ICICI Bank is understood to have deferred the sale of its holding in Firstsource Solutions, a Mumbai-based pure-play business process outsourcing entity. The bank along with its subsidiaries owns close to 27 per cent stake in the BPO firm.
In India, there are so much of added costs in the form of providing food and transportation to employees, says S Nagarajan, Co-founder, 24/7 Customer.
Wipro BPO, the business process outsourcing arm of soaps-to-IT services player Wipro Ltd, plans to expand its operations in China and the Philippines by opening two more centres in these countries by the end of this year.
It earlier took 19 months to build a Tejas, now it takes 11 months, says HAL chief.
In the largest deal in the domestic information technology (IT) space, MindTree Consulting is set to acquire mid-tier outsourcing product development (OPD) and testing player, Aztecsoft, for around Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion). Both are Bangalore-based firms. Aztecsoft has over 2,200 employees and caters to the North American, European, Indian and Australian markets.
British IT services firm Logica has decided to cut about 1,300 jobs, including nearly 500 in the UK, and move many of them to India, the Philippines and Morocco.Logica-- an IT and consultancy firm -- already has a significant presence in India and has an overall staff strength of 39,000.
Labour cost advantage associated with offshoring information technology services to countries like India, China and the Philippines, are declining.
With India's two leading IT outsourcing companies, Infosys and HCL Technologies, vying to acquire the UK-based consulting firm Axon, SAP implementation is back in focus.
The central government is likely to extend the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme beyond 2009 only to Indian information technology-enabled services/business process outsourcing (ITeS/BPO) firms. A proposal to this effect has been included in the 11th Five-Year Plan document, which will be put up for the approval of the National Development Council, headed by the prime minister, on December 19.
A survey reveals that 32% BPO employees suffer from sleep disorders, 25% have digestive problems, and about 20% have eyesight problems.
In a major consolidation in the domestic IT industry, MindTree, a listed IT services company, will acquire Aztecsoft, another listed outsourcing product development firm. MindTree, which has bought four companies in the last eight years, will acquire 32.57 per cent stake in Aztecsoft from e4e Holdings, Mauritius, in an all cash deal for around Rs 117 crore (Rs 1.17 billion).
Bangalore-based IT outsourcing services provider MphasiS, an EDS company, is reducing hiring plans by almost 50 per cent.
Analyst following the sector feels that due to the slowdown in the US economy, the Indian IT companies, who mostly depend on the US market for their revenue, had postponed joining dates of new recruits, raising doubts about their future.
IT bellwether Infosys Technologies is on the prowl to acquire small and medium business process outsourcing companies that fit strategically with the operations of its subsidiary, Infosys BPO.
Though no peripheral burning is taking place at the moment at the well's site at Baghjan, the company has declared an area up to 1.5 km radius as "red zone" to avoid any untoward incident and harm to the general public.
Recruitment from colleges should be done and local people be trained to add value to Indian companies, said Murthy.
Aztecsoft, a Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) Bangalore-based outsourced product development firm, is witnessing the exit of its key board members.
The CFO has been entrusted with the responsibility of keeping employees happy. He will also be in charge of organising office parties.
Banking services were affected on Friday as employees of public sector banks struck work demanding compassionate appointments, fresh recruitments, one more pension option and ban on outsourcing and merger of public sector banks.
Japanese information technology companies are mapping out a new base to outsource software development in India, according to Nihon Keizai Shimbun Monday.
"Though some of our clients are affected, they have not reduced their work (IT outsourcing) with us. We just have to watch the situation," company's chief executive officer and managing director S Ramadorai said.
A California daily is recruiting journalists in India to report what's happening 12,841 km away in Pasadena.
Neeraj Bhargava, CEO of Mumbai-based business process outsourcing (BPO firm) WNS Global Services, and his team have voluntarily decided to forfeit their bonuses if they are not successful in getting the attrition rates below 30 per cent. This is probably the first such move of its kind in the industry in which attrition has become a critical issue. WNS has over 15,000 employees, and its current attrition rate stands at 43 per cent.
Software services industry may have to relook its cost structure to maintain a higher margin.
Country's second largest IT firm Infosys has crossed the $2 billion revenue mark in Europe for the first time, driven by strong demand for consulting and system integration (CSI) services.
The firm now has employee strength of 344,691.
FirstSource is also rumoured to be in the race to acquire Citi's BPO unit after the first round of bidding.
Healthcare chain Apollo Hospital Enterprises has said it is in advance talks with two US firms for a possible takeover as part of its plans to expand in medical business process outsourcing.
Industry experts say that the government needs to further relax FDI norms to attract investors to the sector.
The UK contributed to nearly $20 billion or 18% of India's $108 billion software exports for 2016.
As Nasdaq-listed company indicates poor spending in financial services space, Indian firms feel jittery
However, some of the provisions in the draft Bill needs scrutiny, as these could scare away international investors
Till the lockdown was imposed in March, more than 200 Zee staffers had spent over 2,500 hours across 28 regions in Punjab, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal to understand the audiences. The effort paid off, again and again.
India's business process outsourcing major EXL Service has cut down the size of its proposed initial public offer on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange by 20 per cent
