Archive for the ‘HR Articles’ Category

India Inc. Bounces Back & Starts Hiring

Monday, August 17th, 2009

TJ InSite finds that recruitment in the major metros of the country is once again on the
upswing

TJ InSite, the Research Wing of TimesJobs.com, India’s leading job portal, promoted by
the Times Group, conducted a survey that captured the hiring sentiment amongst
companies in India recently. The recruitment outlook amongst employers in the nerve
centers of Delhi, Mumbai & Bangalore is once again on the upswing as employers plan
to increase hiring in the next quarter, as reported by 42% of the employers in Delhi,
44% in Mumbai and 24% in Bangalore.

Commenting on this result, Mr. Vivek Madhukar, VP, TimesJobs.com said, “The positive
hiring outlook of Employers in India is not unfounded, the Q-on-Q growth that India Inc.
has witnessed both in terms of revenues & profits, and the continuation of government
stability, policies & commitments, have brought a more optimistic business forecast for
organisations.”

ITeS industry veteran Ms. Shailaja Puranik, Country Director & COO, Hays Business
Solutions, remarked, “ Hiring has started across all levels in the last three months, across
the ITeS & BPO industry, though at half the pre-September 2008 levels. However, the
major change now is that the hiring is happening for the core groups of business and not
for support functions. Hiring is taking place in new areas or where outliers have been
weeded out. Salaries have remained at earlier levels.”

“Just in Time (JIT) hiring has begun in a small way,” said Mr. Ravishankar B, Senior
Vice-President, Human Resources, HCL Technologies, as the company is scouting for
niche skills in the experience range of three plus years. “Today there are definite signs of
hiring. While specialized or JIT hiring is happening and people with niche skills and
some experience are being sought, we are also entertaining walk-ins and have been
calling for interviews. It is still too premature to comment whether this is a spike or a
regular trend. I think we have to wait for two to three months to make such a comment.”

TimesJobs.com Research collated feedback from a wide range of corporate employers in

Delhi Mumbai & Bangalore spanning sectors as diverse as IT, BPO & ITeS, Engineering,
Logistics, Healthcare, Architecture, Hospitality, Travel & Tourism, Finance &
Accounting and Sales & Marketing.

According to the study Delhi appears to be the most bullish with 81% of employers
surveyed recruiting to Ramp Up for Growth over the next year. A majority of Mumbai
corporates (57%) are also hiring to grow their businesses.
India’s Silicon Valley – Bangalore, seems to be returning to reality, after a knee-jerk

mass-retrenchment execution undertaken in Q4 2009, 52% of the corporates surveyed are

undertaking Replacement Hiring of HR reduced earlier, while the balance prepare to
Ramp up for Growth over the next year.

In terms of Experience Levels, for the Senior Managerial Grade, which forms the top of
the corporate pyramid 9% of Corporates in Delhi, and 6% of Corporates in Mumbai, are
looking for qualified people. The demand from Bangalore for this grade, however, is
negligible.

The demand for Managers, with 3 to 8 years of Experience in Delhi is at 22%, Mumbai at
36% and Bangalore recruiting 21% of their total recruitment demand from this grade.

The demand for Executives with 1 to 3 years of experience have requirements from Delhi
arriving at 52%; Mumbai at 39%; and 55% in Bangalore of total demand. This is closely
followed by Freshers with 0 to 1 years of experience, constituting 17% of the demand in
Delhi, 19% in Mumbai and 24% in Bangalore.

Of the Corporate Respondents from the IT Industry, 7% in Delhi, 16% in Mumbai and
12% in Bangalore, were planning to increase hiring and headcount over the year.

What is hearting to note, is this trend on employment. The TJ InSite Survey has shown
that the major drivers of recent growth and employment in India, namely, the Sales and
Marketing, IT, ITeS & BPO, BFSI, Engineering sectors have not just initiated
replacemen
 Article: No fears of job losses in BPO: Nasscom,
BPIAI.
Article from:
PTI - The Press Trust of India Ltd. Article date: December 10, 2008

New Delhi, Dec 10 (PTI) In a volte face on its assessment on job losses in BPO
sector due to global slowdown, BPO Association of India today said the
outlook was positive and the sector would employ more people despite
problems in the US and other developed economies.

"Future of Indian BPO industry is safe. The sector has no plans for job cuts. In
fact, the BPOs require more people to scale up their operations from multiple
locations and to meet delivery requirements of new businesses.

"Therefore, the sector will continue to contribute nearly 2.5 per cent to India's
GDP. There is no need to panic as

BPO News

BPO contract for Quadrem

Quadrem has signed a global business process outsourcing BPO agreement with SAP AG. With this
agreement, the companies aim to help customers reduce the cost and complexity of implementing and
operating integrated electronic sourcing, procurement, invoicing and contract management processes.

BPO contract for Lovelace Health

TriZetto Group has signed a six-year software and services contract with Lovelace Health Plan to enable the
provider-owned plan to efficiently serve its members in New Mexico, optimise business operations and
move toward Integrated Healthcare Management (IHM). Under the agreement, TriZetto will provide business
process outsourcing (BPO) services on its hosted and managed Facets enterprise administration system.
Other hosted systems will include its NetworX Suite, Facets Workflow and a TriZetto module that will
streamline service of Lovelace Health Planbs Medicare population.

Expansion plans for Healthcare BPO provider

Healthcare BPO firm Omega Healthcare Management Services plans to add 7,000 employees to its India
facilities. CEO Gopi Natarajan said the company anticipates its client base will double and revenues grow
four fold by 2012. Omega, which currently employs about 2,000 staff at its Bangalore and Chennai facilities,
will invest USD50 million to expand in India and grow sales from USD 15 to USD 20 million to USD 70 to USD
90 million. Bulk of the hiring will take place in Bangalore, Natarajan added.

Cognizant acquires US firm

Nasdaq-listed Cognizant has acquired Pepperweed Advisors, the IT consulting services arm of US-based
Pepperweed Consulting , for an undisclosed amount. bThe acquisition brings to Cognizantbs IT
Infrastructure Services practice a strategic consulting capability,b Cognizant said.The IT firm, which
provides consulting, technology and BPO services, has over 50 delivery centres and around 64,000
employees, the majority of whom are based in India.

BPO contract for Kale

Kale Consultants Ltd, a leading solutions provider to Airline, Logistics and Travel ALT industry, announced
that it has entered into a multiyear outsourcing contract with Wataniya Airways, Kuwaits new full service
luxury airline. As part of the deal, Kale will deliver complete outsourced revenue accounting and passenger
audit services from its delivery centre. Kale will put into service its industry leading passenger revenue
accounting solution REVERA, as the backbone of this platformbased BPO deal. Kale will provide services to
the airlines from its Managed Processing Services centres in India.

Wipro to set new BPO unit

Indian outsourcing and BPO comapany Wipro Technologies will soon open its first business process
outsourcing hub in Metro Manila and occupy half of Lucio Tan groupbs Eton Cyberpod Centris building at
the new urban development near the Edsa-Quezon Avenue intersection in Quezon City.

More KPO services in the offiing

Indias third largest software exporter, Wipro, has started offering legal process outsourcing LPO services as
part of the knowledge process outsourcing KPO services business headed by former banker and Wipro BPO
senior VP Ramit Sethi. The focus of the LPO will be to offer services such as patents and contract
management rather than paralegal services and litigation support, where the clientele are mostly law firms.

Firstsource BPO extend operations

The countrys third largest BPO firm Firstsource Solutions has received about GBP 6.7 million about Rs 54
crore of support to scale up presence in Northern Ireland, from an arm of the Government there. The ICICI
Bank promoted firm will create 800 new jobs in Northern Ireland by establishing a new centre of excellence
and expanding its existing operations in Londonderry, according to the Invest Northern Ireland NI Web site.

MortgageFlex Partners with Infosys BPO

Infosys BPO Ltd., the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, today announced
its alliance with MortgageFlex Systems, Inc. The alliance focuses on the support of U.S. loan servicing and
loan modification initiatives as defined under the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) or
alternative loan modification programs, said a press release.MortgageFlex Systems is an origination and
servicing technology solutions supplier for the U.S. mortgage industry.
WNS plans partial BPO sell out
Warburg Pincus has approached its global private equity peers for selling its 50.12% stake in BPO firm WNS
Global Services, an indication that the world-wide recession could lead to consolidation among providers of
back-office services. NYSE-listed WNS, Indiabs second largest BPO firm, may fetch a valuation of around
$800 million providing Warburg with an exit payout of $400 million, according to investment banking
sources. In 2002, Warburg had paid $40 million when it acquired a 64% stake in WNS from British Airways.

Vertex BPO back in business

Vertex Customer Services, the Gurgaon-based Indian arm of the UK-headquartered business process
outsourcing company, that grew to about 3,000 staff back in 2003 and then almost imploded with key client
exits and got reduced to a 400 people operation, is now getting back in business. A new CEO and a new
strategy hopes to see the BPO company back on track.

Government sts up rural BPO

The business process outsourcing (BPO) centres are not the forte of urban India alone. Dawing the point
home, the state government on Friday. Set up India's first rural BPO centre at Baburayana Koppal off
Mysore-Bangalore expressway near Srirangapatna. Through the BPO sector, the government aims to create
1 lakh jobs in next five years in rural Karnataka and arrest the migration to urban areas.

Sciformix KPO expands services

Sciformix Corporation, a leading provider of knowledge process outsourcing KPO services for the life
sciences industry, today announced it has completed a 3.3 million Series A round of financing led by
Flybridge Capital Partners.Sciformix utilizes a global, cost optimized business model to provide high quality
KPO services in the areas of drug safety management including, pharmacovigilance, biostatistics, clinical
data management, and medical writing and regulatory document management. The company is led by a
seasoned and successful executive team, which includes CEO, Dinesh Thakur and Chairman of the Board,
Ajit Nagral who was the former founder of NuGenesis Technologies.

New BPO centre from Tech Mahindra

Tech Mahindra, leading worldwide systems integrator & technology solutions provider to the telecom
industry, has announced that it has established its fully owned facility in Chandigarh.According to company,
the facility will focus on offering end to end customer service delivery to global telecom service providers.

Finance BPO on the rise

The global sub prime crisis will force financial institution to offshore more work to cut cost. Business
Process Outsourcing BPO from the financial services sector will increase 40 to 45 times the current market
size over the next five years, with key drivers of growth coming from cost pressures and the timely advent of
more vertical specific offerings by offshore suppliers, predicts the Everest Research Institute.
Indian LPO growing in demand
Current global recession, business mergers and acquisition, and bankruptcy filings have accelerated the
growth of LPO (Legal Process Outsourcing) in India. There has been a sizeable uptrend in the LPO industry
since the downfall of the US economy. In particular, the vendors providing support functions such as
Documentation Review and Legal Research have grown immensely. Currently Indian Legal services industry
is growing at a rate of about 40% per annum.

AmEx plans selling BPO

American Express (AmEx) is looking to sell a slice of its back-office operation in India, at least three people
with knowledge of the plan said, putting it on track to join a long list of overseas firms which have shed their
captive business process outsourcing (BPO) units in the country. A portion of the back-office operation
providing travel-related services for its international clients is being hived off and talks have started to sell
this piece of the business, one person told ET, but declined to divulge details. Another person privy to the
plan said the move is a precursor to the eventual sale of the entire BPO unit.

Indian BPO sets up African shop

Indian business process outsourcer Genpact said Monday that it has acquired a back office services
delivery center in Guatemala City from GE Money, a division of General Electric GE.Genpact, which already
has a delivery center in Mexico, said that the newly acquired facility in Guatemala will extend Genpacts
presence in the region, and increase its ability to provide business process services in English as well as in
Spanish. Genpact will provide services to GE Money from the facility, it added.

Infosys BPO signs outsourcing deal with T Mobile

T-Mobile UK has signed a five-year outsourcing contract with India's Infosys BPO, the BPO arm of Infosys
Technologies. The contract covers several core processes for their finance directorate which cover
customer finance, commercial finance and accounting (F&A), and procurement operations, Infosys BPO said
in a statement.

Aditya Birla Nuvo BPO eyes non-voice services

Aditya Birla Minacs, the BPO arm of Aditya Birla Nuvo (ABNL), will scale up its domestic operations, the
company said in a filing to the stock exchanges.The company also said it is looking at building telecom
expertise and it aims to tap customers of its telecom arm, Idea Cellular. ABNL has already launched a site for
Idea Cellular and is targeting to add two more sites in financial year 2010 to serve the telecom sector, the
stock exchange filing said. ABNL also said that it would focus on non-voice or knowledge process
outsourcing (KPO) services.

Aegis acquires South African BPO

Indian outsourcing company Aegis has bought the Call Centre Nucleus (CCN) Group and says it will invest
R500 million in local operations over the next three years.The business process outsourcing (BPO) division
of the Essar Group has acquired 100% of the local call centre company and says the acquisition made
strategic sense. It intends to use CCN as a platform to grow further and build a call centre base for itself
locally.
 India retains top BPO destination
According to a recent report by the information technology research and advisory firm Gartner, the
economic downturn and protectionist measures of western countries notwithstanding, the market share of
the business process outsourcing BPO industry will likely increase twofold over the next couple of years.

KPO demand rises

Large format Indian retailers and domestic telecom service providers are increasing their spend on market
research and analytical work. It was disclosed by Palanivel Kuppusamy, Executive Chairman, Dexterity
Group, a Chennai based KPO firm in the Market Research space, who has recently done some pilot projects
for the state owned telecom major BSNL on defaulting customers and impact of large retail stores on nearby
mom and pop shop owners and other business establishments.

Infosys BPO looking at acquisitions

Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing (BPO) unit of Indian IT major Infosys Technologies, is
planning to expand its business in the U.S. and Europe. It plans to acquire a couple of mid-size companies
worth $50 millionb$200 million, said Infosys BPO's chief executive officer and managing director Amitabh
Chaudhry.

Kale signs BPO deal

Kale Consultants Ltd, a leading solutions provider to Airline, Logistics and Travel ALT industry, announced
that it has entered into a multiyear outsourcing contract with Wataniya Airways, Kuwaits new full service
luxury airline. As part of the deal, Kale will deliver complete outsourced revenue accounting and passenger
audit services from its delivery centre. Kale will put into service its industry leading passenger revenue
accounting solution REVERA, as the backbone of this platformbased BPO deal. Kale will provide services to
the airlines from its Managed

Advantages of BPO
An important aspect of business process outsourcing is its ability to free corporate executives from some of their
day-to-day process management responsibilities. Once a process is successfully outsourced, they get more time
to, explore new revenue streams, accelerate other projects, and focus on their customers.

By outsourcing their back office operations to third world countries, companies have the following advantages:

• Achieve cost reductions – this is made possible through process improvements, reengineering, and use
of technologies that reduce and bring administrative and other costs under control.

• Key in on company's main business – with the day-to-day back office operations taken care of, the
management is free to impart more time to building the company's core businesses

• Obtain outside expertise – Rather than recruiting and training personnel, BPO ensures that domain
experts from another company provide the needed guidance and skills.

• Meet constantly changing customer demands – many BPO vendors provide the management with
flexible and scalable services to meet the customers’ changing requirements, and to support company
acquisitions, consolidations, and joint ventures

Achieving revenue increases – by outsourcing non-core processes, companies can focus on increasing their
sales and marketshare, develop new products, expand into new markets, and enhance customer service and
satisfactions
FRIDAY, JANUARY 23, 2009

Economic recession & BPO industry

Economic recession has hit the world with vengeance. But the industry which
has thrived this adversity is the BPO industry. When costs of doing work in-
house has increased in the companies abroad, they have started to outsource
their business requirements, which in turn has become a blessing in disguise to
us.

The global economic scenario goes haywire now-a-days. People frantically talk about economic
recession with a ‘what-will-be-my-future’ sort of look in their anxiety-filled eyes.

Even Nasscom, the industry association, points out that the current fiscal crisis in the United
States will adversely affect the Indian BPO/IT sectors as the clients from USA would be very
vigilant in their unrestricted spending on outsourcing their projects.

The revenue generated by the BPO & KPO industry in India is estimated to Rs.1,160 crores and
provides employment to almost 7-8 lakh people in the year 2007-08. The largest contributor to the
Indian BPO-KPO export market in 2007 is USA with a lion’s share of around 61%.
posted by Manoj Jain @ 9:01 PM 0 comments

Why An All-in-one Accounting Services Outsourcing Is Preferred

Not placing all your of eggs in the same basket may be a wise decision, but what is also true is
that it does not apply to accounting services outsourcing. It is simply because unlike eggs, most
of the accounting functions are interlinked and it would really create a confusing situation if
different service providers are hired for each specific accounting process. Starting from basic
bookkeeping and continuing to final accounts preparation, financial analysis and tax preparation,
most of these accounting sub-processes fall in a linear functional path and it would be better if all
of these are managed by a single accounting services outsourcing provider.

The list of all-in-one accounting services outsourcing providers may contain only a few names,
but since such services are still readily available, businesses need not worry too much. In a way,
it can actually work to their advantage because the less the number of providers, the less will be
the effort businesses will have to make in order to select the right accounting services
outsourcing provider. Finding the right accounting services outsourcing provider will further
eliminate any worries that businesses might be having about placing all of their eggs in the same
basket. Achieving desired results such as cost savings and efficiency and accuracy
improvements will also become a lot easier then.