March 28, 2007 4:00 AM PDT
Newsmaker: How king of outsourcing plans to keep his crown
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Why have you decided to emphasize things like embedded systems and hardware design? TCS has had a unit that designs cell phones, but a lot of companies in Taiwan already specialize in hardware design.
Ramadorai: It was an evolution over a period of time. We did some work in automotive embedded systems through the Tata Group. We did some work for the defense in India in embedded systems. Then we worked for the Space Research Organization onboard computers and telemetry systems. Then we bought a company from the government of India that was pretty strong in embedded systems, and then we looked at the market potential for engineering services and said that here is an area which the industry should get in.
But it's such a highly competitive field.
Ramadorai: It is, but with the sophistication of devices, with the sophistication of technology, with the integration of shop floor to the board room, it will require higher levels of integration. We have done a lot of work with the telecommunication companies like Nortel who have done a lot of work with Lucent. We have done with Ericsson, we have done with Nokia, we have done with Motorola, so these are all embedded systems essentially.
Are you interested though in going to even beyond the next step to doing contract manufacturing?
Ramadorai: Yes. We had a company called Tata InfoTech, which we merged with TCS. They've got a manufacturing facility where they use to make printers. Within the Tata group itself, manufacturing base is very strong, so we may do the design or the software pieces and then get into manufacturing with one of the Tata companies.
How about consulting? TCS in the past has talked about becoming a stronger competitor to IBM and Accenture.
Ramadorai: Consulting is very appealing, but consulting within the information technology area--what kind of technology chain management do you need to put in? What are the technology implications? We don't go into strategy consulting like the McKinseys or the Boston Consultings. We stick to information technology and process-based consulting.
You just celebrated the 25th anniversary of the labs inside of TCS. What are some of the big scientific challenges they will be working on in the future?
Ramadorai: In the areas of data privacy and security, we're collaborating with Stanford. In the area of software testing, we're working with Georgia Tech. These are some areas that require an enormous amount of R&D in the future. Media and entertainment is another area which is going to see a lot of R&D. It will be focused on issues like content, content distribution, privacy, intellectual property protection, revenue sharing. We work with UCLA on some of these issues and with some of the studios in our lab in Burbank (California).
Are you doing anything in search?
Ramadorai: We're doing some search in the local languages in India, like Marathi or Tamil.
Are you also working on any other projects to bring down the cost of computing and thus bring it to the wider world?
Ramadorai: Yeah. There are a bunch of initiatives in India where they're trying to bring a 10,000 rupees PC. Ten thousand rupees is roughly $200. We also saw Negroponte's PC, $100 PC. Content is going to be the key. What are the tools that are available, which will enable a student or a kid or any community to learn quicker? The application in our opinion determines the ultimate usage, and if cell phone is currently growing at about 7 million cell phones a month, why not the cell phone? Is it the Internet as a medium or is it a BlackBerry type of a device? Is it a $100 PC or what is it? I don't think we have any answers, and that research will have to continue. 
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13 comments
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Okay, you asked for it...outsourcing is killing business, not because it is taking jobs away from perfectly qualified people for no reason other than making CEOs a little richer, but because the workers now doing the job are incompetent and lack people skills. Most of these jobs are customer service oriented and the workers performing them hang up on clients when the job becomes difficult. They lack knowledge of anything beyond the manual. In fact, they are less competent than the people they replaced.
On the plus side, I've saved a lot of money over the last couple of years, because I refuse to purchase anything from a company that uses outsourced support. My software budget is down 80% and I build my own hardware now. I'm also reconsidering open source software, since the support is actually better and a greater benefit for the cost.
to cheap labor all around the world, thanks to the US Military
and undevelped countries eager to grow. Does that mean
cheaper products and better customer support for us peasants?
Certainly not! It means even more obscene profits for the Lords,
who've figured out how to get around Anti Trust laws by
manipulating job markets.
They even do it here at home, by employing illegal immigrants
and claiming that they can't get Americans to take the jobs. Sure
they can't, but that's because the jobs don't pay enough. If we
had true Capitalism, they'd have to increase the pay until they
were able to find enough Americans to take the jobs.
Too bad we can not outsource all of Congress, and the President. Then laws would be passed to stop outsourcing dead in its tracks.
Imagine, for a minute, we are going to spend another 176 Billion on Iraq; What if we gave every man, woman, and child 2 million out of the Iraq money? There are 300 million people in the U.S., so there would still be money left over. If we did this, we could dismantle all Social Services, welcome all the illegals(because all Americans would be millionaires and not have to work), even the minimum wage could be a thing of the past. The money is better spent on the Citizens of the U.S., and NOT Iraq.
Wow! What a concept!!!
They recruit 30000 a year and have a work force of 83000? Do the math, only few continue with these guys beyond 3 years and the rest realize they are exploited and leave the company with disdain.
"TCS, which at present has a staff-strength of 83,500 will increase the headcount to 100,000 by March next year. TCS has the lowest attrition rate of 10.8 per cent in the industry. Non-Indians comprise 8.8 per cent of the workforce while 25 per cent employees are women."
If a company has 50,000 people and recruits 30,000, then the added sum is 80,000.
As for the IBM remark, I wish you knew more about how the global IT industry works.
And for the others: ever tried counting on your fingers the number of Indian software professionals in the Valley. For that matter, ever been to the Valley? It will help open your eyes.