Offshore for large companies & nearshore for small firms

I had a meeting with Alastair Mitchell, the CEO and co-founder of cloud collaboration platform provider Huddle. We were talking about the skills gap and how businesses are addressing this through the use of overseas suppliers.

He said skills shortages always exist in growing economies and businesses must address this through overseas skills. "There is more and more demand for high quality development resources and it is not just about cost but access to talent," says Mitchell.

There has been a lot of talk recently about start-ups and early stage companies being held back by the lack of skills in the UK and the difficulty getting visa's for overseas workers with the skills they need. There has even been a call from the mayor of London Boris Johnson for a special London Visa to make it easier for the city's start-ups to get the right staff. 

But the very different requirement of small growing companies and large established means a choice between nearshore and offshore.

Source url : http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/outsourcing/2013/11/offshore-is-for-large-companies-and-nearshore-for-small-firms.html

ADEC to start BPO services in Kenya

 Kenya’s efforts to become a business process outsourcing and sustainability centre received a major boost yesterday after an international provider of customised onshore and offshore outsourcing solutions opened office in Nairobi.  

The ADEC Group from Philippines signed a lease agreement with the Export Processing Zones Authority (EPZA). 

The partnership will allow the global company to start Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services in Kenya before the end of the year.

EPZA Chief Executive Cyrille Nabutola explained that his organisation would provide offices for the company to start their operations of developing services for exports.

Source url : http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2000097014/bpo-sector-set-to-grow-as-adec-enters-market 

Automation can't take place of Offshore Outsourcing

The use of so-called "software robots" to automate IT management tasks can provide cost savings and improve service delivery but will not eliminate the need for offshore outsourcing, a new report by analyst firm Ovum has found. 

The growing adoption of cloud computing and spread of virtualisation beyond servers into networking and storage means that systems management tasks can automated more than ever before. 

Some commentators have suggested that this poses a threat to the offshore IT outsourcing industry, whose business model is built on provide cheap labour to perform repetitive IT management tasks of the sort that are increasingly being automated. 

View Source: http://www.information-age.com/it-management/strategy-and-innovation/123457191/automation-will-not-kill-offshore-outsourcing--ovum-says#sthash.qufmUpZh.dpuf

Offshore Outsourcing Survey

 Job security is a primary concern for information technology workers, according to Monster’s Workforce Talent survey. However, IT workers ranked at fourth most satisfied with their jobs — behind engineering, finance and healthcare professionals.

The survey found 87 percent believe that an increasing number of IT jobs are consistently being outsourced offshore, and 53 percent feel that offshore outsourcing leads to lower employee morale. Only 14 percent feel outsourcing is necessary for global business growth.

Sixty-eight percent of IT professionals believe there are IT jobs available and 42 percent are confident in finding a new job in the next 12 months, the survey found.

View Source: http://www.staffingindustry.com/Research-Publications/Daily-News/Survey-Offshore-outsourcing-a-top-concern-for-IT-workers-26577#sthash.xgfJFbUG.dpuf 

No longer a controversial topic

Offshore outsourcing is no longer the controversial topic it was 10 years ago, when the practice of contracting with workers overseas regularly made headlines. But while offshoring has since become standard practice for many U.S. businesses, few are employing anything close to best practice when it comes to managing their offshore relationships, according to a recent study of 240 executives by the Offshoring Research Network at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business.“
Companies still have lots to learn,” says Arie Lewin, professor of strategy and international business at Fuqua and the director of the study, which has been conducted annually since 2004. “Many companies have really perfected supply-chain management, but they’re not applying those same capacities to the sourcing of business-support functions.”
Source url : http://www3.cfo.com/article/2013/3/global-business_offshoring-outsourcing-overseas-hiring-jobs

French IT services company acquired by Tata

Tata Consultancy Services is to acquire French IT services company Alti in a bid to increase its presence in the European market.

India's largest outsourcer said in a filing Tuesday to the Bombay Stock Exchange that it has signed definitive agreements to acquire 100 percent of the equity in privately-held Alti for €75 million (US$97.5 million) in an all-cash transaction.

The deal will help it grow in France, regarded as the third largest IT market in Europe after the U.K. and Germany, TCS said in the filing.

Alti's key customers include French companies in banking, financial services, luxury, manufacturing and utilities sectors. It has 1,200 employees across France, Belgium and Switzerland, and had revenue of €126 million in 2012. The company is currently owned by its management and two private equity firms.

Source url : http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/458464/tata_acquire_french_it_services_company_alti/

Most of the Drupal (CMS) based services are outsourced

Drupal, the PHP based free CMS is among the most fun and most flexible open source content management systems today and Drupal is most sophisticated, versatile and effective for re-designing and re-creating interactive websites.

Just to add to the above, Drupal is also easy-to-maintain, easy-to-install and easy-to-configure. It comes with a bunch of add on features that make your website more interactive, more fun and more search engine friendly!

While all this stands true, it is a well known fact that most Drupal web development services are outsourced. The question is why? What are the benefits of outsourcing Drupal development projects, if any? I mean, we all know the benefits of Drupal… but the benefits of ‘Outsourcing’ Drupal Web Development; interesting!

Source url : http://www.spyghana.com/most-drupal-web-development-services-are-outsourced/

Wipro targetting Canada

When Indian outsourcing magnate Azim Premji flew into Calgary a short time ago, he liked what he saw: a vibrant oil and gas industry with a big appetite for information-technology services.

“Canada is turning out to be an important market for us; we plan to invest much more here than in the past,” said the chairman and controlling shareholder of Bangalore-based Wipro Ltd., with the air of a prospector who has rediscovered an overlooked mineral field. “I think broadly we neglected it.”

Source url : http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/indias-it-outsourcing-giant-wipro-takes-aim-at-canada/article9744470/

Eye-Tracking Study of Google

SEOmoz just released the results of a pretty cool eye-tracking study and a few of the results are surprising. Google’s different SERPs formats seem to have varying effects on users and those using video and local search listings will find these results promising.

A few of the results actually suggest that if you’re targeting a query with local connotations, you may be better off skipping those coveted top 3 organic spots and shooting for the local listings. To be clear, the study was small and examined just eight subjects shown five SERPs each. It would be very useful to see the results of a larger, broader study, given the promising outcome of this one for blended search results.

Source url : http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2115682/Google-Eye-Tracking-Study-Highlights-Impact-of-LocalPlaces-Results

All AdWords Phone Numbers made clickable by google on mobile

When AdWords advertisers place a phone number in their ad copy, the phone number will be clickable by default, Google has announced. Advertisers will be charged the same rate as their standard PPC when users call through the advertisement.

The Added Features

Google has been offering a click-to-call feature for AdWords since January 2010.

Previously, AdWords users who placed a phone number in their ad copy could only get a call if the searcher entered the number manually. Now, the phone numbers inside the creative are clickable by default.

Additionally, advertisers can view details on the performance of the clickable number by looking at the "click type" campaign segment of their campaign reporting.

Source url : http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2104995/Google-Makes-All-AdWords-Phone-Numbers-Clickable-for-Mobile

Offshore outsourcing cuts down facebook page costs

Should brands outsource their Facebook presence in part or full, to a company in another continent and hence become the brand’s eyes, ears and voice on social media?

Budgets for social media are growing at unprecedented rates and these numbers will come under scrutiny more often than not as companies optimize their social media spending. By outsourcing social media activities (in part or full), a brand can cut its social media spend by anywhere between 25 percent 60 percent and still achieve the same, if not better, results.

When we talk about social media outsourcing, I always tell brands that there are some things that are outsourcable and some that are not. About 60 percent 65 percent of all social media work done is outsourcable, and about 35 percent 40 percent is not.

Source url : http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-page-outsourcing-offshore-2011-07

Google+ had 2.85 mn unique visitors from India till now

According to data from Comscore, the number of unique Google+ visitors stood at 19.93 million between June 29 and July 19. Users from the US and India stood at 5.31 million and 2.85 million, respectively. The two countries also emerged as the top countries on Google+. Another 0.87 million users were from the UK, 0.71 million from Germany, and 0.5 million from France. The site is still in its beta phase and one needs to be invited to join it.

Video calls and group chat by Facebook

Facebook has announced the roll out of its video chat feature powered by internet telephony company Skype. Facebook has also introduced a group chat feature through which users can now create instant group chats if they want to quickly message a small group of their friends.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook now has 750 million users and they share 4 billion things such as photos, links and status updates on the site every day. The video calling feature is browser-based inside Facebook, and is currently only one-to-one video calling as Skype charges for group video chat.

Source url : http://www.alootechie.com/news/facebook-launches-video-calls-group-chat-features

Zuckerberg is No. 1 page on Google+

Any guesses as to who is the most popular person on Google(PLUS), the company's new social networking service? Ashton Kutcher , perhaps? Or Lady Gaga?

Actually, that title is currently held by Mark Zuckerberg , the founder and chief executive of Facebook - the very service that Google(PLUS) was meant to challenge.

As of Tuesday evening, Zuckerberg had nearly 35,000 people following his updates on the service, more than anyone else in a broad survey of Google(PLUS) profiles by Social Statistics, an outside service. His fan base exceeds that of Larry Page , one of the founders of Google and its recently appointed chief executive, who had only 24,000 people following him.

Source url : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/facebook-founder-mark-zuckerberg-is-no-1-page-on-googleplus/articleshow/9123905.cms

China's Baidu English results to be powered by Bing

China’s dominant search engine Baidu is trying to expand its reach beyond Chinese-language speakers. Reuters is reporting that Baidu and Microsoft have done a deal that will offer Bing powered English-language results for the Chinese search engine.

It’s not clear whether this is limited to China or will be used in other markets where English is spoken. We’ve asked Microsoft for some additional color and perspective.

Source url : http://searchengineland.com/report-bing-to-power-baidu-english-results-84164

Apps For PC, iPhone & Android by Yahoo

Shashi Seth, SVP of Search & Marketplaces at Yahoo believes that mobile apps are like websites in the early days of the internet and will only continue to multiply just as websites have done — seemingly exponentially. Regardless of whether the analogy is 100 percent accurate everyone agrees that app discovery has become a big problem. Among other things, it has given rise to an Amazon app store and several independent app-discovery sites like Chomp.

Mobile (and increasingly desktop) apps are are an important new content category that Seth believes must be addressed by search. Accordingly, this evening Yahoo is launching app search for the PC and a mobile app-search app, called AppSpot, for iPhone and Android. Eventually Yahoo wants to index RIM and Windows Phone apps, Seth told me.

Source url : http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-builds-app-search-for-pc-appspot-for-iphone-android-81947

Investigation by FBI against the hacking of google accounts

The FBI was investigating allegations by Internet giant Google that Chinese hackers were behind the hacking of hundreds of Gmail accounts, including those of senior US officials, the White House said.

"US President Barack Obama is aware of it and is being updated on regularly," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily news conference.

"Threats to information and communications infrastructure pose a serious economic and national security challenge for the US and our partners, which is why the president has made cyber security one of his top priorities," he said.

Source url : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/fbi-investigating-chinese-hand-in-gmail-account-hacking-us/articleshow/8711488.cms

$17.94mn online advertising revenues by Rediff in 2011

Nasdaq listed Rediff.com has said that for the fiscal ended March 31, 2011, the company’s India online advertising revenues grew to $17.94 million from $14.69 million reported on fiscal ending March 31, 2010. Rediff’s total revenues, which includes fee-based and online advertising and US publishing revenues, for the same period rose to $21.79 million in fiscal 2011 from $18.84 million reported in fiscal 2010. The company’s India online advertising revenues for the quarter ended March, 31, 2011 rose to $4.84 million from $4.03 million reported in the same quarter last year and total revenues in the same period grew to $5.64 million compared to $4.96 million for the quarter ended March, 31, 2010.

The company’s cash balance stood at $36.92 million, as of March 31, 2011, which provides sufficient working capital to meet its liquidity needs and to execute on its strategy, including investments in product development and marketing initiatives. Similar with past periods, Rediff expects to continue to invest $1.0 - $1.5 million per quarter throughout the fiscal year.

Source url : http://www.alootechie.com/news/rediff-reports-1794mn-online-advertising-revenues-india-fiscal-2011-total-revenues-2179mn

Bing's deal with Conduit

Bing’s traffic acquisition deal with Conduit, the toolbar company that claims to work with 260,000 publishers and 200 million users, appears to be paying off, according to analysis from Rimm Kaufman Group (RKG).

Senior research analyst Mark Ballard looked at traffic from Conduit to Rimm Kaufman Group clients from before the toolbar company switched to Bing from Google at the beginning of 2011. Toward the end of 2010, when Conduit was still with Google, Ballard writes, Conduit sent RKG clients paid search click traffic that was equivalent to 10 to 11% of total Bing.com paid search traffic. Currently, using referrer data, Ballard sees around 5% of Bing’s paid search traffic coming from Conduit, and he estimates an additional 5-6% likely comes from additional searches after people are delivered to Bing.com.

Source url : http://searchengineland.com/researcher-conduit-toolbar-deal-boosting-bings-paid-clicks-by-10-78411

Google Insights – SEO For 2011