Partnership with offshore Indian infotech companies pays

["Irfan Khan" <KhanIA@super.net.pk>]

Partnership with offshore Indian infotech companies pays: Study

New York 
5 JULY 

A NEW study on forming of partnerships or strategic alliances by 
information system (IS) outsourcing vendors has brought out the 
competitive advantages if they are forged with Indian offshore firms. 
"India has the largest pool of highly skilled and educated workers," 
said Samantha Ker, an analyst with the International Data 
Corporation's IS outsourcing, BPO and processing services research 
programme. 

IDC notes in its study that such partnerships are a more efficient 
way to leverage the skills of offshore firms than subcontracting them 
on a project-by-project basis. "Because the industry is facing a 
skills shortage, this abundance of talented Indian IT (information 
technology) professionals is an invaluable source," Ms Ker said. 
Additionally, Ms Ker said, Indian wages are substantially lower than 
in the US and Europe, even for highly skilled professionals. "So 
companies working with Indian firms can reap considerable savings and 
make more competitive bids on IS outsourcing contracts," she said. 
Offshore firms say IS outsourcing vendors who subcontract the 
application development portion of a contract offshore can save up to 
60 per cent on US and European-based applications development costs. 
IDC tracks information industry's worldwide markets, trends, 
products, vendors and geographies. 

IDC provides data, analysis and delivery services to the world's 
leading IT suppliers as well as IS professionals in finance, 
insurance, entertainment, advertising and publishing. In the new 
report, titled 'Computer Sciences Corporation expands offshore 
applications outsourcing relationships with Indian operations,' IDC 
discusses the pros and cons of forming partnerships with offshore 
software development firms, focusing mainly on those in India. 
Computer Sciences Corporation is one vendor which is not passing up 
the opportunity to work with Indian firms. 

It has recently made agreements with three companies in India - 
Cognizant Technology Solutions, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, 
it said. "Given the skills shortage and escalating costs in Europe 
and the US, Computer Sciences' partnerships with Cognizant is ideal," 
Ms Ker said. "By subcontracting its the application work to 
Cognizant, Computer Sciences is streamlining its processes, managing 
one relationship instead of many and is assured the quality of work 
will be standardised." The report also discusses Computer Sciences' 
agreements in extensive details. -IANS 

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