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Indian outsourcing firm Wipro says business is good

Brian White — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:29:00 EST

Filed under: Earnings Reports, Good news, Industry, India

Wipro (NYSE: WIP), one of the largest companies in India, announced this past week that it saw a profit rise of 17% to $204 million in its latest quarter, on the back of new outsourcing contracts and gains from a U.S.-based acquisition. Wipro is currently the India's third-largest outsourcing company, and handles accounting, customer service, human resources and other functions for many firms in the Fortune 500. If you've ever read about outsourcing domestic jobs to India, this is a top company in that field.

Sales in the July to September quarter rose to $1.2 billion as Wipro acquired almost 60 new contracts and saw an increase in sales based on its acquisition of New Jersey-based Infocrossing Inc., a networking infrastructure company. Wipro announced that a single contract alone with an unidentified U.S. company was worth $160 million alone. At the end of the quarter, Wipro employed over 77,000 people.

In addition to labor outsourcing, the company writes software for the likes of General Motors (NYSE: GM) and Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO). With such a stellar quarter, the company's CEO stated that new clients were being charged 3% to 5% above standard billing rates, and that it was billing existing clients at higher rates. I'm not sure that's the kind of thing you want to release publicly, but there you have it. Wipro, expect from phone calls soon, okay?

Indian outsourcing firm Wipro says business is good originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Outsourcing customer service offshore can backfire

Brian White — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:44:00 EST

Filed under: Consumer Experience, Dell (DELL), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ)

I always giggle when I see the decision by some large company to outsource customer service jobs or even technical support positions to overseas call centers. More and more, these call centers are located in India -- the world's capital for telephone-based support services for industries ranging from wireless carriers to computer hard drives to flat-panel televisions.

The theory goes that Indian support counterparts have the needed language skills, and the incredible cost benefits make outsourcing a direct cost savings for most companies. While that "hard cost" can be proven on paper, the "soft costs" that can't be measured -- but which are way more important -- are rarely (if at all) considered. For example, the nuances of the English language and even the slang that American consumer and business customers expect when needing support on a product or service are lost in many cases when talking with an outsourced call center representative, causing extreme frustration for the customer. I have experienced this so many times firsthand that I stopped doing business with companies that subjected customers to this (as much as I could, anyway).

The ill-gotten feelings customers have after speaking with someone who 1) can't understand the problem, 2) can't effectively communicate in a way I can understand and 3) has no empathy for my problem linger on and on -- and it can cost companies dearly. While not directly related to hard cost savings, companies like Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) and Hewlett Packard(NYSE:HPQ) really need to re-think all the "great cost savings" that can be had by treating your customers as assets to be dealt with later. Dell has moved much of its support back to the U.S. as a result of huge failures in customer support, a move I applaud. Some companies, though still do not get it. When customers start leaving, maybe they will.

Outsourcing customer service offshore can backfire originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:44:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Business leaders chime in on keeping tech leadership in the U.S.

Brian White — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:05:00 EST

Filed under: Rumors, Industry, Consumer Experience, Competitive Strategy

Is America bleeding cutting-edge technology research, development and leadership to foreign soil? If so, why is that? Well, that question was put to some of the top business leaders in the U.S. recently, who all chimed in on why America could lose some (or all) of that leadership, to the economic chagrin of us all.

It makes pure economic sense for global companies -- which all companies have to be these days -- to locate resources next to growth areas. Increasingly, those growth areas are outside the U.S. and the employees are -- in many cases -- well-educated and can be paid significantly less than American counterparts -- although this can backfire in drastic fashion sometimes.

Result? Dollars siphoning off America and into foreign economies, either directly or indirectly. What can we do? Further educational initiatives? More motivated workforces? Globalize entire workforces to work from anywhere in the world? Read what some of these business leaders say on the topic here.

Business leaders chime in on keeping tech leadership in the U.S. originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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