RECENT ARTICLES

The Mobile Application Development Industry: Growing by Leaps and Bounds

With the telecommunication world being plunged into a whirlpool of massive advancement, it comes as no surprise that the mobile application development industry is growing by leaps and bounds. While some industry experts argue that it’s too early to predict the advancement of mobile technology over traditional computing experience, this development is definitely gaining rapid significance in IT industry circles.
Here are a few trends that indicate the dominant emergence of the mobile application development industry.

•    A BusinessWeek story citing a Chetan Sharma Consulting Study, reported that the mobile application development industry is in the midst of growing from $4.1 billion in 2009 to $17.5 billion in 2014. This predicted fourfold increase in the mobile industry is creating endless possibilities in conceiving, increasing and maintaining the mobile application enterprise.

•    Media bigwig CNN ran a very long story on the topic of shortages of applications. The news story pointed out that there may not be enough applications to fill out the big stores run by Apple and Google. They also reported that influential vendors, like Nokia and Research In Motion, are running short of applications to support the present number of 61 million mobile smartphones.

•    ReadWriteWeb reported that one of the reasons that Webtrends bought the firm Transpond was to fill in the shortage of Facebook developers. The acquired company now called Webtrends Apps creates mobilized web pages and provides application development tools for the iPhone, Android Apps and Facebook.

•    A CIO.com story on 2011’s spending plans reports that quite a few CIO’s are planning to increase their investments in mobile technologies this year. In fact, mobility seems to dominate enterprise IT spending forecasts. 54% of IT executives surveyed in November intend to increase their budgets in 2011, when compared to just 14% who did so the previous year.

•    An article which appeared in eWeek, shares updated predictions from Gartner and Forrester Research which showed that the telecommunications segment will see the strongest growth in the present year. The report also predicted that spending on software and services will outpace hardware spending.

•    A PCWorld article has predicted the arrival of 4G technologies, though not as quickly as users would like. This technology or any other future access technology is sure to further advance the mobile application development market.

With BlackBerry, Symbian, Android, Windows and the iPhone, bringing intriguing market possibilities for third party application support, the mobile application development industry is sure to make its presence felt.

Looking for mobile application development services? Contact us and let us know your requirements.

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Top Five Smartphone Vendors

The worldwide smartphone market has witnessed a tremendous increase in sales, with vendors shipping record volumes of units. Data available from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker showed that vendors shipped a total of 302.6 million smartphones worldwide during the year 2010. Compared to 173.5 million smartphones shipped in 2009, the worldwide smartphone industry had gained a remarkable increase of 74.4 percent.

The need for component suppliers has scaled new heights with more and more mobile phone users turning in their older models for newer versions with dual-core processors and near-field communication chips. Here is a list of the top five smartphone vendors who will be able to sustain the immense need existing in the smartphone market.

Nokia

Five million of Nokia’s new Symbian^3 units were shipped worldwide by the end of the last quarter, including units from the N8, C7, and C601 series. This strong showing, given their recent introduction to the market, proved to be a good sign for Nokia. At present Nokia’s main challenges include the recent cancellation of the X7 smartphone at AT&T and the new MeeGo-powered devices which are yet to arrive in the market.

Apple

Apple’s iPhone did comparatively well in the worldwide smartphone market, with added volume growth coming from the Asia Pacific region and more companies adding Apple to their approved smartphone list. Furthermore rumors of an iPhone 5 with a new design and a mobile wallet have helped Apple make further inroads into the enterprise market.

Research In Motion

BlackBerry Torch and the BlackBerry Curve 3G turned out to be the most popular devices for the last quarter. RIM’s strong market leadership in North America helped it achieve nearly identical year-over-year growth during the year 2010. Nevertheless, RIM faces increasing challenges from the competition.

Samsung

Samsung’s popular Galaxy S series helped it make tremendous inroads into the smartphone market. In addition to this, Samsung’s bada-branded smartphones, as well as its emerging Windows Phone smartphones, have helped it increase its stake in the enterprise market. Samsung foresees an increase of at least 40% in 2011, with its new Galaxy devices including the Galaxy Fit, Ace, and Mini.

HTC

HTC’s triple growth last year, next only to Samsung, were caused due to its increased brand awareness, market positioning, and a series of devices that have resonated well with users and carriers alike. The company known for being ‘quietly brilliant’ aims to target emerging markets in the Asia Pacific region during 2011.

All these and many other mobile devices are also great for the huge number of mobile phone applications that are growing everyday. Mobile applications for business and entertainment and social media are experiencing a growth spurt that will be sustained for many years to come.

Looking to develop mobile phone application for these smartphones or other devices? The mobile application development team at Flatworld Solutions can give you creative solutions for all your business and entertainment requirements.

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The Role of Outsourcing in the Global Financial Services Sector

The global recovery among financial institutions around the world has brought about a significant rise in the outsourcing of financial services such as accounting, bookkeeping, tax preparation etc. As predicted in the Everest Research Report which came out last February, the Finance and Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) market has now reverted to its pre-recession levels.

Successful growth in the FAO sector has witnessed massive deals among large players such as Genpact, Accenture and IBM and a steady growth among new players who are taking advantage of expected growth in the global financial services sector. Speaking about this trend, Saurabh Gupta, Research Director of Everest, says, “The mature FAO market is getting increasingly competitive with players vying to carve out unique value propositions to differentiate themselves.”

This unprecedented growth in the FAO market has also been capitalized by a number of countries including, Sri Lanka, China, Philippines, Rwanda and other Latin American countries like Colombia, Brazil and Guatemala which were previously unknown in the FAO market.

India’s Role in the Global Financial Services Sector

India at present is still maintaining its lead in the Finance and Accounting Outsourcing market with many Fortune 500 companies such as GE, Bank of America and American Express having formed partnerships with Indian firms. Other banking institutions such as the National Australia Bank (NAB) and Deutsche Bank have also turned to outsourcing their non-core financial activities, to companies such as IBM and TCS respectively. A recent survey stated that two out of five Fortune 500 companies currently outsource some of their back office requirements to India.

Benefits of Outsourcing Financial Services in India

There are numerous reasons for India getting the major share of the FAO market. While cost-competitive prices are stated as the chief reason, other reasons including India’s abundant manpower, the 12- hour time difference allowing a quick turn over rate and the availability of qualified accounting professionals has made India a target destination for Financial and Accounting services. India also has state-of-the-art infrastructure, friendly government policies and a labor pool of about 75,000 graduating English speaking accounting professionals annually.

The Future of FAO

As predicted by the research firm Everest, finance and accounting outsourcing, which includes processing of accounts receivable services, accounts receivable follow-up, as well as general accounting and back-up, will witness a steady growth in the coming years. Furthermore, NASSCOM (National Association of Software & Services Companies) in a recent report has stated that banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) verticals have accounted for the largest revenue growth with an expected increase at 1.3 to 1.5 times of core segments.

The main reason behind FAO is that more and more businesses are seeking to shift their focus on core processes in order to improve their overall performance and outsourcing of financial services is generally considered as a very powerful tool to cut costs and improve overall performance.

Get in touch with Flatworld Solutions for your Finance and Accounting requirements.

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Are Virtual Assistant Services Effective in the Real World?

A Virtual Assistant (VA) is an independent, self-employed professional offering remote administrative, technical and other specialized support to businesses on an hourly, project-specific or ongoing basis. Though VA services have become popular over the years, some business owners still have apprehensions regarding the effectiveness of a virtual office assistant.

But if you are a business owner seeking to expand your business, choosing to hire a virtual assistant over a conventional or temporary employee will work out to be a better deal in the long run. Here are the reasons why:

A VA is accountable to you

All VA appointments are based on a contracted agreement with the terms clearly stated in advance. This lets you be in charge and choose which tasks to delegate to the VA and which tasks to keep in-house. Besides, since a VA bills only for work completed you are assured of getting your work done. Making use of a virtual assistant also puts all financial decisions in your hands since you choose to pay by the project, by the hour, or on a monthly basis.

A VA reduces your workload

A VA is trained to handle a number of responsibilities, including appointment scheduling, travel management, email management, maintaining of your diary and much more. By taking care of all your important tasks, a VA frees up your valuable time allowing you to focus on improving your business.

A VA helps you save on overheads and costs

Virtual assistants are more beneficial than onsite employees since they provide many of the same services without the added costs. Since a VA works from a remote location and use their own equipment, you don’t have to pay for office space, equipment, maintenance, or any other additional utility bills. This works as an added benefit when you don’t have much space of your own.

A VA is a much cheaper option

Since VA services are available on a per hour rate, hiring a VA service provider will work out to be a much cheaper option than a full-time or part-time employee. Also, as virtual assistants are independent contractors, you are not entitled to pay for health/life insurance and other employee benefits.

A VA can provide specialized services

Most virtual assistant services provide VAs catering to different areas of expertise. You can delegate tasks such as data entry, event planning, call answering, Internet research, business card scanning, correspondence management, DTP services, presentation/spreadsheets creation and travel/airline hotel reservations. Some virtual assistant service providers also offer services like blog promotion, copy writing, bookkeeping, research, customer service, etc.

With the popularity of virtual assistant services growing rapidly, small companies and entrepreneurs need not have any hesitation about hiring a Virtual Assistant. Contact Flatworld Solutions to find out how a VA can help you.

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Outsourcing of Software Development – Is India still the best?

When it comes to software development outsourcing, India, with a market share of 80%, is generally considered as the world leader. But with stiff competition form China, Vietnam, South Africa, Eastern Europe and South America, will India have to have a cause for worry? Not so much, for according to reports by the National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM), India’s export revenue touched the $56-$57 billion mark last February.

Som Mittal, president of NASSCOM, in a statement on this upward trend, said, “Pent-up demand for IT-BPO services, return of discretionary spending, new business models that encouraged first time buyers, and re-invented value proposition for existing ones, were the key drivers for the industry performance.” Furthermore, with India’s share in the global outsourcing market rising from 51 percent in 2009 to 55 percent in 2010, NASSCOM has predicted India’s outsourcing export revenue to be around $68 billion to $70 billion in fiscal year 2012.

India Offers Multiple Benefits

Gone are the days when software outsourcing to India was done only because of the cheap costs. In the present scenario, it is India’s multiple advantages that have helped it retain its position as the best outsourcing destination across the globe. Software development companies in India offer numerous benefits that include software development at par with International Standards, flexible hiring options that reduce the time duration for completion of the project, provision of 24/7 online client support, ability to work with the latest technologies at moderate costs, talented software developers with strong work ethics and a convenient 12 hour time lag that benefits clients in the US.

Software applications development requires huge financial resources and a large number of skilled professionals to carry out the work and Indian companies have these resources at their disposal. By staffing hundreds of IT professionals who are fully equipped and trained to handle outsourced projects, service providers are able to provide fast and cost-effective software development services. Indian companies also provide the widest range of software development services possible, including software testing, product development, maintenance services and custom software development services.

The Future of Software Development Outsourcing

AT Kearney’s 2011 Global Services Location Index (GSLI) listed India in the top position for the best outsourcing destination across the globe followed by China and Malaysia. ”With its first-mover advantage and deep skill base, India remains the unquestioned leader in the index, a half-point ahead of China and a full point in front of Malaysia. India is the all-around standout, able to provide manpower for any type of offshoring activity and still maintains the lion’s share of the IT services market,” the report said.

Unlike other emerging IT markets, India is considered to be a mature outsourcing market delivering proven results, making it the best in the world.

Contact Flatworld Solutions for your software development needs.

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Is India set to take over the Global Engineering Services Industry?

India, at present, enjoys a relatively strong position in the automotive and high-tech telecom engineering services market. According to a recent industry report, the total offshore engineering spend is expected to grow to $150-$225 billion by the year 2020, and India with its huge talent pool and existing experience in engineering services, is well suited to take over the global engineering services industry.

India Emerges as a Key Player

By providing a wide range of engineering services across multiple industries including automotive (hybrid technology), aerospace (avionics and structures), telecom (next generation routers), and medical devices (low cost medical devices), India is looking towards tapping into the $750 billion-a-year global engineering services industry.

India’s main competition comes from China, Brazil, Central and Eastern Europe and South Africa. In order to maintain its position as a key player and capture the engineering offshoring market, India will have to work out a carefully planned strategy that will have to include strong marketing efforts with investments in infrastructure, workforce and expertise. Furthermore, attaining, training and retraining of talent will also be an essential requirement for India to maintain its current position in the industry.

India Leads the Global Engineering R&D Industry

A study conducted by the management consulting firm Booz & Company along with the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), reported a growth rate of more than 40% in the global ER&D industry and expectations of reaching $40 billion to $45 billion by 2020.

Speaking on India’s position in the global market Som Mittal, President NASSCOM, had this to say: “Due to the growing sophistication of the ER&D services industry, customers have begun to view service providers as strategic partners. India is now an epicenter for global ER&D services with a compelling value proposition based on its growing depth and breadth of services, flexible business models, large engineering base and global footprint with greater proximity to customers. Increasing investment in ER&D has the potential to transform India into an engineering powerhouse over the next decade with the potential to create more than five million jobs.”

India Offers a Wide Range of Unique Advantages

The advantages offered by India are unique and many: structural cost advantages, communication capabilities, capabilities across verticals, a strong and diverse service provider pool with a current and growing  employee base of 150,000 out of about one million trained engineers country-wide, and a range of business models to suit the diverse requirements of global corporations. These advantages have helped India establish itself as the premier location for offshore engineering services.

The emergence of India as a global leader in the engineering services industry will not only allow India to be placed on the global innovation map, but will also provide significant revenue generation.

Looking to outsource Engineering services to India? Contact Flatworld Solutions with your requirements.

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Reasons behind the Growing Demand for R&D and Innovation Outsourcing


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Recent research by the National Science Foundation stated that a number of US firms ranging from pharmaceuticals to semiconductors are outsourcing R&D and Innovation, with foreign-based Automotive R&D accounting for nearly 40% of the total R&D among all US companies. India and China rank foremost among suppliers of innovative research and development by providing the complex knowledge that only a broad network of specialists can offer. Here are some of the reasons behind the growing demand for R&D and innovation outsourcing.

Availability of a huge talent pool: Countries like India and China continue to be important suppliers of intellectual property, since they have an abundant supply of talented technical and engineering graduates. Jeffrey Phillips, a senior leader at OVO Innovation says, “Soon, countries like India and China will do what Finland has done – match the US in innovation research and output, no longer following our lead but competing with us for the innovation lead.”

Cheaper costs and infrastructure: Lower cost innovation and resource limits on in-house innovation are very often the deciding factors that lead a company towards outsourcing its R&D functions. With R&D being the biggest single remaining controllable expense to work on, Allen J. Delattre, head of Accenture Ltd’s high tech consulting practice says, “Companies either will have to cut costs or increase R&D productivity”. This can be achieved by outsourcing.

Speedy delivery: Getting a new product to the market faster than a competitor is absolutely essential. James Brian Quinn, Professor of Management at Amos Tuck School, Dartmouth College says, “Companies can get to market faster through outsourcing and avoid time delays in hiring, infrastructure development and internal resistance to new ideas. “ He also feels that smaller companies that take in the outsourced work, are often more flexible, nimble and objective than the larger companies themselves.

Development risks are lowered: Outsourcing R&D and Innovation can help larger companies to reduce development risks for every desired innovation. On the other hand outsource suppliers can spread risks across multiple present and future customers. According to Professor Quinn, “The company that outsources upstream and partners downstream significantly lowers its innovation-adoption risk.”

Specialized aptitudes: Larger companies often decide to outsource R&D since they may not have the motivation or depth of knowledge in all necessary technical fields. Peter Chow, President of HTC, a company which creates and manufactures smart phones for service providers such as Vodafone and Cingular echoes this concept when he says, “We have the capability to integrate all the latest technologies. We do everything except the Microsoft operating system.”

Outsourcing R&D and Innovation helps companies out-innovate their competitor and sustain their leadership position.

Looking for R&D solutions for your organization? Contact Flatworld Solutions today and find out how we can help you with R&D and Innovation outsourcing.

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KPO – The Fastest Growing Sector in Outsourcing

The evolution and maturity of the Indian BPO sector has given rise to yet another trend in the global outsourcing scenario: Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO). KPO involves the outsourcing of knowledge intensive services that deal with the creating, sharing, maintaining, tracking and disseminating of knowledge. This industry is not restricted to the IT or ITES sectors only, but also includes other sectors like Intellectual Property related services, Business Research and Analytics, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research and many more.

India: The Preferred Destination

India, with its large pool of knowledge workers has the capability to cater to the KPO industry by providing specialized domain workers. Furthermore, the talent available in India is much more affordable. In the Indian context, KPO salaries could be 25-50% higher than those offered to the same domain experts such as Engineers, Doctors, CAs, Lawyers, Architects, Biotechnologists, Economists, Statisticians and MBAs.

The KPO Industry: Soon to Touch the $10 billion mark

A study by Assocham predicted that the KPO industry could easily touch the $10 billion mark by 2012, provided the sector is opened for biotech and nanotechnology experts and steps are taken to build a strong chain of qualified professionals. At present, the KPO sector is said to be $5.5 billion and the sector is growing by about 15-17%. Assocham’s predictions point towards the KPO industry’s size growing to $8 billion in 2011 and touching the 10 billion mark by 2012 with a growth rate between 25-27 per cent.

An Urgent Need for Qualified KPO Professionals

This predicted high growth rate has brought out an urgent need for a strong base of qualified KPO professionals, especially in the area of bio and nanotechnology. Assocham President Dilip Modi says, “There is a need to create a new pool of KPO workers from emerging domestic knowledge based industries such as biotech and nanotechnology as large numbers of talented young people have joined academic courses for career excellence in these two areas.” Professionals in the fields of engineering, medicine, law, management, accountancy, etc., will be required to serve this growing need.

The Long-Term Success of the KPO Industry

Long-term success of the KPO industry in India will depend on the quality of manpower, and this will require initiatives from all quarters including the Government – to improve the quality and relevance of education, Recruiting Agencies- to help attract, evaluate and recruit the best talent possible and KPO Industries – to train, develop and retain existing talent. Additionally, the issue of data security has to be addressed since the KPO sector deals with confidential data, including financial data, treasury and investment portfolio decisions.

The Future of KPO

According to a report by NASSCOM, India is set to capture 70% of the KPO Industry in the near future. But with countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Israel expected to join the KPO industry, India will need to focus on developing its existing base of knowledge workers in order to stay ahead of the competition.

Contact Flatworld Solutions today to find out how you can benefit from outsourcing Knowledge Processes.

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11 Outsourcing Trends for 2011

The global outsourcing market has witnessed major changes during the past few years. Based on these changes, outsourcing professionals and industry leaders have made a few predictions as to what the trends will be in 2011. Here is a quick look at the top 11 outsourcing trends predicted for this year

1. Increased Political Acceptance for Outsourcing

Greater political backing for outsourcing is expected in 2011, especially after US President Barack Obama’s visit to India in Nov 2010.

2. Sourcing from All Shores Including Domestic

2011 will see an increase in multi-sourcing arrangements. This trend is the result of socio-economic pressures on leading countries and economic incentives provided by local and federal governments to encourage employment.

3. Continued Revenue Growth

IAOP’s Global Outsourcing data reported a 10 percent growth in the revenue of outsourcing service providers in the year 2010. This growth is expected to continue in the coming year.

4. Emergence of a Latin American Outsourcing Boom

Industry experts predict the emergence of a Latin American outsourcing boom especially in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Peru.

5. Merging of Cloudsourcing with Outsourcing

Cloudsourcing, which has often been predicted as the death of outsourcing, will soon merge with the existing outsourcing market and provide better opportunities for the entire industry.

6. Innovative Partnerships and Consolidation

More cross-border partnerships are expected in 2011 as cash-rich provider firms from developing nations are more than willing to invest in mid-market domestic provider firms in the US.

7. Emergence of a Retail Model in Outsourcing

Some experts predict the emergence of a retail model in the outsourcing industry where service providers will be categorized into large operations offering reduced costs and middle and lower-sized providers providing more customized services.

8. Outsourcing of Multiple Functions with Fewer Vendors

The new year will experience more and more companies coming up with comprehensive strategic plans that combine multiple processes in their outsourcing initiatives rather than outsourcing single processes or functions on a stand-alone basis.

9. Increase in Mass Automation of Services

With the huge pressure to keep costs down, service providers will rely more heavily on mass automation tools that will create additional opportunities and reduce the staff necessary to support critical business applications.

10. New Mergers and Accusations

2011 will pave the way for mergers between major Indian IT service providers and U.S.-based outsourcers, with Indian companies on the buying end.

11. Stabilization of Prices

Pricing structures will become more stable this year and vendors will have to woo clients with performance rather than a low bids.

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Is India Losing Its Momentum in the Outsourcing Race?

During the past decade, India has been leading the global outsourcing industry primarily through its huge pool of IT graduates and English-speaking workforce. However, of late there has been tremendous concern about whether India is fast losing its place as the leader in the outsourcing race or not. ValueNotes, an analyst firm focused on outsourcing, has identified two potential “situations”, which give you an idea about the future of the outsourcing industry in India.

Growing Competition?

According to a survey conducted by the global consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Duke University’s Offshoring Research Network, the outsourcing industry in India is likely to transform due to the emergence of new providers. Although India remains the outsourcing market leader, stiff competition is expected from China, Philippines, South Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Middle East.

PwC’s Managing Director Charles Aird said, “India’s success as the world’s back office has motivated other developing countries with well educated and under-employed populations to seek to duplicate their experience.” The survey further revealed that only 16% of Indian service providers see competitors from other emerging economies as a threat. This is because the economic crisis of 2009 has reemphasized the importance of cost savings and access to qualified personnel as two of the top strategic reasons for outsourcing. Indian service providers are capable of offering both, less costs and high-quality workforce. This is what makes India stand out from the other countries in the outsourcing domain.

Obama’s Anti-Outsourcing Stand

The offshore shift of skilled work to India has often been portrayed as the killer of good-paying American jobs. Now, this backlash has become a reality, with the recent passage of the federal law by the U.S. Senate, barring outsourcing of U.S. government contracts given by American firms to companies located in India and other countries.

However, Indian executives of companies that provide offshore services are surprisingly sanguine about the controversy. In fact, Manoj Kunkalienkar, the president of ICICI Infotech, an outsourcing company based in Mumbai, said, “Backlash is a passing phase, and ultimately, corporations as well as people will realize the greater business benefits.” This is because most economists in the United States and India concede that though American jobs will be lost initially, both countries will reap the benefits of outsourcing in the coming years.

At the moment, all seems to be well with India continuing to dominate the outsourcing scene. It will be interesting to see if the dominance is retained or challenged, in the future.

Know more about offshore outsourcing.

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