'IT jobs are all about innovation'

Outsourcing of information technology jobs to India from the United States is far lower than what is thought.

"Contrary to what is reported in the media, jobs outsourced from the United States constitutes only 11 per cent of the 127 million information technology sector jobs," said Ganesh Natarajan, deputy chairman of Zensar Technologies and chairman of National Association of Software and Service Companies' (Nasscom) SME Forum (western India).

Speaking at a seminar on 'Global Outsourcing Trends and Opportunities for SMEs' here on Saturday, Natarajan said that of the 22 million new jobs created in the US only two million are outsourced. "IT is not a job incentive sector but a job innovation sector," he said.

Expressing delight over the Rs 700-crore IBM-Daksh deal where Daksh will become a 100 per cent subsidiary of IBM Global Services, he said, "This is an indication that companies in the US are interested in offshoring."

Speaking on the opportunities for the SMEs for being competitive with the big companies, Natarajan said, "It is important to have a strong leadership and a definite point of view."

Natarajan said that it was important for companies to build and demonstrate value-added capabilities in their chosen domain or technical areas.

Specifying the areas that are required for the SMEs to work for growth, he said companies must learn the collaborate and build a consortium. Zaibatsu, the Japanese term meaning "money clique" or conglomerate was the way to work for growth, he said.

On the other areas that the SMEs needed to work for success, Natarajan said that it was necessary to work in association with the industry, academic institutions and the government.

Outlining the three key areas that SMEs need to look at for more investment dollars to flow, Natarajan said the most important point was to ensure that the right marketing people are brought into the company.

"A wrong recruitment in an expensive market can cause a heavy dent on the company's profits," he said.

The other important point Natarajan emphasised were over engineering products or solution suites could be damaging rather than help one secure the deal.

"Focus on specific areas of work will help in securing more deals from clients. On the other hand, if you are willing to do everything what the client asks, he (the client) will write you off by saying that the company does not have any focus," he said.

He appealed to the chief information officers to use Indian ingenuity and product suites to solve Indian problems.

Responding to a question, Natarajan said that India and China could collaborate and work together in the information technology space.

Denying that India had a big advantage over China in terms of language, he said the strength of Indian IT companies were better in executing projects.

Earlier, welcoming the gathering, B V R Mohan Reddy, executive committee member of Nasscom, said: "Nasscom has many members from SMEs.India had the capability and had come to stay in the IT sector, but companies have to be competitive to stay in the race."