Business,Technology & Gadget News

With high cost structures during a recession, many Nordic countries are looking towards India to help them cut those costs by almost 30-40%. Some of the biggest banks in the Nordic region, NORDEA AB, Svenska Handelsbanken and SEB are looking at outsourcing technology to India.
According to a senior official of an offshore advisory firm, QuantumStep, Nordic companies studied many successful offshoring case studies like Ericsson and Ikea before considering India. Nordic countries prefer to start off with small contracts in the region of $10-20 million, but are expected to sign larger ones only after looking at the benefits of the earlier contracts. Belgium, another potentially huge market for service providers, is also signing contracts to the tune of almost $30-40 million and more, said the official from QuantumStep.

EquaTerra, an outsourcing advisory firm, in a study involving 370 contracts, signed by over 200 Nordic customers and worth around $4.3 billion, found that Indian service providers were better than their European counterparts such as TietoEnator and Capgemini when it came to quality of services offered. EquaTerra said in a recent report that there’s no doubt that India leads the pack when it comes to providing services for the Nordic firms with at least 61% of firms using India for all or at least some of their outsourcing needs.

Unlike other European markets, such as Germany, where labor laws make it difficult for service providers, Nordic countries are more flexible and this is what makes it more viable for India. Major Indian IT companies are looking at outsourcing contracts to the tune of $100 million each, in the coming years.

When Handelsbanken was looking at offshoring, it shortlisted many firms, including European and Indian ones, before finally deciding on Indian firms. Handelsbanken had tentatively been exploring offshoring for almost a year; the recession forced them into considering it as a definite possibility. Handelsbanken are looking for suppliers to maintain their legacy mainframe systems in addition to making them work with newer business software applications.
Though one top Indian IT firm confirmed that Nordic countries are indeed looking at outsourcing to India, others declined comment.

The head of the European division of an Indian IT firm says that the overall Nordic market will not grow much this year but the demand for outsourcing is seeing a steady growth. According to him, about 100 deals which have been signed over the past six to eight months are collectively in the vicinity of € 500,000 to € 150 million with the most significant one in size and in terms of frequency being in the vicinity of € 8-20 million.
Norway is expected to show a high IT market growth in Europe this year, around 1-2% every year, while most other markets have not grown or have declined.

A year after the department of telecommunications conditionally relaxed rules on IT-BPO employees working from home, Raman Roy, chairman & managing director of Quatrro BPO Solutions, has started pilot projects in Mumbai and Delhi to explore the possibility of scaling up the model.
Quattro is the first BPO to have secured permission for this model from DoT. "This is a provisional permission. Once the company is able to meet all our security concerns, we will grant them a license," confirmed a senior DoT official on condition of anonymity.
The license is a prerequisite for service providers to provide infrastructure and last-mile connectivity.
The $11-billion BPO sector employs over 750,000 people, and 'working from home' could add significantly to the employment numbers, said Roy. He added that he has been 'toying with the idea for nearly two years before I got help from software body Nasscom and the required permission from the DoT.'
Roy plans to launch another pilot in Chennai soon. He has also appointed a dedicated team of six senior employees -- including a lawyer and a technician -- to make these pilots successful.
"We feel this is the next-generation step for the industry. It will create jobs for people who are educated but don't have the flexibility to go to offices. Besides opening a career option for them, it will create a flexible workforce. So, housewives and others can work from home, will have flexible work timings and also earn money," said Roy.
Currently, the 30-odd employees who work from home have a computer that is connected to the company's server (using virtual private network or VPN technology). Whenever an employee logs on to the computer, the data on the screen is monitored by a supervisor sitting at the Quatrro headquarters in Gurgaon.
The supervisor sits in front of four large Plasma screens and can see each of the employees' monitors. If he wants to speak to anyone of them, or clarify any of their doubts, he accesses the webcam.
Currently, these employees are involved only in non-voice work which comprises both low-end data entry work and in some cases high-end data analytics, Roy said.
The main hurdle in this case is ensuring that a client's data is secure. "The test is all about security. So, the solution is that when the employee logs onto our server, the supervisor will be able to see him and his activities. The plasma screens ensure constant monitoring and guidance. The VPN pipe takes care of security," Roy said.
Usually there are 8 to 15 supervisors in one shift but for this virtual model one supervisor will be able to supervise 16 or 32 sessions at one go.
If the pilots are successful, Quatrro plans to expand this concept and train people by sending supervisors to tier-II and III cities and towns where it will set up training centres.
Roy said he has already spoken to some schools and received a favourable response from the principals. Quatrro will set up a computer lab with around 10 computers in schools that will be used by the schools in the morning and for training BPO 'work- from-home' aspirants in the evenings.
Going forward, employees who are selected for the work-from-home programme will be provided with computers in their homes for which Quatrro will stand guarantee with banks.
The company will deduct the monthly installment from the employee's salary.The salary structure for such employees, said Roy, will mainly be variable as the fixed salary structure will not work here. "We plan to make the pay structure transaction-based.
The higher the number of transactions, more the pay," he explained.
Another company that is experimenting with this concept is Aspect Software. "The home agent is the new wave of offshoring and is not intra-continent but intra-country. The processes demands what percentage of people can be home-based," explains Rajeev Soni, Managing Director, Aspect Software.
The company has experimented with this concept with Sparsh BPO and its own BPO for both voice- and non-voice work. However, it is yet to get a licence from the DoT to roll out the services on a commercial scale.
Soni explained that by using Microsoft's Unified Communications in the work-from-home concept, the follow-up calls went down from 18 to 20 per cent to 8 to 9 per cent, thereby reducing costs.
Analysts, however, remain sceptical about arrangements related to working from home on the ground of- data security, infrastructure, data processes, employee motivation and monitoring problems and lack of a controlled environment.
"Independent work can be done in a work-from-home arrangement but group work requires a controlled environment. Models like these work only when data masking is possible," says Sabyasachi Satpathy, partner at advisory firm Tholons.
Moreover, processing needs to be scrutinised and a faster turnaround can't take place in such models, said analysts. Few companies are interested in the work-from-home policy as infrastructure is another problem and the work will have to be verified.
"We understand and appreciate these concerns," countered Roy, adding: "After all, I have been there and seen this industry grow to its present size. But I believe that we will make this concept work."

BPO or Business Process Outsourcing is one of the sunshine sectors in India. According to statistics by World Bank and Goldman Sachs, an investment banking firm India will attract about 80% of the world's BPO industry by 2020. BPO is one of the most outperforming sectors in the Indian economy. Services, which account for almost 35% in India's productivity has BPO at the heart of the growth.India is blessed with 50% population below 35. India is fortunate to be blessed with a young English speaking population. The British left their main legacy behind, when they granted independence to India; English. India, according to statistics is the second largest English speaking in the world just below the United States. Moreover, Indians are known to be processing one of the most neutral accents in the world. The citizens of India, especially the BPO workers have the potential to speak various accents in the world including American, British, Canadian and Australian to name a few.Recently, many BPO companies from East Asia and continental Europe have set up BPO offices and call centers spanning all of India. Indians, especially BPO workers are trying their best to learn new languages apart from English. There is a rapid rise in the use of foreign languages of Korean, Japanese, French, German and Spanish. Young Indians are constantly getting acquainted with these languages to serve their clients and customers based in these countries.The most important reason why companies outsource to India, besides being the country of young English speaking people, is the cost advantage. The Indian currency, Rupee, is pegged at Rs. 50=$1. Indians, due to the far lower cost of living are happy to work at only 25% of an average westerner. They are not only more efficient and work for a mere amount compared to a westerner. It is beneficial to outsource, and India is the best destination for all your outsourcing needs.

Tata Consultancy Services has been selected as an IT vendor by BP for the oil and gas majors refining, manufacturing and corporate maintenance works. "Our selection as a strategic IT vendor for BP demonstrates our strong domain expertise and highlights the investments we have been making in the technology-led energy sector," TCS Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director N Chandrasekaran said in a release.When contacted a TCS official told PTI that the deal was for five years, but she did not reveal the value of the deal.BP has a rigorous procurement selection process which assessed the capability, oil and gas sector knowledge and cost.BP is one of the world`s largest energy companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemicals products for everyday items.TCS energy vertical serves international and domestic energy companies across the industrys value chain. It also works with oil field services companies on solutions that help increase the production and reliability of upstream operations, the release said."In awarding TCS our refining, manufacturing and corporate maintenance work, we look to benefit from their knowledge of the oil and gas sector," BP Group CIO Dana Deasy was quoted as saying in the release.The contact would help BP to reduce complexity, standardise processes and lower overall cost base, Deasy said.

Outsourcing is an age old practice and the advent of business process outsourcing is clearly an example of paradigm shift. It is the way in which business operates, or can be operated. The advent of current BPO revolution has been driven by the availability of cost effective technology such as Internet broadband services, inexpensive data storage, continued business process specialization and online analytical processing tool.

The paradigm shift is that, the technology has enabled global exchange of BPO services. Today, BPO industry had matured to the extent that the costs are normalizing and becoming attractive. Over the last three decades Business Process Outsourcing has been catering to number of services like retail, insurance, mortgage, banking, finance, health care, telecommunications, travel, technology, hospitality and many more.

Today, many offshore firms are consolidating and standardizing their operations by outsourcing their business process to third parties. There are many BPO service providers in India that offer cost effective and focused management expertise. In the present scenario many UK and US based firms are looking at countries like India, Philippines, China and other South Asian territories to outsource their services.

According to a research conducted NelsonHall- a BPO analyst firm
✔ 80% of the firm claimed that, outsourcing has increased their competitiveness.✔ 87% of the companies said that, outsourcing had improved their internal processes.✔ While 77% of the companies said that, they could see a significant drop in their operational cost through outsourcing.

The offshore BPO services are expected to grow at a significant rate per year within the Asia-Pacific market. The growth rate will be about $14 billion by the year 2010. The BPO business in India will be booming despite the current economic recession. The economy will stabilize and there five fold growth of the BPO industry within the next five years.

According to a research, ‘Road map 2012 - capitalizing on the expanding BPO landscape’, conducted by Nasscom and Everest Group, the revenue of the Indian BPO industry will touch $50 billion and will add about 2.5% of the gross domestic product by the year 2012. Presently BPO sector employs about 8 lakh people and the annual revenue is about $11 billion. Over the next 5 years the BPO industry will employ nearly 2 million people.

Once again, one reason why BPO has grown over the 10 years is the availability of high end technology and infrastructure. Without the availability of Internet and broadband, this could not have been possible. The development in technology has broken down the barriers of global communication.

Considering the progress made in the outsourcing industry over the last ten years is standardizing and automation of business processes, the next five years promise similar advances. Typically, the multinational companies define market trends and the acceptance of new product and services. Keeping all these in mind, the BPO industry could take a new shape over the next five years.

Today, any young entrepreneur who is getting into call centre business should understand that, he is entering into a commodity- like business.

Anyone who claims to offer innovative ideas regarding starting a call centre business is clearly not in the loop of the industry. One should accept the fact that, call centre business is not based on innovation but rather on strategies.
Given this, there are some people who go ahead with the proposition of call centre business. To start a call centre business you need to arrange for a certain amount of capital. After having finalized that you want to get into call centre business, it is imperative that you need the infrastructure in place. Then plan out for a core team to propel your business and around ten trained call centre agents to start the pilot process.

If any call centre firm has to make a mark in the call centre business, the focus should be on high-end quality. Any call centre business will excel if there are experienced people in the company. Accent neutralization and training in various situations is must. The message should be very clear in terms of handling a call. This is an intense business and there is no getting back after the call has been messed up.

The next is to register under STPI so as to get maximum benefit of duty free imports for all kinds of computer hardware. In addition to this, the other important requirements are carpet area, equipment, communication and manpower. The carpet area can range from 55-155 sq feet per agent and this depends on number of seats. It also depends on the number of services rendered by the centre.

You can estimate the total carpet area by planning the space for facilities, amenities and support areas. The communication or connectivity depends on the volume of traffic and services rendered by the call centre firm.
For example a 200- seat call centre will usually invest in a 2 Mbps international private leased circuit for inbound services. This will comprise of two half circuits in India and the other two in US or UK through an international carrier.
The manpower employed in call centre falls under two broad headings. These are operations or agent and management or support staff. The ratio between the two depends on variety of parameters based on organization, services deployed and the client requirement.

Next comes the technological needs, in terms of technical resources the following things are needed like a voice witch/EPABX, modems, routers, multiplexers ( for data and voice transport), RISC/CISC servers, headsets, desktops, IVR( Interactive Voice Response), E1/T1 circuits for connectivity, CTI( Computer Telephony Integration) and ACD( Automatic Call Distributor) are needed.

One can look up to spending $10,000 per agent for setting up a call centre that includes all types of expenses. The cost of maintenance for a seat would be around $4000-$5000 per year. The industry experts say that most of the operation costs will be two- third of their billings.

One thing which has been highlighted before is the consistent delivery of value services and no BPO firm should be generalist but should have an expertise in certain vertical. In terms of getting clients, the company should have a core team who have gone through a learning process in a call centre and the essential team of HR, Finance, Trainers and Operations in place.

Speaking in terms of return on investment, if a call centre business is managed efficiently, the entrepreneur can reap profits within two or three years in business. One more important aspect of this business is the attrition level of BPO industry. One should have proper recruitment plan in mind and should try to stick to it.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has sought to calm fears in Latin America about a planned new military agreement with Colombia.

Some countries in the region have expressed alarm over the US plans to use Colombian bases to combat drug traffickers and rebels.

But Mrs Clinton said the accord would respect Colombian sovereignty and other countries would not be affected.

It would not lead to a significant increase in US troop numbers, she said.

Speaking after talks in Washington with Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez, Mrs Clinton said the agreement would not lead to the creation of US bases in Colombia.

"It does provide the United States access to Colombian bases but command and control, administration and security will be Colombia's responsibility," she said.

"Any US activity will have to be mutually agreed upon in advance. The United States does not have and does not seek bases inside Colombia."

She also said there would be "no significant permanent increase in the US military and contractor presence in Colombia" and that other countries would not be affected.

"This is about the bilateral co-operation between the United States and Colombia regarding security matters within Colombia," she said.

Regional benefit

Under the deal, the US military will be able to operate on Colombian soil to tackle drug-trafficking and terrorism.

Mrs Clinton said the threats were very real and that the US was "committed to supporting the government of Colombia in its efforts to provide security to all its citizens".

Mr Bermudez said developing "more effective mechanisms of co-operation" would benefit both Colombia and the region.

"We have suffered, and we have learned from the lessons as a result of this suffering," he said.

A number of countries in the region have condemned the plan and Argentina has called the agreement "not helpful".

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expressed fears the move would amount to preparation for an invasion of his country by US forces.

Cognizant Building

T-Mobile UK has inked a five year outsourcing deal with the Indian firm Infosys BPO for its finance operations. Infosys will support T-Mobile’s core processes in its finance directorate, covering customer finance, commercial finance and accounting (F&A) and procurement operations. The move will leave T-Mobile to concentrate on financial issues that are “strategically important or which deliver competitive advantage”.

T-Mobile is under a burden of cost cutting as the parent company, Deutsche Telekom, posted a goodwill writedown of €1.8b

n for the UK operation in Q1, after which there have speculations that T-Mobile is looking to offload its UK business.

T-Mobile UK has inked a five year outsourcing deal with the Indian firm Infosys BPO for its finance operations. Infosys will support T-Mobile’s core processes in its finance directorate, covering customer finance, commercial finance and accounting (F&A) and procurement operations. The move will leave T-Mobile to concentrate on financial issues that are “strategically important or which deliver competitive advantage”.
T-Mobile is under a burden of cost cutting as the parent company, Deutsche Telekom, posted a goodwill writedown of €1.8bn for the UK operation in Q1, after which there have speculations that T-Mobile is looking to offload its UK business.

How to teach university degree programs offered overseas is a complicated question. Does a university rely on faculty from the home campus to travel abroad for a year, semester or month at a time to teach, hire a new cadre of faculty at the overseas location, deliver coursework through distance education, or some combination thereof?

In offering B.S. in economics degrees at three partner universities in China and Hong Kong, Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business uses a different kind of teaching model, similar in some ways to the three approaches but with a significant, and potentially risky, twist. The programs are based on a lead professor/local facilitator model, in which the professors of record at Utah State rely on local instructors, who are not Utah State employees (but are approved by Utah State departments) to deliver much of the course content on the ground.

The degrees in question are Utah State degrees, as opposed to joint or dual degrees with the partner universities, and the arrangement is described in the business school's 2008-9 annual report thus: “Departments assign 'lead professors' to write the course syllabus, pick the text book and other instructional materials, and to write exams and other assignments for the course. The teaching materials are provided to 'local facilitators' (faculty at our partner institutions) who have been approved by the USU department to deliver the lectures and other course material on-site in China and Hong Kong. Lead professors and local facilitators are in contact each week to make sure that the courses are on-track and to deal with teaching and evaluation issues. Final grades are assigned by the lead professor.” In other words, the instructor who interacts with the students face-to-face on a regular basis doesn't have the ultimate grading authority, but the professor back in Utah does.

In the financial model, as outlined in that same report, “tuition for our students in Asia is shared equally between the Asia program and our partner institutions. The partners are responsible for providing the facilities, textbooks, and for paying the local facilitators. The Asia program in the Department of Economics and Finance and the Huntsman School of Business is responsible for providing lead professors, for counseling students, and for admitting, matriculating, and graduating students who meet the requirements, as well as for arranging visits to the Asian sites by lead professors and administrators."

Utah State’s B.S. in economics, with an emphasis on international economics and trade, is currently offered in English at three sites: the Beijing Institute of Technology, Northeast Dianli University, in Jilin City, and the Institute of Advanced Learning, in Hong Kong. In spring 2009, 560 students were enrolled; according to the annual report, the school expects to grow its Asian program enrollment to 800 students and, once a fourth program location is approved by the Chinese Ministry of Education, more than 1,000.

"One of the preconditions for us to get approval from the central Ministry of Education in China was that they required our program to have face-to-face instruction. One of the challenges U.S. universities have had extending their educational products to China is the high expense of maintaining their own faculty on site. So our model tries to leverage the design and review role of a senior faculty member with a local facilitator who is also a professor, and those professors who are local facilitators are approved by our departments," said Chris Fawson, senior associate dean and a professor of economics in the Huntsman School of Business.

“We think it’s a model that will help foster broader collaboration. While faculty are collaborating on preparing high-quality instructional materials, we hope that they’re collaborating on research interests,” Fawson said.

“Does everybody do that? Well, again, I couldn’t say that everybody does that, in [terms of] faculty that are mentoring graduate students who are teaching courses on our campus. But I can tell you our commitment… We talk about a high level of collaborative interaction, and we talk about our commitment to integrity and our commitment to quality. If I thought that we couldn’t do that, we would drop the program tomorrow, to be honest with you.”

Franchising Degrees?

Inside Higher Ed recently learned of the Huntsman School's degree programs in Asia via an anonymous e-mail, purportedly from a group of Utah State students and alumni with concerns; the extent of such concerns could not be verified.

In fact, some at Utah State see the Asia Degree Program as part of an exciting expansion of international opportunities. Adam Croshaw, a senior and the business school’s student senator last year, said fellow students did not bring any concerns to him during his tenure as their representative. “I haven’t heard much other than I know it exists and there’s excitement ... just because it’s a new thing. The Huntsman School of Business is trying to give their students a better opportunity to do things internationally because that’s the way business is going these days," he said.

Outside Utah, Philip G. Altbach, professor and director of Boston College’s Center for International Higher Education, said he was very skeptical of this particular model for promoting internationalization, however. “My view, and I am in a small minority on these matters I think, is that foreign degrees should be taught by faculty from the sponsoring university faculty, and not be random local scholars, even if they are ‘approved’ by the home campus faculty. What USU is really doing is ‘franchising’ their degree -- in a McDonald's way -- which is common especially among low prestige British universities in countries like Malaysia these days. Those British institutions have in some cases gotten themselves into hot water with the British quality assurance agencies and the press for low standards, inadequate supervision and the like. USU may well get into that bind,” he said in an e-mail.

Carving up Responsibilities, and Collaborating

Utah State has offered degree programs in China since 2000, but until 2008 operated the programs, then in interdisciplinary studies, through the university's continuing education unit. By narrowing the academic focus to economics, and moving the Asia Degree Program to the business school (which includes the economics department), administrators were both responding to student demand and moving to better safeguard the quality of the program, said Fawson. ”We've felt that degree programs that don't have a core academic home tend to lose their way a little bit. So it was a way to push a program back to college and a department, where the integrity of the academic foundation is grounded and anchored, so there is a reference point of what we are doing from a core academic perspective."

Fawson said the business school absorbed the Asia degree programs in part to serve the broader interests of the university, and also to expand its own footprint in China. "We're looking for opportunities to have high-quality positive engagement in China. We think there's a great ability to build up some brand equity in China and to build a strong alumni base," he said.

In describing the nuts and bolts of the program, Fawson described a lively virtual exchange between lead professor and local facilitator, and also a physical flow of faculty: “Their professors come and spend a whole semester on our campus… And then our professors historically have gone on two-or three-week trips where they actually sit in on classes and observe the classes." Not all local facilitators come to Utah State, but Fawson estimates that about 30 local facilitators, two to five in any given year, have traveled to Utah State in total.

The local facilitators, he said, mostly are faculty with appointments in the partner institutions, although not universally. Not everyone has a Ph.D. – “there’s a strong business orientation to what we’re doing … but they would go through the same kind of screening process that a faculty member would go through here to be approved as a local facilitator.”

In terms of how the Utah State professor assigns a final grade in a course facilitated by a non-Utah State employee, Fawson said, “There’s hopefully [been] lively interaction between the lead professors and local facilitators. I’m sure that there is some variation between how lead professors are interacting with local facilitators, but our expectation is that lead professors take this very seriously.

“There’s a sense of professional responsibility and accountability that comes with that assignment.”

Terry Glover, a professor of economics at Utah State, has served as a lead professor for about seven years, he said, and has experienced the upside and the challenges of this kind of collaboration. “You try to hang onto the local facilitators for some years, because you develop a working relationship and such,” he said, adding that some local facilitators have collaborated with him on data collection and research. “Not only is it a teaching partnership but a research partnership as well.” On the other hand, he’s twice recommended that local facilitators try a different career and those instructors, he said, did not return.

Glover also periodically travels to the partner institutions' campuses, and takes advantage of the ability to do some face-to-face teaching while he's there. He maintains a heavy teaching load, typically teaching two courses each semester at Utah State, and taking on another 3-2 load as lead professor in Asia degree program courses. “Essentially now in the last couple of years, we’ve developed more of a partnership. It used to be Utah State and then the step-cousin, but now it’s a joint kind of partnership,” said Glover.

The model represents an improvement on distance education, Glover said, which is "not our mold"

Instead, “You’ve got someone there, with them, who knows the program, has communicated with me and such, and they know that the two instructors are attuned to each other.... I get lots of e-mails from students and I e-mail them back."

The Huntsman School of Business is accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, but the economics department, while housed in the business school, is outside the accreditor's purview. "This program is not an AACSB-accredited program; therefore, none of our standards come into play," said Jerry Trapnell, AACSB International's vice president and chief accreditation officer. That said, Trapnell added, "We see programs delivered in a lot of models.... We've seen similar models to this, sure, where the delivery mode at the remote site is facilitated, assisted or delivered through arrangements with the local faculty. Again, the key is to having very good expectations and understanding of the quality of that faculty, their background, and then the strong communication at work between the Utah State faculty and the faculty there.

"I'll be clear. There are risks there, that essentially they are delegating to someone else to deliver their program," Trapnell said."They're trying to manage that carefully, I'm sure.

“It’s an innovative model, and I expect that as schools seek ways to work internationally, these models will continue to be fairly diverse."

“It looks as if the proposed breakdown of responsibilities is an effort at quality control,” said Andrew Ross, a professor of social and cultural analysis at New York University who has written about branch campuses and the academic workplace. “However, it also shows how globalization hastens on the way in which professorial work can be broken down and reassigned to cheaper and more remote locations. In the twentieth century, professions were able to distinguish themselves from industrial labor process by resisting efforts to separate the conception and execution of tasks. This is an example precisely of that division of labor. It points in the direction of the routinization, at offshore locations, of instruction, while retaining the higher-level tasks onshore

Those who felt that there was a chance the outsourcing industry would die out, may not be too happy with this recent survey by KPMG. According to the study Strategic Evolution, outsourcing is increasing and almost all the organizations that are involved in this practice want to maintain their sourcing level. And quite a few of them even want to increase the sourcing levels. This survey which collated responses from nearly 700 organizations from 32 countries proves that the only path open to this industry goes forward.

Contrary to the belief in certain quarters that outsourcing is creating new problems, most respondents believed that service providers made positive contributions to the success of their organizations. Oh, and it was not only services that had improved. The financial baseline of most firms was also showing an improvement and as they became more lean and mean, their competitiveness increased. Too much good news for a day. What do you say?