China-Based Camelot Information Systems Opens U.S. Headquarters in Austin

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Camelot Information Systems, LLC, a Chinese-based IT services company, has opened its United States headquarters in Austin, Texas through a partnership with Bridge360, an Austin-headquartered internationalization company. Executives from the company were in Austin to celebrate the opening, May 21-23.

Bridge360 facilitated the legal and business processes for Camelot to set up a U.S. base, which is a mirror image of what Camelot is doing for Bridge360 in Beijing.

“We believe it is not just a one-way path to China,” said Bridge360 CEO Brenda Hall. “The bridge runs in both directions. Our partnership is a perfect fit. Not only are we augmenters of each other’s services — internationalization/globalization and IT infrastructure — together, we bring a 360-degree view of the world for our clients.”

Simon Ma, CEO of Camelot China concurs, “I am very excited to have a partner like Bridge360. The partnership strengthens our front end in the United States to serve our U.S. customers better. Bridge360 and Camelot share many similarities. We have the same beliefs, we have similar ways of taking care of our customers, and the key executives of both companies share a similar background. It is not often that you find a partner that fits so well culturally while complementing each other’s strengths.”

Camelot provides information technology and application services to clients in China and abroad. Headquartered in Beijing, Camelot has six additional branches throughout China and recently expanded to Japan and Taiwan. With more than 1,300 employees, Camelot is China’s largest ERP SAP provider.

With a strong customer base already established with U.S.-based clients such as P&G, Bayer, BearingPoint, Accenture, IBM, HP, Shell Oil Company, GM, EDS and Kimberly-Clark, Camelot will focus its growth efforts in the United States over the next few years.

Camelot is one of the first Chinese companies to focus on the U.S. market for outsourcing services. The Camelot service offering in the U.S. will include: Outsourcing Services Management, Marketing Services Management and Local Support Services Management.

“The United States is obviously one of the most important markets for IT outsourcing. Camelot is committed to invest and nurture this market for the long term,” said Ma.

About Camelot

Camelot Information Systems, LLC is an industry leader in China, providing packaged software implementation services, programming and IT support services.

Camelot’s client base is focused largely in the financial industry, manufacturing, distribution, utilities and telecom. Camelot is China’s largest ERP SAP provider, and has earned the trust of some of the world’s largest commercial and government organizations.

Camelot is headquartered in Beijing with offices throughout Mainland China as well as Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and the United States. Camelot was recognized in 2007 as one of China’s Top Employers by the Corporate Research Foundation. For more information about Camelot, please visit http://camelotchina.com.

About Bridge360

Bridge360 combines internationalization and localization by focusing at the engineering and architecture level to find and fix any software problems that might threaten a client’s business internationally. Bridge360 makes sure its clients’ software works anywhere in the world in any language and on any operating system.

Bridge360 focuses heavily on Asia and is the leader for certifying software, or products with software, for sale in China. China Certification assures a company's software meets the compliance standards, which are required for distribution in China.

For more information, visit www.bridge360.com.

Is dragon leading the race in BPO space?

NEW DELHI: China's push to become an alternate BPO hub for MNCs tackling soaring wages and high attrition rate in India remains a distant dream as its offshore market is developing slower than expected, a study says.

Despite significant government support and huge level of visibility on the global arena, China's offshore market has not taken off as expected and still has a long way to become a potential alternative to India, technology research firm Forrester said in a report released on Thursday.

Multinational firms, considering China as a "quick-fix" solution to deal with rising costs and high attrition of employees in other offshore locations like India, would be sorely disappointed by the country's slowing offshore momentum, the report said.

"When we first looked at China's offshore and global delivery model nearly two years ago, the country was widely viewed as the key challenger to India for offshore supremacy. However, our latest research shows that to date, the market has not taken off as expected," Forrester's Vice-President John McCarthy said.

McCarthy, who had predicted in 2002 that over three million BPO jobs in the US would go offshore, added that firms with large bases in India should consider other geographies when addressing the risk mitigation issue.

Even countries like the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil could prove to be better alternatives than China for diversifying offshore exposure, McCarthy said.

"The Philippines, Mexico and Brazil may provide better alternatives than China in terms of skills, language and convenience," he added.

Noting that China's percentage of overall offshore resources has dropped and other countries were growing at a faster pace, Forrester said the country needs to refocus its offshore efforts.

Instead of trying to compete in areas like application development and management, where India clearly dominates, China should encourage its local firms to focus on other areas like testing, data management and product development services.

Chinese firms also need to implement strict intellectual property controls and undertake training programmes, McCarthy said.

For other countries vying for the lucrative offshoring pie, Forrester suggests economic development agencies in Thailand, Malaysia, Egypt and Morocco that they need to do more than just re-labelling the pool of engineering graduates as being ready to export their services.

"Their education programmes ought to focus on advanced skills like project management and advanced architecture skills, while at the same time, respective governments should invest significant funds to market the country as an alternative to the offshore incumbent - India," McCarthy said.

China's bid to rival India as BPO destination a "distant dream": Forrester

24 May 2007

New Delhi: China's attempt to emerge an alternate offshoring hub to India's soaring salary levels and high attrition rates, remains a distant dream as its market is developing slower than expected, says a new study by technology research firm, Forrester Research, released today.

Despite massive government support and huge global visibility, China's offshore market has not taken off as on the scale expected and it still has a long way to go to become a potential alternative to India, Forrester said.

Multinational firms, considering China as a "quick-fix" solution to deal with rising costs and high attrition in other offshore locations like India, would be sorely disappointed by the country's slowing offshore momentum, the report said.

John Mccarthy, vice president, Forrester, said, "When we first looked at China's offshore and IT services global delivery model (GDM) nearly two years ago, the country was widely viewed as the key challenger to India for offshore supremacy. However, the market has not taken off as expected."

He said while Japanese firms were more aware about China's potential, those from the US and Europe have been slow to respond. "In fact, China's percentage of GDM resources for top services firm like Accenture has dropped, while India and the Philippines have seen far greater investment," he said.

Mccarthy, who had predicted in 2002 that over three million BPO jobs in the US would go offshore, added that firms with large bases in India should consider other geographies when addressing the risk mitigation issue.

Even countries like the Philippines, Mexico and Brazil could prove to be better alternatives than China for diversifying offshore exposure in terms of skills, language and convenience, he added.

Forrester also said like India, China also faces similar problems of attrition, increasing wages and lack of experienced managers and technical leads. In addition, the appreciation of the yuan against the dollar was hurting margins of companies outsourcing their work to China, the study said.

"The consensus among interviewees was that China still has not overcome clients' concern about limited English skills, attrition and weak intellectual property protection. One executive went so far as to say that China had to be 20 per cent cheaper than India to be viable," it said.