HYDERABAD: Hiring people across technology disciplines, concerns about attrition levels in the ITeS resulting in higher costs and increasing real estate prices forcing companies to look to tier II and III cities. This has become the key trend as the sector expects the growth to continue. The technology sector is transitioning to the year 2006 riding on 30-plus percent growth and if the current projections are any indications, there is likelihood of pressures on finding the right talent. According to Accenture India?s Head of Human Resources, Rahul Varma, all trends pointed towards continued buoyancy in the marketplace even as companies look to non-traditional centers to tap talent.

This will be further accentuated by the fact that new streams of technology areas are being outsourced, offering a diverse section of people technology sector jobs. He said, "We envision continued demand for talent both in IT and ITES and that the demand is likely to intensify. Companies would seek innovative ways to tap and retain talent." The recent study of Nasscom and McKinsey pointed out that there could be shortage of skilled professionals, as technology sector players scale up the value chain. Citing the case of ITeS, the industry body of information technology Nasscom's Vice-President, Sunil Mehta said, This has actually broadened the scope of employment. In fact, if you analyze the nature and scope of the business and processes that these companies are handling, they have opened up careers of people from non-conventional sectors to support both global companies and within India.

" The sector has potential to post a growth rate ranging between 28 percent and 32 percent, he added. Giving a venture capitalists perspective, the Managing Partner of Norwest Venture Capital, Promod Haque, that manages funds of about $1.8 billion, said the scope of funding would likely expand to new areas within the technology sector such as media and broadcasting, and technologies that help delivery of information through multiple devices over the Internet would be favored. Echoing a similar view, the General Partner of Gabriel Venture Partners, Navin Chadda, said, "A lot of funds have raised new capital in 2005 and we expect VCs to deploy them in later stage and larger deals. India and China have demonstrated that they can build world-class venture backed companies, not just lower cost versions of U.S. companies. There is increased potential for M&A activity." Whereas, on real estate point of view, the IT and ITES sectors will continue to drive the market across cities.

The commercial office space supply is lagging demand and this imbalance is likely to remain till the first quarter of 2006. This is a connecting trend in other metros. It is projected that participation of national and international developers and funds would be stepped up in development of IT parks and commercial establishments. The capital and rental markets which have spurted lately would remain firm, forcing companies to look to next level cities. According to a global survey on M&A activity of KPMG has projected continued heightened activity in India across sectors, including technology through 2006. Domestic majors such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Satyam and other multinational companies such as IBM, Accenture, Cognizant and even small companies have all stepped up hiring.