29 Indian companies are amongst best service providers

New Delhi

Jan 29th, 2008

Global Services magazine has identified the 100 best IT and BPO service
providers from 17 countries in its fourth annual survey to be made public next
month. This will help Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and business heads of
major outsourcers identify reliable, innovative and tech savvy partners.

The list includes 43 US and 29 India headquartered companies. The presence of
four companies each from China and Malaysia, and three each from Russia and
Brazil serves as a gentle reminder that these countries are emerging as viable
outsourcing destinations, adds the survey.

Two companies each headquartered in Argentina, Canada, Mexico, the
Philippines, Singapore and the U.K. have made it to the list. Only one Czech
Republic, France and Ukraine headquartered company each made it to the list.

The editors of Global Services along with analysts from premier services
globalization advisory firm, neoIT, identified service providers from 17
countries, with delivery centers across 31 countries. Functionally, these
providers covered a range of services across IT and BPO, including IT
Application Services, Infrastructure, Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO),
Human Resources Outsourcing (HRO) and Contact Centers.

The '2008 Global Services 100' listing identified the best companies in 10
categories to cover technology providers; customer service and business-process
providers; and providers by regions.

"The 2008 Global Services 100 represents the world's best providers of
technology, customer service and business process services," said Pradeep
Gupta, Chairman of CyberMedia, publishers of Global Services magazine.

The toppers from each of the 10 categories included four companies each from
the U.S.A. and India and one company each from China and Mexico.

The year 2007 reported a total of 436 M&A deals in the services industry.
Nearly one-third of the Global Services survey respondents said that they merged
with or acquired one or more providers. Of these, 11 percent confirmed
acquisition of a consulting firm.

Choice of a quick inorganic route to growth helped companies gain a readymade
talent base and access to new geographies, and customer base. As the global
services industry matures and consolidates, the M&As of 2007 are just a sign
of many more to come in the future, the survey adds.

The Global Services survey says that 47 percent of the respondents saw the
sliding dollar and the strengthening currencies of some key outsourcing
destinations (India, the Philippines and Canada) as the most critical business
concern. Many service providers are compromising on their margins and putting a
hold on hiring plans.

The Indian service providers who derive between two-third to three-fourth of
their revenues from the U.S.A. are back to the drawing board to consider non-U.S.
avenues. While many IT-services companies were looking towards Europe and Japan
as potential markets, others have strengthened plans for servicing the maturing
domestic Indian market.

The survey adds that going forward outsourcers could expect price increases
and currency risk sharing defined in the contracts.

ADM, Back-office Operations: Top the charts

Over 46 percent respondents to the Global Services survey handled outsourced
Application Development and Maintenance (ADM) work, followed by 30 percent who
specialized in outsourced managed services while 10 percent handled engineering
or R&D services. On the BPO front, 65.7 percent providers specialized in
back-office operations.

While it is challenging to align people and capital to correlate IT and BPO
operations, the demand for bundled IT and BPO services by customers of services
remained steadily high over the past two years. Fifty four per cent of
respondents to the 2008 Global Services 100 survey said that they saw customers
seeking more bundled IT and BPO services than in the past.

About 48.4 percent of the global services providers polled offer both IT and
BPO services; 21.6 percent provide only BPO services and 30 percent offer only
IT services.

"In its fourth year, the Global Services 100 study has become an
industry benchmark and an essential reference for clients starting or
re-evaluating sourcing relationships with global service providers," says
Eugene Kublanov, CEO, neoIT.

India reigns supreme as a delivery location:

India has emerged as the hub for global delivery with 57 percent of the
employees engaged in delivery centers located in India, followed by 18 percent
in the U.S.A. Coincidentally, software delivery centers of IBM in India also
employ 57 per cent of the U.S. headquartered giant's full-time employees world
wide. China had just 3 per cent of the full-time employees. Central and Eastern
Europe followed with a similar number. Canada and Australia were at the bottom
of the pile with just one per cent each of the employees.

The 10 winners:

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) topped the list of best performing IT
services companies list. The best performing infrastructure service provider
title has gone to HCL Technologies; The best performing BPO provider honor has
gone to Genpact. With nearly one fourth of WNS Global Services' 17,000-employees
working with FAO customers, it is not surprising to see this company top the
best performing FAO providers list.

The title for the best performing Human Resources Outsourcing company goes to
EDS while the best performing contact center title went to Sitel. The winner of
the Leader, South of the Border title was Mexico headquartered Softtek; The
leader of the Emerging European Markets title was won by the Russian services
company, EPAM Systems; The Leader of the Emerging Asian Markets title went to
the Chinese offshore IT-services company, Neusoft; The 49-year old Computer
Sciences Corporation won the Leader, Human Capital Development recognition for
its immense focus on human capital development.

Infosys Technologies was listed among the Top 10 in five categories. The
other companies to feature among the top firms across multiple categories
include India's HCL Technologies (4), America's 24/7 Customer and Neoris,
India's Genpact, EXL Services, Tata Consultancy Services and WNS Global Services
and Philippines' SPi Technologies were listed among top 10 in three categories.