Indian Outsourcer TCS on Outsourcing Growth, New Visa Fees

Strip away the labels offshoring, nearshoring, onshoring, etc. and what you end up with is outsourcing. And truth be told, lots of companies are either now outsourcing or planning to outsource some or all of their IT and business process operations. Outsourcing is big business, and it is—no doubt—going to get bigger. I think most would agree with that sentiment. Breaking it down, however, there may be a lot of ideas about where outsourcing is going to expand. To that end…

Earlier this week, I had the privilege of talking with Sury Kant, president of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) North America. During our interview, we covered a lot of ground (which I’ll break out in a few blogs) but we spent a lot of time discussing where TCS expects to see growth in the IT services market.

Kant had a lot of good insight. And if you read closely, and you’re a business or IT manager, I bet you’ll find yourself agreeing (no matter where you stand on the offshoring, nearshoring, onshoring debate).

“The growth we are seeing are in areas that really matter to businesses today. As a result of the downturn, many of the CIOs have basically not doing much other than just keeping the lights on,” Kant said. “Now, after things have relaxed a bit and people are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and it has been two years without doing much, CIOs know that the business has to grow, and IT systems have to help the business grow.”

Kant broke out five specific IT outsourcing areas in which CIOs and others are starting to invest in, in order to reinvigorate their businesses and spur growth:

ˇ         Business Analytics

ˇ         Social Media

ˇ         Cloud Computing

ˇ         Next-generation data and systems integration

ˇ         Mobility

Business analytics, Kant says, can help companies do a better job of segmenting their customers and understanding and meeting customer needs. Analytics can also help companies learn which customers are most profitable, as well as which product lines and which regions.

While social media is all the rage among consumers (particularly the younger generation, although I did just see a CNN article about baby-boomers and the like flocking to Facebook, etc.), businesses are still trying to figure out how to make social media work for them, in terms of both the top and bottom lines. Nonetheless, businesses are moving forward with their social media agendas.

Cloud computing, of course, has gotten plenty of hype. And the hype shows no signs of slowing. And companies need help determining just where cloud computing makes sense for them, what it means to them, and how it can be put to work for them.

Data and systems integration has always been a requirement, and many an outsourcing gig has been about this. The work continues.

Finally, mobility is, well, moving fast. And businesses are exploring ways to connect their enterprise systems to all the new mobile devices, from laptops to smart phones to iPads.

TCS, for its part, is building its business to capitalize on and offer customers outsourcing services in all of these areas.

My question to you is: Do these growth areas outlined by Kant match your needs and/or thinking?

Oh, and I did ask Kant about the new Visa requirements (you can read all about those fees here) and here’s his response:

“Our position is this. TCS is a company that abides by the rules and regulations if every country in which it operates. And we focus on satisfying our customers requirements and needs.”

He went on to say that TCS will continue to follow a business model that aims at providing the best talent and the best price point for every outsourcing job it gets. (more on this another day, in another blog).