China, Malaysia, east Europe emerge BPO rivals

Sixty eight Indian and American IT and BPO firms form the bulk of the second Global Services 100 listing released by Global Services , the magazine for global consumers of business and technology services. Of the top 100, India contributed 36 firms, followed by America's 32.

The Global Services 100 is a tool for buyers of business and technology services worldwide. Judges from Global Services, a CMP-CyberMedia publication, teamed up with outsourcing experts at neoIT, a consulting firm that specializes in servicing globalization, to identify and evaluate the leading service providers located on four continents.

The evaluation is based upon 250 data points collected from service providers from 18 countries and third parties regarding effective operations, service offerings, client relationships, and human capital.

The winners are organized in three categories: customer and business process awards, regional and emerging provider awards, and tech-delivery awards. Quoting an analyst from Aberdeen Group, Global Services predicts that the market for outsourced IT services will become more global in nature leading to a buyer's market. A broader competitive field will create downward pressure on prices as providers in other parts of the world, particularly Eastern Europe , are finding better seats in the IT-services arena.

Rusty Weston, Editor-In-Chief, said, "Global Services Top 100 listing introduces CIOs to rising stars and emerging players not yet on their services radar screen."

The listing throws up an interesting challenge to India 's software supremacy in the form of 8 firms from China, 4 firms each from Malaysia and Eastern Europe, 3 each from Brazil and Mexico, and 2 from Russia. An offshoring software firm each from Ukraine, Philippines, Latin America , Czech Republic and Romania signals the arrival of an entirely new set of nations providing software and IT services. It is estimated that the US purchases of IT goods and services will grow five percent in 2007 to touch $1.55 trillion.

Over a dozen of the 32 American firms listed in the Global Services 100 survey are servicing their global customers through their India facilities. America is known to source nearly two-thirds of total IT and BPO exports from India. Indian firms are hoping to export IT and BPO services exceeding $31 billion in the 12 months ending march 2007.

Tata Consultancy Services with delivery centers in India , China, U.S.A. , U.K ., South Africa , Latin America, Europe and Japan topped the list of Top 10 Best Performing IT Services Providers. The top honor for the best performing Managed Services Providers went to Affiliated Computer Services of the U.S.A., a firm with 55,000 employees spread across delivery centers in the USA, India, Mexico and Ghana.

While Polaris Software Labs with delivery centers in India led the list of the Top 10 Specialty Application Development Providers, the Top Engineering Services Provider slot went to Patni Computer Systems. Patni has delivery centers in India, US and UK.

The top ranking for both Leaders in Human Capital Development and Best Performing BPO providers went to Genpact, which has over 27,000 employees in India, China , Hungary, Poland , Romania , Philippines , U.S.A. and Mexico . The Best Performing Global Call Center Providers slot went to Hinduja TMT.

The Top 5 emerging Global Service Providers slot went to Globant of Argentina; the Top 10 South of the Border slot went to Softtek of Mexico with delivery centers in Mexico, Brazil and Spain. Neusoft Group of China with over 10,000 employees bagged the Top 10 Emerging Asian Markets rank and the IBA Group of the Czech Republic , the largest IT service provider in Eastern Europe, topped the list of Top 10 Emerging European Markets.

Interestingly, nearly two-fifths of the respondents to the Global Services 100 survey expressed concern about extended sales cycle, employee attrition and the ability to scale operations. The survey also reveals that 50% of the outsourcers look for firms that bundle IT and BPO services.

The Global Services 100 awards were presented to category winners in New York City on January 31. Global Services facilitates global service delivery for the buyers and service providers of outsourcing services and provides cost-effective marketing solutions to the service providers in this industry.