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| | The Telecom Network for Professionals and Users Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | Views: 694 | | Dec 12, 2006 8:08 pm | | Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # | 
Ira Stoller | | India is starting to lose its luster as an outsourcing post, thanks to a severe talent shortage and increasing competition for skilled IT professionals. That's why more than a few outsourcers are now looking elsewhere--including Vietnam, Russia and Mexico--for operation centers. Increasing salary levels are prompting the big outsourcing players to expand their horizons within India as well--moving away from the tech hub formerly known as Bangalore.
For more on the outsourcing issues in play read the report in BusinessWeek. Be sure to read the appended comments also.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2006/tc20061207_164472.htmPrivate Reply to Ira Stoller | | Dec 13, 2006 11:16 pm | | re: Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # |
Vern Burke | | Ah great, three more places to supply customer service/support people that nobody can understand.
Vern, SwiftWater Telecom
http://www.swiftwatertel.comPrivate Reply to Vern Burke | | Dec 14, 2006 4:50 am | | re: re: Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # | 
Kapil Singhal | | Dear Mr. Ira Stroller, Vern Burke.
I Would appreciate your effort that you raises your worries about India, But i would like to put forward this point in different manner, I would say that many countries now start looking towards Outsourcing business like Mexico, Vietnam, Russia and they have give options to the customer for outsourcing. But still INDIA is having largest chunk of outsourcing business that would continue in future also, Because of lots of benefits like language advantage, Cost advantage, Technical Skillsets etc. See Its a Economics rule that if demand increases cost automatically increases but Now a day one thing is sure that cost is not everything, important thing is what your customer demands and whether you care capable of serving you customer in stipulated time or not.For that I can say that there cant be better option than india for outsourcing.
Although rest of developing economies are sharing few part of outsoucing business but majority of the work is still coming to india.We would like to provide our enrich support to all the customer who would like to have india has Thier developing partner.
So anyone who would like to have our services please contact me at Kapil.singhal@spec-india.com
Regards,
Kapil Singhal
kapil.singhal@spec-india.com
Skype: erkapil_singhal
Private Reply to Kapil Singhal | | Dec 14, 2006 11:16 pm | | re: re: re: Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # |
Ira Stoller | | Hi Kapil,
I don't mean to be harsh, but unfortunately, your message is a prime example of why many Americans take a dim view of outsourcing to India. It shows a less-than-perfect command of colloquial American English. You have a number of grammatical errors, incorrect use of tense, incorrect capitalization, poor choice of words, etc. Language advantage? People over here consider this to be a language DISadvantage.
If you're going to be in a service business catering to contacts in a foreign country you must learn to speak, write, and understand the language of that country as if you were a native. Anything less stands out like a sore thumb. When we come across this sort of thing the general impression is that the company who outsourced to you is saving money by settling for an imperfect product.
How can India correct this problem? MASTER the language. you're almost there.Private Reply to Ira Stoller | | Dec 15, 2006 2:18 am | | re: re: re: re: Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # |
Vern Burke | | Ira,
Absolutely correct, I couldn't have said it better. It doesn't really matter if I'm outsourcing halfway around the world, I just can't sound to my customers like I am.
Vern, SwiftWater Telecom
http://www.swiftwatertel.comPrivate Reply to Vern Burke | | Dec 15, 2006 5:08 am | | re: re: re: re: re: Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # |
Kapil Singhal | | Hi Ira,
Thanks for putting up your point, It is quite clear from your language that what you want to convey, There are some persons who are considering themselves as the leader of a particular country and have a perception that what they feel is the perception of whole country without knowing the facts and figures.
We indians have proud to serve our customer with our best services, which no one cant deny by pointing out some mistakes.
You cant analyse anyone just from one dimension, you need to have capability to analyse someone from multiple dimension, which is lacking in few individual and they are posting thier views on behalf of whole industry or country which is not a good sign.
Kapil Singhal Private Reply to Kapil Singhal | | Dec 15, 2006 1:22 pm | | re: re: re: re: re: re: Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # | 
Shrikant Mehta | | Ira, Vern,
Couldn't help but respond to this thread.
Concerns on Indian salaries burgeoning are true, but probably bloated. Indian salaries are yet to come close to even 10% of salaries in the developed countries. Don't see that gap being bridged so fast.
Indian cos have now matured their services and provide the best quality of services as compared to the corresponding low cost centers.
They have even got the scale which is necessary to handle bigger projects. Infy getting listed in the Nasdaq 100 proves where Indian companies have reached in terms of scale.
They are slowly but surely moving up the value chain and providing services that earlier were the forte of only the developed countries.
Concerns of fraud, quality of service, rising prices are part of any industry rising at a rapid pace and are slowly taken care of.
I do not really see India losing their advantage so fast. At least 20 years down the line. Beyond that no-one can predict.
As regards the grammatical mistakes of the previous poster is concerned, I guess thats generalizing way too much.
Regards
ShrikantPrivate Reply to Shrikant Mehta | | Dec 17, 2006 8:25 am | | re: re: re: re: re: re: re: Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # | 
Ken Hilving | |
New Page 1
Outsourcing is not particularly new, and certainly not a technology specific
situation. The term is new, but the practice goes back at least to the first
cities, and probably to the first use of tools.
I believe there are two things working against the long term viability of IT
outsourcing. First is the economic model. We are seeing a shift in the
distribution of wealth. In the US, wealth is becoming concentrated in ever
smaller percentage of the population. As this happens, the ability to sell a
service such as off shore data processing becomes a smaller market. After all,
just how much IT does Bill Gates or the Wall heirs use? Retail outlets, one of
the last sources of employment, continue to automate. The process of checking
out is now routinely "outsourced" to the customer who scans his own purchases,
and completes payment, without store assistance. The next step will be to make
this process automatic as the customer exits. This is already in use at many
gasoline stations as "fast pay". Inventory management has likewise been
automated. The next question is who the customer will be if no one is employed
to manufacture or sell the products.
The second is Moore's Law. We tend to think of it as applying to personal
computers, but in fact it applies to all information and communications
technology. Each new advance further reduces the number of people required to do
the same amount of work. While new markets are opening, it may seem that there
is an increased demand for technologists, but this is an illusion. Once the new
market reaches saturation, we see the impact of increasing capability in the
hardware and software at decreasing costs. This has always been the case with
automation, but in electronic technology the impact comes at greatly accelerated
pace. Each year more of the design, manufacturing, and operation is automated,
the reliability increases, and the number of people required for a given amount
of work decreases.
During the first 100 years of telephony, the market growth hid the impact. A
net gain in jobs occurred even as positions were eliminated. The advent of solid
state technology in the 1960's started accelerating the trend, but it also cut
costs and saw market increases. The introduction of LSI, and then VLSI, and the
PC saw about a 20 year span before the two curves crossed. Even without off
shoring, the number of technology jobs started dropping in the late 1990's. The
millennium bug masked this, as did the dot com boom, but these only delayed the
impact by a couple of years.
Evidence of this is readily apparent in the marketing approaches today. In
cellular, for example, it isn't about the features or capabilities, but about
the pricing plans and latest device appearances. Considering that widespread
cellular usage is less than a decade old, that is a significant indicator. While
coverage areas and total users has increased, the number of RF engineers
involved in the design and implementation of new service areas has been steadily
decreasing. There never was a serious service or repair aspect. Phones are
replaced based on style rather than any fault with an existing instrument. The
sales aspect has almost no technical knowledge requirement.
Each new release of application software puts more capability into the hands
of the user. Web support is becoming a routine aspect of the administrative
assistant job, and the number of administrative assistants is decreasing. Web
development is likewise becoming more of a packaged solution than a ground up
effort. Understanding the code is becoming less important as low cost tools
allow users to create with no coding knowledge.
Private Reply to Ken Hilving | | Dec 18, 2006 3:26 am | | Is India losing its outsourcing luster? | # | 
Desmond Chong | | Hi All,
Let's take the positive to the whole scenario:
1) Competition is a good thing for buyers. With Vietnam, Mexico, China, Malaysia, Philippines etc... developing an Outsourcing sector, that can only drive Indian companies to do better for those unsatisfied with their service quality, while keeping a lid on pricing.
2) To be fair, having worked in India now, there are some exceptionally sharp minds who speak fluent and eloquent English. King's English in some cases. In the Customer Service centers, the bag is mixed. Goes back to training. Like all growing economies, everyone is after a buck to better the lives of their families, and in a market where demand is high, the employees are hopping to the next bigger check. This will all change over the next few years. That's a good thing.
3) Just as it would be unfair to judge or generalize on India's or Indians' command of English based a few past experiences, it's unfair and unwise to judge the command of English of the Chinese, Philippinos, Vietnamese, Mexicans. I think if we all took a trip to each of these countries, we'd be surprised by their service levels, grasp of the language, accent, etc.... Today, many employees & students in Shanghai & Beijing speak English with a flawless American slang. Similarly, the Philippinos have a knack for imitating language, so short change them at your own peril. Good thing? India's quality will improve.
4) India still presents a Price Advantage for sure compared to the metro areas of the US. But from a PURE COST point of view, I have to post the question: "is the loss of customers or business due to language & lack of cultural understanding of my Service Team, worth the price?" I have set up an Operations Center in Mumbai and shut it down in 9 mths. No work was done, constant training was needed, and best of all they decided it was their right to have Diwali off, Christmas off, New Year's off, Chinese New Year off, and Ramadan off as well. Such issues, I do not have with Singapore or Malaysian or Chinese operations.
5)Bangalore is fast losing its allure for sure in the tech field. Today, a service delivery manager in Bangalore could fetch anywhere from 80-150K USD per year....that's called living like a KING. Then again, whose fault is it?
This means there is a huge opportunity for a provider that can provide the type of service quality that is demanded by first world clients. For this precise reason, we have set up a new Operations Center in Hyderabad to do just that. We've put in an A-Team with US-Corporate experience, who know how to run a proper CLASS A operations & service, and hire only those who want to make a difference. Let me know if you'd like to find out more or want to work with us.
Best,
DesPrivate Reply to Desmond Chong | | |
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