RSS Feed
TwitterHello Friends,
Visit my new blog at 123indialive.com . I will be adding new posts in this blog.
Archive for the ‘BPO’ Category
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
November 9th, 2008 No Comments
The Information Technology industry in India is powering economic growth and boosting export earnings through solutions and services churned out by the knowledge based sector. The IT industry is experiencing steady growth, thanks to increased spends across key markets in the US and Western Europe, and strong growth in emerging markets. Outsourcing continued to be the primary growth engine with global delivery forming an integral part of the strategies adopted by both customers and service providers.
While Indian IT majors have started building notable presence outside the country – through overseas
acquisitions, onshore contract wins and organic growth in other low-cost locations, global players have been ramping up their offshore delivery capabilities, mostly in India.
SOFTWARE
The Software industry is riding the wave of success with aggregate sales increasing by over 40% and net profit margins over 20%. Joining the celebrations is the Hardware sector, posting a healthy growth trend. With massive investments in this domain, the Information Technology sector is continuing its impressive run year after year.
Karnataka’s software industry – the 4th largest Technology Cluster in the World (After Silicon Valley, Boston & London) has shown a steady expansion rate. This sector employs 3,00,000 professionals with exports of over INR 37,600 crores (USD 8.4 billion) during 2005-06 with projections of INR 50,000 crores (USD 10 billion) during the next fiscal.
The Nasscom – McKinsey Report 2005 estimates a 25% year on year growth for this sector in Karnataka, with exports touching INR 75,000 crores (about 18 billion USD) by 2010, employing around 1 million professionals.
HARDWARE
The Hardware sector continues to account for a major share of the domestic IT-ITES spends and is expected to grow at 22% in the current fiscal. Key verticals driving growth include Telecom, BPO, BFSI, Manufacturing and Education.
Computer Hardware and peripherals sector continue to attract huge investments in view of the huge growth potential arising out of lower penetration and increasing IT expenditure. This is reflected by the interest evinced by global majors like Dell, Cisco, APC, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard to set up operations in India.
Economic slowdown to change campus placement trends
October 9th, 2008 No Comments
The economic slowdown is going to impact education, especially campus recruitments. Both immediate and long-term effects are being predicted, which include change in pay packages, profiles and hiring strategies. Additionally, students are likely to opt for more qualifications after graduation, instead of entering the job market.
“On one hand, the high-end pay packages will take a backseat with investment banks withdrawing from the placement process. Last year, Lehman Brothers made an offer of Rs 18 lakhs to a Delhi University (DU) graduate and this year they have backed out,” said Seema Parihar, chairperson, Central Placement Cell, DU.
“Other companies that were taking up global projects will also reduce recruitment, as they may not get as many projects now. As the economic slowdown will also affect the use of credit cards, the BPO sector — call centres in particular — will also reduce recruitment,” she added.
Vaibhav Sharma, member, Placement Cell, Delhi School of Economics (DSE), also predicts a change in the profile of recruiters and the jobs that would be offered. “It will be product-centric companies rather than the people-centric ones that would emerge as top recruiters. These include companies dealing with manufacturing, insurance and telecom. Within consultancy firms, the hiring would be directed towards talent management and talent retention profiles instead of strategic planning,” he said. Sharma also believes that students would now have to settle for Indian companies, with fewer MNCs coming forward.
Veer Singh, vice-chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, is waiting for the recruitment process to begin before drawing any conclusions. However, he believes legal services would witness a positive change. “I think the demand for lawyers is going to increase, as the present situation would require a great amount of documentation with drastic changes taking place at the top-level in organisations,” he added.
And would the market slowdown affect recruitment at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) as well? Sanjay Dhande, director, IIT-Kanpur, thinks otherwise. “Every year, top companies visit the IITs and this will not change. However, in the long term, the market slowdown may affect postgraduate education with students opting for additional qualifications, instead of settling for just one,” he said.
Echoing a similar sentiment, Peter Cappelli, professor of management, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, US, said: “This would be a good time to sit out the downturn by going to business school and picking up a qualification while the economy is down. This way, you won’t miss anything.” Students, too, believe they have little to fear.
While some have drawn their own market estimates and are planning accordingly, others have decided to wait and see how companies’ respond. “We don’t think there is any reason to panic before the placement process begins. The scenario can only be gauged by the summer placements for first-year students,” says Akshay Sinha, second-year student, XLRI-Jamshedpur
Google launches ‘Mail Goggles’ to block boozy e-mails
October 9th, 2008 No Comments
Google has come up with “Mail Goggles” that can prevent people from sending stupid e-mails, especially at particular hours when they are most likely to be inebriated and at risk of making a complete idiot of themselves.
Mail Goggles throw five maths problems up on the screen when a user presses the “send” button. The problems have to be solved within a limited period of time.
Being able to do so would cause the system to presume that the user’s mental state is sound enough to send appropriate mails.
Even if a person is very good at solving mathematical problems, there is an option to ramp up the difficulty of the questions.
However, the questions remain in the arithmetic realm, and do not drift into interesting algebra or calculus.
The default setting enables the system between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Internet users can change it in accordance with their preferences, reports CBS News.
Mail Goggles can be activated by going into Gmail’s settings, and turning on Mail Goggles in the “Labs” tab.
One can adjust how and when it works in the “General” tab
Is India slipping on the outsourcing graph?
October 7th, 2008 No Comments
Published media reports quoting a recent study claims that India could well be on the way to losing its top position in the outsourcing industry to emerging giants like China and the Philippines.
A study conducted by Global Services-Tholons has ranked the top 50 emerging global outsourcing cities which indicates that China with six takes top honours over India and Philippines with four cities each.
However, Philippines edges past India due to the fact that the list boasts of two new cities in the top-50 list including Quezon and Mandaluyong, while in the case of India only Jaipur figures as the new choice.
It may be recalled that India had topped the 2007 rankings with six new cities in the Top-50 list, though the study now says that outsourcing clients are getting increasingly sophisticated while making their choice of locations.
Instead of making their outsourcing decision on the overall strength of countries, they are closely looking at the strengths of individual cities, even those considered tier-II and tier-III, to ship their work, a report published in the Deccan Herald has said.
According to the report, India also lost out its top spot in the top-10 elite list of emerging global cities where three cities from CHina feature while India and Philippines could manage only one city each. Last year, India had five cities in this elite list with Chennai emerging as the world’s top emerging destination, the position going to Cebu (Philippines) this year.
The newspaper report quotes un-named analysts to state that India’s position is likely to get weaker as other countries begin aggressively promoting their destinations. The latest top-10 list has cities from Vietnam, Poland. Egypt, Brazil and Argentina, the report says.
It adds that Indian cities are drawing negative publicity due to poor governance issues like the infrastructure woes of Bangalore and the lack of trained manpower in some of the smaller destinations. However, India continues to hold the pole position with respect to the list of established outsourcing centres, claiming six of the top-eight current destinations.
159,000 jobs lost in U.S. in a month: official report
October 6th, 2008 No Comments
New York: As many as 159,000 jobs were cut in the U.S. in September, the worst ever retrenchment in a month for five years, the government has reported, heightening fears that the economic downturn was worsening and could persist well into next year.
The job loss has continued for nine consecutive months totalling 760,000 in the period, according to the Labor Department’s report released Friday. In the last couple of weeks many people also had to leave work as several Wall Street institutions collapsed.
“We’ve lost jobs in nearly every area of the economy, and this is going to get worse before it gets better because the credit markets have deteriorated basically on a daily basis for the last few weeks,” Michael T. Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, a research and trading firm in Connecticut, was quoted as saying by the New York Times.
Though the financial bailout plan cleared by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush Friday may restore order in the financial system, it will take time for its effect to be felt.
In a chain reaction, housing prices continue to fall, eroding household wealth just as millions are trapped in unmanageable debt. The shrinking job market has taken many paychecks out of the economy, forcing people to rethink thrift, resulting in reduced sales from car showrooms to hair salons.
Till only a few weeks ago, many economists held hopes of the economy recovering late this year or early next year. But now with the job market contracting faster, and fear dogging the financial system, 2008 is seen as a lost cause. The more pessimistic analysts don’t mind using the word ‘recession’.
“This is an economy in recession, and every dimension of the (labour) report confirms that,” said Ethan S. Harris, an economist at Barclays Capital. “This has been preceded by a slow-motion recession. Now we’re going into the full-speed recession that will last somewhere between three and five quarters.”
BPOs rejig biz model to earn more
September 30th, 2008 No Comments
Next time, when a client’s transaction is forwarded to a BPO in India, he might actually end up getting more value on the service offered than he ever expected.
The Indian BPO industry is undergoing a shift in its revenue-generation model to spur more efficiency among the service providers.
From the input-based pricing or FTE (full-time equivalent) model based on per person on hourly basis, the sector is embracing outcome (a client pays a vendor based on the output or outcome) and transaction (vendor will be paid on the number of transactions performed) based pricing models.
“Gauging productivity of providers based on the FTE format was becoming quite difficult. In the new output based model, the effort and success is out in the open for everyone to see. It shall have positive impacts in revenue generation,” said Sameer Chopra, president, Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI).
The industry believes that outsourcing is not strictly a cost-cutting exercise; it’s a business-value creator. The new pricing model based on the output delivered to a client would help in achieving the latter role.
Outcome or transaction based pricing provides incentives for the vendor to invest in improving process performance and efficiency on an ongoing basis.
“At present, about 40-50 per cent of our revenues are generated by the transaction model and helped us in aligning revenue utilisation to clients’ variable cost. However, a derived outcome model from the FTE model without proper domain knowledge, might imply negative impact,” said Aparup Sengupta, MD and CEO, Aegis BPO.
The much-touted transaction-based pricing model is the result of a series of improvements such as process simplification, application of technology and standardization. Transaction-based pricing offers significant advantages over the FTE based pricing where service providers charge for manpower employed per unit of time. In transaction-based pricing, since the service provider is paid for quantity of work, it breeds efficiency and helps clients to easily compare the service providers.
“We have embraced the outcome based model along with the existing FTE model since it is performance based and promises to outperform our customers’ best centre by 10 per cent or more. Apart from the fact that the clients need not pay on flat basis, it provides comfort to clients, as they need not bear the entire risk. We have incorporated the operational efficiency platform for the outcome-based model,” said 24/7 Customer chief marketing officer Vivek Bharathwaj.
Besides, it can bring close alignment of objectives and incentives of the client and the vendor, to achieve value-addition in the transaction process. In case of transaction based pricing, clients would need to pay only for the results achieved and not the unutilised FTEs.
Posted in BPO Credit crisis to hit BPOs
September 30th, 2008 No Comments
The catastrophic events overtaking global financial majors will dent the revenues of Indian outsourcing majors, both in terms of the expected business and contracts they have already undertaken.
Number one software services vendor, Tata Consultancy Services, is likely to be worse off than its peers because of its significant exposure to Merrill Lynch which, analysts said, ranks among its top five financial services clients.
Merrill is also a significant client for Satyam Computer Services. Analysts estimate nearly 2,500 employees at TCS and Satyam work for Merrill.
The bankrupt Lehman Brothers has relationships with a number of top vendors, but is not a major outsourcing company compared to some of its peers. “Lehman has been the worst outsourcing company among the investment banks. Compared to it, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have been outsourcing a lot more aggressively.
In 2003, its total outsourcing to vendors in India was only around $100 million,” said an analyst, adding that Wipro and TCS were among its vendors here.
“Lehman Brothers does not account for a significant portion of our revenue and we are in dialogue with them during this difficult period of uncertainty. Wipro is monitoring the US economic situation closely, but we have nothing more specific to communicate,” a statement from the company said.
Wipro has around 400 employees working on software services and infrastructure management projects for Lehman. HCL Technologies is also a vendor to Lehman but Premkumar S, who heads HCL financial services business, said its exposure was less than a single integer in percentage terms.
Among the top five IT firms in India, HCL Technologies could possibly be the least hit by the crisis overtaking the global financial giants because of its lower exposure to financial services clients compared to its peers. Traditionally, the company has been strong in engineering services. Apart from Bear Stearns, which was bailed out by JP Morgan, Citigroup is its other major financial services client of note. Analysts were unsure of who the other Indian IT and BPO vendors of Lehman were.
They said Satyam and Infosys may also be among its vendors but none of them are were likely to have above $50 million in annual revenues from the bankrupt firm.
Top Five Resume Myths Exposed
September 27th, 2008 No Comments
Hiring practices, from job screening to interview construction, have undergone a dramatic transformation over the past decade. Despite all the changes, common resume myths continue to plague job seekers’ strategies at all levels. This article attempts to debunk some of these myths.
Myth 1: It’s all about the number of pages.
The one-page rule is probably the most common resume myth. Candidates, even senior executives, use microscopic fonts, leave off important information, use 0.1 inch margins, and resort to a myriad of unhealthy practices — all in an attempt to restrict their resume to just one page.
Many well-meaning college counselors advise their students to be concise and limit their resume to one page. That was important when you were a student with little or no experience, but why subscribe to the same wisdom after rising to the ranks of senior executive?
However, there is an opposing viewpoint. Some job seekers mistakenly believe that if they can somehow balloon their resumes to four or five pages, then they will be considered for higher-paying positions. What? Will someone offer me $250,000 simply because my resume is ten pages and redundant?
No. In every instance, content rules. The quality of experience should influence the length of the resume. If you have held only one job, then don’t try to create a five-page resume. If your background merits a lengthier resume, then don’t use eight point fonts in a desperate attempt to fit everything on one page.
Myth 2: Make up that degree – no one will know.
Lying on a resume is the worst mistake a candidate can make. Even if you pass the background check (which is very unlikely considering how sophisticated background checks have become), a savvy employer will discover the deception within days, if not sooner.
Apart from the legal ramifications, we live in a professional world that is influenced by social media. At the touch of a button, HR managers across the country can discuss their experiences. Maintaining a good reputation is more important than ever.
Myth 3: Your resume must have an objective.
The market is full of resume set-ups such as, “Seeking a position that will be beneficial and mutually rewarding and will make use of my experience and education.” If that is your idea of an objective, then don’t bother using one. Every inch of resume space is precious. Don’t waste it on generic information that can be found on almost every other resume. Every character that appears on your resume must position you as the perfect candidate for the job.
Of the 5,000+ resumes I have written, I may have used an objective for maybe a handful of candidates. In place of objectives, I often use what many experts call “branding statements” or “headers.” The concept can be explained with the help of an example. In the case of a clinical researcher, for example, a generic objective would be as follows:
Seeking a mutually beneficial position that will make use of my 10+ years experience in clinical research. An improvement would be:
HARVARD-EDUCATED CLINICAL RESEARCHER WITH 10+ YEARS PROFESSIONAL EXCELLENCE Worked with top five pharmaceutical companies. Leveraged clinical expertise to manage three blockbuster, multi-billion dollar molecules from Phase I to Market. The generic example does almost nothing to position the candidate but the refined version, in addition to serving as an objective, brings out three to four prominent strengths and an overall value proposition.
Whether you decide to use an objective or a positioning statement, refrain from presenting generic arguments.
Myth 4: Your references must be listed on the resume itself.
Normally, a separate page is used as a reference sheet. This not only protects the privacy of your references (imagine posting their contact information on every job board), but also makes the screening professional’s job a little easier.
Myth 5: I can use the same resume for multiple job targets.
This is a recipe for disaster. If your current resume focuses on your laboratory background, please don’t send the same resume for marketing positions. It is likely that you may qualify for multiple positions or be interested in pursuing alternate careers. If so, try to create a customized resume for each job target.
Remember: When it comes to a resume, never follow the “one size fits all” approach. These myths are just that legend. Use modern, up-to-date job search strategies to land your next $100K+ position.
How to Become an Expert in the Highest Paying Occupations
September 27th, 2008 No Comments
The highest paying occupations demand leadership. Are you a leader? Leaders are not born. They are developed over a period of time.
Learning, growing and developing are some of the hallmarks of success. They are the blood, sweat and tears that all developing people must experience.
When you learn, grow and develop, the fact of whether you succeed or fail comes with the total package. Mind you, we all pursue success, but we all don’t attain it.
Get Rich Quick Schemes
The important ingredient here is the journey. Your growth and development are far more important and richer than success. In fact, they are priceless. Get that under your belt and success will eventually be yours for the taking.
This is the price to be paid for success. Are you beginning to see why get rich quick schemes have no place among the highest paying occupations?
Position Is The Art Of Gunnery
How you position yourself in your chosen area of expertise is critical. Position yourself as an expert and they’ll beat a path to your door. That’s what this article is about.
Be Focused
Fedex initially focused on overnight, 2-day and 3-day delivery. As a result of this shotgun approach, they lost millions. The problem was they cast their net broad and wide, trying to snare the many.
As soon as they shifted their focus to overnight delivery things began to change. They began to market themselves as overnight experts. Their tightly focused overnight theme made a big impact on those who needed that type of service.
Become An Expert
How do you get them to come to your corner of the World Wide Web? Simple, be an expert. Show them that you are number one when it comes to overcoming acne, setting up a website or writing a relationship email. Show them that you are the expert and they’ll come. This is the way you become an expert in the highest paying occupations
Posted in BPO Touchscreen Windows coming in Oct
September 26th, 2008 No Comments
It’s time to put speculations at rest, software giant Microsoft has confirmed that its next operating system Windows 7, successor to Windows Vista, will be unveiled next month (28 October) at its Professional Developers Conference (PDC).
Earlier this week, Microsoft technology evangelist Mike Swanson had posted that PDC 2008 attendees will receive USB 2.0 based 160GB external HD with Windows 7 pre-beta build.
The company is also known to have added more than a dozen Windows 7-specific sessions to the PDC agenda. These include: New APIs to Find, Visualise and Organise; Integrate with the Windows 7 Desktop Taskbar and Best Practices for Developing for Windows Standard User.
In May, Microsoft publicly demoed Windows 7 at a news conference. The high point of the new OS is its “multi-touch” interface.
Other than, the touchy feely look, the demo also showed a user manipulating photos, browsing a map and playing an onscreen piano with simple one and two-finger taps and gestures.
However, the company did not confirm when it plans to ship Beta 1 of Windows 7. Microsoft plans to unveil the final version of Windows 7 around January 2010.
Posted in BPO If your idea clicks at Google, get paid up to $10 mn
September 25th, 2008 No Comments
Google is turning 10 and has thought of a novel idea to celebrate a decade of its existence. It is working towards changing the world. If you have an idea that could change the world, or at least help a lot of people, the internet giant Google wants you to share it with them. And hold your breath, if the idea rocks and clicks, you get as much as $10 million to make it a reality.
Google has named the project “10 to the 100th” and the initiative will seek input from the public and a panel of judges in choosing up to five winning ideas, to be announced in February.
“These ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or brilliantly simple — but they need to have impact,” Google said in a news release. “We know there are countless brilliant ideas that need funding and support to come to fruition.”
Those are ideas such as the Hippo Water Roller, which Google cited as the kind of concept the company would be interested in rewarding. Developed in Africa, where it is most used, the Hippo Water Roller is a barrel-shaped container, attached to a handle, that holds 24 gallons of water and can be rolled with little effort like a wheelbarrow, making it easier for villagers on foot to transport critically needed fresh water to their homes.
People are encouraged to submit their ideas, in any of 25 languages, at www.project10tothe100.com through October 20. Entrants must briefly describe their idea and answer six questions, including, “If your idea were to become a reality, who would benefit the most and how?”
Posted in BPO Get back data from lost phone
September 22nd, 2008 No Comments
Micro Mobile Controller System, or Micro MCS. It is meant to enable mobile phone users to not only track their mobile phone, but also back up and delete data.
If you’ve ever lost your mobile phone, you’d understand the agony one has to go through to trying and rescuing your handset. Also, getting your contact numbers back in place can be quite a task. More than the loss of a precious phone, there is an acute possibility of your data — phone numbers, personal multimedia files, and other information – being misused by someone.
As you already know, there are a handful of mobile security solutions available in the Indian market, essentially known as “mobile tracking systems” – also made synonymous by the Samsung brand of phones through intense promotions. These products surely help you get back your mobile phones, but what about your data?
Now, Micro Technologies, a security and life support systems developer, has launched a mobile security solution which aims to offer tracking a lost mobile phone, along with taking care of data that resides on it as well.
The solution is called Micro Mobile Controller System, or Micro MCS. It is meant to enable mobile phone users to not only track their mobile phone, but also back up and delete data.
The Works
To be able to use Micro MCS, a user will need to pay Rs. 499 for years subscription and download the Micro MCS software on their phone (select Nokia phones) through the company’s website. The user can then assign two phone numbers that can be used to send the number of the new SIM card inserted in their phone after it’s lost. It also retrieves the Location Area Code of the place the phone is then being used at.
Further, a user can delete contacts, messages, and even multimedia files from the lost mobile phone so that it does not get misused. Standard SMS rates per step of this procedure are applicable.
Also, a user can make a back-up of their contacts as well as other data on Micro Technologies’ website.
Drawbacks
While the Micro MCS is a clever idea, it is still in its nascent stages. Firstly, at the moment, Micro MCS supports only a limited number of Nokia phones. The company officials inform us that the product should support BlackBerry by next month.
While tracking the phone is standard facility, the back-up provision is basic. Users need to manually update their back-up vault periodically so that they can retrieve their latest data in case of loss.
Availability
The Company plans to make this product available through its retail stores across the country in the next 2-3 months. Micro MCS is available for Rs. 499 for a year’s usage through Micro Technologies website.
Source: Techtree.com
Posted in BPO Online search. India in top 10
September 22nd, 2008 No Comments
An Indian netizen is hitting the search button on an average 51 times during a month, but this puts them only at the last position among the top 10 countries of Asia-Pacific in terms of intensity of online search.
According to the latest ranking of top internet search figures for Asia-Pacific released by internet traffic tracking firm comScore, Koreans have topped in terms of online search intensity with an average of 102.8 searches per searcher during the month of July.
“Searchers in Korea exhibited the heaviest search intensity with an average of 102.8 searches per searcher during the month, followed by Australia (102 searches per searcher) and Japan (100.8 searches per searcher),” comScore said.
India has ranked after Korea, Australia, Japan, Singapore (91.2), New Zealand (87.2), Hong Kong (81), China (76.6), Taiwan (74.8) and Malaysia (64.2) on search intensity ranking.
India’s score of 51 searches per searcher is even lower than the overall average of 80.7 for the Asia-Pacific region.
However, the figures might increase after taking into account traffic from the public computers. The comScore data has been compiled by taking into account all unique internet users aged 15 and above from their home and work computers and it excludes searches from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.
However, India fares much better in terms of the number of people searching something on internet as well as in terms of the number of such searches.
Posted in BPO 