The next leap for India's knowledge economy
There are still people out there, it seems, who think India's outsourcing industry is just a bunch of poorly paid clerks with PhDs doing mind-numbing drudgework. Until recently, one of them was the senior US insurance executive who visited the business processing arm of Wipro, India's third largest software and services company. He was soon disabused by his hosts.
ADVERTISEMENT
What they showed him was a virtual back office staffed by insurance specialists equipped to handle a full range of tasks, from receiving claims to adjudicating them up to a value of ￡500,000 ($931,000). “We understand everything!” Raman Roy, head of the Wipro division, told his visitor. He immediately clinched a contract.
Another myth is shattered by a stroll around the modern campus-style headquarters in Bangalore of companies such as Wipro and Infosys, where corporate customers' global information networks are managed round the clock from Nasa-like control rooms. If these are sweatshops, the Ritz hotel is a doss-house.
Even judged by the blistering speed of information technology industry change, India's achievement is astonishing. In barely a decade, it has created a business with more than 800,000 employees and annual sales close to $20bn, almost all exports. The corporate names on the welcome boards at Bangalore reception desks read like the Fortune 500.
And that, industry leaders say, is only the start. Mr Roy foresees continuing annual growth of 50 per cent or more and a trebling of business processing jobs to 1.2m by 2008. Meanwhile, Azim Premji, Wipro's chairman, aims to boost software productivity and slash development times by applying techniques pioneered by Toyota in manufacturing.
The larger companies are already plotting their next leap: to evolve from sub-contractors into strategic partners, sharing risks with customers. Many are busy hiring consultants with experience in target industries including banking, healthcare and telecommunications. The goal, says Mr Roy, is to “suck out knowledge” from customers, to serve them better.
Wipro's IT development centre is an example of how much further outsourcing of what were once core activities can go. It does much of the vital circuit design for consumer electronics manufacturers. They say what they want new products to do; the centre ensures they do it.
India's ambitions seem to know no bounds. But these companies still face hurdles. One is building customer trust. Despite the IT companies' proved competence and reliability, they lack the brand recognition and market presence of an IBM or an Accenture, which means that they must compete heavily on price.
They must also manage increasing complexity and scale, while keeping footloose employees loyal. Intensifying competition for skilled labour makes that harder. Demand for engineering graduates may soon strain even India's capacity to produce them. The hunt for talent is already spreading to China and other parts of Asia.
The industry recognises all those challenges and is seeking to meet them. But one potential hazard lies beyond its control: a backlash against outsourcing in the US, by far its biggest market. Although the threat has receded as US job creation has recovered, an economic downturn could revive it, along with hysteria about industrial “hollowing out”. Pressure for protectionist measures possibly curbs on cross-border data flows, imposed on “national security” grounds could quickly follow.
If that happened, all the earnest arguments heard in Bangalore these days about outsourcing being a “win-win” game, and trade a two-way street, would be unlikely to cut much political ice in the west.
India's IT industry knows that. But it also senses a powerful counter-trend running in its favour. Fiercer global competition, bigger commercial risks, faster innovation, shorter product cycles and shortages of key staff are all transforming its western customers' methods of doing business.
Mr Premji says they are defining their technological “crown jewels” ever more narrowly and entrusting work previously performed in-house to partners. That is an imperative of their commercial survival. The belief that it will continue and grow even stronger is the Indian IT industry's biggest bet on the future.
印度知识经济将再次升级？
现在仍有一些人以为，印度的外包产业只是由一群低工资的职员组成，他们有着博士学位，但做着令人头昏脑涨的单调乏味的工作。一位美国保险业高级经理从前一直这么认为。但最近他参观了印度第三大软件和服务公司Wipro的业务处理部门。东道主很快就让他明白，他的想法是错的。
东道主向他展示了一个由保险业专家组成的虚拟后台办公室，这些专家能处理各式各样的任务，从接受索赔申请到理赔，理赔金额最高达50万英镑（合93.1万美元)。“我们什么都懂！”Wipro的部门负责人拉曼?罗伊(Raman Roy)对客人说。这位保险经理立即敲定了一份合同。
Wipro和Infosys等公司位于班加罗尔的总部有着现代化园区风格。到那里转一圈，你就会打消另一个荒诞的想法。这些公司通过与美国国家航空航天局(NASA)类似的控制室，对客户的全球信息网络进行24小时管理。如果说这些是血汗工厂，那么丽兹大饭店也是个简陋的客栈。
即使以信息技术业变革的飞快速度来衡量，印度的成就也是令人惊讶的。不到10年，印度就已创造出一个拥有逾80万雇员、年销售额近200亿美元(几乎全是出口)的IT行业。在班加罗尔，一些企业前台欢迎牌上的公司名称,读上去就像财富500强。
而行业领袖们说，这还只是个开端。罗伊先生预计，该行业将继续以每年50%或更高的速度增长，到2008年将使业务处理职位增加2倍，达120万个。与此同时，Wipro董事长阿齐姆?普莱姆基(Azim Premji)的目标是，借助丰田汽车(Toyota)应用于制造业的首创技术，提高软件劳动生产率，大幅缩短开发时间。
规模较大的企业已在策划下一次飞跃：从承包商发展为战略合作伙伴，与客户共同承担风险。很多企业正忙于聘请在目标行业有工作经验的咨询师，这些行业包括银行业、保健业和电信业。罗伊先生说，它们的目标是从客户那里“汲取知识”，以求更好地为客户服务。
对于过去是企业核心活动的业务，能将它们进一步外包到何种程度，Wipro的IT开发中心提供了一个范例。该中心为电子消费品制造商进行大部分关键电路的设计工作。制造商说需要新产品有什么功能，该中心保证能做到。
印度的雄心似乎是无限的。但这些公司仍然面临很多障碍。其中之一就是建立客户信任度。尽管印度的IT企业证明了自己的能力和可靠性，但它们缺乏品牌认知度，也缺乏IBM或埃森哲(Accenture)等企业的市场地位，这意味着它们必须严重依赖价格来开展竞争。
它们还必须管理日益复杂的局面和越来越大的企业规模，同时让可自由流动的雇员保持忠诚。对熟练劳动力的争夺越来越激烈，致使上述目标更难实现。虽然印度培养工程专业毕业生的能力很强，但对这类毕业生的需求也许很快就会紧张起来。人才搜寻行动已经扩展到中国和亚洲其它地方。
印度IT行业意识到所有这些挑战，并正设法应对。但有一个潜在危险不在该行业的控制范围内：美国对外包的对抗性反应。迄今为止，美国是该行业最大的市场。随着美国恢复就业创造势头，这一威胁已经减退，但如果美国经济低迷，可能会重新引发这一威胁，以及对工业“空洞化”的强烈忧惧。要求采取贸易保护主义措施的压力可能随之而来，一些人也许会以“国家安全”为由，要求限制跨国界数据流动。
如果发生这种情形，那么这些天在班加罗尔听到的热切主张（关于外包是个“双赢”游戏，而贸易是一条双行道）都不大可能破除西方的政治坚冰。
印度的IT行业明白这一点。但它也感觉到有一股对它有利的强大逆流。全球竞争愈演愈烈，商业风险不断提高，创新速度日益加快，产品周期越来越短，加之关键员工短缺等等，都在转变其西方客户开展业务的方式。
普莱姆基先生说，这些客户对自己技术方面“皇冠上的宝石”的定义越来越窄，并把先前由内部执行的工作委托给合作伙伴。它们要在商业上继续生存，就必须这么做。印度的IT行业相信，它将继续发展并变得更加强大，这是它对未来最大的期望。
