Robust Results From Genpact, Cognizant

According to a recent report by Gartner on global IT spending, worldwide IT spending is projected to grow 3.7% in 2012 to $3.8 trillion. Earlier estimates had pegged the year’s growth at 4.6%. Revenues from IT services are expected to grow at a comparatively slower pace of 3.1% to $874 billion. Gartner expects the Eurozone crisis to impact technology spend. Despite these worrisome predictions, IT services outsourcers are continuing to surpass market expectations.

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Outsourcing: Rick Ferry, COO of C3 (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: The sectors that you talked about, are these sectors that you have major strategies to penetrate with onshore offerings?

Rick Ferry: Yes, we do. We identified those fairly early on. We’re working with the companies that have accepted our services, thankfully, not only to bring them up here in the U.S. and do the best job that we can do for them here, but also because there are certain subsets of those programs that we can’t offshore. Then when you blend that type of rate, there’s a significant savings that can be represented by blending. That’s another approach to the strategy. I don’t think any strategy has to be a one-way strategy. It doesn’t have to be an all-in type of strategy. There are certain parts of any of those applications that I just spoke of outside of the ones that have a regulatory requirement to be serviced in the U.S. that can be bifurcated. >>>

Outsourcing: Rick Ferry, COO of C3 (Part 6)

Sramana Mitra: Let me clarify a few things. Universities are not known to train call center reps. What are you talking about?

Rick Ferry: Not so much training the call center rep per se, but training the student with a desire to matriculate in a related field. So, maybe in computer engineering, computer sciences, marketing, sales and marketing management, that type of thing. For example, take a specific vertical, hotel/motel management. There are many universities around the world, ranging from Ivy League universities like Cornell in Ithaca, New York, to the University of Glasgow, that have degree-oriented programs in hotel/motel management. They place very highly educated people throughout the world. Well, one of our core verticals is hospitality management. >>>

Outsourcing: Rick Ferry, COO of C3 (Part 5)

SM: Now, talk to me about the training. Especially, in the political debate right now, it comes up all the time that there are plenty of jobs. There are not enough skilled people to fill them. Talk to me about that in respect to your industry, which has traditionally been quite good with on-the-job training. It sounds like your company in particular is focused on that. >>>

Outsourcing: Ross Kimbarovsky, Co-Founder of CrowdSPRING (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: It’s not that simple. Video is a much more complex thing because producing a video is a lot more expensive and cumbersome than producing even a skeleton logo design.

Ross Kimbarovsky: Precisely. There are a lot of factors involved. There’s the cost. There’s pricing. There is capability. There is our comfort level with presenting the customer with enough choice. >>>

Outsourcing: Ross Kimbarovsky, Co-Founder of CrowdSPRING (Part 6)

SM: Who do you consider as your direct competitors, who follow that exact model where people are actually submitting work before they get paid as opposed to be hired based on resumes and feedback?

RK: In the graphic design space, our primary competitor is a company called 99Designs out of Australia. It has a similar business model. Our communities are different. The products that we have are different. I’ll give you two ways to look at it. I mentioned earlier that we work with more brands and agencies than all of our competitors, including 99Designs, combined. In part, it’s because of those differences that many more businesses choose CrowdSPRING. But there’s also another difference. When you look at the average types of projects, both from the perspective of the businesses that are posting them and the creatives who are working, our projects tend to be about 50% to 70% higher in value in terms of the awards that are being offered. In part, it’s reflective of the kinds of businesses that are posting. In part, it’s reflective of the kind of community. >>>

Outsourcing: Rick Ferry, COO of C3 (Part 4)

SM: What needs to happen? Is there anything that could happen policy wise that would give you a reason to have more presence in the US? Or are there geographies in the US where you could do better cost structure wise? >>>

Outsourcing: Ross Kimbarovsky, Co-Founder of CrowdSPRING (Part 5)

SM: The question I asked was a little different. I asked how many agencies are using CrowdSPRING for generating business?

RK: Working on CrowdSPRING as creatives?

SM: Yes. >>>