Tsunami - a tragedy

First of all my condolences to all the people who have lost their loved ones in this devastating tragedy. I have been reading a lot about the TSUMANIS and watching it on the news aswell, losing 23,000 people in a matter of hours is just very sad, and the CNN estimated the loss to be close to USD 10 Billion.


DEATH TOLLS

SRI LANKA
Sri Lankan military authorities report more than 18,000 people killed. Tamil Tiger rebels report 2,000 dead in the territory they hold in the northeast of the country.

INDIA
At least 9,500 killed by waves that flooded the southern coast, official media report.

INDONESIA
News agencies report more than 4,730 killed, many of them in Aceh in northern Sumatra.

THAILAND
Thai authorities report at least 1,000 people dead.

MALDIVES
46 people are dead and more than 70 missing, according to Hassan Sobir, the Maldives high commissioner.

Merry Christmas

Its 2:19 am in the morning of the 25th, and we just got done with our christmas party. It was a lot of fun, specially the secret santa gifts that we gave each other. Here is what everyone had to say when i asked them to tell me a line on the evening:

Hitin: "Getting there"
Rachu:"let me think"
Manish: "my packing is the best na.."
Mayur: "Now we know some one collects victoria's secret bags!"
Rahul: "Can i get a cup of coffee?"
Janine: B..o...s!
Shereen: "damn, another yr older"
Afshaad: "p..e..r..f.e ..c..t"
Anupam: "Truly Inspired"
Romit: "kya yaar, i am not that old!!!"

Merry Christmas everybody!

"I don't want to go abroad, I am happy here"

I know some of us at times go through dichotomy of sorts, when it comes to deciding whether we should continue pursuing our careers here in the West (US) or consider opportunities back in our country. In todays world the word "opportunity" does not signify monitory benefits, as was the case in the early 90's, what it signifies is an intellectually challenging work environment where individuals can proliferate.

Here is an interesting article which was published in the Economic Times recently. Check it out.

As the holiday season hits all of us, perhaps its time to sit with a warm cup of coffee and give this a little thought, I know i will...

Happy Blogging and Merry Christmas !

Global Sourcing 2005

All right, so as the year winds up, companies are perhaps making their plans /goals for the coming year. The Indian IT industry has seen a substantial growth in 2004 and NASSCOM predicts a further increase in growth for 2005. The figure quoted by NASSCOM is USD 20 B (in exports). Sound crazy enough?

I attended a seminar on Global Trends of outsourcing in October. Here are some Key notes from the seminar given by Robert Mc Neil who is a Lead Analyst at Forrester.

Robert focused his talk on the recent IBM- JP Morgan outsourcing deal (JP Morgan withdrew a USD 5 billion outsourcing deal from IBM). He seemed to believe that was a very bold move on JP Morgan’s part, but also pointed out that the trends for such are reducing because of over dependence.

He mentioned that the outsourcing market will grow by 7% next year (2005), but will also see some trends of cost reduction due to competition. "The pricing for off-shoring have become a little transparent due to the benchmarking clauses" he said. Defined Process to support Global delivery will become more common, and certifications like CMM, Six Sigma, and ITIL and the latest eSCM-SP (for BPO) will become common.

Key Points:
-there will be an increase in third party brokerage
- Insurance and legacy are still key outsourcing areas
- Key components to select a client are:

+ Pricing : 53%

+ Knowledge of Industry : 49%

+ Domain Knowledge : 41%

+ Financial stability : 8%

+ Certification: 8%

Your Thoughts?