Patni CEO: UK new offshore destination soon
By Techgirl

Based on whatever you have read and known, do you see UK becoming an important outsourcing hub by next year?  Yes, UK to become a key offshore destination by mid 2010 for those who want to outsource.  It does sound a bit far fetched. Every since the economic crisis hit America and Europe, they have actually increased outsourcing to India to save costs.

Despite (because ?) of the recession in USA and Europe, NASSCOM announced in July, 2009 that  the IT/BPO sector reached USD 58.8 billion in FY08-09 up from USD 52 billion in FY07-08. Export revenues for the Indian IT-BPO industry recorded growth of 16.3 percent and clocked revenues of USD 46.3 billion in FY08-09 up from USD 40.4 billion in FY07-08.

The domestic segment grew by 21% to register revenues of INR 570 billion in FY08-09 from INR 470 billion in FY07-08.

Obviously, this growth in our industry is at the cost of jobs being lost in USA and Europe.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary is one of the key players in the world of tech journalism and outsourcing.  Mark is so highly regarded that he has been invited as one of the judges for Computing Magazine Awards, NOA Outsourcing Awards as well as CNET Tech awards.  He has been invited to speak by a number of prestigious organizations like NASSCOM and London School of Economics.

Mark Kobayashi-Hillary has just blogged about his ‘surprise’ at being told that his home country UK would be the new offshore destination by next year.

“
The new offshore destination: the UK
When did you last hear of turkeys voting for Christmas?

Well, I felt as if I heard something like that at the Mumbai headquarters of Indian tech firm Patni yesterday. The Patni chief executive, Jeya Kumar, said to me: “Outsourcing in the UK is going to increase, but offshoring will only get back into momentum in late 2010, so between now and then the UK itself will increase in popularity for outsourcing.”

I had to stop and check. I was sitting in the office of a major Indian tech firm and the chief executive was telling me that the UK itself would rise up and become a major offshoring player in the next year. So I asked him if my understanding was correct, did he really mean that the UK is about to see a surge of offshoring to our shores?

“Yes, places like Northern Ireland will become far more attractive. Northern Ireland is going to be a big player, not just for the UK, but also for the whole of Europe. Nationalism is playing a part in this change, but I know that offshoring is really all about skills and they have the skills there in that part of the UK,” said Kumar.

…………
“

Me think that that the Patni CEO was being polite to his British guest.  There is no way that India will lose its edge for the next 5 years.  Indians can offer quality as well as cost which no western country can match.

Before you know it another year would have passed to show if the Patni prophecy was fact or fiction.  If you say anything with a straight face, someone will believe you.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com