• Nasscom Says Visa Hike is “Terribly Short Sighted”

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  Nivsarkar: “Latin America can bring in language capabilities and time zone and proximity benefits and we are firmly convinced the way forward will be to have a globally distributed model – pulling on the strengths of every location worldwide.”

  The fallout from the visa hike issue is still being felt across the global outsourcing industry.  One of the obvious questions is whether large India firms will aggressively reshape their operating models to accommodate the new visa costs – or – is it just a mild bump in the road to continued expansion in the Americas?

  Giving us an exclusive perspective on the issue is Ameet Nivsarkar , NASSCOM Vice-President for Global Trade, who is in charge of international and policy relationships for the India ITO/BPO advocacy group.

  What long term impact do you think the visa fee hikes will bring to the way in which India outsourcing firms conduct business in the United States?

  The fee per say is not going to be a large cause of concern. Our bigger concern is the direction all of this is taking. This is not the first attempt the US. Congress has taken to discriminate against India firms.

  This is the first time we are seeing legislation go into law. Obviously India firms are concerned, and this certainly will add to the bottom line. Read More »

• What Does HP Want from Latin America? Exclusive Interview

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  Q&A with HP’s Keith Kerrison

  Kerrison: “The Nearshore will grow because we have multinational clients who want support in their time zone or want to follow the sun, but it will not grow as fast as farshore.”

  By Dennis Barker
  

  Keith Kerrison looks at the Nearshore region not in isolation but sees it for what it really is: part of the much bigger world. He’s been involved in sourcing applications projects (“mainly SAP”) for about 15 years, back when he was with Proctor & Gamble.

  He came to HP as part of an outsourcing arrangement with P&G and now, as director of the Best Shore Application Services for the Americas Region within Enterprise Services, essentially has the job of running HP’s global applications delivery system. Besides being an expert on sourcing, Kerrison is also numbered among the Nearshore Americas Top 50 Power Rankings.

  We asked him about global-sourcing challenges, the Nearshore region, what it takes to make clients happy, and Canada. Read More »

• The Myths and Realities that Prevent IT Outsourcing to Latin America

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  “The resistance to nearshoring has always been the assumption that India has a much stronger talent pool than nearshore options,” says CIO Steve Romeo, in the middle, joined by CIO Shaun Cooper and CIO Joanne Kossuth.

  By Linda Rosencrance

  For years the refrain echoing in the ears of CIOs and IT decision makers has been “do more with less.” And in today’s economic climate, that refrain rings true more than ever.

  With that mandate, the question is what can CIOs do to help their companies weather these tough business conditions? And since India is more expensive than ever, what is preventing those buyers from examining Latin America more seriously.

  While labor costs may be on par with India, there are fewer cultural differences when working in Latin America. And geographic proximity makes communication easier and travel less expensive and less time consuming. Yet still many IT leaders seem to be reluctant to participate in nearshoring.  Find out what three IT executives told us about why Nearshoring is not as attractive as some of us think. Read More »

• Nearshore Outsourcing Investment: The Real Winners are Today’s Risk Takers

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  By Kirk Laughlin

  It’s not hard to remember back to 1995-1997, when the Internet boom began to gather some real traction. Firms like Netscape, Lucent and Cisco were suddenly red hot darlings that became emblematic of a new generation of  Wall Street investment targets. There were plenty of skeptics of course who didn’t like the price-per-earnings ratios of these companies or didn’t believe the aggressive forecasts of top executives. And then there were the very real concerns about risks and the seeming intangibility of the Internet, backbone buildouts and why broadband mattered. Back then, Google had yet to be born and the eye-ball grabbing power of search was not really well understood.

  So, what does the investment climate of the mid-90s have to do with 2010 investment in Nearshore outsourcing? Plenty and I’ll explain why. Read More »

• Is Canada’s Call Center Industry on Life Support?

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  By Tarun George

  Largely unnoticed by many site selection gurus, the offshore services industry in Canada has grown at a staggering rate over the last decade. According to Statistics Canada, between 1998 and 2006 the Canadian call center industry increased in revenue by 27% annually. But now the rise of new locations in Latin America and Eastern Europe as well as the recent economic recession may necessitate a change of strategy.

  Analysts across the board are calling for a move into higher value services like IT – they say the current call center-focused model is just not profitable for the country anymore. But is Canada’s call center industry really on life support? We sat down with Peter Ryan, Lead Analyst for BPO and Contact Center Outsourcing at Ovum to find out. Read More »

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