Friday, August 20th, 2010
Engineering and construction major Larsen and Toubro’s (L&T) subsidiary L&T Power plans to outsource equipment manufacturing activities at Hazira to meet rising demand for power equipment from power companies. “We plan to increase outsourcing of components and equipment needed for our supercritical steam boiler, turbine -generator facility at Hazira,” said L&T Power managing director and CEO Ravi Uppal.
The exercise will help us to reduce the cost of expanding the facility from estimated `1,500 crore to close to `1,000 crore, he added. The company plans to expand its equipment manufacturing facilities from 4,000 mw to 6,000 mw. The company commissioned the 4,000-mw facility for supercritical (main power equipment or BTG package) equipment manufacturing at Hazira this year with an investment of over `3,600 crore.
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Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
For many childless couples all over the world, India is becoming the go-to place. We may have started off outsourcing software development, but now we are reaching new avenues.
This is outsourcing taken to a new level. We are now outsourcing little babies.
Cant have kids? No problemo. We can do that for you.
And Anand is apparently at the center of it all.
Tweet this!Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
e4e, a leading provider of ITES and BPO Solutions & Services, has opened a new facility in Noida as part of its expansion strategy. The center has a capacity of 700 seats, with a staff of over 300 currently. This is e4e’s first center in North India.
In a statement on the commissioning of the new facility, e4e’s CEO & President, Mr. Bhaskar Menon said: “I am extremely pleased to see the addition of the new Noida facility to our existing global delivery and right shoring platform. The setting up of the Noida center is consistent with our growth plans and will enable us to better cater to the requirements of our existing and new Clients.”
Tweet this!Thursday, April 29th, 2010
NEW DELHI: The HR practices of companies in the $60-billion strong IT-ITeS sector came under fire from Nasscom on Tuesday for resorting to poaching via ‘strong’ employee referral programs.
The IT-BPO industry directly employs about 2.3 million employees. IT companies often resort to poaching for meeting short term demand of employees, as they bag projects.
“Often we have seen IT companies resorting to very ‘strong’ employee referral programs to meet their short-term project resource obligations. This leads to exit of entire teams from other companies working on important projects,” Nasscom president Som Mittal said.
Tweet this!Friday, April 2nd, 2010
There truly is no end to the possibilities of outsourcing. Management guru Tom Peters recently picked up on a reference to a New York Times article “Ogre To Slay? Outsource it to the Chinese”, about how affluent western children are paying their Chinese counterparts to complete the first levels of video games that they find monotonous. Peters comments: “The ‘factory’ is in Fuzhou, China. The workers are youngsters logging 12-hour shifts. Their clientelle? Fellow youngsters from ‘Seoul to San Francisco … who want to avoid the pain and time associated with those first few levels … Yup! I thought I’d seen it all! Goes to show you …”
What is most eye-catching about this startling trend however is author Dan Ward’s observation that “this (is) an opportunity to provide commentary on the video game developers who clearly aren’t satisfying their customers. If the games were really well designed (Design is everything in an experience economy, no?), they would be compelling from start to finish. No need to outsource level 1-3 to China … these kids aren’t outsourcing their entertainment – they are outsourcing the boring / easy / introductory parts they don’t care about… and they are sending the video game industry a message. I wonder if anyone is listening.”
Tweet this!Tuesday, March 30th, 2010
For some time, many large corporates have been offshoring – outsourcing part of their IT service to overseas contractors – and smaller companies have followed suit. But how do you ensure that your company’s data remains secure? writes Michael Pike CISSP.
Some suppliers are so keen to win business that they sometimes go overboard with security controls. One company I visited in Chennai, India had several armed guards with rifles outside the main entrance. As you can appreciate, I was rather worried about this, as I assumed that it was a proportional response to some kind of threat. However, an independent expert assured me that there were no security threats in the area. It later emerged that one of the supplier’s biggest customers was worried about overseas terrorism, and the armed guards were introduced to retain their business.
On that visit to Chennai, it was actually an automatic door closer that was the weakest link. Because it wasn’t working, it was possible to get into an area of the building that processed confidential data without using an access card. The guards with guns outside the building, although very noticeable, were largely irrelevant.
Tweet this!Monday, March 29th, 2010
For many prospective buyers of outsourced IT support from overseas, a quote from E.M Forster nicely sums up the dilemma: “Nothing in India is identifiable; the mere asking of a question causes it to disappear or to merge into something else.”
Of course, not all IT supply from beyond these shores comes from India, but I think the point is well made. At a time when outsourcing abroad seems such good value, where do you begin?
Through the long and sometimes painful experience of sourcing suppliers of IT services–predominantly from Asia but also from Australia, the US and the rest of Europe–I have established some definite dos and don’ts for selecting suppliers.
First you have to narrow down the field to a handful of companies that cover the specific services you require. Start your research with trade missions, embassies and consular offices in the UK. A major part of their remit is to help UK companies buy from the appropriate organisations in their countries, so ask for their assistance.
Tweet this!Monday, March 29th, 2010
To survive in today’s competitive environment, businesses need to find ways to enhance the customer experience. Today’s customer not only knows exactly what he wants, but ensures that he gets value for his hard-earned money. Now, if a business wants to go further than merely surviving and seek sustained success, it has to enhance the productivity and efficiency of its customer service call center. With more and more businesses outsourcing this service, it becomes all the more for a call center service provider to offer that extra competitive edge to the businesses it serves. Here are some ways in which you can ensure that your call center stands above the rest.
Tips on Improving Productivity & Efficiency in a Customer Service Call Center
Studies have shown that just by increasing the size of a computer monitor, productivity and efficiency can be increased by 40%. There are also findings that support that this figure can go up to 65% by including a secondary monitor. On the other hand, the placement of the keyboard and mouse, the comfort in seating, etc, raises productivity and efficiency by 20%.
Tweet this!Monday, March 8th, 2010
A key regional survey from Tholons ranked Cebu City as Asia’s top outsourcing city, followed by the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Beijing.
Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam and Krakow in Poland remained in fourth and fifth places from the previous survey.
Data from the global outsourcing advisory firm revealed three other Philippine cities were included in the top 18 Asian outsourcing cities: Pasig, Quezon City and Mandaluyong.
Tholons hailed Cebu City, for the second year, as No. 1 based on scale and quality of workforce, infrastructure, business catalyst, risk profile, cost and quality of life.
Cebu whose BPO sector spurted to unprecedented growth in the past five years now employs 50,000 workers.
Tweet this!Monday, March 8th, 2010
NEW DELHI: More women are likely to join the corporate workforce in the country this year, with overall hiring prospects picking up and companies increasingly believing in maintaining a healthy male-female ratio, recruitment experts said.
“Most organisations that stressed on being equal opportunity providers ensured that the male-female ratio was maintained. Now, with opening of markets and opportunities, there will be a resurgence of female job applicants,” staffing firm TeamLease Services General Manager Surabhi Mathur Gandhi said.
IT services firm ITC Infotech’s HR Head Anand Talwar said, “Yes, more women are expected to join this year into the country’s workforce. As they make up about one-fourth of the workforce and with hiring prospects picking up significantly, the female employee strength is also expected to rise.”
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