Outsourcing set to boom in 2003

By siliconindia   |   Thursday, 24 October 2002, 19:30 IST
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Infosys Technologies Ltd said on Wednesday a survey among its clients showed that a majority of them plan to step up technology outsourcing in 2003 compared with this year. The Nasdaq listed company outlined the results of a poll after its annual customer conference held at Atlanta where the company hosted 230 executives.

FREMONT: Broad themes garnered from a poll conducted during the event suggest that the primary factor driving corporate IT strategies is the value added by IT to help achieve desired business results. Significantly, despite continued challenging economic conditions, half of those surveyed listed the launch of new IT projects or programs as their primary strategic objective for the coming year. According to those polled, the need to outsource is increasing with 75 percent expected their 2003 outsourcing levels to be higher than last year and as many as 97 percent consider offshoring as part of their outsourcing strategy. Moreover, the majority of the respondents, 81 percent of whom hail from companies with annual revenues of $1 billion or more, consider Infosys to be the best or among the best service providers that they work with. "Our esteemed guests, including Bob Dole, Larry Bossidy and Tom Peters, spoke of the need for companies and executives to refocus on the elements of leadership that make them attractive to clients, employees and partners," said Nilekani of keynotes delivered at the company's Milan event, held at the Evergreen Resort in Atlanta. "Leadership today has come to mean a return to the values we have espoused at Infosys since we founded the company in 1981. In many ways, Infosys is leading the world in its corporate governance and quality initiatives - and perhaps as importantly - meeting our commitments." This annual event, called Milan, which translates to "a meeting of minds" in Sanskrit, is a gathering of Infosys executives, clients and prospects to share perspectives and best practices on how companies are leveraging technology to drive efficiencies in their businesses as well as to drive revenue and profitability growth. The theme of this year's event was "leadership in business transformation." Keynote speakers were Bob Dole, former Senate Majority Leader and one of America's foremost political figures, who discussed the importance of value-based business leadership; Lawrence A. Bossidy, author and former chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc., who delivered his thoughts on managing outsourcing relationships as strategic initiatives; and Tom Peters, business guru and author of "In Search of Excellence," who presented his ideas on how to "lead in totally screwed up times," including his 40 tips on how to provide leadership by engaging people in creating a legacy of excellence. In addition to the keynotes, Infosys clients and partners gave presentations and led discussions. Several guest speakers, including Rick Federico, executive vice president of Fidelity Investments; Greg Fox, CIO of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad; Dennis Mcguire, Chairman, TPI; Vaughan Merlyn, vice president, The Concours Group; Seijiro Suzuki, CIO of Toshiba Corp. Semiconductor Co.; Roy Cashman, senior vice president and CIO and Mitch Poole, CFO of Ruan Transportation Management Systems; Wei-Tih Cheng, CIO of Aetna; and Robert Galey, vice president and CIO of AMTRAK addressed the importance of aligning business imperatives with technology and extending the resiliency and spectrum of IT initiatives through outsourcing. "Our speakers encouraged the executives to cultivate their own leadership skills," explained Basab Pradhan, senior vice president and head of worldwide sales. "Leadership is not unlike magnetism. It is top management's job to create an environment where they are a center of gravity that attracts the best from their people, and creates a corporate culture that clients and employees are drawn to." "During Milan, we received valuable feedback from our customers indicating that our delivery model and excellence in consulting and execution do indeed provide the value that clients expect from their service providers," said S. Gopalakrishnan, Infosys' COO and deputy managing director.