Are Indian firms ready for employee acquisition ?
India is already standing head and shoulders above other countries when it
comes to offshore outsourcing.
Which begs the question, what's the next step for the Indian outsourcing
industry?
Companies like Infosys and Wipro Technologies have already established
themselves as premiere service providers to some of the largest global
companies.
Some say that in order for Indian companies to be truly global service
providers, they should strive to emulate what more-established players
like IBM or Accenture are doing - set up shop in host countries or
take-over the entire operations of their respective clients.
IBM and HP, for example, have absorbed entire departments of Procter and
Gamble doing non-core tasks like financials and HR.
Infosys, meanwhile, is reportedly in talks with European clients,
particularly banks, over similar arrangements.
In a recent Financial Express report, a top-level official of Wipro
expresssed belief that employee acquisition is the way to go for Indian
companies to further enlarge customer portfolio and thus, create further
revenue streams.
In most instances, employee acquisition has its advantages, project-wise.
By retaining existing employees, it allows the service provider to retain
existing expertise and knowledge.
As the processes that are outsourced becomes more and more critical and
high-value, the above advantage benefits the client even more. Retaining a
core group of employees that have been involved with the system earlier
reduces the risk of the project for the service providers.
But some say Indian companies should study the employee acquisition model
a bit further.
The time frame of adoption of such a move can be debated since it entails
taking over not just the employees but the IT infrastructure which most
Indian firms are not equipped for in places like the US.
But based on the report, officials from Wipro and other leading Indian
service providers have already begun evaluating employee acquistion as one
of the options.
