Source : Click here

A new report from market researcher Gartner says that 41% of organizations that are currently outsourcing IT responsibilities do so “to enhance business outcomes and performance.” That’s only slightly less than the percentage (47%) that outsource to reduce costs and considerably more than said they outsourced for business performance in 2005 (28%).

The trend is a snowball effect. Buyers are outsourcing more because they see an improved base of IT outsourcing providers around the world, says Gartner analyst Allie Young, but the outsourcing providers are driven to improve their operations as more buyers gain confidence.

“Cost issues remain strong, and the shift in buyer expectations toward viewing IT outsourcing as a means to enhance operations is a sign of a maturing market that has higher expectations from IT outsourcing providers,” says Young in the Gartner report. And Dane Anderson, research director at Gartner, points out that “The appetite to outsource is a compelling reason for providers to concentrate on and ensure their current client base is well-served, satisfied and continues to see progress in reaching their outsourcing goals.”

Another report finds that focusing too narrowly on cost and poor planning when outsourcing services like IT can hamper the benefits of outsourcing.

Deloitte surveyed 300 mid- and large-sized corporations and outsourcing service providers found that, while 70% of the executives said they were satisfied or very satisfied, only one-third (34%) of the respondents said they gained important benefits from their outsourcing service providers' innovative ideas or transformation of their operations.

"Survey findings clearly show that there is room for improvement, and that companies should re-evaluate and step up the targets they set for outsourcing projects - looking beyond immediate concerns of cost savings through labour arbitrage or economies of scale," says Gordon Shields, partner in Deloitte's Consulting practice.

Source : Click here

KeyCorp, owner of KeyBank, is outsourcing from 200 to 400 technology and product-support jobs to India.

Alan Buffington, a Key vice president for enterprise systems development, revealed the plan to employees during an electronic "town meeting" on Friday. According to Timesunion.com, the official said the exact number of jobs to be outsourced will depend on the outcome of the bidding for the outsourcing contract.

Three Indian firms are vying for the contract, each offering a different number of employees who will take over American jobs.

The outsourcing is to be undertaken to save KeyCorp an estimated $10 million annually. Buffington said cost-cutting is necessary in the light of financial problems besetting the financial services industry.

KeyCorp's fourth quarter net income in 2007 was down to $25 million from $146 million in the same period in 2006. It posted a net income of $919 million last year compared to $1.056 billion in 2006.

The company has about 19,000 employees in the U.S.

Source : www.supplyexcellence.com

Mehdi Hassan, blogging for South Asia Biz, recently highlighted a Forrester report on the growing dissatisfaction with IT outsourcing in India. As Hassan points out, firms are struggling with the falling dollar, unrealistic expectations, scalability, possible tax code changes and believe it or not, scarcity of top IT talent.

I couldn’t agree more with the assertion that the correct response to this situation is to reset internal expectations. I would also add that companies should take proactive measures on what they are able to affect. While companies are not able to control or change factors such as the falling dollar and rising costs in the target country, they can do quite a bit to attract and retain top talent - one of the biggest drivers of success in an offshore initiative.

It’s interesting how many organizations overlook the significant impact the human element has on their offshore operations. If we look specifically at the establishment of an International Purchasing Office (IPO), for example, we find that many companies invest their time and efforts into building out a vision, creating a budget, and locating office space. The assumption is that they can then hire experienced professionals and the low cost story proceeds happily forward to its fairy tale ending.

The reality is that there is a lot of competition for talent in not only India, but in all of the traditional low-cost countries of the world. Therefore it’s critical that organizations develop a comprehensive plan that incorporates:

1. A well thought out recruiting framework that includes a planning phase to assess such things as the current job market, acceptable salary levels and cultural nuances (performance bonuses, benefit packages, perception of titles, etc.).
2. A strong organizational design component that provides a clear growth path for individuals and has a well established governance model. This gives new employees a sense of belonging, purpose and pride. It should also clearly outline roles, responsibilities, performance expectations and metrics - and how it all ties back to the overall mission.
3. A thorough plan on how to build out capabilities - in other words, a solid ramp-up and training plan. Most new offshore offices are comprised of >80% new hires. Additionally, a strong training plan enables an organization to hire less experienced, but talented individuals - which is a degree of flexibility that is much needed in many of the tight job markets.
4. The right tools and support network.

The real key is to ensure that you are building out a complete organization, whether it is a call center, purchasing office or something else entirely. This is something organizations can control. At the end of the day, people are people all over the world. So if you build a great organization, you’ll be able to find and, more importantly, keep great talent.

Carol Pilarski is a Consulting Manager in Ariba’s Spend Management Services group. Her current focus is on supporting customers’ LCCS (Low Cost Country Sourcing) initiatives. Carol’s unique background includes eight years with Ariba, a period in Sony Electronics’ Rotational Program, the rank of Captain in the US Army and a degree from West Point.

Source : www.newindpress.com

First there were the common consumer solutions and business processes that were outsourced. Next came research and knowledge, followed by e-learning with the West outsourcing its teaching needs to countries like India.

The latest in line is the Legal Process Outsourcing, a one that is estimated to be a $640 million industry in India by 2010. As many as 1,800 people are involved in legal outsourcing in the country, an industry that is said to be worth $146 million currently.

Clutch Group with 300 plus lawyers involved in litigation support, contract management, real estate legal and legal research all over the world, set up shops in Bangalore a couple of months ago.

Speaking to this website's newspaper, Abhi Shah, CEO of Clutch Group said that the global LPO market is worth $250 billion.

"Of this, 77 per cent is from the US, 18 per cent from the UK and 5 per cent is contributed by the rest of the world. It is also estimated that the top 200 companies in the US spend about $ 120 billion every year on legal services alone, $ 10 billion of which is the outsourcing sector," he said.

Shah, forseeing the potential for the industry in India, further said that well over 70,000 English speaking advocates graduated every year in the country, contributing to the talent pool needed for the industry to grow.

The underlying potential is also estimated to increase India's market share in the global scenario from the present 3-4 percent to 6-7 percent in the next two years. LPO saves up to 70 per cent in legal services cost to the company, say industry experts.

With outsourcing processes taking over in the e-learning, equity research and legal sectors, next in line would be outsourcing of blueprints in the architecture sector.

Source : www.offshoringtimes.com

India and other lowcost labour markets could see growth in outsourcing services slowing down in 2008 due to the looming global recession, a global strategic advisory firm has said. The multinational Hackett Group found that there was still significant longterm opportunity for continued business growth in India, as companies in North America, Europe and industrialised Asian markets struggle to reduce costs and drive higher effectiveness.

This they do by primarily outsourcing various areas of business to Indian and other lowcost labour markets.

But in response to the threat of an economic downturn, many companies are hitting the pause switch on their globalisation efforts, said Hacketts globalisation and outsourcing practice leader Julio Ramirez.

Interest in offshoring is still high, and the best companies are moving forward with projects that combine globalisation with strategic process transformation, he told a news conference.

During recessions, the best companies focus their efforts on rapidly driving higher efficiency in back office processes, freeing up excess working capital, and enhancing their enterprise performance management systems and processes, Ramirez said.

These companies will use the economic slowdown to accelerate their outsourcing initiatives, increase the scope of existing contracts, or in the case of insourcing, push more work to their offshore captives.

However, the study of prior recessions show that as the threat of a recession deepens, many companies will switch their attention to operational and financing challenges, often resorting to simplistic solutions that are not sustainable and may in fact weaken competitive positioning, he said.

Most offshoring projects require an upfront investment for contracting, setup and transition that can result in a neutral to possibly negative impact on shortterm expenses and many companies will choose other tactical moves that provide paybacks over the next 12 to 18 months, he added.

In addition, escalating wages and currency appreciation in India have also generated questions on sustainability of cost savings, adding to the debate on the speed and timing of such strategic moves.

Hackett said that a possible recession would drive greater interest in globalisation by the Global 2000 companies.

However, factors like inflation, wage rate changes and currency movements, upfront project of transaction costs, productivity improvements and attrition might work against greater flow of offshoring to India in the shortterm, Ramirez said.

Source : www.intetics.com

“ODT™ (Offshore Dedicated Team) service combined with Onsite Program Manager enables midsize and even smaller clients to realize the benefits of offshore outsourcing,” said Alex Golod, managing partner and vice president of Intetics. “This is an offshore outsourcing startup kit for midsize businesses allowing them to get started without incurring significant investments and risks.”

ODT™ is a totally customized service offering; it delivers ready offshore teams as a true extension of a client’s in-house IT staff with complete offshore infrastructure, management and HR services, legal expertise, ongoing support, and even certified development process.

Large corporations have enjoyed strategic competitive advantages and benefits of global supply chains and offshore outsourcing for several decades, while midsize companies are limited by necessity of making substantial investments and usually lack in-house expertise to set up their own offshore operations.

“While opening their own captive centers offshore is prohibitively expensive for midsize businesses, ODT allows the clients the same advantages, as enjoyed by larger companies, but without huge expenses,” Golod said.

The availability of the Onsite Program Manager component strengthens the offering by providing necessary onsite expertise to define outsourcing goals, optimal combination of onshore and offshore resources, effective team structure, and collaboration processes.

“Onsite Program Manager is a liaison between the client and its team at Intetics, and is instrumental in facilitating project/delivery management activities,” said Golod. “The Onsite Program Manager not only helps build a bridge between teams quickly and efficiently but also assists in assembling the team, provides management consulting and coaching services for the client over the course of the entire project.”

Intetics (www.intetics.com) is a leading global outsourcing company focused on custom software development and offshore staff augmentation services. The company has two ISO 9001 certified development centers in Eastern Europe and is a Microsoft Gold Certified partner. Since 1995, Intetics has completed over 500 projects for about 200 customers in more than 30 countries. The company's innovation and growth achievements are reflected in winning the prestigious Deloitte Technology Fast 50 awards two years in a row. Intetics was ranked second in Top 5 Global Emerging Service Providers by Global Services and was recently included for the second straight year into The Global Outsourcing 100 by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP).

Source : www.gsadvisory.com

The successful spin-out of the Global Sourcing Advisory Group (GSAG) from Satellnet is now complete.

Satellnet's former Chairman and CEO John Stacey was the architect of GSAG, which he has grown into a $35million business in the USA and UK. He is now the Chairman and CEO of the new spin-out GSAG and he is joined by David Kinnear as President.

With 28 years of international management experience with Bearing Point, British Telecom (BT) EDS, US West Communications and Peat Marwick, John Stacey will be responsible for North America, China and EMEA.

David Kinnear, with 20 years experience in international management and outsourcing, will cover North America, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Prior to GSAG he was President and CEO of DDC HRO, part of the DDC Group. Both Stacey and Kinnear are of course well known in the outsourcing community as co-architects and founders of the Global Sourcing Council.

Discussing the spin-out, John Stacey said: "We leverage our global knowledge, resources and network of relationships for the economic and socio-economic benefit of all our clients, in both the public and private sectors.

"We bring private sector thinking to the public sector and public sector thinking to the private sector - globally.

"We help the public sector to become increasingly well-positioned and agile and offer help to domestic and foreign governments to enhance local GDP through intelligent partnering with the private sector. This, in turn allows both private and public sector to address the issue of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability at home and abroad.

"We bring highly practical and effective management and strategic advisory services to our private sector clients helping them with the direction of their global growth initiatives."

David Kinnear added: "We do not subscribe to the view that 'one size fits all in outsourcing'. To employ a medical analogy, we are present at conception, birth and infancy guide you through every step."

GSAG already has in place a substantial number of contracts which will contribute to the total 2008 projected revenue.

GSAG has been serving blue chip clients and government organisations for three years now and several of these clients represent long term engagements that roll over year to year.

Source : www.hindu.com

Financial services knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) industry is expected to be worth $5 billion by 2010, a study by KPMG said.

Sharing his views on the report, Pradeep Udhas, Global Partner-in-Charge, Sourcing Advisory, KPMG, has said that the success in offshoring business operations has encouraged many multinationals to start outsourcing key business processes and high-end knowledge work. The KPO phenomenon will have far reaching consequences for the global financial services industry over the next three years.

He feels that there is likely to be a significant shift in the boundaries between ‘outsourceable and ‘non-outsourceable activities; offshoring strategies are expected to embrace new locations and most global banks and insurers are expected to adopt KPO strategies, the study says.

Decisions about outsourcing may be accelerated to preserve and increase competitive advantage; boutique providers will leverage KPO to create new services and offerings and more rigorous regulatory and compliance control will likely be demanded as KPO providers deliver more complex services.

India is expected to remain a preferred location for KPO activity but organisations are expected to look for alternative locations for additional delivery centres, both from customer and service provider perspective.

The study also says that there are a few limitations on the potential growth of the KPO industry over the next three years like skill-set shortage, a declining U.S. dollar and compliance and regulatory pressures.

Some of the key challenges that can emerge in the industry are: maintaining high quality standards, investment in KPO infrastructure, lack of talent pool, requirement of higher level of control, confidentiality and enhanced risk management, it points out.

It says that the KPO industry has indeed come off age. Clients are recognising that process complexities, higher billing rates and skilled resources requirements differentiate KPO from BPO.

Source : www.drltd.com

Outsourcing in the 21st century is rewarding, but brings with it very specific risk management challenges, a new report contends.

Marsh, an insurance broker and risk adviser, has released a new paper called Risk Management in Next Generation Outsourcing together with Hunton & Williams.

The report asserts that developments in the market include the use of multiple vendors, a closer alignment between the service provider and the customer's firm and a greater likelihood of core business activities being outsourced.

"For those who manage the outsourcing lifestyle effectively, the rewards remain high," says Matthew Elkington, a vice-president in Marsh's Risk Consulting Practice.

He adds that companies with a comprehensive understanding of rosk management at an early stage in the outsourcing process are more likely to receive a return on their investment.

Meanwhile, a recent report from Gartner highlighted the need for online banks to improve their e-contact centre strategies as internet banking becomes a mainstream activity in the UK.

This news feed has been brought to you by Direct Response Limited, the award winners for outsourced call centre services.

Source : www.offshoringtimes.com

The IT R&D offshoring market in India is expected to record a CAGR of 23% to touch $21.4 billion by 2012, according to a study done by Zinnov, a consulting firm. Zinnov said there are around 600 MNC captive centres in India and for 2008, the total revenue is expected to touch $9.4 billion with $5.8 billion going to come from the MNC captive centres rest from the third-party vendors.

Zinnov CEO Pari Natarajan said, despite this growth in the R&D offshoring market in India there is a dearth of required talent pool. For example, it is estimated that there are only 800 IT product managers in the country. At the same time, the salary costs of these professionals are also increasing questioning the business viability of these captives.

Mr Natarajan said, salaries constitute around 70-75% of an R&D companys operations and this was also impacting the productivity of these companies.

He said, MNC firms in the revenue range of $100-200 million are the most hard hit in getting the right quality people. This growth in R&D offshoring is primarily driven by the MNCs captives, though at the same it is also seeing the increasing presence of third party vendors, especially the Indian players.

Source : www.innovaroboticsautomation.com

CoroWare, an Innova Robotics & Automation company (OTCBB: INRA), today announced the establishment of its near-shore outsourcing practice.

In today's increasingly competitive global economy, companies are constantly seeking new ways to reduce costs, stay ahead of competition and enhance profits. Outsourcing solutions are considered "near-shore" when they are in close geographic proximity to North America and share similar time zones.

"CoroWare is committed to offering its customers, whether in Redmond or New York, the freedom to choose high value engineering and IT professional services from near-shore in Latin America, on-shore in Redmond, WA or a combination of both," said Lloyd Spencer, CEO of CoroWare. "By taking advantage of advanced collaboration technologies and tools, CoroWare is already delivering these services through its employee base and strategic long-term partnerships in both Latin America and North America."

CoroWare's near-shore outsourcing practice is already helping its customers dedicate internal resources to other purposes while maintaining control of outsourced offshore projects during standard North American business hours. In addition, CoroWare can provide its customers with the flexibility required to succeed in a wide variety of project types and sizes.

"CoroWare offers a distinctive suite of innovative services and enterprise solutions that bring value to Microsoft," said David Hayes, director of the Microsoft Partner Solutions Center at Microsoft. "We believe that CoroWare's near-shore outsourcing practice will help the company continue to deliver high quality services at competitive prices."

CoroWare's near-shore outsourcing resources include architects, developers and testers with experience in software application development, software application integration, web site design including Microsoft Silverlight and other rich internet applications (RIAs), service oriented architecture (SOA), collaboration portals, IT infrastructure, and Quality Assurance and Testing.

"Enterprises are continually looking for ways to focus on their core competencies and work with capable systems integrators who can affordably deliver high quality services," said Susan Eustis, president of Wintergreen Research. "By launching a near-shore outsourcing practice with workers in close geographic proximity to North America, teams located remotely can share similar time zones. I believe this favorably positions CoroWare to deliver high quality services at very competitive prices."

About CoroWare

CoroWare, an Innova Robotics & Automation company, is a software and software professional services provider and mobile robotics integrator that delivers high value services and innovative solutions to maximize technology investments and achieve customer goals. CoroWare has depth of knowledge and breadth of experience in developing software and solutions for mobile service robotics and business automation through products that include the CoroBot product line. For more information, please visit www.coroware.com.

About Innova Robotics & Automation, Inc.

Fort Myers, Fla.-based Innova Robotics & Automation (OTCBB: INRA) pioneers innovative solutions for customers in the software, aerospace, research, and service industries. The Company is chartered to continue expanding its growing suite of technologies through acquisitions and organic growth.

Source : www.offshoringtimes.com

The Egyptian session, held on the second day of the forum, was not only a chance to illuminate the countrys growing potential, but also witnessed a testimonial from an Indian businessman who emphasized Egypts keenness to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDI). Ajay Shinkar, president of Srishti Indian Company, answered a question posed by one of his countrymen on how hospitable Egypt is to medium sized companies, by saying that ,what I saw during a visit to Egypt was really amazing.

Shinkar lauded the energetic atmosphere in which Egyptian engineers work, their tendency to innovate, and the astounding government support to companies expressing willingness to invest in Egypt. He added that his Egyptian partner is doing his utmost to fulfill his obligations and to provide an exceptional service in the field of medical outsourcing.

During the session, Dr. Hazem Abdel Azim, CEO of the Information Technology Industry Development Agency (ITIDA) and head of the Egyptian delegation, presented the true face of the Egyptian ICT industry and invited Indian and multinational companies to seize what the country has to offer.

The Egyptian delegation had three days of diversified networking and answered had answers to questions posed by international peers who had their hands full of fresh and updated information on the ICT sector in the country. The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and ITIDA have joined hands to stress the need for an IndianEgyptian partnership in the IT field.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and ITIDA are currently spearheading an effort to increase IT and ITES exports through a strategy formulated in a manner that reflects the publicprivate partnership which is one of the distinctive traits of the sector. The strategy pays special attention to enhancing the capacities of Egyptian ICT companies and professionals with special emphasis on cooperation with NGOs to reach various layers of targeted groups.

Egypt hosts various international companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Valeo, IBM, Satyam, Wipro, SQS, Teleperformance, Orange France Telecom, Vodafone, and HSBC. Choosing Egypt as an offshoring location stems from unique privileges bestowed on the country. Egypt is favored with a geographical location that allows the country to serve various time zones, availability of engineers and IT graduates, and abundance of manpower capable of conversing in various languages with an accentfree manner.

A.T. Kearney consultancy firm puts Egypt in the 13th position on its Global Services Location Index 2007, while the Yankee Group issued a report in May 2007 predicting that Egypt would be the India of the Middle East provided that the country stays the current course.

Source : www.offshoringtimes.com

Client mining, or cross-selling more services to existing customers, is helping Indian software services vendors such as Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), Infosys Technologies Ltd and Wipro Ltd earn more revenues even as mega deals evaporate from the outsourcing landscape and competition intensifies from global firms.
TCS has tripled its number of customers giving $100 million (Rs394 crore) in annualized revenues over the past 12 months, while Infosys and HCL Technologies Ltd have more than doubled them, even though they haven’t won as many large deals.

TCS currently has seven large clients from whom it earns more than $100 million annually from two such clients a year ago, while Infosys has five such accounts that generate more than $100 million in revenues. The largest customer for Infosys provides more than $200 million in revenues, accounting for 9.5% of total company revenue.
Repeat business due to effective client mining provides stability and predictability in revenues, which is extremely important for the vendors, says Harit Shah, equity analyst at Angel Broking Ltd, a Mumbai-based brokerage firm. For Indian vendors, repeat business traditionally accounts for more than 95% of their revenues.
“The outsourcing deals landscape is redefined today as there are no more multi-billion, multi-year deals as clients are breaking up those deals and giving them to best of breed vendors, says V. Balakrishnan, chief financial officer, Infosys Technologies.

Even the $100-200 million deals are not many. There are a lot of $30-50 million deals spread over two-three years, which is the sweet spot for Indian companies, and everyone is winning there, Balakrishnan said.
Infosys typically enters into a relationship with clients selling a service and over a period, manages to cross-sell more services and grow with them. When you add a client, you have to make sure that it gives at least $1 million in revenue over first 12-18 months, otherwise we drop them, says Balakrishnan.

The challenge he goes on to add, is to grow $1 million client to $5 million and $5 million into a $10 million client. The effort, adds Balakrishnan, is to broad-base the client base to improve the pyramid

For Indian information technology (IT) vendors, the current exposure to the IT budgets of large Fortune 500 firms is very small.With the concept of offshoring already proven, there is scope to get a larger share of the client IT wallet by offering the expanded portfolio of services,Shah said.

Wipro Technologies, the global IT arm of software-to-soap maker Wipro Ltd, reported its first client accounting for a run rate of $100 million in the December quarter.

The company has sharpened its focus on client mining and has classified customers as Mega accounts that have potential to yield $100 million, and Gama accounts that have potential to give $50 million and is investing in building them further.

We have identified about 10-odd Mega accounts and 25-odd Gama accounts and are focusing on them,says Rajesh Ramaiah, corporate treasurer at Wipro, adding that the company strategy fits well in terms of client mining.
Avinash Vashistha, chief executive officer of Tholons, an offshore advisory and consulting firm, says companies such as TCS and Infosys are aiming at getting more return from their selling, general and administrative budgets.

Indian IT vendors plan to do this by leveraging existing relationships and mining the accounts deeper and broader.
Offering services such as application development and maintenance, infrastructure managed services, business process outsourcing and customer care enable the tier I firms to get more from existing clients, while the mid-tier firms find it difficult to offer integrated services, adds Vashistha.

Client mining helps reduce the sales and marketing expenses for existing clients resulting in improved operating margins, says Balakrishnan. However, Shah argues that contribution from large clients to margins itself was debatable as there could be pressure on billing rates since customers tend to demand volume discount from the vendors.As a possible slowdown looms large, vendors will look to mining existing clients more. Vashistha says this is because they can realize more for every dollar spent on sales and marketing.

Further, it will help them to maintain the profits in spite of a slower rate of growth in revenue. This is because for existing customers, the sales lead time is lower and the vendor has a better knowledge of available budgets through their strong relationship, he adds.

Source : www.thaindian.com

IT giant Wipro Ltd has signed an outsourcing contract with India's leading retailer Pantaloon Retail Ltd, which wants to increase its outlets from the existing 1,000 to 2,500 in the next five years. Wipro in the comprehensive outsourcing contract will streamline the IT operations comprising infrastructure management, application support services, managed security services and data centre hosting.

Pantaloon at present is planning to bring about changes in its retailing formats and differentiated private labels.

Suresh Vaswani, president Wipro Infotech & Global IT Practices, in a statement Friday said, "Our main task is to deliver IT transformation for Pantaloon by creating scalable and agile operations so that it will help in its expansion."

Source : Click here

Research and Markets has announced the addition of Top Legal Process Outsourcing Vendors, Black Book Survey 2007 Results to their offering.

Legal Process Outsourcing is projected to be the second fastest growing segment of the global BPO industry, estimated to increase dramatically from about $80 million in 2006 to approximately $4 billion by 2010. Employment in LPOs is also projected to grow to 32,000 next year, 40,000 by 2010, and 82,000 by 2015.

2007 Full Service LPO Rankings and Results Includes:

Part One: Core Legal Services Outsourcing

- Legal Research

- Discovery & Litigation Support

- Legal Analytics & Due Diligence

- Contract & Document Review

Part Two: Legal Support Services Outsourcing

- Paralegal Support

- Transcription & Document Management Services

At present the number of jobs in legal outsourcing in India stood less than 12,000, with a new hire explosion of over 20,000 new positions within twelve months. Outsourcing would reduce costs for US customers as the rates for Indian legal workers were about 18.0 – 26.5% per cent of their average American and UK counterparts.

The cost advantage is not without challenges, but none are insurmountable, particularly with 200,000 Indians graduating from law schools each year, five times more than in the US.

Several top LPOs have already been formed and have established reference client bases, huge savings and the ability for many law firms and corporate law divisions to transform their activities to focusing on core functions, as well as expanding into new revenue producing and top line initiatives.

Brown-Wilson Group and their research division, The Outsourcing Management Institute strongly advises investment in Legal Process Outsourcing firms who have developed internally strong management practices and high levels of customer satisfaction, manifested by high client scores and outcomes through 2008.

Over 160 Legal Process Outsourcing suppliers globally were included in the Black Book client survey process from 8 countries.

THE TOP SURVEY-QUALIFIED LPO VENDORS, 2007 (in Alphabetical Order): AtlasLegal, Bodhi Global, Centric LPO/Hinduja TMT, Clairvolex, Cobra Legal Solutions, Fusion, iDiligence, Integreon, Intrust Global, Inventurus, Ius Juris, Law Wave, Law-Scribe, Lexecute, Lexidigm, LexSphere, Mindcrest, NeoWorth LPO, Pangea3 and QuisLex.

The Black Book of Outsourcing research service titled TOP LEGAL PROCESS OUTSOURCING VENDORS 2007 provides an in-depth competitive analysis of the highest 20 ranked legal services suppliers globally, including India. The study examines the customer responses and satisfaction scores on eighteen specific criteria within the LPO market space and details each positioned vendor in several major functional areas. An analysis of key competitors provides the reader with in-depth market information.

Key Benefits:

Determine how your current LPO vendor is performing in other vendor engagements, and inspect the performance of legal process outsourcing suppliers pre-RFP, as benchmarking outcomes, setting SLAs, and/or pre-contract renegotiation.

Content Outline:

1. Executive Summary

1- Top 20 LPO Vendors, Final Rankings

2. Survey Results: SENIOR MANAGEMENT SCORING (“BEST MANAGED LPOs”)

3. Survey Results: Summary of Raw Scores and Means, Top Twenty LPO Vendors

2 – In-depth Analysis of Vendors by Criteria

1 - Vendor Overall Preference /Vertical Industry Recommendations

2 - Innovation

3 - Training

4 - Client Relationships

5 - Trust

6 - Breadth of Offerings, Client Types, Delivery Excellence

7 - Deployment and Outsourcing Implementation

8 - Customizations

9 - Integration & Interfaces

10 - Scalability, Client Adaptability, Flexible Pricing

11 - Compensation and Employee Performance

12 – Reliability

13 - Brand Image and Marketing Communications

14 – Marginal Value Adds

15 – Reliability

16 - Data Security and Backup Services

17- Support and Customer Care

18 - Best of Breed Technology and Process Improvement

Source : Click here

South Korea's LG Electronics plans to outsource some more handset production in 2008 due to the rapid sales growth that the company is going through.
"Starting this year, we will take outsourcing more seriously", Chang Ma, LG's vice president for marketing strategy said.

Like its rival Samsung Electronics, LG has retained a vast share of its production, according to Reuters. Some of the European and US based cell phone makers have outsourced more than half of their production to EMS Companies such as Flextronics, Foxconn and Elcoteq, Reuters reports. According to Mr. Ma the company has no intention to enter the ultra low-end of the market for phones which today sells for less than €30.

DisplaySearch also reported strong consumer demand for 1080p LCD TV products throughout 2007 contributed to a strong year overall, despite sluggish consumer take-up in the final weeks of 2007. Demand for notebook PC displays was also strong in 2007. Annual shipments for portable computer applications rose 43% in 2007, and Q4'07 demand grew 45% Y/Y for a strong finish.

Some panels designed for PC monitor applications found their way into the LCD TV market, so annual growth of 31% for monitor panels overstates the actual demand for desktop displays. DisplaySearch expects buyers will prefer notebook PC products over desktop PC products for several years to come. Demand for flat-screen TV and portable PC products worldwide drove total large-area TFT LCD panel (10" or larger) shipment growth of 4% Q/Q and 40% Y/Y in Q4'07. Total large-area LCD shipments rose 40% in 2007.

Samsung Electronics captured the greatest share of TV panel revenues with sales of $8.6B in 2007 according to DisplaySearch findings. This 26% revenue share and was followed by LG.Philips LCD with a 22% sales share of TV panels. AU Optronics finished strong and increased its TV panel sales 126% Y/Y in Q4'07. For the year, AU Optronics had a 19% sales share. These three suppliers shipped 80% of all notebook PC panels in 2007, which DisplaySearch believes improved their operating performance.

Source : www.impacctusa.com

Any business runs on the basis of important contributions from various divisions such as marketing, human resource, information technology, administration and of course finance and accounting. The business undertakes multiple transactions in a single day and it becomes crucial to maintain accurate records of each transaction to arrive at a proper picture of the entity's financial standing in the market. The records such as the journal, cash books, balance sheets, profit and loss accounts are all various accounts that help the accounts division keep track of the business's income and expenditure. However, if your business is a start up or perhaps has a small entity then it might get difficult to devote an entire division to maintaining the accounts then perhaps accounting outsourcing is the best option for you. More and more businesses, whether big or small, are going in for this method of maintaining their financial records and the popularity of the process speaks about its success.

Accounting outsourcing is the process of handing over the accounting work of a business to a third party vendor in another country, who handles the accounting work on the behalf of your business. Many countries such as India are offering such accounting outsourcing services to the western countries and that too at a much lesser cost. The economic value of the service is a major advantage for the companies opting for such third party accounting. The professionals hired by the vendor taking the responsibility of your financial records are well qualified to handle such work with great competency and accuracy. As a business owner you can safely entrust your financial records to the vendor and rest assured that the accounts will be maintained in an accurate and efficient manner.

Accounting outsourcing not only saves the business the hassle of regular account maintenance but is also much cheaper for the business. The salary that the business would otherwise have to pay to its in-house employees for maintaining the accounts would be much higher than what the vendor charges for providing such service in an accurate and confidential manner. However, before you hand over the job