One Bangalore bandh sent shock waves through the call centre industry, bringing forth so may queries from clients, that chances are the political class will in future decide never to have bandhs, says Subir Roy.
Ganesh Natarajan answered many IT-related questions during an hour-long rediff chat on Tuesday.
The budget proposes to reduce surcharge on domestic companies to 7.5% from 10%.
The $100-billion export-driven sector has been vocal on the need to move up the value chain with increased automation, offering services bundled with software products and platforms.
India is likely to capture 56 per cent share of offshore business process outsourcing business by 2006 with the demand for BPO services increasing at an annual growth rate of 50 per cent during 2004-06
Headstrong buy the biggest deal in Indian BPO space
Reacting to the red brigade's call for unionisation in the outsourcing industry, IT association Nasscom on Monday said working conditions in the business process outsourcing sector do not warrant formation of unions.
The job fair was jointly conducted by the State Employment Mission and the Koraput district administration recently.
Business processing outsourcing company TWS has received an investment of $5 milion from a US-based financial institution.
With the telecom industry aiming to increase its rural subscribers base and the central bank asking banks and financial firms to cater to the rural sector, businesses will have to find ways of servicing customers, say analysts. Most of the rural BPOs have a seating capacity of below 100 per centre, as they are situated in remote areas.
Nasscom to set a committee to look for successor of Som Mittal.
Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of the information technology giant, has signed an agreement to acquire all the share capital in Portland Group, an Australian company, for A$34 million (Rs 180 crore).
According to the agreement, RuralShores, one of the largest rural BPO organisations in the country, would be establishing GMR's BPO at Kakinada SEZ in the East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.
The alliance focuses on the support of US loan servicing loan modification initiatives as defined under the Home Affordable Modification Program or alternative loan modification programs, Bangalore-headquartered Infosys said.
WNS, an NYSE-listed business process outsourcing company, recorded good second quarter numbers, reflecting the improving market conditions in global markets. Neeraj Bhargava, Group CEO, attributed the performance to better volume growth and a robust pipeline. In a chat with Business Standard, he spoke about the recent stake sale talks with Warburg Pincus, appointing a new CEO and other issues.
The company currently has slightly less than 3,000 people in India.
After information technology, it's now the turn of Indian business process outsourcing services companies to harness China as a delivery location.
Industry chieftains, strategists and analysts were unanimous that a slowdown, if at all happens again, won't affect the prospects of the $17-billion industry.
Fortune 1000 comprises a list of thousand largest American companies in terms of revenues compiled by the US business magazine.
Refining its inorganic growth strategy further after carrying out acquisitions in consulting and analytics areas down the years, Cognizant Technology Solutions is understood to be scouting for business process outsourcing firms specialising in insurance in the US and Europe.
Offshore business process outsourcing will grow 65 per cent year-on-year in 2004 to touch $3 billion, according to a study.
Tier-II and tier-III towns have a reason to rejoice.
Skilled youngsters must not rust away their knowledge and spend their energies in an industry, like BPO, that holds no promise of a future, says Ranjan Nambiar.
Instead of collectively figuring out how to serve clients in the US and the UK, there's too much focus on backlash, says P V Kannan, CEO, 24/7 Customer.
Wipro BPO, the business process outsourcing division of global IT services provider Wipro Technologies, would add about 1,000 people at its Hyderabad centre in six to eight months.
The race for Citigroup Global Services, the business process outsourcing arm of Citigroup is hotting up with the entry of the BPO firm WNS and consultancy firm Accenture.
With an expanding domestic market, increasing cost and higher attrition rate, outsourcing action is shifting to tier-III and IV cities.