I.B.M. Gets Tougher on Staff Quality in India
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I.B.M. has introduced new procedures to evaluate its staff in India with an eye to improving quality, with staff that donât make the grade being asked to leave.
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Firoz Nadiadwala is making a record of sorts in terms of replacing the directors of his film.
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(InfoWorld) - It may now be the turn of Indian companies to offshore outside India their IT services requirements. Indian CIOs will have to consider outsourcing offshore, because of the shortage of IT skills in the country, and inadequate services standards of local service providers, according to research firm Gartner Inc. Indian companies have been looking at India alone for outsourcing, said a spokesman for Gartner India on Tuesday, who asked not to be named. They will now have to look at other locations like Singapore, Hong Kong, and even the U.S., he added. The services offshore will come at a premium to Indian prices, but will at least ensure that Indian CIOs get quality services, the spokesman said. Demand for skilled IT personnel as a result of initiatives like the Indian government's recent national e-governance program (NEGP), and resource-hungry Indian offshore service providers, are outstripping local supply, according to Gartner. Rapid economic growth in India is exacerbating the problem, and local chief information officers areÂ finding it difficult to manage the shortage of skilled local IT resources as internal business units become even more demanding in the area of IT requirements and schedules, the research firm added. Indiaâs gross domestic product (GDP) grew 9.2 percent in the countryâs fiscal year to March. A recent Gartner survey conducted among more than 1,400 CIOs worldwide showed that IT budgets in India had the highest growth of 16.19 percent, compared with an average of 3.16 percent in the rest of the world. Gartner warned in February thatÂ the problem for user organizations in India may only get worse as outsourcing companies start hiring business line managers from user organizations to build their vertical industry expertise. As large Indian outsourcers grow in revenue by 30 to 40 percent each year, they will hire business managers from the banking, manufacturing, and retail industries, that bring the business knowledge that can be integrated into their services offerings, it added. The focus of Indian outsourcers is primarily on markets in the U.S. and Europe where margins are far higher than in India, according to Gartner. Multinational services companies have targeted outsourcing deals by large Indian companies but the focus so far has been on very large deals, Gartner said in February. If Indian CIOs outsource work offshore, that may get Indian companies to try and reverse the trend, the Gartner spokesman said. An alternative to offshore outsourcing is for Indian CIOs to work with second and third-tier providers in India who are interested in local business, said the Gartner spokesman. The right provider may be able to provide domestic resources and perhaps a higher level of attention to issues and demands, he added. Â
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The poor infrastructure of India's crowded cities is taking a toll and may even curb the growth of the fast-expanding outsourcing industry.
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ASSET management companies (AMCs) concede that the immaturity of the Indian mutual fund industry forces fund managers to spend substantial amounts of time in sales activities.
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I.B.I.S. Inc. announced today the addition of industry veteran Douwe  Bekaert to its management team. Bekaert will lead I.B.I.S'  rapidly expanding Microsoft Information Worker (IW) Practice, centered  on Microsoft Office and CRM Solutions for mid- and upper mid-market  enterprises.
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London, Aug. 19: Yet another fault has been found by British unions with the quality of outsourcing to India but this time perhaps with some justification.
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NEW DELHI, July 5 -- When Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced more rigorous background checks on foreign doctors applying for visas to work in Britain, panic spread through India's medical community, whose highly skilled professionals have always found it easy to work and study abroad.
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Outsourcing executives are worried that recent security breaches are damaging IndiaÂs reputation as a high-skilled, low-cost location.
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Microsoft will hire several hundred new staff at its new Indian campus in the next year, its chief executive says -- a move aimed at strengthening its presence in Asia&#39;s fourth-biggest economy.
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ERNST AND YOUNG&#39;S the Global Information Security Survey is just the latest to survey senior management&#39;s cluelessness when it comes to IT and are far too trusting when it comes to Indian outsourcing, it alleges.
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(InfoWorld) - India's chief outsourcing association has admitted there may be instances of U.S.Â visa abuse by Indian companies, but said the problems are confined to "small, fly-by-night operators." Most of the Indian companies that sponsor large numbers of U.S. visas are "publicly listed and ethically managed," the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said on Thursday. Any abuse of U.S. visas at such companies would tend to be less than at smaller operations, it added. However, NASSCOM admitted in its statement that small companies are "an area that may need more attention." The association's comments come after further allegations of U.S. visa abuse by two U.S. senators this week. Following their complaints last month aboutÂ alleged misuse of H-1B visas by Indian outsourcers, U.S. Senators Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, and Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, this weekÂ questioned the use of large numbers of L visasÂ by Indian outsourcers. Information from the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) indicated that the companies using the most H-1B visas are the same firms that use the most L visas, the senators said. That made them suspect that companies are using L visas to circumvent worker protections required under the H-1B program. The allegations come as the U.S. Senate attempts to revive an immigration reform bill which includes a provision for increasing the number of H-1B visas available. Earlier this month, Patni Computer SystemsÂ reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor to pay back-wages to employees brought to the U.S. under the H-1B visa program, who then worked at lower salaries than U.S. workers would get for similar work. Patni is among the top 10 users of H-1B and L-1 visas from India. The senators wrote letters toÂ nine Indian companiesÂ in May, asking them for details on their use of H-1B visas. Among the companies were top Indian outsourcers including Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies, and Wipro. The nine companies together account for close to 20,000 visas, the senators said. Companies appear to be increasingly using H-1B visas to displace qualified American workers, Grassley said in May. India's Minister for Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath warned at the time that the complaints could have repercussions at the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, since the issue of work permits is a trade issue. Those negotiations fell through this month, not due to work permits but on account of differences over subsidies and tariffs on agriculture products. NASSCOM replied to the two senators in May but has yet to receive any acknowledgement, the association said on Thursday. It said it looks forward to a positive engagement that will address the politicians' concerns withoutÂ disrupting the growing two-way tradeÂ between India and the U.S. The H-1B visa is an employer-sponsored, non-immigrant visa that allows a foreign worker to come to the U.S. temporarily to perform services in a specialty occupation. The L-1 visa, a popular type of L visa, is a non-immigrant visa that allows companies in the U.S. or abroad to transfer certain classes of employee from their foreign operations to a U.S. operation. L visas are designed to give multinational companies the freedom to transfer managers and specialists within the company to their U.S. offices, Durbin said on Tuesday. But some of these companies have hundreds, and, in some cases, thousands of L visa workers, he said. "I find it hard to believe that any one company has that many individuals that are legitimately being transferred within a single year," Durbin said. "I find it even harder to believe that these L visas are being used appropriately when many of the same companies are some of the largest employers of H1-B workers." TCS of Mumbai was the largest user of L visas in 2006, with 4,887, according to a list of the top 20 L users posted by the two senators on their Web sites Tuesday. The list also includes the names of multinational companies such as IBM and Intel. Â
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Indian automakers are plagued by a shortage of skilled workers, inferior product quality and deficient highway infrastructure, among other challenges.
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Â· Staff in news and factual programming hardest hitÂ· Director general's plans met with union anger
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The Internal Revenue Service is taking another look at its pay system for managers after complaints by managers and a critical inspector general's report.
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Executives from U.S. retail  giant Wal-Mart toured Indian stores on Thursday as they work on  a deal that could change the face of the country's $300 billion  retail sector and has sparked fears of mass job losses.
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Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged the country's software industry to raise its level of performance despite achieving an average annual growth rate of more than 30 percent since 2002.