Was it Scott Murray’s brash and hard-charging style that led to his sudden departure as top boss at Stream Global Services this week? We may never know the real answer, but there are plenty of surprised looks on the faces of those who work at Stream or do business with the global call center and CRM giant, based outside of Boston. The announcement went out early today that Murray is being replaced by Kathryn Marinello, the former CEO at Ceridian, a major payroll and HR outsourcing firm.

Murray is certainly not leaving under a cloud like Mark Hurd did during his sudden resignation at HP just a few weeks ago, but the news does come as somewhat of a shock for an executive who returned to Stream to command a growth-first strategy that seemed to directly reflect the aggressive style of Murray himself. There are two clues that lead us to believe that Murray was removed – rather than him leaving by choice. 

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Chile Claims Top Spot Based on Advanced Infrastructure

By Tarun George

Over the next five years, LatAm wireless network traffic is slated to rise at a CAGR of 86% – pretty significant compared to the 61% CAGR average for emerging markets as a whole. And yet Latin America is still a relatively small telecom services market. Despite advances in information and communication technologies (ICT), there are large discrepancies between countries – some with modernized and liberal telecom networks, and others with closed and politicized systems in place. If you’re a prospective sourcing client, those discrepancies can make or break your operation.

To clear the air, we decided to leverage some expert opinion and develop our  2010 Ranking of the Top Five Telecom-Ready Sourcing Destinations in Latin America.

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CPM Braxis Co-Founder David Shpilberg identifies the drivers that led to the creation of CPM Braxis - and why Brazil is exceptionally well-positioned to provide high value IT services to U.S. customers.

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NOIDA, India, July 29, 2010 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — HCL Technologies Ltd. (HCL), a leading global IT services provider, today announced results for the year and quarter ended June 30 2010. For the full year, HCL’s global revenues increased by 24.1% to $2.7 Billion. During the quarter, HCL posted strong growth with global revenues increasing by 21.5% YoY to $738 Million.

HCL’s US business posted a revenue increase of 24.4% YoY in FY10 and 11.3 % QoQ in the last quarter. The results demonstrate increasing market recognition of the value HCL delivers to its customers in the U.S. and validates HCL’s Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy in the geography, which encompasses an integrated horizontal, sector and geographic focus.

Commenting on the results, Dr. Shami Khorana, President, HCL Americas said, “With more than 18 offices in 15 states, the Americas have contributed $ 1.6 Billion which is about 60 percent of HCL Technologies’ total worldwide …

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By Tarun George

When debating the merits of various Nearshore outsourcing locations, the topic of currency fluctuation usually takes a backseat to the discussion of wages, talent availability and tax and investment incentives. But what happens when a major outsourcing player’s currency appreciates over a short period of time? That’s the case for Brazil’s real, whose value spiked in early 2009 and steadily increased throughout the year. While now normalizing to its pre-crisis levels, a number of US companies outsourcing in Brazil report that the high rate is making a dent in their balance sheets. The result is that Nearshoring operations in Brazil are more expensive than they were even a year ago. We take a look here at whether companies are feeling that pricing pressure, and how Brasscom is responding.

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Does CPM Braxis really have the horsepower to jump into the ranks of TCS, Wipro, Genpact, Infosys, Accenture, HP and Dell and other world-beating heavyweights? Find out what the company’s co-founder, David Shpilberg has to say about it. ROLL THE VIDEO

By Kirk Laughlin

What really gets CIOs and sourcing decision makers excited about Brazil? The two issues that come up repeatedly among those doing business there or who are inclined to have services delivered from Brazil are – capacity and capability. Scale counts for a lot and Brazil is increasingly built to respond to the tall orders of CIOs whose India-based experiences will continue to be used as points of comparison when they go shopping in Brazil.

One of the many notable rising stars out of Brazil that is trying very hard to live up to this CIO-driven reality is CPM Braxis, formed in 2007 when separate operating companies CPM and Braxis merged.

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SOURCE: Economic Times

TCS, which is owned by India’s biggest industrial conglomerate, provides IT, consultancy and outsourcing services in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador and Peru.

“We have a very aggressive growth project in Latin America for the next five years, we want to more than double our sales to over $1 billion,” Alejandro Valenzuela, manager for Peru, Chile and Ecuador, told Reuters in an interview.

“Latin America is really relevant to TCS because it has one of the fastest rates of economic growth,” Valenzuela said. The region will grow up to 5 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The economies of Brazil, the regional giant and member of the BRIC group of big emerging markets alongside Russia, India and China, and Peru will expand by about 7 percent this year, according to the IMF. Valenzuela said the financial sector is central to the company’s Latin …

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Brazil and Colombia Also On Genpact’s Radar
Confident that the right kind of finance and accounting talent can be found to support its growth, Genpact is pushing forward with plans to expand its operations in Guatemala City. The company  currently employs about 1,000 people but that number will likely climb dramatically with the expansion.

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SOURCE: CFO

As the world’s 10th largest economy and one of the fastest to emerge from the global recession, Brazil is the hot market of the moment, and not just because of its famous beaches. With a stable currency; a growing, consumption-oriented middle class; and a gross domestic product expected to rise at 4% to 5% per year over the next 10 years, it’s no surprise that Latin America’s biggest market is attracting CFOs’ attention: nearly one-third of finance chiefs considering international market expansion over the next two years have set their sights on Brazil, according to the Duke University/CFO Magazine Global Business Outlook Survey.

But the promise of growth — so enticing in the face of a weak recovery in the United States and Europe — doesn’t come without strings attached. Finance chiefs and other experts who have been in the market for years warn that Brazil’s tax and legal …

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SOURCE: MERCOPRESS

Brazilian President Lula da Silva launched Tuesday the bidding process for the construction of the high-speed rail service between the country’s two largest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio do Janeiro, which should be running by 2016 when Brazil hosts the Olympic Games.

The project is expected to cost the equivalent of 18.75 billion US dollars and bidding conditions specify that rights for the construction, operation and maintenance of the rail line for 40 years will be granted to the firm which ensures the lowest fare for the service between the megapolis.

The bidding process concludes December 16 at the Sao Paulo stock exchange when the sealed bids will be opened and the winner selected. The bill with the bidding process will be published Wednesday in the official gazette. Companies from Spain, France, Germany, China, South Korea and Japan have expressed a strong interest in the project.
The proposal calls for trains …

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