IT INDUSTRY UPDATES

International economic slowdown will not affect Indian software majors:

The international economic slowdown would not affect Indian software majors as the domestic market is growing at a good pace and the country has been recognised by multinational companies as one having global delivery capability, a top official of Birlasoft (India) Ltd said. Venkatesan Seshadri, vice president of the company, told reporters here that Indian companies now doing consultancy would be among the top 20 global companies in 15 years. The challenges facing organisations was the economic impact, GDP, competitiveness, availability of quality infrastructure and the need to have global competitive skills, he said. Stating that it was incorrect to say that the IT industry had slowed down or reached saturation point, he said there was uncertainty in the market. "We are waiting and watching. India's share in the software market is meagre and hence there is scope for more and more development"

Meltdown may mean more business for LPOs:
Even as the global meltdown casts its spell on India, there is one sector which could see more action in the coming months. Legal process outsourcing (LPO) is set to witness a surge in business, with more corporate houses and investment banks from the US turning to them for legal advise. Bankruptcy filings in the US have gone up in the last couple of months and that inturn has raised the demand for lawyers. Corporate houses in the US are increasingly shifting their credit crisis-related work to lawyers in India as it is a more viable and cost-effective option. Leading LPOs such as Pangea3, Quislex and Mindcrest, among others, have seen a significant jump in the number of outsourced projects in the last few months. “The demand for LPOs is on the rise as legal work related to bankruptcies in the global market has increased,” said Pangea3 VP Legal Services Antony Alex. Industry experts said the turmoil in the financial services sector is driving more legal outsourcing to India. “Since appointing a lawyer is expensive overseas, specially in the US and UK, it is natural for corporates to shift higher value work to India at this time of crisis,” said a source.

Goldman, Morgan's switch to banks means more biz for IT cos:

When Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley gave up their independent investment banking status, it gave reason for Indian IT vendors to smile. For, more regulations, as a commercial bank, could mean more business for software service providers. While the collapse of the other investment banks in the past few months sent jitters among the software vendors in India, government control of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley gave the Indian IT some reasons to cheer. Because, morphing into a full-fledged bank not only implies greater access to funds but also more regulation. And tighter regulation could mean tweaking their existing technology by adding more software and processes. They would have to adopt systems in areas such as retail banking, consumer banking, cards and corporate banking.