China may exceed India

As the outsourcing destination with cost advantages that has gradually reached the top of global service outsourcing, China has the potential to exceed India to become the outsourcing destination that is most valued by global enterprises, states People's Daily Online.

The transfer of global services outsourcing has been rapidly developing in recent years. There is gruelling competition between outsourcing destination countries and India occupies 44% of shares in the global outsourcing market.

Rajdeep Sahrawat, VP of the National Association of Software & Service Companies, said China's outsourcing industry is nearly 10 years behind India's.

Australian organisations are cautious about the considerable compliance risks related to business process outsourcing (BPO), including privacy and data protection, intellectual property rights, and executive accountability, according to a study by IDC, says ARN.

This is the case even though Australian organisations believe BPO can be used as a vehicle to cut back-office costs and in many cases, improve a process. The IDC report is titled Australia Customer Priorities for Business Process Outsourcing Services.

"BPO pilots will drive more new deals in the Australian region and become an important inroad for a BPO go-to-market strategy, as clients are more receptive to pilots before signing long-term, full-scale BPO contracts. This will happen primarily in areas that are considered ripe for outsourcing, such as benefits administration or areas within human capital management," said Aprajita Sharma, research manager for outsourcing and BPO at IDC.

As fiscal 2007-08 comes to a close, there is a feeling of uncertainty in the IT sector due to the slowdown in the world's largest economy, the US, the Indian IT industry's biggest revenue generator, reports The Financial Express.

First tier offshore firms, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro and Satyam Computers, are all keeping a close watch on where the US economy is heading, with a mix of cautious optimism and bullishness.

Recently, the country's largest software exporter TCS came out in the open and said two of its top 10 clients might show subdued demand in the fourth quarter of the current financial year. Similarly, IT bellwether Infosys has projected a muted quarter. On the other hand, Wipro and Satyam have been bullish and have expressed comfort with the near-term demand.