The State of Sourcing

Early last week, we reported and debated in our newsletter, about the

high probability of Patni Computers selling its majority stake to iGate Global Solutions. Well, if Economic Times is to be believed, our expectations were validated, and the wedding is official! So what now? Though in the long run, iGate and Patni will both benefit from this move, there are many hurdles along the way, before the promised happy ending…

1. Battling attrition – Patni already experiences one of the highest industry attritions, at around 26 percent, compared to 14-17% for Infosys and TCS. As with any change in ownership, there is bound to be a slight acceleration in attrition soon. This may especially apply for Patni, as the acquiring company in this case is a much smaller entity. The IT-BPO industry is already seeing very high attrition, and neither Patni nor iGate will be spared, making stability a concern in the next 6 months.
2. Retaining clients – An interesting study by advisory firm Offshore Insights reveals that if iGate emerges victorious, Patni could lose anywhere between 15-20% of its revenues due to client losses. While that may sound like a bit of a stretch, the reality may not be far from these estimates. The biggest cause for concern is that Patni is currently exposed to high risk in its client composition. Nearly half of its revenues have been consistently derived from its top ten clients. Losing any of these will thus significantly impact the topline! Another disadvantage and cause for worry is that Patni is not a top offshore provider to any of its clients, according to the report. Thus most clients are stocktaking their dealings with the service provider, just in case, and are most worried about how their offshore teams would be affected post the merger.
3. Managing stability and risk- For the last few years, it has been known that Patni promoters have sought an exit from the company. With each wave of proposed stake sale, they have had to assure existing and potential clients of their stability of operations. In case there is a fallout with the latest iGate bid, the company will have to undertake a massive campaign to manage risk and restore any lost confidence in the marketplace.
4. Managing growth - Though Patni has been around longer, it has seen far slower growth, compared to newer competitors like Infosys, TCS and Wipro. iGate will face an uphill battle to grow the company, with a carefully crafted joint strategy for the long term.

Continue reading ‘Patni-iGate: I Do. Now what?’ »

The Indian higher education sector is in the midst of tremendous growth and change. The population demographic has created an unprecedented number of young people in this country. The scale of the problem that India faces in terms of educating and providing employment to her vast youth population, is unique. The sheer size of the problem has made education a subject of national debate, with the attendant glare of the media and public opinion. In the past year, giving further impetus to the debate is the political push by the Human Resource Development (HRD) minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal and his views on the need for reform in the Indian education system.

There exist great opportunities for the private sector to play a dominant role in the near future. With an eye on the future, a few weeks ago TiE (the entrepreneur network) set about hosting a seminar on private participation in Indian higher education. I was invited to represent ValueNotes, and moderate a most stimulating panel discussion, joined by the likes of Mr.Siva Ram Mallela (Founder of Knowledge Partners, Former Dean of New Initiatives at ICFAI University) and Mr.Chenraj Jain (Founder, Jain University). I’d like to share some of my thoughts on the subject,  enriched from the event!

Continue reading ‘TiEing up Indian Higher Education’ »

Through much discussion and debate, the Apple iPad seems to have held its own, when it came to university implementation. Whether the goal was to enhance campus communication, replace textbooks, introduce new learning approaches in the classroom, or promote informal learning, the iPad seems to have clicked with higher education, in the first quarter of its release. We’re hearing of more and more faculty/depts. experimenting with ways to leverage the technology to suit their varied learning requirements, be it at law schools, medical schools, engineering students, or business related content/app development.

So what was the reaction from the corporate learning segment? Here’s a couple of noteworthy initiatives that have reached mainstream online discussion.

Continue reading ‘Why isn’t the corporate learning community excited about the iPad?’ »

So I played devil’s advocate, while the rest of the learning world appreciated the leap forward with the Apple iPad. Having carefully evaluated the bad and the ugly (thanks to everyone on Linkedin/this blog who shared), there is definitely a need to look at everything good that’s coming out of the tablet industry, of relevance to the learning community.

A market-ready foolproof device the iPad still is not, but there are plenty of interesting ways it may be leveraged for learning at the workplace / university (or actually, outside of those places). In this post, I want to the cover the actual implementations being made by educators (I’ll cover corporate initiatives in my next post).  A great example is Rutgers University’s iPad marketing course that I blogged about earlier. There’s a lot of talk of how the iPad is a game changer, but how many universities are putting their money where their mouths are, and investing right away?

Continue reading ‘Top 5 University iPad initiatives’ »

In our nationwide survey of ~400 Indian higher education students (for the EDGE report on online assessments), we had some interesting insights w.r.t attitudes about online exams.

Continue reading ‘Do students want to take subjective assessments online?’ »

Dear reader,

Firstly, thank you for visiting the ValueNotes Sourcing Practice blog. It’s your contributions and vibrant discussions that keep us going, and help us understand the state of sourcing today!

If you’ve been a regular on our blogs, you would have noticed the many changes to our navigation and content. Until last week, we had separate blogs focusing on e-learning, publishing, research & analytics and legal services outsourcing. As time moved on (it’s been a year now!), we realized the value in cross-linkages, and in communicating with our audiences together.

So while once we were four, we are now on one platform, bringing you, our peers in the outsourcing sector, a consolidated view of the many industry sub-segments. We believe this move will add more value to our discussions, and enable a dynamic cross-industry representation among our readers. To illustrate, while on one end publishers could discuss how e-books can change the market, members from the new media and e-learning segments can also add to the subject and give a more comprehensive view.

Continue reading ‘Coming together to discuss The State of Sourcing!’ »

Much has been said about m-learning, and the technology fueled future… rich with possibilities for the next generation of student learners. And that we are now entering a phase where we can peek into that future, through emerging technologies. Apple can be termed the big daddy in this race, the mover and shaker who challenges our perceptions of what technology can do for us, with innovations abound, come every MacWorld. In this post, I’d like to talk about where m-learning is heading, using Apple’s latest contribution to the mobile computing world – the iPad.

As early as the January unveiling of the iPad, the e-learning blogosphere has been buzzing with the possibilities that the device presented for learning, both at the corporate and the school/university level. I would say that post the initial excitement, the ground realities really sunk in. Innovative? Yes. Made things interesting? Yes. But recommend as a formal learning tool? Not so sure. Why the hesitation to a device that was designed to really ‘push the boundaries’ according to the maker?

Continue reading ‘iPad: m-learning at its best or worst?’ »

ValueNotes recently completed a study (in association with EDGE Forum) focusing on trends in adoption of exam technology by Indian exam authorities. As part of this initiative by MeritTrac, ValueNotes interviewed 75 key decision makers, including vice chancellors, controllers of exam, registrars and exam board directors. The study also comprised a nationwide survey of another key stakeholder in the education system – the student. This was primarily because the exercise of taking exams online will yield many benefits to the student population.

Vice chancellors we spoke to mentioned that there was a certain amount of reservation expressed by students and therefore adoption was slow. To bridge the perception gap of these university officials and students, we spoke with 400 students from across Tier I, Tier II and Tier III cities, studying mostly at graduate and postgraduate levels, with a few inputs from junior college and PhD students. The aim was to capture the students’ awareness, readiness and experiences with online examinations. Even as efforts are under way to make ICT an inherent part of our education system, are the students really ready? We share some of our findings here.

Continue reading ‘Do Indian university students welcome online assessment?’ »

The growth of technology-enabled learning globally has resulted in hundreds of service providers mushrooming in India in the last 10 years. In 2009, the ValueNotes report ‘e-learning Outsourcing: Advantage India’ estimated over 140 technology-enabled learning providers catering to the corporate, government and education sectors across the world. While these companies primarily focused on international markets for business (US and UK), ValueNotes highlighted the trend towards exploring the domestic corporate and education market.

With the Indian higher education sector undergoing major changes, domestic providers are now offering a variety of services to help educational institutions become more efficient and globally competitive. Technology can benefit these institutes in areas such as course delivery (through e-learning), automation of administrative processes (ERP, etc), and exam management (through online delivery and assessment), among others.

Continue reading ‘Exam Technology Outsourcing: The Indian Higher Education Context’ »

ValueNotes is pleased to announce the launch of its report titled ‘Examinations and the role of technology: Emerging Directions’, in collaboration with EDGE forum, supported by MeritTrac and Excelsoft. The report was released during the 3-day conference EDGE2010 in New Delhi last Thursday, and I’m extremely happy to say, it was received with much enthusiasm from the crowd. We attended the conference primarily to present the findings of our report, but also to participate in the many discussions and sessions held pertaining to the Indian higher education sector.

The event had a great turnout, from biggies such as Sam Pitroda and Kapil Sibal who inaugurated the conference, to eminent personalities from the field of higher education. Many vice chancellors, pro chancellors, directors, principals represented the academic side, as well as senior management from companies servicing the sector. There were also quite a few foreign university/exam board/accreditation agency representatives, who gave the event a truly global perspective.

Continue reading ‘Our experience at EDGE2010!’ »