India's Wipro to create 500 new U.K. jobs

Indian outsourcing giant Wipro is expanding its operations in the United Kingdom, creating 500 new jobs in the process.

Wipro revealed its expansion plans during Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown's visit to India last week. The company already has a 2,000-strong U.K. work force and plans to increase the head count by 500 in 2007 at its existing facilities in Reading and new sites in lower-cost parts of the United Kingdom, including Birmingham.

Kees Ten Nijenhuis, a European senior vice president at Wipro, told Silicon.com that as the company starts offering higher-value services to U.K. customers, it needs more local experience.

All of the major Indian players are trying to position themselves as less Indian and more global.

"We are looking for centers that would be cheaper than Reading and near a university," he said. "We are starting with 100 to 200 and (plan to) scale up to 500. We will send them to India for several months to become fully trained in our methods and processes. We are becoming bigger and more global."

Ten Nijenhuis denied that the increased local labor costs, especially when compared to those of Indian counterparts, would hit profit margins and force the company to increase its prices. "If one U.K. worker can create work for 10 Indian workers, we believe we can do it on a neutral basis," he said.

All of the top Indian IT companies are expanding their Western operations as they try to become true multinational corporations. Tata Consultancy Services has more than 3,000 workers in the United Kingdom, and Infosys last year embarked on a drive to recruit U.K. graduates as the company expands its European operations. Infosys has 60,000 employees worldwide, with 1,500 based in the United Kingdom.

"All of the major Indian players are trying to position themselves as less Indian and more global," said Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, author of Outsourcing to India. "They want a level playing field where they can compete with the established global companies.

"That's a positive thing for all of us," he said. "It means if you work in the IT industry here, you are just as likely to work for an Indian company."

Andy McCue of Silicon.com reported from London.

[dondarko]

the thing with outsourcing...

is that those indian workers do not have a knowledge of local markets, customs and just plain old how we would like things to be made, especially when it comes to software.

[csg7]

How much longer will you keep on whining !

Now you want your software to be like your steak ! Medium-rare ! How dumb are you to even consider every software local (other than language). Do you think there a whole different version with local features of Windows in India and China. Other than language and a few settings not even a single application is different.
If you have issues with outsourcing or are plain racist then come up with better excuse next time.

I myself had a few issues but now I believe that our country was going through a dull phase and we took help from other countires to bring it back on track. Now "those indian workers" are creating the largest % of start-ups firms and "those outsoucing companies" are creating jobs globally.

[Nikhil Sinha]

Global Sourcing

Refer to article at:

http://www.hcl.in/art_nikhil.asp

"As global sourcing opens up the possibility of jobs migrating offshore, workers must acquire new skills and learn new specialisations to maintain employment.

For corporate and individual consumers, global sourcing means lower prices and expanded choices. Global sourcing is also transforming work and work practices around the world.

The harmonisation of business processes necessitated by global sourcing requires an understanding of work practices in different geographies while simultaneously forcing the increasing homogenisation of these practices to the extent that, in cases such as the outsourcing of call centre functions, the transactional experience typical of one locale may even have to be simulated from another.

In order for such processes to be successful, it is vital that workers around the world develop expertise that will allow them to virtually step into the shoes of another worker thousands of miles away.

It is also imperative that they have access to technologies that make such virtual migration seamless and transparent. It is quite possible that the growth of the global virtual workplace will significantly re-cast the debates about legal and illegal migration. Global sourcing is essential to the transformation of workers, companies, industries and national economies."

- Nikhil Sinha

[Commander_Spock]

What does being Indian...

... has to do with it (natural abilities...)! "All of the major Indian players are trying to position themselves as less Indian and more global,"

http://www.genealogymagazine.com/luckhoo.html

[TheVulcan]

Time to wake up

Well, I guess if you are talking about stuff like localization etc, you might have a point in whatever you are talking about. Let?s not forget the fact that India has come out with not only the best software in the world but also a lot of big brains. It is indeed true that a lot of Indians struggle to get accustomed to the local dialect and customs. Nevertheless, they?ve always made it a point to adapt and deliver. There was someone else in this comment list who was mentioning about CMM level 5 and other crap. Yes, that what these standards are if you don?t follow them and just use it as a marketing gimmick.
From a totally different point of view, the British monarch?s borders were extending past the English Channel and she had absolute control over all the natural resources available in these colonies. She left these colonies only after plundering them for the benefit of her country (which indeed was the right thing to do). In this process, she also gifted India with the knowledge of English and its customs. The Indians are now using their brain, which against is slowly moving out of the country thanks to the reservations and caste system (see this comparison between British Racism (Shetty V/s Goody) and Indian Racism), to capture the world. And trust me; they are doing a darn good job. Its time the so called developed countries wake up and start doing something about it instead of sitting in a Bar and discussing this over a couple of Pilsners or Guinness!!

[Commander_Spock]

One more addition: genealogical lineage!

"From a totally different point of view, the British monarch?s borders were extending past the English Channel and she had absolute control over all the natural resources available in these colonies. She left these colonies only after plundering them for the benefit of her country (which indeed was the right thing to do). In this process, she also gifted India with the knowledge of English and its customs..."; from hindsight, it was quite possible that by social interaction there were co-habitation between the various species "in the colonies" resulting in a long lists of genealogical lineages; so, who is to say if some of those "Indians/mixed races" that are now using their brain have "birth" rights too!