locations" to set up offshore outsourcing operations, according to a new report on offshore outsourcing by Datamonitor.

Canada is currently the most expensive offshore or near-shore location in the world. It is, however, considered "the most stable and secure" location, the report said...

2 November 2004 Movement Of Customer Care Services Offshore Will Continue Claims Report

Contact Centre World

..."The global pricing guide to offshore outsourcing", a new report just published by independent market analyst Datamonitor, (DTM.L) compares the risks and rewards of the 10 major offshore and nearshore contact center outsourcing locations. The report reveals that Argentina, India and the Philippines are some of the least expensive locations to do business. For example, voice-based contact center agents in Argentina and India make just 12% and 10% what American and UK voice-based customer care agents are paid per hour...

2 November 2004 Indian Outsourcer Opens IT Service Center

Information Week

...Indian IT company Satyam Computer Services has opened a facility in Budapest, Hungary, with an eye to providing low-cost computer services to businesses in Western Europe...

...IT salaries in Hungary are higher than those in India but still considerably cheaper than in Western Europe. The average annual salary for a programmer in Hungary is $10,500, compared with $24,500 in Ireland, according to outsourcing advisory firm neoIT. The average salary in India is $7,500; in the United States it's $65,000, the firm says...

2 November 2004 Indian BPOs to thrive: Nasscom

India Daily

...''This report,'' says Nasscom President Kiran Karnik, ''Puts into numbers what we have felt intuitively for long: That BPO is thriving because our services compare with the best internationally.'' In Client Satisfaction, India beats European and Asia-Pacific BPOs by a 0-5 per cent margin. Indian BPOs also have the lowest occurence of ''fatal defects'', at less than 2 per cent, compared with the world average of 2-2.5 per cent...

1 November 2004 India Tech City Promises Help for Firms

eWeek

...promised Monday to improve the city's battered infrastructure, making life easier for the hundreds of American and European companies with offices here...

Singh said delayed road projects would be completed quickly to enable software professionals to save time on office commutes...

1 November 2004 India Inc roots for Bush, seen favouring outsourcing

Yahoo! News

... "It doesn't matter who wins. We expect outsourcing to gain further momentum and client visits to pick up as well next year," said mid-sized software technology company EXL vice chairman Vikram Talwar...

...Once the US elections are out of the way, a number of Indian firms expect a fresh wave of outsourcing as many projects were put on hold when the shifting of jobs to low cost sites abroad became a hot button issue in the US campaign...

1 November 2004 Is Ramalinga Raju the most feared man among some North Americans - even more than Osama Bin Laden?

India daily

...overseas companies like Satyam have North Americans worried sick they'll soon lose their jobs to companies in developing countries, which can sell services far more cheaply than Western firms. For example, most of the major Canadian banks outsource some of their work to firms in India.

Ramalinga Raju [Chairman of Satyam] is a feared man...

1 November 2004 U.S. Presidential Rhetoric Ignores Basic Offshore Outsourcing Realities, Says META Group

Tekrati

...according to a recent survey conducted by META Group. The survey found that almost 50 percent of respondents believe that offshore outsourcing will increase if George W. Bush is elected, and that it will decrease if John Kerry is elected...

..."Politicians and other macroeconomic players must also take a more constructive stance on offshore outsourcing. Although many bills pending in US legislatures to limit offshore outsourcing are facing resistance, the overall dialog on the topic is still poor and largely rhetorical."...

1 November 2004 Offshoring Will Increase If Bush Re-Elected: Survey

Yahoo! News

...A Meta Group survey of 300 business and technology leaders and staff found that 46.7 of respondents think that more companies will use offshore outsourcing in the case of a Bush victory...

Offshore Outsourcing Press Releases

8 November 2004 Ness and VITKOVICE Announce IT Outsourcing Deal

Press Release

...[Ness Technologies], today announced that its subsidiary Ness CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) has signed an IT outsourcing contract with VITKOVICE, a.s., a major Czech metallurgical and machine engineering company...

...Under the terms of the contract, Ness CEE took over VITKOVICE's IT division and included it in its new outsourcing unit that will assume responsibility for IT operations in VITKOVICE and several of its subsidiaries...

3 November 2004 i-Vantage Announces Creation of Bangalore, India and Manila, Philippines Office Spurred by Aggressive Third Quarter Growth

Yahoo! Finance

...To meet the accelerated demand for the company's services, i-Vantage recently established two additional "Global InServe" subsidiary incubation centers in Bangalore, India and Manila, Philippines. These two centers will add capacity to i-Vantage's existing centers in Kolkata, India and Hyderabad, India...

3 November 2004 Outsourcing expectations surpass just cost savings as CFOs demand more

Bios Magazine

According to today's CFOs, outsourcing is not just about cutting costs but is key to improving efficiencies and maintaining a focus on core business. Over half, 52 per cent, of respondents in a recent survey by Capgemini*, plan to outsource more of their key operations in the next five years...

1 November 2004 MphasiS to Offer First-of-a-Kind Program Management Services for Building Captive Offshore Centers

PR News Wire

"MphasiS Offshore Program Management Services is a suite of services designed to help business rapidly set up and run operations in India through expert consultancy, project execution, operations and support. The MphasiS proposition allows companies to create shared services centers in India in short time frames with minimal risk and upfront investments."...

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News Reviews

Offshore Outsourcing News Review - November 2004

09 November: Following Satyam's announcement last week, HCL also announced further investment in Europe, adding a further 300-400 people to its Northern Ireland BPO operation.

As expected the Indian outsourcing community has welcomed the re-election of George Bush with increased optimism. However, my own concerns about the long-term viability of India continue to be upheld, with 14.5% wage increases being recorded. India's outsourcing industries will soon have to prove that their quality and experience are more important than cost.

Despite my previous experience working in Bangalore, during my last visit I had to re-schedule my meetings because of the appalling increase in traffic and the associated delays. So it is good to hear that Bangalore is finally taking some lessons from Hyderabad and investing in infrastructure. Unfortunately no timetable for the implementation of these plans has been announced.

03 November: As I write this, it looks like Bush has got his second term in office, and if recent reports are correct some offshore companies will be celebrating soon too.

Satyam have opened a facility in Budapest, giving them access to IT professionals in an area which unlike Bangalore is not dogged by wage inflation, and staff churn. Unless the Indian IT professionals start to slow down their demands and stay with employers for a reasonable length of time, more suppliers will be looking elsewhere for their IT fulfilment. How long before we see reports of Indian IT staff out of work because they've changed jobs every six months and priced themselves out of the market?

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