Talks, business and BPO

The Nasscom 2004 conference moved into overdrive yesterday as a strong line up of ITES/BPO sessions, CEO conclaves and Country Workshops took to the floor.

Nasscom 2004, which opened to an absorbing inaugural meet yesterday, began delivering on its promises by treating delegates to a multi-faceted fare of keynote addresses, presentations and panel discussions.

Activity on Day Two of the mega conference was kicked off by a talk by Joseph Quinlan, managing director, chief market strategist, Investment Strategies, Banc of America Capital Management.

While providing an overview of the global economic scenario and the structural shifts defining the global IT landscape, Joseph addressed the issues that were challenging economies and companies in the existing environment.

A supporter of offshore BPO, Joseph felt outsourcing companies in the US needed to convince government policy makers and Wall Street analysts about the benefits of this business model.

At the same time he cautioned against protectionism by developing markets such as India, stating that free trade was the way to go for globalising companies and economies.

Joseph's views on the issue of outsourcing were reiterated by Diana Farrell, director, McKinsey Global Institute, who said BPO was a win-win game for participating companies and even countries.

A talk by Daniel Griswold, associate director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, the Cato Institute, USA, was yet another salvo in favor of outsourcing.

Interestingly, the community of IT analysts present at the Nasscom 2004 conference has come out strongly on the side of offshore outsourcing, dismissing the current backlash against the global trend as media hype and US election-related pressure.

Apart from invigorating talks by the thought leaders, Day one and Day two at Nasscom were also enlivened by some fiery panel discussions.

The first of these, a part of the inaugural session, was focused on the elusive and exclusive Billion Dollar Club, and how more Indian IT players could join the magic circle.

A second panel debate was devoted to how young, emerging IT companies could strive to make the great leap forward, create IPR, scale, move to larger engagements, build brands, expand customer bases and rank among the Tier One industry stalwarts.

The crowd puller at Nasscom 2004 however was the ITES-BPO track, which played an overflowing house.

While applauding the growing maturity of the Indian ITES-BPO community in India, analysts from well known global business intelligence firms such as the McKinsey Global Institute, the Everest Group and AT Kearney warned against the challenges likely to confront the segment.

Brainstorming sessions, aimed at creating a success blueprint for Indian ITES-BPO firms, provided a crystal ball view of the industry, going forward.

Nasscom 2004 also featured a range of workshops under the umbrella of the Country Track that were focused on IT destinations such as Wales, the United Kingdom, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Open sourcing, business ready networks, storage and information security, meanwhile, were the issues under debate at the fourth track_the Technology Forum.

To add meat to the day's proceedings, Nasscom also announced the launch of a Security Forum targeted at promoting a culture of security consciousness among Indian IT companies to enhance their international competitiveness.