Taming down the "mother of all deals"

What is called the "mother of all outsourcing deals" is downplayed by no less than the one which initiated the deal.

India' s Wipro, along with IBM, have reportedly bagged a deal worth 1 billion dollars with British oil company Shell. This is touted as by far the biggest outsourcing deal ever to come out of India.

According to reports, Shell will cut down about 30 percent of its IT workforce of about 9,000. The deal would involve some high-end IT and back office jobs to support accounting and marketing and processing departments.

But Shell is quick put out the fire of hype surrounding the deal.

While not confirming the contract's total value, a Shell representative said the company projects to save about 850 million dollars annually.

But that's still a significant figure, assuming it translates to projects Shell is looking to outsource to would be service providers.

Outsourcing deals in India typically amount to no more than 100 million dollars even for top players like Wipro and Infosys. But just recently, IBM is reportedly looking to close a 700 million-dollar long-term with another outsourcer, telecom firm Bharti.

While IBM is a global player, the good thing about it is that the company will roll out both deals from it's development centers in India.

These two megabuck deals may just confirm the healthy outlook on outsourcing among companies in Europe.