Outsourcing: Small companies facing grim battle against big players

Small and medium-sized Indian outsourcing companies are finding it difficult to survive in the face of immense competition from big players in the trade, revealed a seminar on ‘Strategic Outsourcing: Risk Management, Methods and Benefits’ organised by Tathya.com, a city-based outsourcing service provider.

The primary objective of the seminar was to foster the exchange of ideas between providers, outsourcers, and industry analysts in the presence of people from different sections of the society.

The seminar was inaugurated by Sujan Chakrabarty, MP and was attended by G D Gautama, principal secretary, Department of IT, Government of West Bengal, among others.

‘’Two major problems come up in providing the job that a foreign company wants to outsource. First, there is a culture barrier, and second, there is a huge difference between the systems that govern the concerns, both Government and non-Government, in the two countries. It’s difficult to overcome these problems and that is why small outsourcing companies suffer setbacks,’’ said Indranil Mukherjee, managing director of Tathya, which has a turn-over of Rs 1.50 crore with a staff strength of 180.

The way out is to do business with a smaller number of companies and take time to build a relationship with them. ‘’We are against the Hyderabad or Bangalore model of aggressive outsourcing. We take time to nurture relationships with the companies we do business with, ’’ Mukherjee said.

The seminar was attended also by representatives of several US buyers.

G D Gautama presented the case of West Bengal as an ideal destination for outsourcers from abroad. ‘’Very few people know the fact that Kolkata has got the highest internet penetration among all the cities of India. We have 235 IT companies working here and we believe West Bengal is going to be the ideal place for clients abroad to outsource their jobs,’’ Gautama said.