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News
from across the globe
In
October 2003, Merrill Lynch plans to roll out a new $1
billion platform built by an all-star team of
vendors and one general contractor with an unusual
role. If successful, how Merrill managed it all
may point the way to the future of IT outsourcing.
For the past nine months or so, more than
400 people from Merrill's Global Private Client
(GPC) and Global Technology and Services groups,
Thomson Financial, and a number of other vendors
have been working feverishly on Merrill's biggest
outsourcing initiative ever, a highly complex $1
billion makeover of its wealth management
workstation platform designed to improve the
efficiency of Merrill's financial advisers (FAs).
Plans include US$200 million investment over three
years and construction of a 55,000sqm campus in
Beijing.
Nortel Networks plans to invest $200 million over
three years to strengthen its research and
development (R&D) capabilities in China. By the end of 2003, the Company expects to double its number of R&D
employees in
China
year-over-year. Nortel Networks also plans to construct a new,
55,000-square meter campus in
Beijing
’s Chao Yang District under a memorandum of
understanding on cooperation signed with the
Beijing City Government. The first phase, which
will provide 27,000 square meters, is scheduled
for completion by late 2004.
Mega
deals
Infosys
Technologies bagged a five-year, $50 million
software development and maintenance contract from
leading Australian telecom vendor Telstra. Infosys
will be taking over the responsibility from IBM
Global Services Australia, a former joint venture
between Telstra, IBM and Land Lease. The company
plans to hire 250 people in
Australia
to service this account.
WNS Global Services
(WNS), a leading global Business Process
Outsourcing (BPO) provider recently announced
expansion of its BPO offerings for the healthcare
sector by acquiring the business of ClaimsBPO, a
leading provider of BPO services to the U.S
healthcare industry. With the acquisition of the
ClaimsBPO business, WNS is uniquely positioned to
deliver comprehensive BPO offerings to healthcare
clients including finance and accounting, claims
processing and adjudicating services, CRM and data
analytics solutions. According to IDC, the total
value of the integration and outsourcing market
for the healthcare industry is anticipated to be
over $31 billion by 2004, underscoring the market
potential for the firms serving this market.
Business
updates
At
the annual general meeting of Polaris Software Lab
Ltd, held on
September 19, 2003,
the company chairman Arun Jain said that in order
to ensure continuous growth the company is
investing in strengthening the customer reach
activities. He further stated that the company is
opening a New
York
center. The software player has also strengthened
its sales team at
Europe
and
Australia.
The
company has also firmed up its plans to
enter
China.
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Progeon
plans centre in Czech Republic
Progeon,
Infosys’ business
process outsourcing (BPO) subsidiary, is planning
to set up its first overseas center in the
Czech
Republic
in its journey to become a BPO company with a
global footprint. It is in the process of filing
an application with the Czech government.
Progeon
managing director Akshaya
Bhargava said the
company opted for the Czech Republic due to
skilled manpower availability, low cost, strong
work ethics and the need to serve its customers in
French and German. “We want Progeon
to be a global BPO company for which we will
setting up overseas centers and recruit crossborder
management,” he said. The company is also
setting up its second Indian facility in Pune,
by the end of this year. The Pune
centre will have around 400 people.
India
continues to be preferred destination
Attributing
its success in restructuring and adopting good
business practices to India, i2 technologies Inc,
the US-based supply chain management solutions
firm, on Thursday said it was 'bullish' on
leveraging its workforce in the country to drive
the firm on the growth path.
"We
are looking at products, resource allocation,
implementation and product maintenance from here.
Now we have 60 per cent work done here and we
believe that we can scale that up to 70 per cent
or so," i2
India
managing director Sankalp Saxena said.
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Boeing
to outsource R&D, IT services from India
Seattle-based
aircraft maker Boeing is touching down in
India
with a software arm. The firm is planning to set
up a subsidiary to handle IT-related services and
offer software support for its aerospace-related
activities across the globe. The Indian arm,
sources said, will also carry out engineering
analysis and design and project management besides
R&D activities for aircraft engineering.
Commercial
vehicle maker Volvo is seriously looking at
information technology outsourcing activities to
fuel its growth in the country. The company which
has just started outsourcing IT from India runs a
$500 million IT outsourcing business globally and
hopes that a substantial part of it can be done
from the country hereafter.
Starting with an investment of $ 1.2 million in
R&D, the company is planning to focus on
launching customized products for the Indian
market.
Sun
is all set to shine in India
more brightly. The company plans to make India
a billion- dollar entity and has initiated the
process by announcing the investment of $1.2m in
R&D this year. From metros to remote corners
of the country, the company has also started to
focus more on upcountry markets.
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US
medical billing major shifting BPO to India
Alpha
Thought,
US
second largest medical billing service company
with a turnover of $40 million per annum is
reducing its operations in the US.
The
recent spate of anti-outsourcing outbursts in the
US
notwithstanding, a
US
medical billing major is planning to shift bulk of
its back office operations to
India
in a phased manner. Alpha Thought, which already
has about 175 live seats operating from NEPZ,
Noida hopes to add another 250 people hiring 30
people per month by December 2003. This is
expected to go up to 900 seats by the end 2004-05.
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