5/16/2007

11th Annual Outsourcing Excellence Awards

Winners Reveal Insights into Achieving Strategic Business Goals

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Outsourcing Center, the worlds premier source of information about outsourcing, announced today the following winners of the 2007 Outsourcing Excellence Awards:

Best Partnership        Old Mutual Financial Network and Perot Systems
Best IT Applications Illinois State Toll Highway Authority/Unisys
Best IT Infrastructure Bank of India/HP
Best BPO Louisiana Department of Social Services/ACS
Best EU Thomas Cook UK/Accenture
Best Offshore Nortel Networks/Wipro
Best First Steps Bharti Airtel/Nortel Networks India
Best Financial Services Aon South Africa/Alfinanz
Best Healthcare Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of
Surgery/McKesson Provider Technologies

An independent panel of industry experts evaluated 86 nominated relationships worldwide. The judges rated their partnering approach, how the parties collaborated to achieve mutually beneficial objectives and overcome challenges, and innovative strategies for ensuring mutually aligned interests over the long term, stated Beth Ellyn Rosenthal, Editor, Outsourcing Journal.

The September 1 issue of the Outsourcing Journal (www.outsourcing-journal.com) will feature in-depth articles on each award-winning relationship. Forbes magazine will highlight the winners in its June 4 issue.

Outsourcing is becoming more complex, stated Debra Floyd, COO, Outsourcing Center and director of the awards program. All companies engaging in outsourcing will benefit by reading about the winners lessons learned, keys to success, and collaborative techniques. These relationships achieved notable business outcomes in competitive markets and are exemplary in how they manage their relationships for success.

Winners will be honored at an Oscars-like ceremony in New York City, sail on the Forbes Highlander Yacht, and participate in a best practices educational seminar.

With a little innovation, who needs outsourcing?

(FSB Magazine) -- The shop floor at specialty blades smells like machine oil, but nary a drop of the greasy glop can be seen. The bright, airy room is so quiet that the few scattered workers chat between stations without raising their voices. The robotic cutting machines gleam, the racks on the metal shelves are neatly labeled, the floor is pristine. Since when does the gritty world of small manufacturing look like this?

In its factory nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Staunton, Va., Specialty (specialtyblades.com) manufactures millions of blades each year, ranging from scalpels to the serrated versions that cut gas-pump receipts. The profitable company, founded in 1985, expects to see sales of $20 million this year, up 16 percent over 2006. "We are very much a growth company," says CEO Peter Harris, 38.

Harris is not alone. True, Detroit is in a slump and the entire manufacturing sector generated just 12.1 percent of U.S. GDP in 2006, compared with 17.5 percent in 1986. On top of that, manufacturing employment dropped from 17.2 million in 1996 to just over 14 million as of last year.

But manufacturing is showing distinct signs of life at the smaller end of the scale. Between 2000 and 2005 there was a 67 percent increase in manufacturing startups, according to a survey by the Kauffman Foundation (kauffman.org). That's particularly significant when you consider that fully 70 percent of all U.S. manufacturers have fewer than 20 employees. Add it all up, and small-business owners can take some credit for the increase in overall manufacturing sales, which rose by 20 percent between 2002 and 2006, according to census data.

What's driving this resurgence? One word: innovation. Not long ago the default answer to sagging manufacturing profits was to slash labor costs by moving the factory overseas. But many manufacturers now realize that offshoring doesn't always make sense.

After decades of downsizing and capital investment, labor today accounts for just 5 percent to 15 percent of total U.S. manufacturing costs, according to Susan Helper, professor of economic development at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. Offshore risks include uneven quality control, communication breakdowns because of language barriers, political upheaval, and high transportation costs, not to mention the possibility that the low-cost factory in Guangzhou will steal your intellectual property to build a rival product.

The best small American manufacturers are finding ways to compete on a global scale. They are applying creative tweaks to their manufacturing processes, improving efficiency and lowering production costs. They're relying on theories and technologies that were once the exclusive province of multinationals: rapid prototyping, lean manufacturing, efficient supply chain management and better quality control. It's all about innovation, and in this U.S. entrepreneurs excel.

The best small manufacturers are adept at listening to their clients and finding creative solutions to their needs. The engineers at Specialty Blades design precision cutting devices for varied, usually custom applications. On one recent project they worked closely with a medical-device company to develop a combination scalpel and stapler that slices tissue very neatly close to the staples. The result is a less traumatic procedure, so the patient recovers more quickly. A healthier patient can go home a day early, which makes the hospital happy because squeezing in extra surgical procedures is more profitable than housing patients in recovery.

Specialty's clients are willing to pay premium prices for that level of industry-specific expertise. It's no accident that Specialty earns its highest margins on blades produced in Virginia, although the company sources some low-end products from Shanghai, where it also has a sales office. "If you sell a product that can easily be made today in China, you should expect to absolutely go out of business at light speed," says Harris. "So we focus on products where much of the value comes from the engineering of the specific solution rather than the production cost of the component."

Rapid Deployment

In the hypercompetitive world of modern manufacturing, success often hinges on how fast a company can bring new products to market. Rapid prototyping is a key aspect of this process and one in which many small U.S. manufacturers excel. S&S Cycle (sscycle.com) builds high-performance motorcycle engines and after-market engine components.

Launched in 1958, S&S operates two Wisconsin factories, in LaCrosse and Viola. In 2000 the company invested heavily in cutting-edge manufacturing technology, purchasing two rapid-prototyping machines that create plastic and wax parts.

The new technology has slashed production time at the 350-employee company. Before, S&S sent drawings to a foundry that created a mold and then cast a prototype part. S&S would test the part, make adjustments, resubmit new drawings, and wait for another prototype.

"If you wanted to make a throttle body, for example, the turnaround time could be weeks," explains president Brett Smith, 35. "Now, with the AutoCAD software and the prototype machine, we can have that part in 24 hours."

S&S can now create a plastic air-intake tract, for example, and immediately put the sample part on the engine to check the fit. The part then goes to a foundry, which uses it to make the mold and cast a metal prototype. Developing complex items, such as a crankcase, used to take up to two years from concept to inventoried parts.

The new technology has compressed that cycle to as little as six months and has increased productivity by 50 percent. Smith says revenues at his profitable company have doubled over the past seven years, but won't release the numbers.

Striving For Perfection

Although speed is important, it won't help sell shoddy goods. That's why smart U.S. companies focus relentlessly on quality control. Quality Float Works (metalfloat.com) is not only winning bids against Asian manufacturers but also shipping product to China, Vietnam and eight other countries.

The Schaumberg, Ill., factory makes pump floats, the hollow metal balls used to level the amount of liquid flowing through a pump. The company's floats can be found in everything from automatic coffee dispensers to the pumps that helped drain water from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. In 2006 sales rose 25 percent, to $2.2 million.

Quality Float follows stringent ISO 9002 and other manufacturing standards. The firm tests the eyesight of its workers regularly and inspects each part "at least three times before it goes out the door," says CEO Sandra Westlund-Deenihan, whose grandfather founded the family business in 1915 and who describes her age as "forever 21."

Westlund-Deenihan's attention to detail has paid off over the years. The last time a Quality client returned a part for a manufacturing defect was in 1992, and that was only because the client had provided an unclear blueprint specification.

Spatial awareness

Another competitive weapon in the American arsenal: geography. With international shipping costs high, U.S. manufacturers can often outsell foreign competitors on large, heavy items.

Glenn Metalcraft (glennmetalcraft. com) produces metal parts such as giant brake disks for industrial tractors or the huge cones that sit on the bottom of many semitrailers and are used for pouring grain or liquid. You make them by loading a blank of raw metal onto a lathe and then turning, or "spinning," it into the finished product.

Historically workers spun these parts by hand. But in 2002 the company hit a wall as revenues dropped to $3.1 million from $4.7 million the previous year. CEO Joe Glenn, 36, responded by purchasing a customized computer-driven lathe that could handle particularly large metal blanks. "We analyzed what we were good at," Glenn says. "We found that on the larger parts - the thicker stuff - the margins were better, and we had a knack for it."

Glenn Metalcraft also benefited from a shrewd outsourcing strategy. Joe Glenn used to order sheet metal and cut his own metal blanks. But his existing fabrication equipment couldn't handle the larger blanks that the new lathe required.

Instead of investing at least $1 million in new equipment, Glenn dumped his fabricating machines altogether and started buying blanks from fabricators near his factory in Princeton, Minn. Losing the fabricating equipment opened room on the floor for more spinning machines. Glenn retrained his fabricating workers, and now the factory runs three shifts.

Glenn's lathes must be programmed by a skilled technician before each new job. Once a lathe has been programmed, however, the cost of repeat runs drops significantly. That obviously gooses profits. So Glenn started focusing on customers that needed steady just-in-time shipments. The result? Much better utilization of capital equipment.

"Our direct labor costs used to be 25 percent of sales," says Glenn. "Today they're 8 to 9 percent." The company grew 19 percent last year, with revenues of $10 million, and projects 33 percent sales growth in 2007.

Smaller, faster, better

It's impossible for U.S. garment factories to compete with Asian producers, right? Wrong. True, domestic apparel production is down 46 percent since 2000. Lower overseas labor costs account for much of this plunge, but Asian manufacturers also achieve economies of scale by concentrating on huge, relatively uniform product runs.

Megan Summerville, 33, has built a thriving apparel startup on precisely the opposite strategy. Before writing a business plan to expand her small apparel company in Austin, Summerville interviewed more than 40 U.S. designers, manufacturers, and suppliers. She found demand among apparel buyers who needed to place a number of small orders (as few as 16 pieces for each design) rather than a few big orders.

Says Summerville: "These clients were tired of wait times in port, high minimum orders, and samples that were far superior to the actual product received."

Last August, Summerville bought sewing equipment from a defunct lingerie manufacturer. Today the five employees of Sew Sister Fabrics (sewsister.com) crank out a vast range of jobs on 52 separate machines, including single and double needle, serger, zigzag and labeling devices.

Summerville operates the equipment of a much bigger company, but she happily accepts low-volume orders that her larger competitors can't afford to touch. Her typical order is 100 pieces or fewer for a mix of up to six different items, completed in three to four weeks. Revenues are small but growing, Summerville says.

Sew Sister now serves 24 clients, including local designers and a few national retailers. In fact, Summerville was recently forced to turn away several potential clients until she could hire additional employees. But she has no plans to change course. "A lot of folks in this business like to get in the groove of doing the same widget over and over," she notes. "You get faster, but then you box yourself into saying, 'I am just a lingerie manufacturer,' and your other possibilities just collapse."

Find your niche

The larger lesson for small manufacturers? Commodity production equals failure. That's true in most industries, not just apparel. "If you're doing commodity work in steel fabrication today, you're dead," says Drew Greenblatt, 40, CEO of Marlin Steel Wire (marlinwire.com) in Baltimore City, Md.

Greenblatt should know. When he bought Marlin in 1999, the company made wire baskets for bagel shops, and offshore competitors were devouring the market. Marlin's revenues were at $800,000 and falling. Greenblatt realized he could either reinvent the company or watch it fail. He decided to start producing precision baskets for industrial applications.

One major stumbling block: Because Marlin's baskets were all hand-welded, the company was incapable of producing to tight tolerances. So he invested $1.1 million in robotic welding and bending machines run by AutoCAD software. Today Boeing (Charts, Fortune 500), Pfizer (Charts, Fortune 500) and Toyota (Charts) use Marlin baskets to send delicate parts through washing machines and curing ovens.

"With bagel baskets, it's not a big deal if you're half an inch off," he says. "But an engineer at Boeing is not going to tolerate parts slipping out of our baskets."

Greenblatt also hired two engineers and trained them to turn drawings around within 24 hours. "In 50 percent of cases I'm shipping product faster than my competitors are sending a second quote," he says proudly.

Marlin estimates that sales will hit $3.5 million in 2007, up 46 percent from the year before. "I look for the customer who needs product quick, exact and in quantities that aren't huge," Greenblatt concludes. "If you get those three, it's my sweet spot, and I'm going to beat the Chinese guy every day of the week."

Build where you buy

Speed, precision, and flexibility are three keys to success in modern manufacturing. A fourth is the pursuit of an efficient supply chain. Consider American Bicycle Group (ABG: americanbiyclegroup.com) in Chattanooga. ABG produces titanium-frame bicycles and neoprene wetsuits. Because the best titanium it could find comes from the U.S., the company builds bikes at a factory in Ooltewah, Tenn.

Until recently the wetsuits were produced at a factory in California. The world's best neoprene currently comes from a Japanese company called Yamamoto. As a small manufacturer in California, ABG didn't have much pull with Yamamoto.

"When you're only buying 500 meters a year, you can't push them to develop something new," says marketing director Dean Jackson. So ABG outsourced production to a giant wetsuit manufacturer in China that orders Yamamoto neoprene in bulk. Production costs dropped, and ABG finally had some pull with Yamamoto.

"Everyone else had been working with Yamamoto neoprene Type 39," Jackson says. "We asked for Type 40, and our Chinese factory secured usage of that. We were first to market with this new material."

Back at Specialty Blades, Peter Harris is confident that America's small manufacturers will thrive. "Animals are very good at finding ways to make do in tough circumstances," he says. "Companies are no different. Survival is one of the most important instincts in the world, and if there's a way, they'll find it."

US-China: maintaining a fine balance

t was a busy week for companies across the US. They were playing host and putting their products on display as the Chinese went on their annual shopping spree across 24 cities in the US. This has become one of the annual rituals between the two giants, partly to bring sanity to the highly one-sided trade numbers and mostly to cool down the rising tempers of the US political and business faction that has developed a habit of blaming everything wrong with US economy to the artificially-deflated Chinese currency and the slow pace of market reforms in China.

The Chinese business delegation led by the vice-minister of the ministry of commerce Ma Xiuhong has announced deals more than $ 4 billion recently and this comes just before the scheduled government talks in Washington later this month to discuss prickly issues such as trade deficit and the undervalued Chinese currency.

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The value of the deals signed constitutes a mere 2% of the total trade surplus that China runs with the US. More deals in the agriculture sector such as cotton and soyabean may be announced in the coming weeks once the details are hammered out. However, the number of such deals will not exceed 5% of the yawning trade deficit of more than $ 230 billion that the US has with China.

Companies spanning sectors such as computer software, telecommunication, aviation and the semiconductor industry such as Oracle, HP, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Boeing and Cisco stand out as the biggest beneficiaries. These are the same companies that consider China core to their business growth strategies and have significant presence in China. The transactions that these companies have are primarily of a business nature and do not materialise just because of political pressure.

This helps the Chinese government pull off a successful visit by the senior Chinese government officials, typically following the shopping trip and a few months down the road, you will see the Chinese picking up their check book for yet another `buying mission’ to the US, once the protectionist sentiments pick up steam again. More recently, the US has consciously moved much of its negotiation with China on trade issues from the bilateral to the multi-lateral fora.

Meanwhile, on April 9, the US government announced that it would file two formal complaints against China with WTO alleging that the latter country has breached WTO rules for enforcement of intellectual property rights and restriction on market access for foreign media products.

This complaint is supported by data from the Motion Pictures of America that the US media companies lost more than $ 2 billion in 2006 as a result of easy availability of counterfeits and restriction on supply of legitimate prints of movies. Earlier this year in February, the US had lodged another formal complaint with WTO. This time, under attack, was the unfair subsidy that the Chinese government extends to several export-oriented industries.

Following this complaint was a landmark ruling by the US federal court that the US department of commerce has the legal authority to impose anti-subsidy tariff on goods made by foreign companies (read Chinese companies) that receives unfair government incentives in the form of subsidies. The significance of this ruling was that it came in spite of China being a non-market economy. Although the immediate impact of this ruling will hurt the glossy paper industry, it can soon have wider ramifications for many industries.

Lifting the trade battle a notch higher in international fora such as the WTO gives US better leverage to pressurise the Chinese government to act fast or face similar music or legal sanctions from other developed economies. More than the trade deficit, there is domestic political pressure and a general inability on either side to appreciate the constraints imposed on their counterparts by domestic realpolitik.

The Bush administration is under increasing pressure to take more concrete action to reduce the trade gap with China. As this is the election year, scoring points by bashing China seems tempting and irresistible. However, the reality is that the US needs China as much as China needs the US. The Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) finances one-fourth of the US current account deficit. The US wants China to continue buying the US government paper to maintain low interest rate and avoid getting into recession.

On the other hand, the Chinese government has made it abundantly clear in the past that it will institutionalise — reforms on the Yuan, access to financial services market and implement IP protection mechanisms `gradually’ when it feels the market is ready rather than under foreign pressure.

China, however, needs to continue its growth momentum to generate enough jobs to spread the wealth and keep social unrest in check. While domestic consumption in China is on the rise, most of this growth will have to come from investments and exports-led industries.

It is a known fact that more than 60% of Chinese exports are transacted by multi-national corporations (MNCs) through their subsidiaries or joint-venture manufacturing operations in China. Any move that makes Chinese exports more expensive could hurt the US MNC more than Chinese companies. Even if one were to assume that appreciation of the Chinese currency will help correct trade imbalance with China in the long run, corporate America has moved far too ahead on a one-way street of outsourcing manufacturing and to some extent services to be able to bring those jobs back to US and still be competitive in the global market. Businesses would be swift to find an alternate destination such as Vietnam or India and move its manufacturing from China. Even then, the US will still run a pretty healthy deficit on its balance sheet.

Increasingly, the Chinese government has been proactive in delinking its overdependence on exports to the US economy. The first action was in July 2005 when it un-pegged its currency from the US dollar and instead pegged it to the international basket of currencies. In 2006, China remained the European Union’s second largest trading partner and displaced the US as the largest source of European Union’s imports.

Meanwhile, recent studies by the World Bank shows that China is moving up the value chain and does not just assemble imported products with little value addition. Domestic content in Chinese export is on the rise and one of the primary reasons of growth of Chinese trade surplus with the rest of world in recent years. China’s net export contributed an estimated 3.3% to China’s GDP growth in second half of 2006, up from 2% in the first half of 2006. China’s export growth to the sluggish US economy was growing at 25% during the later part of 2006 and early 2007 when similar statistics for its Asian neighbours has slowed down to 5%. Improvement in Chinese internal supply chain has gradually replaced import of intermediate parts from the neighbouring countries. For instance, while China’s bilateral trade with India has increased at a brisk pace touching $ 35 billion, the surplus which was in India’s favour until 2005 has now moved the Chinese way and it is rising rapidly.

If this trend is any indication, Asian countries will soon find their way into the itinerary of Chinese shopping trips to quick-fix the China’s trade imbalances.

The author heads the Beijing branch for Infosys in China and is also a fellow of India China Institute. These are his personal views
Email: hirend@yahoo.com

Increased Outsourcing Drives Growth in the Asian Semiconductor Packaging and Manufacturing Markets

SINGAPORE, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The Asian semiconductor packaging and
manufacturing markets look set for robust growth in the coming years.
Future market growth will likely be governed by semiconductor companies
increasingly outsourcing their manufacturing activities to low-cost Asian
foundries as well as the move towards smaller geometries and migration
towards a fabless business model.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan
(http://www.semiconductors.frost.com), Asian Semiconductor Packaging and
Manufacturing Markets, reveals that revenues in the Asian semiconductor
packaging market totaled $16.60 billion in 2006, and estimates this to
reach $28.56 billion in 2010.
If you are interested in a virtual brochure, which provides
manufacturers, end users, and other industry participants with an overview
of the latest analysis of the Asian Semiconductor Packaging and
Manufacturing Markets, then send an e-mail to Donna Jeremiah, Corporate
Communications, at djeremiah@frost.com with your full name, company name,
title, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address. Upon receipt of
the above information, an overview will be sent to you by e-mail.
"The trend towards outsourcing semiconductor manufacturing activities
is the major driver for the Asian semiconductor packaging and manufacturing
markets and its impact is likely to remain very high throughout the
forecast period," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Jagadeesh
Sampath. "Turnkey services, lower material prices, faster turn-around time
and inexpensive labor as well as installation and maintenance costs are
some of the critical elements contributing to this prospering trend."
Furthermore, advancements in technology, especially the move toward
smaller process geometries and the adoption of advanced packages, are
likely to drive the outsourcing of semiconductor packaging and
manufacturing to Asia. Form factors of integrated circuits (ICs) are
reducing considerably and a move towards smaller process technologies such
as 90 nm and 65 nm is apparent in the market. The Asian semiconductor
manufacturing and packaging companies are witnessing new business
opportunities in these new technologies and are anticipated to leverage
them to increase their revenues.
With regard to technologies, wafer-level packaging (WLP) is
progressively gaining significance in the Asian semiconductor packaging and
manufacturing markets. Although WLP is currently being applied for small
dies, it is expected to be utilized for larger dies in the near future. Its
application range is also expected to increase from low input/output (I/O)
devices to high I/O devices such as application-specific integrated
circuits (ASICs). Reluctance to invest in cutting-edge technologies is
likely to be the major challenge in the Asian semiconductor packaging and
manufacturing markets. Due to the huge investments involved, only a few
companies embark on new process technologies such as 90 nm and 65 nm.
"Companies that invest in new cutting-edge technologies must be
prepared to restructure their processes for mass production as well as
better yield," notes Sampath. "They also need to establish a good customer
base for these new process technologies. Only a few customers will be using
the cutting-edge
technology, thereby making this a key challenge with very high impact
throughout the forecast period."
In order to stay competitive in the Asian semiconductor packaging and
manufacturing markets, companies will need to invest in cutting edge
technologies, establish strategic partnerships with customers, and focus on
acquisitions and mergers.
Asian Semiconductor Packaging and Manufacturing Markets is part of the
Semiconductor Growth Partnership Services, which also includes research in
the following: strategic analysis of world power management ICs market,
world discrete power semiconductor market, world display driver IC market
and world VLSI design services market. All research services included in
subscriptions provide detailed market opportunities and industry trends
that have been evaluated following extensive interviews with market
participants. Interviews with the press are available.
Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been
partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies
for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth
consulting, growth partnership services, and corporate management training
to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive
clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the
investment community by providing comprehensive industry coverage that
reflects a unique global perspective, and combines ongoing analysis of
markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics.

Achievo Canada Ranked Among Top 100 Solution Providers by Computer Dealer News

SAN RAMON, Calif., May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Achievo(R) Corporation, the leading global software and information technology outsourcing provider with a local front-end and China back-end service model, today announced that Achievo Canada has been ranked by Computer Dealer News (CDN) as one of the top 100 solution providers.

"Achievo is one of those smart companies that have been running under the radar. Making the Top 100 Solution Provider rankings through an acquisition of another up and coming company such as Netstar Solutions just proves that Achievo will not be resting on its laurels," said Paolo Del Nibletto, editor of CDN -- Computer Dealer News, Canada's No. 1 IT channel publication. Achievo acquired Toronto-based Netstar Solutions in February 2006.

"Achievo Canada is the only global software and IT services company in Canada that employs a pure-play, local front-end, China back-end business model," said Nestor G. Cruz, general manager of Achievo North America Business Group and president of Achievo Canada. "The award illustrates the rapid acceptance of China as a desirable back- end for global software and IT professional services outsourcing. This acceptance underscores Achievo's significant growth in areas such as IT service management and application development where we have leveraged our onshore/offshore global delivery model and ISO 9001:2006/CMMI Level 5 certifications."

Achievo Canada works with IT directors and CIOs at some of Canada's largest companies including Apotex, BMO Financial Group, IBM Canada, Petro-Canada, RBC Financial Group and the Toronto Port Authority. Information on Achievo Canada and its services can be found at http://www.achievo.com/ or at +1-416-383-1818.

Each year, CDN ranks the highest revenue generating solution providers based in Canada, listing each company in order of its total revenue for that year. A profile of the 2006 winners and the complete rankings appears in a special report in the May 11th issue of CDN. CDN defines an information technology solution provider as an organization that resells computer hardware, software or peripheral products.

CDN has been the leading information source for Canadian IT solution providers since 1985. CDN is Canada's national newsmagazine designed to provide VARs, system integrators, system builders, ISVs and retailers with the most comprehensive coverage of news, events and issues in the IT channel.

About Achievo

Achievo is a global offshore software and information technology outsourcing provider with a local front-end and China back-end service model. With expertise in diverse technologies including Java/J2EE, .NET and embedded platforms, the CMM-certified company offers improved efficiencies, scale, diversification, and a combined talent pool to deliver cost-effective, quality-centric, and scalable IT outsourcing services to customers and partners worldwide. Customers include IBM, HP, Sun Microsystems, CA, Cadence, Accela, China Academy of Sciences, DaimlerChrysler, Ellie Mae, ESRI, Audi, Fujitsu, Mercedes Benz, Mitsubishi, Siemens, United Way, Hitachi, NEC, Pioneer, NTT Data, Nomura, Toshiba and other Fortune 2000 companies. Headquartered in the Silicon Valley, Achievo has offices in the United States, Canada, Germany, Greater China and Japan. For information on the company and its services, visit http://www.achievo.com/.

NOTE: Achievo is a registered trademark of Achievo Corporation in the United States and in other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

CONTACT: Jayme Curtis, Public Relations Achievo Corporation +1 408.892.8661 jayme.curtis@achievo.com

Achievo Corporation

CONTACT: Jayme Curtis, Public Relations of Achievo Corporation, +1-408-
892-8661, or jayme.curtis@achievo.com

Web site: http://www.achievo.com/