Sri Lanka’s skilled IT resources are equal to the skill sets anywhere in the world, claimed Sri Lanka Association for Software and Services Companies (SLASSCOM) Chairman, Dinesh Saparamadu.

In the next five to eight years, it is expected that the sector will employ 100,000 IT outsourcing professionals – three times the current workforce of 30,000.

Saparamadu said Sri Lanka is in the process of developing more advanced software and mobile phone applications. Sri Lanka has recently started exporting applications to South Africa.

“We expect to place Sri Lanka as the IT BPO destination in the region focusing on product development. To achieve that Sri Lankan IT BPO sector has to cater to the small and medium scale companies that are interested in doing their product innovations in Sri Lanka, especially in the research and development areas,” he said.

IT Services and offshore software development company, iGate, has announced plans to recruit 500 people in the next six months for its venture into healthcare and financial BPO services.

Phaneesh Murthy, CEO of iGate said, “Most of the 500 people we plan to hire in over the next six months will be in India and some in Mexico and the US. They will be employed in both services in BPO areas.”

“We are aggressively pursuing it… We have $100 million cash on our balance sheet. We are eyeing acquisitions in $30-70 million range and we should finalise it in few months,” he said.

iGate’s net income more than doubled from January to March, registering $11.6 million compared to the $5 million net income in the same period last year. The company ends the first quarter with a total of 7,357 employees, 447 of which are new.

Fast food giant Burger King is celebrating the opening of the BK Call Center in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a “Remember the Number” contest, where customers are encouraged to get creative with BK Call Center stickers with the number 600 5 2222 4 on them. They are to stick them in unusual locations, take a photo and upload it to the “Burger King UAE” Facebook fan page, where members will vote on two weekly winning entries.

Burger King aims to offer a centralised service to handle customers’ orders wherever they are in the UAE. BK Call Center agents take customer orders, answer queries and receive complaints in both English and Arabic.

Yasser Abdel Azim, General Manager of First Food Services L.L.C. (Burger King franchisee in the UAE) says, “With the launch of this call center, BK customers in the UAE now have to remember just one easy number to place orders for their favourite flame-grilled burgers – irrespective of the restaurant location. Not only does this eliminate the hassle of finding the appropriate landline number for a particular BK restaurant, it also minimizes the chance of the customer calling to find the line busy.”

Robert Bosch inc. has opened the Robert Bosche Communication Center Inc. (RBCCI) in the Philippines – the company’s first call centre in the Asia Pacific region. The RBCCI is located in the Fort Legend Towers, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, and offers technical support for Bosch customers across the region.

The RBCCI went live right after the holidays in January. This new facility realises Bosch’s strategic global expansion into the BPO industry.

Bosch is aiming for 200 seats by the end of 2010, with provisions for more seats next year. Future plans comprise a portfolio of 70 percent external clients, while the rest serves Bosch’s own customers.

Established in the Philippines over 80 years ago, Robert Bosch Incorporated operates its main business segments in the country, such as automotive original equipment, automotive aftermarket, and power tools. At present, it has 80 employees in its Makati office.

Indian BPO Company Wipro has opened a 350 employee global delivery centre in Curitiba, Brazil.  Although the company has been operating in South America since 2006 the new facility allows it to diversity its service offering. The new office will operate as a regional Latin American Headquarters that also covers Argentina.

“Wipro Technologies is bringing to Curitiba the ultimate technology and method in terms of IT Services and systems management,” said the Mayor of Curitiba, Beto Richa.  According to him, “The city offers the best in life quality and infrastructure. Wipro Technologies is an innovation company and a great employer brand, and its investments in Curitiba will bring even more knowledge to our city and state,” he commented.

Speaking at the launch, Fernando Estrazulas, director of Wipro Technologies for Latin America said, “We are delighted to inaugurate the Curitiba center which is one of Wipro’s global strategic centers. Brazil is an important market both in terms of domestic as well as international business and this center will ensure that our local and global customers continue to benefit from Wipro’s quality processes, innovative solutions and a global delivery model. Brazil is an important market for domestic and international business. Our local and global customers will benefit from our quality processes, innovative solutions and a global delivery model.”

The entrance of Siemens into the procurement outsourcing sector is quite a surprise, but Ray Crowe, Siemens’ director of portfolio and strategy, thinks it’s a great opportunity for the company.

“Most clients have a procurement organisation but we can help in a couple of areas that typically go unmanaged such as one-time or minor purchases. We don’t necessarily replace their existing procurement service; we compliment it and drive savings” said Mr. Crowe.

Most businesses utilise an internal or external procurement organisation for sizeable purchases, but there is also quite a number of one-time purchases that often gets neglected. Crowe admits that procurement is quite a turnaround for Siemens’ IT solution (their business mainly front end, to providing back end services), but he stands firm for the direction that Siemens has taken. “We cover all aspects of internal procurement: software, hardware, buildings and facilities. We have tremendous buying power.”

Crowe also adds, “We are one of the largest users of SAP and Microsoft, and we supply SAP and Microsoft services to clients, host their exchange, help them adopt these functions, design it, help them build it, host and maintain it for them.”

Siemens started offering outsourced procurement services to existing clients that had previously overlooked cost savings on minor purchases.

“We provide a full portfolio of procurement technologies, consulting and outsourcing and we can create a relationship with their [incumbent] procurement provider,” says Crowe. “For us, it is about adding value to the client experience and adding to our portfolio of services. It allows us to have a proven solution – we can demonstrate that it works. There is no better way of testing it than using it ourselves and that concept is important for the customer, they are not tasting the first oyster,” he adds.

ICON Plc, a well-known outsourcing services vendor to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries is expanding its presence in the Asia Pacific region. Its most recent expansions include Seoul, Korea, and Singapore. The latest development is their new office in Manila, Philippines.

ICON’s CEO Peter Gray said, “With over 800 employees in 14 Asia-Pac countries and 13 years of successful operations in the region, Asia-Pacific is a key market for ICON. Philippines’ large population, coupled with the country’s well-established network of hospitals, physicians and investigators has made it an attractive location for our clients, and one which we have supported for a number of years through home-based employees. Investing in local support and infrastructure through the office in Manila will ensure that we can support future client demand as they increasingly look to include Asia in their drug development programs.”