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IBM Snags Leading Indian Outsourcing Firm

theodp writes "In one of the biggest foreign acquisitions in India in the past few years, according to ZDNet, IBM will pay an estimated $150-$200 million to acquire Daksh, India's third-largest back-office services company. The deal will give IBM access to privately held Daksh's 6,000 employees, who mainly offer call center services to 13 clients, including Amazon.com."

9 of 442 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Outsourcing? by LostCluster · · Score: 2, Informative

    "Outsourcing" has always been a bad word to describe jobs headed to other countries, since "outsourcing" really just means transfering the work to another company, it doesn't quite imply the location of the other company.

    "Exporting of jobs" would be a better term.

  2. Investment... by ParadoxicalPostulate · · Score: 3, Informative


    Daksh is an early mover in a sector that is thriving by tapping India's English-speaking workers to provide services such as accounting and insurance claims processing to foreign customers looking for low-cost outsourcing.

    So correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems to be an investment rather than a direct acquisition.
    In other words, these 6,000 employees wouldn't be taking tech jobs from the U.S.

  3. Re:Big Indians by orthogonal · · Score: 2, Informative

    They wanted me to add payment protection and some other insurance options. I said that I would like to wave those options. He seemed confused by my response, and asked what I meant by waving those options

    Wave the options? Wave (synonyms: wag, waggle, undulate) them like a hand-held fan to cool him off?

    Perhaps he was confused that you didn't want to forgo* any additional services and waive (synonyms: relinquish, dispense with) those options?

    * or forego, both spellings are accepted.

  4. A big deal indeed by Pranjal · · Score: 5, Informative

    Daksh is one of the biggest call center operations company in India. It was an early mover and has built up a significant repository of top clients in US. Infact there is an army of employees working for them and you can see many of their ads in the local newspapers every week for hiring new people. Interesting fact is that Citigroup and General Atlantic Partners and Actis hold 2/3rd of the equity in the company. This deal is going to make the Chief Executive and some employees in Daksh and the equity companies millionaire's overnight. Infact they recently opened a center in Philippines so it gives IBM the foot print in India as well as Philippines. IBM snatched a big one here!

  5. Re:Why is this a problem ? by Vancorps · · Score: 4, Informative
    Because IBM in particular was founded on taking care of its employees, not just kicking them and ruining entire communities. There is a lot of damage done by these actions and absolutely no attempt to make it easier. Granted there is no law that says what they are doing is wrong, but it does go again James Watt's intention when he founded the company.

    Also, businesses despite what I see in your post are not just about making money, if that were true I wouldn't have Christmas parties and bbqs and an owner I can go out for beers with. Sometimes its about accomplishing a goal and human resources or rather, the people you employing being a better term are your means to reach the goal. If they are successful you are successful, destory any and all vision of their future doesn't exactly help matters either.

    My father works for IBM, has for 30 years, he know his time is coming and he's preparing, but he doesn't know when, will it be this summer? The fall? He has no idea how long he'll be able to stay.
  6. Indian call centers == disaster by bangular · · Score: 2, Informative

    I used to work at an American call center awhile back. We were in combination with an Indian call center. I'd get irate customers almost in tears because they just spent an hour on the phone with someone they could barely understand and I'm the first American they could speak to all night. Nothing against Indians, but you can not have people with thick accents working phones. It's bad enough when a southern company's customers have to call the mid-west to try and communicate, it's 10x worse when the person isn't a native english speaker. I've had my share of frustrations lately too. It takes twice as long to get information out of someone you can't understand.

  7. Re:Hey, it pays... by stevesliva · · Score: 4, Informative

    Mainframes? Linux servers?

    --
    Who do you get to be an expert to tell you something's not obvious? The least insightful person you can find? -J Roberts
  8. Re:IBM First Post by MisterFancypants · · Score: 5, Informative

    I hate to come off as the party pooper, but this joke is: A) Very Old (predates all of these tech companies and is probably older than than poster -- used to be told about college students, navy/army, various other competing entities). B) Scientifically suspect. Even if you don't piss on your hands, handling your johnson exposes your hands to coliform bacteria that is generally harmless to yourself but could be a problem for others. So even if you don't piss on your hands, you should still wash them before you go around touching everything at work, you dirty hippy.

  9. Re:Next layoffs? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Here's your response. And, yes, it's the same AC from the two previous posts.

    I'm not sure about IGS as a whole. I can tell you that BCS, which is a part of IGS, did give Variable Pay to those employees eligible for Variable Pay. As a Band 8 Commission-eligible Senior Consultant, that means I am not eligible for Variable Pay. I used to be eligible, but my job was pulled out of the Variable Pay plan in early 2003. Therefore, not only did I not get a bonus, I didn't even get the piddly little 2 or 3% Variable Pay that other's received. Oh, and the "partners" (the PWC leadership)? They all got their fucking bonuses. The Bastards.

    Band 7's (regular consultants) and below are eligible for Variable Pay. Some BCS band 8's and 9's are also eligible, but all the band 8's I know personally aren't eligible.

    However, get this...I am a legacy IBM employee (I've been with IBM since 1998). That means I am eligible for a bonus of around 20% (not that I'm getting anything). For those poor ex-PWC consultants, they have a different Bonus Schedule. A band 8 that is ex-PWC is only eligible for a 6% bonus (even for next year, assuming we have a bonus next year). I can get 20%, they can get 6%. Poor Bastards. Those bean-counters find the money to give Sam an 8.2% raise, but then they screw all of the revenue generators. That includes those of you from SWG.

    I agree, Sam Palmissano.is fucking things up. His IBM Corporate Values crap isn't worth 1/100th the money they are spending on it. His purchase of PWC looked good on paper, but his appointed BCS leadership team is a bunch of losers (yeah, Ginny Rommetty should be fired). And, IBM HR is incompetent (Oh, wait, they've always been incompetent. Never mind.) I wish Lou Gerstner was back in charge.

    By the way, I don't know whether to congratulate you on being laid off or offer my condolences. So, I'll just offer Good Luck. Unfortunately, with a new house and a new baby, I am not in position to leave IBM. But, I'm tryin to figure out a way.