Insurer outsources processing to Indian IT firm
Personneltoday.comInsurance firm Pearl Group has outsourced its processing and administration to Indian IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in a deal worth £486m over 12 years. Under the agreement, TCS will establish a subsidiary company to employ about 950 of Pearl's 1,100 staff, with the remainder retained by Pearl to work in its life and pensions business. Phiroz Vandrevala, global head of corporate affairs at TCS, said the firm plans to take over Pearl's Peterborough office and establish a business process outsourcing centre of excellence for the UK, initially managing four million insurance policies. more...
In-house trend threatens outsourcers
VNUNET.comInsourcing of IT services is a growing trend and could have a significant impact on outsourcing, according to research by the National Outsourcing Association (NOA). Sixty per cent of respondents to a survey of outsourcing industry specialists said that insourcing poses a significant risk to outsourcing contracts and is not a passing fad. But 30 per cent of respondents felt that insourcing is often a knee-jerk reaction to bad outsourcing experiences. more...
Google, Yahoo Out Of Censored Commerce Report
Webpronews.comA Department of Commerce report on how offshore outsourcing has affected tech jobs in the US was sanitized to present a brighter job picture. White House and Commerce politicos whitewashed a research report that showed a more balanced picture of outsourcing, opting instead to demonstrate the positive side of the practice only, two publications have charged. BusinessWeek pointed to a pair of documents in its coverage of the report. One PDF document, a 12-page final report delivered to House Republican Frank Wolf (VA), omits negative information that appeared in a slide show created by the original analysts at Commerce. more...
Will salary inflation curb offshoring?
News.comAsia's booming economy is raising an interesting question for U.S. companies: As businesses in that part of the world raise salaries to reflect their prosperity, will the region become less attractive for offshore outsourcing? A new report indicates that more than 50 percent of companies surveyed in Asia expect to increase jobs and salaries in the last quarter of the year, with those in China being particularly bullish. Although the study did not cite specific salary levels, some Asian countries had reported substantial increases in compensation as part of a trend that began more than a year ago. more...
Infosys Posts Robust Increase In Second Quarter Sales, Profits
Informationweek.comIndian IT services provider Infosys Technologies continues to benefit from the boom in offshore outsourcing. The Bangalore-based company on Tuesday said revenues for its second quarter increased 38.3%, compared to the same period a year ago, to $524 million. Per-share earnings jumped to 51 cents from 36 cents a year earlier. Infosys also added 34 new customers and grew from 40,000 to more than 46,000 employees during the period ended September 30. For the first six months of its fiscal year, Infosys' sales topped the $1 billion mark, a level it took the company a full year to reach as recently as 2004. In a statement, Infosys CEO Nandan Nilekani said the company's robust growth was due in part to moves to offer "a broad array of services" by diversifying beyond basic IT work and deliver higher value offerings, such as consulting and business-process outsourcing. more...
BT slams "bigots" who abuse Indian call centre staff
Silicon.comBT has dismissed some of the "myths" around offshore outsourcing and claims some customers who complain about language difficulties with Indian call centres are just "bigots". BT's chief procurement officer Meryl Bushell, speaking today at the annual Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply conference in London, said the company will continue the offshoring drive that has delivered "substantial" cost savings and improved customer service. There are some bigots who are very rude. There are times I have been ashamed to be British. -- Meryl Bushell, chief procurement officer, BT She said: "The savings have been substantial - in the region of 40 to 60 per cent savings on everything we have offshored." more...
