Infosys slashes growth forecast

India's outsourcing sector is bracing for a sharper than expected slowdown after the industry's second-largest operator, Infosys Technologies, slashed its full-year forecast for revenue growth by nearly 30%, says The Financial Times.

Infosys has backed away from its bid for the UK's Axon, saying it would not match a rival offer for the company from Indian competitor HCL.

The outsourcing sector has become one of the pillars of India's economy by providing third-party services such as software and hardware management to overseas clients but the crisis afflicting the US financial sector, one of the industry's main sources of business, is increasing uncertainty over the outlook for the sector.

Exco InTouch, a global provider of patient communication solutions for the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors, has been presented with the Best IT Strategy award at the 2008 European Outsourcing Awards, says Pharma Live.

The international judging panel took into account a number of factors when awarding the honours including the effective deployment of the technology and its benefits to users.

The company won the award based on the innovative integration of the Atlas short messaging service technology with electronic data capture technology which enables pharmaceutical sponsors to quickly identify and contact potential clinical trial subjects, speeding up the recruitment process.

Desktone, a provider of the first solution that enables virtual desktops as an outsourced subscription service, has unveiled a new, free webinar series entitled Desktone DaaS: The evolution of corporate computing, reports Market Watch.

In four separate webinars, Desktone and experts who are analysing, building and consuming virtual desktops as a service, will explore how cloud and hosted computing is transforming the corporate PC from a static device into a virtualised asset that is delivered as a subscription service.

Candyce Plante, senior director of Marketing, Desktone, says: "Our webinar series brings together leaders in desktop virtualisation, who will share how outsourcing non-strategic IT assets and purchasing them as a service can drastically simplify manageability and make organisations more responsive and agile."