Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Genpact bags 5-year deal from Bengal Aerotropolis Projects

BPO major Genpact Tuesday inked a five-year deal with Bengal Aerotropolis Projects (BAP) for managing its IT operations for an undisclosed amount.

BAP is engaged in development of aerotropolis projects in the country.

As part of the deal, Genpact will provide BAP with a hosted-IT application and infrastructure services model, which will help the company in saving large capital investments in IT, Genpact said in a statement.

However, the size of the deal was not disclosed. The partnership would enable BAP to move to a cloud-based IT model and help shift from a capital-heavy owned model to an operational expense model, it said.

Patni sets up hub for BPO ops in Texas

Global IT and BPO services provider Patni Computer Systems said it has set up a new North American hub for BPO operations in El Paso, Texas. The establishment of the El Paso site follows Patni’s recent move to open a nearshore centre in Queretaro, Mexico, to serve North American and Latin American markets and augment the company’s global delivery capabilities, a company release said here.

Establishing the service hub expands Patni’s business process outsourcing (BPO) and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) delivery capability to service North American customers from domestic locations in a cost-effective manner and employ highly-skilled local talent, the release said.
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TCS signs 5-year deal with Malaysia Airlines

The country's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) today inked a five-year deal with Malaysia Airlines (MA) for an undisclosed amount.

The five-year contract for end-to-end IT infrastructure services will transform the airline's IT operations to deliver seamless internal customer experience, TCS said in a statement.

However, the size of the deal was not disclosed. "One of the key initiatives include fine tuning our IT outsourcing strategy to deliver the required business results at lower cost. At the same time, we will continue to work with our key vendors to maximise service delivery and to proactively address other business requirements," MA Chief Information Officer Faridah Abdul Rahman said.

Infosys may have seen 4,000 staff exits in February: CLSA

Brokerage firm CLSA said over 4,000 employees may have resigned from Infosys in February alone, largely driven by an uptick in business environment that has created a huge demand for talent, after a lull. The normal attrition numbers in India’s second-largest software exporter is around 1,200 employees a month.

“There is quite a bit of industry chatter that 4,000-4,200 employees have resigned at Infosys in February. This is not officially confirmed by the management, but multiple sources are claiming the same number, including industry blogs,” CLSA said in a note to its clients. However, Infosys group HR head Nandita Gurjar said it was not true.

Monday, March 1, 2010

Wipro starts probe into $4 million fraud

Embezzlement by employees is seen to be a common phenomenon among Indian companies. And some say even the $4 million that a Wipro employee is said to have embezzled is a relatively ordinary figure.

Wipro is now instituting a high-level internal probe, and is said to have even mandated Ernst & Young to verify the audited accounts. Experts say the reason for such frauds typically is lax controls.

Kashi Memani, former chairman and managing partner of Ernst and Young India, said such frauds happen when a company does not conduct regular internal audits, do not have in place a tight set of internal controls and most importantly, when they decentralize the power of checks and balances to people down in the hierarchy.

"It is very important for companies to change the set of people who have access to accounts on a regular basis. But, one must be careful not to change people either too soon or wait for too long. Many a time people who have for long earned the company's trust of handling accounts, tend to misuse this trust," Memani said.

Several of these factors appear relevant in Wipro's case. The embezzler, one Anoop Kumar Agarwal, who committed suicide last December in Bangalore, is said to have joined the company in 2006 and later promoted as an assistant manager in the finance department. Agarwal, reports say, used stolen passwords to transfer money into his personal account.
Source: EconomicTimes

15 disqualified H-1B employers

Courtesy: IndiaTimes Infotech
2009 was one of the most controversial years for H-1B visas. For the first time ever, nearly 20,000 H-1B visas went a begging even seven weeks after the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) started accepting applications for the financial year 2010.

With H-1B visas facing blame for the spiralling job losses in the US, the year saw numerous Bills being introduced for restricting the use of H-1B visas through legislation. This made US Department of Labor (DOL) and other US Immigration agencies tougher in approving H-1B visa applications.

Among all the brouhaha, many companies were also disqualified from applying for H-1B visas. A company faces debarment over what is seen as an H-1B abuse under US laws. The penalty of debarment means that a company is disqualified from obtaining approvals of employment-based, permanent and temporary petitions. This disqualification includes all H-1B, L-1, O-1, and P non-immigrant petitions, as well as all I-140 immigrant petitions, as part of the permanent residence process.

Here's over to the top 15 companies disqualified (starting November 30 2009).

4MY2C, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2009 to 5/31/2011
Employer location: Santa Fe Springs, CA

AGA John, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2008 to 5/31/2010
Employer location: 8687 Melrose Ave. Suite B-130 West Hollywood, CA 90069

Amtech Electrocircuits
Debarment period: 3/1/2008 to 2/28/2010
Employer location: 701 Minnesota Drive Troy, MI 48083

API Accounting & Computer Consulting
Debarment period: 4/1/2008 to 3/31/2010
Employer location: 17870 Castleton St. Suite 116 City of Industry, CA 91748

Assured Horizons, LLC
Debarment period: 8/1/2008 to 7/31/2010
Employer location: 18607 Brookhurst Street, Suite 359 Fountain Valley, CA 92708

Bradley Consulting Services, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2009 to 5/31/2011
Employer location: 3357 Pitcher Plant Circle Pensacola, FL 32506

Calpension, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2009 to 5/31/2010
Employer location: 23232 Peralta Dr. Suite 218 Laguna Hills, CA 92653

Cambridge Resource Group, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2009 to 5/31/2011
Employer location: Sri Reddy 18 Lyman Street Suite 207 Westborough, MA 01581

Complete Systems Solutions, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2009 to 5/31/2011
Employer location: 560 Sutter Street #400 San Francisco, CA 94102

Julian and Associates
Debarment period: 8/1/2008 to 7/31/2010
Employer location: 4641 North Ashland Avenue Chicago, IL 60640

LNBJ Construction Company, Inc
Debarment period: 3/1/2008 to 2/28/2010
Employer location: 2642 Briarwood Drive Marietta, GA 30067

Magnolia Pool Supply, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2009 to 5/31/2011
Employer location: 9571 Magnolia Ave. Riverside, CA 92503

Morex Enterprises Inc
Debarment period: 3/1/2008 to 2/28/2010
Employer location: 1442 E. Washington Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90021

Netultimate.Com, Inc
Debarment period: 6/1/2009 to 5/31/2011
Employer location: 8116 Arlington Blvd. Apt. 121 Falls Church, VA 22042

New Hope Solutions, Inc
Debarment period: 1/1/2009 to 12/31/2010
Employer location: 2731 Sawbury Blvd. Columbus, Ohio 43235
Source: IndiaTimes