IBISWorld Unveils Business Hosting Services

Businesses are increasingly outsourcing their information technology (IT) infrastructure needs, which has benefited the Data Processing and Hosting Services industry. This industry provides infrastructure for hosting or data processing services used for a variety of IT-related activities, ranging from web hosting to automated data entry services. The industry fared well during the past five years, with revenue growing at an annualized rate of 2.4% to $81.3 billion in 2012. In 2012, IBISWorld expects revenue to grow 5.9%, reflecting a stronger economy and an increase in the use of industry products by companies. “Growth was spurred by investment in outsourcing application hosting to specialized firms as an alternative to local hosting of enterprise software during the five years to 2012,” said IBISWorld industry analyst Andrew Krabeepetcharat. Because revenue depends on subscriptions, the pullback of IT spending during the recession slowed the rate of revenue growth. Spending has picked up since 2007, and it is expected to grow even faster in 2012 as firms increasingly outsource their IT needs to third parties.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is anticipated to increase during the next five years as industry firms consolidate to reduce redundancies and increase the subscriber base over which they can allocate computing resources. Also, supply disruptions in the hardware space (e.g. the flooding of hard-drive manufacturing plants in Thailand during 2011) may push companies that managed their IT infrastructure needs in-house to opt for a third-party provider. Other factors will also play into growth in the coming years. Consolidation within other industries will push businesses to outsource their IT needs as systems become too complex to maintain in-house. At the same time, the exponential growth in complexity as scale grows, will increase the level of expertise needed to effectively manage large data centers. As firms begin capturing more data, they will increasingly require outside expertise to manage their data collection, hosting and processing. As a result, revenue is forecast to grow at an through 2017.

In 2012, IBISWorld estimates that the four largest operators in the Data Processing and Hosting Services industry will account for an estimated 33.6% of industry revenue. According to Krabeepetcharat, the level of concentration in the industry is low, primarily due to the range of services that data processing and hosting service companies can provide. In terms of the size of establishments according to staff levels, the industry is highly fragmented, with 56.9% of all establishments employing fewer than five people in 2012. Large establishments of 100 or more employees represent just 8.6% of the industry. These numbers may be skewed due to outsourcing; some firms may have more employees overseas that are not included in the data for this industry. For more information, visit IBISWorld’s Data Processing & Hosting Services in the US industry report page.

Source: thehostingnews.com

Globe Telecom to expand data center facilities targeting enterprise customers

Philippines telecom operator Globe Telecom has decided to expand data center facilities targeting enterprise customers.

Globe Telecom is looking at leveraging demand from local firms for cost-efficient and effective IT infrastructure and data processing capabilities.

Globe Telecom has started construction of two new sites in Quezon City and Cavite that are expected to be ready for service by year-end.

Globe will also be expanding existing data center facilities in Makati and Cebu.

Its data center revenue continues to increase year-on-year, with an impressive double-digit growth posted from 2010 to 2011.

The company said it currently has the most number of data centers among Philippine telcos, with five facilities across Luzon and Visayas that boast of significantly high utilization due to very strong demand.

The Globe Data Center eliminates a company's need to build, maintain and expand its own data center. Hence, customers are allowed to focus on their core businesses. 

Globe offers a range of managed data center services and solutions that suit the varying needs of its enterprise customers. These include co-location, dedicated server hosting, disaster recovery services and managed security services.

"Our customers who invest in the data center have experienced huge savings in capital expenses, with significantly reduced maintenance and operational costs. This cost-efficiency advantage, along with the data center's high availability and global connectivity, is the main driver on the increasing number of companies who subscribe to the service," said Jesus Romero, head of Globe Business.

Globe recently upgraded its data center network facilities with Cisco's CRS-3 Carrier Routing System and the Nexus 7000 Series Switches. This connects the company's suite of Cloud Solutions to the world with high-capacity 10Gbps connections, making Globe the first telco in the country to deploy a terabit-level data center infrastructure through its CRS-3 routers and Nexus 7000 switches.

 "The growing need for data center facilities in the country is the reason why Globe is keen to embark on expansions and upgrades. These upgrades and increase in capacity will bring the network infrastructure of our data centers to the highest levels of performance, availability and security," said Grace-Jarin Castillo, Globe Business Enterprise Segments Head.

Source: telecomlead.com

i2 Software launches Conversion Server 3.0

Support for HP TRIM, SharePoint and OCR is now a standard inclusion with i2 Conversion Server 3.0.

 

The software can run as a service and support job separator sheets, able to separate scanned documents, rename them, convert them and output to multiple destinations all at the same time without any user intervention.

The release of i2 Conversion 3.0 has added the ability to convert scanned documents automatically to Word and Excel as well as the existing wide range of formats including PDF/A and text searchable PDF/A file formats.

Direct connectivity is now offered to HP TRIM and SharePoint.

Andrew Wade, Director i2 Software, said “Clients using i2 Conversion Server can now fully automate scanned document conversion and output to a network share, FTP, multiple email as an attachment or hyperlink, as well as direct connectivity to HP TRIM and Sharepoint and all potentially at the same time.”

Source: idm.net.au/blog

IFD Launches New Document Scanning Solution Called iCapture

inFORM Decisions (IFD) last week unveiled iCapture, a new version of its document scanning and indexing solution designed to work with its IBM i-based document management system called iView. iCapture is an overhauled version of the vendor's previous document scanning product, called iScan, which IFD says features major enhancements in the areas of data capture, indexing, and integration with PC-based scanners.

IFD first launched iScan in July 2010 to serve the demand from IBM i shops for scanning and indexing paper-based documents into electronic equivalents. iScan was based on an optical character recognition (OCR) scanning engine OEMed from Datacap (acquired by IBM in August 2010). The $4,800-product provided an entry-level document scanning solution that satisfied basic batch scanning and indexing needs, IFD's Dan Forster explained in a 2010 interview with IT Jungle.

Since then, IFD has changed and improved iScan to such an extent that the company felt it needed a new name. iCapture includes new OCR, optical mark recognition (OMR), and intelligent character recognition (ICR) engines that enable the product to automatically capture data and metadata from just about any scanned document, including hand-written forms.

The new recognition technology is Windows-based, and is OEMed from Irvine, California-based PSIGEN Software. PSIGEN's solutions are based in part on technology it, in turn, OEMs from other vendors, including Open Text. IFD wraps its iCapture code around the PSIGEN technology, which allows customers to bring captured forms into the IBM i environment and its IBM i-based iView software.

Another key element of the new iCapture product is a new Advanced Data Extraction (ADE) engine that IFD says will greatly reduce the need to manually enter metadata. The vendor says that scripts and pattern-matching logic in ADE (also OEMed from PSIGEN) will automatically create search metadata for a document, or enhance the metadata that has already been collected with the OCR, OMR, and ICR engines. The ADE can also extract complex data structures and information from disparate documents, which IFD says further enhances document archiving and searching capabilities.

The capability to capture documents from PC-connected scanners that exist outside of the IBM i environment, and store them in the IBM i-based iView archive, is another advantage of iCapture touted by IFD. The vendor says that this eliminates the need to have dedicated 5250 sessions for scanning documents into the iView archive. Content that has been previously scanned can also be automatically routed to iCapture through its "hot folder" function.

iCapture offers a range of PDF features, including the capability to map form fields to index fields upon import; compression of PDF files and support for passwords upon export; support for PDF versioning features; and PDF bookmarking for hierarchical structures.

IFD says the overall accuracy of OCR, OMR, and ICR scanning and index creation has also been improved with iCapture. Other product features include integration with IFD's spool file monitoring solution, called iDocs; integration with dozens of other enterprise content management (ECM) systems, such as Microsoft SharePoint and EMC Documentum; and the minimization of the need to buy third-party document processing products or to customize the product.

"By integrating a host of next-generation document and data capture features with this latest upgrade of iScan, we have taken intelligent metadata creation to an entirely new level within the industry," IFD president Dan Forster says in a press release. "It is particularly exciting to see that these powerful new search indexing features, along with the ability to connect PC-scanners to our iView archiving solutions without 5250 sessions, make it very easy and affordable for multi-department enterprises to centralize their entire scan, archival, and retrieval needs on the ever-reliable IBM."

Source: itjungle.com

Companies Look to the Cloud and Outsourcing for their Big Data Projects

Organizations of all sizes are increasingly taking on Big Data projects.  A recent report by GigaOM and sponsored by Logicworks investigated what motivates these organizations to use Big Data and the challenges these organizations face when they take on Big Data projects.

The report found the following to be the main motivators for initiating Big Data projects:

• Better forecasting (72 percent)
• Less uncertainty in decision making (51 percent)
• Better competitive positioning (66 percent)
• Improved customer retention and satisfaction (60 percent)
• Better internal communications and strategy (54 percent)

Kenneth Ziegler, CEO of Logicworks, said that “Organizations are spending more time and money deploying and keeping big data architectures up and running than actually using the data to make better decisions.  By leveraging specialized cloud environments, clients can reallocate these resources to monetize their big data investments.”

The report emphasized that many organizations lack the appropriate skill sets among their employees to successfully take on Big Data projects.  It noted the following:

• 74 percent of Business Intelligence projects are still being let by IT departments
• 45 percent say the main reason BI projects fail is lack of skilled data analysts
• 61 percent of organizations are investigating the outsourcing of Big Data projects
• 70 percent of organizations that do outsource Big Data projects prefer to work with cloud vendors like Amazon or Rackspace rather than an IT vendor like Microsoft or IBM

How companies can better prepare themselves for Big Data? - The GigaOM report suggests that companies hire skilled data scientists, begin training their existing staff, and come up to speed on SaaS Business Intelligence tools.

Source: formtek.com

When to outsource IT and when to keep things in-house

For most technology executives, the question of outsourcing is not whether projects will be outsourced, but which projects will be outsourced. Budget limitations prevent hiring the staff required for every project, particularly when employees are only needed on a temporary basis.

As some IT executives find, the right resources for a project may not be available for hire in their area. Even if the team is qualified and available, a project might not be the best use of their time. When should a project stay in-house and when should you outsource? Here’s a checklist to help make the right decision.

Is the project strategic to the core mission of the company?

While IT projects come from all directions, they can usually be looked at in one of two ways. Either the project is core to the strategic goals of the company, or it’s more of a tactical solution that solves an immediate need. Tactical projects are easier to outsource, because they are typically short-term in scope, may supply a small immediate need, and tend to have a closely-defined end goal.

Strategic projects feed the core mission of the company. While they can often be broken into small, manageable chunks, strategic projects often have a life that extends well beyond the push to production and may go through multiple iterations.

Does your existing team have the necessary skills to complete the project?

One of the more exciting aspects of IT is that the resources you have today may not be the resources you need for tomorrow’s project. Any time you are looking at in-house vs. outsourcing, it’s important to examine the project goal in the context of the resources on hand.

One key place where I’ve personally encountered a resource limitation was in scaling systems. I had a great team of engineers who were capable of supporting and fine-tuning the existing IT infrastructure, but they weren’t the team I would choose to re-architect the infrastructure from the ground up. Hiring experts at scalability was my solution: They helped to plan and execute the migration, and that in turn helped mitigate the risk of magnifying a problem of scale.

What is the workload of your existing team?

If your current team is already handling as many projects as they can manage, outsourcing is the only viable way to add more projects to a full schedule. This keeps your team focused on the big picture, while allowing more projects to move forward. Conversely, if you have a lull (as if that happens) it can be a great opportunity to examine the projects that were shelved due to lack of resources.

Even if you have the necessary team, is the project the best use of their time?

This could also be characterized by asking if your team will dread coming to work if they have to do the project. Many IT projects are necessary for meeting business objectives, but aren’t the best allocation of your limited resources. By keeping your team focused on projects that keep them excited to come to work, you retain great employees longer and meet the big goals. Outsourcing the “boring” stuff keeps your team from feeling like they are being punished.

Is the project a one-off or part of a bigger mission?

In other words, is it something that needs attention now, but may never be needed again?

Data migrations are something that fall into the one-off category. If you need to migrate data between database structures or get data into a format that matches your existing schema, an outside team can be ideal. Typically, once the data migration is complete, the work is done, so you only need to outsource for a limited time. Your core team may write specifications for the migration and then hand off to external team who can complete the heavy lifting.

How well will your team work with an outside contractor?

The only time I’ve ever found a challenge in integrating outside contractors with the in-house team is when the team is fearful they will be replaced. As a manager, convincing the team that the contractors are being used for a specific project on a limited term, so that the team can focus on other projects, is important to maintaining harmony among the team. Sometimes this means including the team in the process to the point where they understand what the contractors are working on and how it fits into the overall picture.

These are by no means the only scenarios where you may consider outsourcing as an option, but by running down the list of options above, you can arrive fairly quickly at whether you should be looking for an outsourcing team or completing the project in house.

Source: venturebeat.com

China's Jinma Famous Information Technology Releases 3D Medical Imaging System

Jiangsu province, China-based high technology company Jinma Yangming Information Technology Co.,Ltd. has officially released a world-leading 3D medical imaging post-processing system at its headquarters in Changzhou National Hi-Tech District. In addition, the company has also launched a next-generation regional medical imaging information product, the IPAD remote diagnosis system.

Jinma Yangming Information Technology's 3D post-processing system uses 2D graphics, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasonography (US), as imaging sources, in tandem with a computer graphics learning algorithm to recreate 3D simulation images that intuitively display body organs, and, in particular, inner surface anatomy and pathological changes of body lumens, as a tool for disease diagnosis, 3D positioning, simulation operations and interventional therapies, among others.

With the system's advanced 3D volume rendering (VR), operators can adjust tissue transparency in real time and show metal implants and atherosclerotic plaques as well as other objects contained in tissues, providing the clinician or diagnostician with a highly enhanced sense of spacing. The 3D VR eliminates outline sketches of tissues, greatly simplifying the operating process. Renal pelvis, ureters and bladders are displayed through deboning, cutting and rotating, while preserving images of the spine and pelvis. Organs and bones associated with the urinary system can be distinguished with different colors. Tumors of various systems and organs enhanced by contrast media can serve to bring together the images of bones, vessels and soft tissues simultaneously in one 3D image, accurately positioning the tumors and allowing for the identifying of the status of the progression of the disease and the degree to which surrounding tissues, organs and vessels have been affected, including the degree of invasion and translocation. The processed image can be rotated so that the diseased area can by observed by the operator from any angle, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis. The images can be clipped, cut, drilled and made into automated films to clearly reveal the hidden parts of the lesion, providing more abundant image information so that clinicians can provide much more accurate diagnoses.

Founded in 2004, Jiangsu Jinma Yangming Information Technology has already grown into the largest research, development and manufacturing facility for medical device software in Jiangsu province. The company has received the designations of "High-tech Enterprise in Jiangsu Province" and "Software Enterprise in Jiangsu Province" as well as ISO 9001 Certification and CMMI level 3 certification. In addition, it has obtained the registration certificates for the medical devices it produces as well as the license to produce medical devices as required by the local authorities. The firm has established long-term cooperation and software outsourcing relationships with major global players including Siemens, GE, Philips and IBM, and has had its products successfully adopted by over 800 organizations across China. The company services hospitals and patients via its scientifically innovative business model. The remote features allow for access to the images at every level of China's healthcare information network including at the regional, hospital, hospital department and single product level. The remote regional imaging diagnosis system with its unique sharing and training features is the first of its kind in the country and the only regional centralized remote imaging diagnosis system that has been deployed to date in Jiangsu province.

Source: marketwatch.com

Wyle Wins 10-Year Multi-Company Information Technology Award to Support Federal Agencies and Departments

Wyle has been awarded a multi-company contract by the National Institutes of Health Information Technology Assessment and Acquisition Center to provide an extensive range of solutions and technologies to all Federal agencies and departments.

The Chief Information Officer – Solutions and Partners 3 (CIO-SP3) contract is a multiple-company award and is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity government-wide acquisition contract with a total ceiling value of $20 billion with a period performance of 10 years.

The task order contract provides for the delivery of a wide range of information technology services and solutions that support the Federal Enterprise, the Department of Defense Enterprise, and the Federal Health Architectures for the Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Health and Human Services and all other Federal departments.

The CIO-SP3 contract consists of the following task areas: information technology services for biomedical research, health sciences and healthcare; chief information officer support; imaging; outsourcing; information technology operations and maintenance; integration services; critical infrastructure protection and information assurance; digital government; enterprise resource planning; and software development.

"Wyle has a rich heritage of blending scientific and health-related research and engineering services with information technology support services," said Tom Anderson, president of the company's Science, Technology and Engineering Group.

"We will work with the National Institutes of Health to make CIO-SP3 the vehicle of choice for services throughout the Federal Government and look forward to continuing our successful partnership with the National Institutes of Health Technology Assessment and Acquisition Center. The expanded scope of the contract, including the areas of science and health, truly play to our strengths and should provide a vehicle that we will effectively leverage for years to come."

Wyle is a leading provider of high tech aerospace engineering and information technology services to the federal government on long-term outsourcing contracts. The company also provides test and evaluation of aircraft, weapon systems, networks, and other government assets; and other engineering services to the aerospace, defense, and nuclear power industries.

Source: itnewsonline.com

Export Notes, an advance software for converting outlook database

In an organization email system plays an important to distribute information within and outside organization. Every organization should ensure that their email application must be protected, trouble-free, and rapid.

All organization accumulates enormous data in different components like emails, address book, appointments, to do list, tasks, journals, etc. Huge times are wasted to convert these unlimited data and organizational tasks are also hampered.

With batch conversion the organizations are able to migrate data in a hassle-free way and save huge amount of productivity time.

Export Notes is advance software for Access Lotus Notes Email facilitating users to easily transfer whole content of NSF file to PST preserving original attributes of objects. It is applied to perform Batch Lotus Notes to MS Outlook conversion with some external software. This application transfers entire emails, contacts, calendars, to do list, tasks, journals, etc in batch and thus saves huge time.

This software contains some highly developed features with which the users can smoothly transfer data without any difficulties.

Transfer Lotus Notes to Outlook in Few Easy Steps

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Wondershare Announces New PDF Converter Pro 3.2.0 With Detecting Scanned PDF

Wondershare has released its award-wining PDF Converter Software; it added the feature of detecting scanned PDF. The Wondershare PDF Converter Pro is the latest PDF converter software that can convert native or scanned PDF to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB, HTML and Text with OCR. the new software released by Wondershare is a wonderful gift for Windows customers.

What's new of New PDF Converter Pro 3.2.0:- a) separated the OCR component from the installation package. b) Added the feature of detecting scanned PDF. c) Fixed minor bugs.

 

Supports OCR (Only available in Pro Version)

Fast and accurate OCR recognition and transform - Save image-based scanned PDF to text-based Word, Excel, PowerPoint, EPUB, HTML and Text documents.

Support 17 recognition languages: English, Turkish, Greek, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Romanian, and Catalan.

Batch and Partial conversion modes - Batch conversion mode: Help you convert up to 200 PDF files at one time, save your time.

Partial conversion mode: Help you flexibly convert selected pages or page ranges in the PDF files to Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, EPUB eBooks, or Text files.

Convert encrypted PDF files - PDF Converter also can convert encrypted PDF files which are protected from printing, editing, and copying.

For the password-protected PDF files from opening, you need to type the password in the pop-up dialog box, and then the PDF Converter can do the conversion work for you.

Basic system requirements to run Wondershare PDF Converter Pro include Windows 7/XP/Vista 32bit

More about Wondershare PDF Converter Pro are available on online website; you can visit the app preview page at: http://www.pdf-file-converter.com/convert-pdf/

Data Processing & Hosting Services in the US Industry Market Research Report Now Available from IBISWorld

This industry depends more on expensive (and rapidly depreciated) computers and software than employees. In fact, its competitive advantage is largely derived from its relatively minimal staffing needs. Measured as depreciation costs over labor costs, this industry has a capital intensity ratio of 0.66; for every dollar in wages spent by this industry, $0.66 go toward paying for the decrease in value of capital investments. This capital consists of facilities, servers, and software and office equipment. Industry wages are divided between computer and mathematical operations and office and administrative support occupations. For these reasons, industry research firm IBISWorld has added a report on the Perfume & Fragrance Manufacturing industry to its growing industry report collection.

Businesses are increasingly outsourcing their information technology (IT) infrastructure needs, which have benefited the Data Processing and Hosting Services industry. This industry provides infrastructure for hosting or data processing services used for a variety of IT-related activities, ranging from web hosting to automated data entry services. The industry fared well during the past five years, with revenue growing at an annualized rate of 2.4% to $81.3 billion in 2012. In 2012, IBISWorld expects revenue to grow 5.9%, reflecting a stronger economy and an increase in the use of industry products by companies. “Growth was spurred by investment in outsourcing application hosting to specialized firms as an alternative to local hosting of enterprise software during the five years to 2012,” said IBISWorld industry analyst Andrew Krabeepetcharat. Because revenue depends on subscriptions, the pullback of IT spending during the recession slowed the rate of revenue growth. Spending has picked up since 2007, and it is expected to grow even faster in 2012 as firms increasingly outsource their IT needs to third parties.

Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity is anticipated to increase during the next five years as industry firms consolidate to reduce redundancies and increase the subscriber base over which they can allocate computing resources. Also, supply disruptions in the hardware space (e.g. the flooding of hard-drive manufacturing plants in Thailand during 2011) may push companies that managed their IT infrastructure needs in-house to opt for a third-party provider. Other factors will also play into growth in the coming years. Consolidation within other industries will push businesses to outsource their IT needs as systems become too complex to maintain in-house. At the same time, the exponential growth in complexity as scale grows, will increase the level of expertise needed to effectively manage large data centers. As firms begin capturing more data, they will increasingly require outside expertise to manage their data collection, hosting and processing. As a result, revenue is forecast to grow at a through 2017.

In 2012, IBISWorld estimates that the four largest operators in the Data Processing and Hosting Services industry will account for an estimated 33.6% of industry revenue. According to Krabeepetcharat, the level of concentration in the industry is low, primarily due to the range of services that data processing and hosting service companies can provide. In terms of the size of establishments according to staff levels, the industry is highly fragmented, with 56.9% of all establishments employing fewer than five people in 2012. Large establishments of 100 or more employees represent just 8.6% of the industry. These numbers may be skewed due to outsourcing; some firms may have more employees overseas that are not included in the data for this industry. For more information, visit IBISWorld’s Data Processing & Hosting Services in the US industry report page.

Source: virtual-strategy.com

Outsource your Offline Data Entry Projects to India based leading IT Company Data Entry Help.

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HiSoft Technology International Limited Signs Strategic Cooperation Agreement with International Association of Outsourcing Professionals

HiSoft Technology International Limited ("HiSoft" or the "Company") HSFT +1.06%  , a leading China-based provider of outsourced information technology and research and development services headquartered in Dalian, China, today announced a strategic cooperation agreement with the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) at a press conference held at Kempinski Hotel Beijing.

Under the agreement, HiSoft becomes the exclusively licensed training provider of IAOP's Certified Outsourcing Professional (COP) training in China, including Taiwan and Macau. Officials from China's Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Education as well as IAOP's Chief Executive Officer, Debi Hamil, and founder, Michael F. Corbett, HiSoft's Non-executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, Cheng Yaw Sun, and members of the foreign and domestic media were present at the press conference.

"We are proud to be selected as IAOP's exclusive provider of Certified Outsourcing Professional training in China. COP training is the gold-standard in our industry. This partnership not only recognizes HiSoft's commitment to a world-class training infrastructure, but also serves to strengthen our leadership position in the domestic industry," said HiSoft Chief Executive Officer, Tiak Koon Loh.

"IAOP is pleased to welcome HiSoft Technology International Limited as a Corporate and Professional Development Strategic Alliance partner. HiSoft, a long time IAOP corporate member, has been a leading outsourcing provider since its founding in 1996 and is consistently ranked among the leaders in our Global Outsourcing 100 list of the world's best providers. Through this partnership, together we will bring the Certified Outsourcing Professional program to China, raising the level of expertise and shared standards throughout all professionals working in the industry," said Debi Hamill, IAOP's Chief Executive Officer.

As the global, standard-setting organization for the outsourcing industry, IAOP promotes the interests of the global outsourcing sector, adherence to and development of outsourcing standards and fosters professional development among industry professionals. With more than 120,000 members and affiliates worldwide, IAOP is viewed by many as the most influential and highly respected outsourcing organization worldwide.

Certified Outsourcing Professional is IAOP's longest-running talent training certification program and represents the highest level of certification for outsourcing professionals. The COP training curriculum addresses more than 170 industry-specific areas including, but not limited to, vendor management, strategy development and outcome optimization. Graduates of the COP training are frequently those individuals responsible for strategic and operational information technology ("IT") outsourcing decisions within large, multinational corporations.

Source: marketwatch.com

Conversations with Indian IT changes from offshore to expertise

We get used to reading articles about deals being won by big systems integrators. These companies either provide all the services in a deal or sub contract to a smaller firm, which hardly gets a mention.

It is these smaller companies which are interesting because they are highly specialised in niche areas. These agile companies can respond to market demand quickly and change their approaches in response.

I interviewed tier two Indian supplier MindTree a couple of years ago when it was first targeting UK customers. It came to market with the offer of high end consultancy skills combined with low cost delivery. Back then it had 80 UK-based staff. The company has been focussed on the mid-market.

I met the company's UK head Tridip Saha last week and was interested to see how the company is doing.

Last year it grew its revenues in Europe by 50%. It now has 130 UK based staff as well as 1500 dedicated UK support staff in India.

Tridip told me that there has been a big change in the conversations MindTree is having with UK customers has changed from being about offshoring to being about expertise.

When it comes to expertise MindTree says its "cross court backhand" is business intelligence and analysis. The main sectors where it is doing business are retail, financial services and travel and transportation.

Tridip says every big business has a wealth of data which can provide valuable insights about business opportunities.

MindTree's business intelligence (BI) engagements might include the company building a data warehouse or expanding an existing one followed and creating dashboards for the business users so they can use information effectively.

He says 70% of the company's UK customers originally approached it for BI services.

Source: computerweekly.com

China's Jinma Famous Information Technology Releases 3D Medical Imaging System

Jiangsu province, China-based high technology company Jinma Yangming Information Technology Co. Ltd. has officially released a world-leading 3D medical imaging post-processing system at its headquarters in Changzhou National Hi-Tech District. In addition, the company has also launched a next-generation regional medical imaging information product, the IPAD remote diagnosis system.

Jinma Yangming Information Technology's 3D post-processing system uses 2D graphics, including computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasonography (US), as imaging sources, in tandem with a computer graphics learning algorithm to recreate 3D simulation images that intuitively display body organs, and, in particular, inner surface anatomy and pathological changes of body lumens, as a tool for disease diagnosis, 3D positioning, simulation operations and interventional therapies, among others.

With the system's advanced 3D volume rendering (VR), operators can adjust tissue transparency in real time and show metal implants and atherosclerotic plaques as well as other objects contained in tissues, providing the clinician or diagnostician with a highly enhanced sense of spacing. The 3D VR eliminates outline sketches of tissues, greatly simplifying the operating process. Renal pelvis, ureters and bladders are displayed through deboning, cutting and rotating, while preserving images of the spine and pelvis. Organs and bones associated with the urinary system can be distinguished with different colors. Tumors of various systems and organs enhanced by contrast media can serve to bring together the images of bones, vessels and soft tissues simultaneously in one 3D image, accurately positioning the tumors and allowing for the identifying of the status of the progression of the disease and the degree to which surrounding tissues, organs and vessels have been affected, including the degree of invasion and translocation. The processed image can be rotated so that the diseased area can by observed by the operator from any angle, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis. The images can be clipped, cut, drilled and made into automated films to clearly reveal the hidden parts of the lesion, providing more abundant image information so that clinicians can provide much more accurate diagnoses.

Founded in 2004, Jiangsu Jinma Yangming Information Technology has already grown into the largest research, development and manufacturing facility for medical device software in Jiangsu province. The company has received the designations of "High-tech Enterprise in Jiangsu Province" and "Software Enterprise in Jiangsu Province" as well as ISO 9001 Certification and CMMI level 3 certification. In addition, it has obtained the registration certificates for the medical devices it produces as well as the license to produce medical devices as required by the local authorities. The firm has established long-term cooperation and software outsourcing relationships with major global players including Siemens, GE, Philips and IBM, and has had its products successfully adopted by over 800 organizations across China. The company services hospitals and patients via its scientifically innovative business model. The remote features allow for access to the images at every level of China's healthcare information network including at the regional, hospital, hospital department and single product level. The remote regional imaging diagnosis system with its unique sharing and training features is the first of its kind in the country and the only regional centralized remote imaging diagnosis system that has been deployed to date in Jiangsu province.

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TN government unveils rural BPO policy to stem migration

With a view to providing opportunities in rural areas and discouraging migration to urban centres, the state government has rolled out an 'Enhanced Rural BPO (business process outsourcing) Policy' with incentives for entrepreneurs and companies setting up BPOs in villages.

The new policy, promised by the AIADMK government in the 2011-2012 budget and released on June 1, 2012, is a modification of the first one rolled out by the DMK government in February 2010. As against a capital subsidy of Rs 3 lakh provided in the first policy, the new one promises a capital subsidy of 20% on hardware and equipment, subject to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh. However, training subsidy has been halved to Rs 2.25 lakh from Rs 4.5 lakh.

Also, in the new policy, there are additions like transport facility and exemption on earnest money deposit in case the BPOs bid for government works. The reluctance of BPOs to venture into rural Tamil Nadu has prompted the government to come out with a separate policy for this sector. Most BPO operations are centered around Chennai and Coimbatore and to some extent in Madurai and Trichy.

Former Krishnagiri district collector Santhosh Babu should be credited with promoting the rural BPOs concept in Tamil Nadu. During his tenure as collector, he promoted the first rural BPO in the country at Sanasandiram near Hosur in August 2007 to train and employ Naxal-affected youth who had studied at least up to Class 10.

Four months later, another BPO was opened at Alapatti village in Krishnagiri. In due course, more centres were opened at Uthangarai (where a Naxal shootout was reported as late as 2002), Maganurpatti and Mittapalli, all in the same district. However, once Babu moved out, these centres lost their sheen due to disinterest of his successors.

Babu, as MD of the Electronics Corporation of Tamil Nadu, was again instrumental in promoting GRG-SCOPE Rural BPO, an initiative by the GRG Trust of Coimbatore and Scope International (whollyowned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank) at Masinagudi in the Nilgiris district in December 2010.

The centre employs 40 tribal girls who work on a platform developed by Scope International for simplified data entry of forms. The centre is doing well, said a Scope official.

Rural BPOs have a significant cost advantage compared to their urban counterparts in taking up outsourced works like data entry, data processing, data creation, document conversion, digitization, customer service, handling help desk, providing technical support etc.

"As against a salary commitment of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 for urban BPOs, the rural ones attract talent for as low as Rs 7000 to Rs 8000," said an official.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com