Outsourcing: Amit Shankardass And Andrew Kokes Of Sitel (Part 1)

By guest author Tony Scott

This interview, the last in this first group in the series, is with Sitel, which describes itself as “redefining call center outsourcing.” The company offers a variety of services for acquisitions and sales, back office, collections, customer care, and technical support. I am talking with Sitel’s chief global marketing officer, Amit Shankardass, and vice president of marketing for the Americas, Andrew Kokes, who worked a number of years in the Philippines before coming to Sitel’s head office in Nashville, Tennessee. >>>

Outsourcing: Dr. Shami Khorana of HCL America (Part 6)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: That is an interesting concept, being transparent for the benefit of employees, making sure that people feel included and valued in their work, and helping them to find their place in the global workforce. Obviously, if we look at the historical concept of how one manages a business, it was “command and control” – for a long time, nothing changed since the days of the Roman legions. We can go on down through the manufacturing model, and then to services, where people were treated as the equivalent of machines.

Shami: It is a very different kind of thing today; there is a big change happening now. The next generation that we see today they are a lot different from the old Europeans, and they are much different from people of my generation. I think the important thing is you have a different kind of workforce. And you have to organize your company to be able to take advantage of it.

>>>

Outsourcing: Dr. Shami Khorana of HCL America (Part 5)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: Through the course of this process, how have you as the president of HCL America gone about making sure you infuse that culture in your organization and find this kind of talent for your leaders?

Shami: You have to do it step by step. If I look at the profile of our company a few years ago, even in the United States, a large faction of our employees were from India, and many of them were here on a short-term basis. Our global population is now much higher; it has gone up substantially, which is the first thing you should do. If you can’t do that, you are in trouble. In that way I would say that U.S. companies have done pretty well in going to India and assimilating with the population. >>>

Outsourcing: Dr. Shami Khorana of HCL America (Part 4)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: Do you see HCL also doing more of the type of deals that you did with CA, possibly moving into product creation?

Shami: Definitely. There was a time when we were very strong and focused on seeing whether we could do an entire platform; everything is about platforms. One of the things I provide is what we can call a “service on a platform.” The question is no longer just, “Can I develop an application for you?” A lot of the new partnerships will be focused on value: they will be more output focused, more business-value focused, rather than focused just on the parameters that outsourcers have normally used. >>>

Outsourcing: Dr. Shami Khorana of HCL America (Part 3)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: Companies have to figure out what their own core competencies are. If you look at the history of artisans, they made everything themselves. Then came industrialization with vertical integration, with ultimate example being Ford’s River Rouge plant. When it was finished, it was the largest integrated industrial plant in the world.  They brought in the raw materials, but everything else – from ore processing to electrical generation to steel making ­– was totally integrated. Raw materials in the front door, finished automobiles out the back door. For many years, companies around the world thought that they needed to mimic that, but obviously things have changed. What do you think are the big drivers that allowed that change to happen? >>>

Outsourcing: Dr. Shami Khorana of HCL America (Part 2)

By guest author Tony Scott

Tony: What do you think are going to be the big changes? Obviously, the pure labor arbitrage model is not going to go away entirely; it is going to continue to move to whatever locale is the lowest cost. The fact is that the “flattening” of the world means I can put people anywhere. From a pure labor arbitrage point, it doesn’t matter where the people are located as long as you can manage the process. >>>

Outsourcing: Dr. Shami Khorana of HCL America (Part 1)

By guest author Tony Scott

This interview, the ninth in Tony’s series, is with Dr. Shami Khorana, who is the president of HCL America, the subsidiary of HCL Technologies, a $3.1 billion business and IT services company with more than 72,000 employees worldwide.

Tony Scott: Shami, thanks for taking the time to talk to me about the future of outsourcing. Before we go into it, would you give me an overview of your past and how you became involved in outsourcing services? >>>

Accenture Should Expand SaaS-Enabled BPO

Earlier last quarter, Gartner announced a dismal projection for worldwide enterprise IT spending. According to the researcher, IT spending will grow 3.2% over the year in 2010 compared with the 3.9% growth projected earlier. In 2011, IT spending is expected to reach $2.5 trillion, recording a mere 2.4% growth compared with 2009. According to the research firm, while key verticals such as manufacturing and financial services may have a couple more years before their IT budgets recover to pre-2008 levels, there will be other areas which will grow faster. The research firm expects IT growth to be “driven by the consumer” along with the four key trends of cloud computing, social computing, context-aware computing, and pattern-based strategy to drive IT business values. But despite the conservative estimates, IT outsourcing giant Accenture declared strong results.

>>>