Outsourcing: PV Kannan, CEO Of 24/7 (Part 1)

Sramana Mitra: Hi PV, welcome to the Outsourcing series. Would you start by introducing the company?

PV Kannan: Sure. I will start by describing how the company was founded and what led to the creation of it, would that be helpful?

SM: That would be perfect. >>>

Near-shoring At Genpact And Cognizant

Near-shoring for offshore services is a trend that can no longer be ignored. My recent interview with Neeraj Gupta, CEO of Systems In Motion, a near-shore outsourcing focused organization, showed how smaller companies are stepping up efforts to get in on this trend. In the recent quarters, bigger players have also strengthened their focus on expanding in these regions.

>>>

Outsourcing: Lalit Dhingra, President Of NIIT Technologies (Part 4)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

Sramana Mitra: But that is true about TCS as well. TCS also has insurance clients, and so does Wipro.

Lalit Dhingra: The difference is when you run and you compete, somebody wins, right? I am losing only because somebody says I want to give it to a larger vendor. That means I want to talk to only billion-dollar plus companies. We lose that. Each time, I get a reply from the customer that says, You guys know what you are talking about. That is the difference, and that gives us satisfaction, because that keeps me focused on the middle of the pyramid. This is where I am. I am telling the customer the right thing,  and the customer understands it. This may not be true for TCS. It may not be true for Infosys also sometimes, but what we are trying to do is say, We understand. Proactively, we can tell you where all the solutions are going to be. >>>

Outsourcing: Lalit Dhingra, President Of NIIT Technologies (Part 3)

Sramana Mitra: One of the things about domain knowledge is that in IT-specific projects, the data structure is specific to that business. So, you do need an understanding of the business to even define its data structures and workflows.

Lalit Dhingra: That is correct. That is very straight business. But if you want to add value, how will you do it if you don’t have the domain [knowledge]? We don’t know what these guys are looking at. At present, the Virgin America website has gone through three stages. We know exactly what they are attending it to, and how it will change to bring them more value. You are right from the IT perspective. Yes, we need to understand the workflows, data structures, and everything to go into it. >>>

Near-shoring And U.S. Policy

Last month, I had breakfast with Scott Case, CEO of Startup America, and we then started working with the organization.

Here is my recent guest column for Startup America. One thought that has come to me frequently is that the U.S. is simply not doing enough to take advantage of the nearshore outsourcing trend that has been developing for natural, organic reasons. >>>

Outsourcing: Lalit Dhingra, President Of NIIT Technologies (Part 2)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

Sramana Mitra: So, fifteen to 20% of the new hires every year for NIIT come out of this GNIIT program?

Lalit Dhingra: The GNIIT, or wherever we do training for NIIT.

SM: How many graduates does NIIT’s GNIIT program produce every year?

LD: There are 2,000 training centers in India, franchise training centers from NIIT, so 15,000 to 20,000 people may come out every year. We don’t take all of them, but I think that is the number to date. >>>

Outsourcing: Lalit Dhingra, President Of NIIT Technologies (Part 1)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

About NIIT Ltd and NIIT Technologies
NIIT began an education company in the area of IT and was early proponent of IT and IT-enabled services in India. Later, it moved ahead in the outsourcing field with a backward integrated setup. Over two and a half decades, the company has expanded to multiple locations. NIIT Technologies became an independent organization in 2004.

About Lalit Dhingra
Lalit Dhingra is the president of NIIT Technologies. He began with NIIT in 1991 and is responsible for building the North American operations for NIIT Technologies. He heads the North American balance sheet and aims to build innovative business models in the technology outsourcing space such that NIIT Technologies can continue to enjoy the consistent double-digit growth it has had in the past five years.

Sramana Mitra: Hi, and welcome to the Outsourcing series. Let’s start with giving readers some perspective about NIIT Technologies, your business, how the business is from a revenue the point of view, an employee point of view, a geography point of view, a business point of view, and so on. How is the business set up? >>>

Outsourcing: Chris Coles, President And CEO Of HyperQuality (Part 5)

By Sramana Mitra and guest author Aditya Modi

Sramana: It yours still largely a service business?

Chris: Yes, it is.

Sramana: What do you see happening? Given the trends you’re seeing and given your division or the product map you are operating with, how do you see the business evolving? Are you seeing more of a technology business? Do you see the technology business growing substantially, and is that by design? >>>