Mail Today, New Delhi, Friday, May 20, 2011 3ADVANTAGE SPECIAL
BPO clientsworry overstaff qualityfor projectsCUSTOMERS outsourcing criti-cal back-office functions inbanking and financial servicesare expressing concerns overthe number of fresh gradu-ates working on their proj-ects, which they believe,could adversely impact thequality of work. Companieslike Capital One and Amexhave reportedly soughtcloser scrutiny to understandthe ratio of freshers workingon mission-critical projects.
There have been reports thatone of India’s top IT companieshad to cough up compensationto one of the complainants forerrors that were introduced bythe outsourcing partner intothe client’s database. The
squeeze on margins as a resultof the U.S. recession led severaltop IT companies to increasethe proportion of fresh gradu-ates into projects as their lowersalaries helped the enterprisesmaintain profitability.
Industry sources said projectviability could only be main-tained by reducing the salarycosts as the top outsourcingclients from the United Stateslike Citibank, JPMorgan andAmex have not added to theirIT budgets post-recession andexpect companies to absorbtheir wage hike by curtailingoperating margins.
Experts also point to thestandard wage inflation ofbetween 10-15 per cent as acause for this malaise. Thetask now is to expand theambit of such training toinclude sectorial expertise.
BPO Watch India
WORLD NEWS IN BRIEFEricsson inksBPO deal withClearwire THIS is Ericsson’s week tobe in the spotlight for U.S.news, it seems. The com-pany has just announced adeal to take on the runningof Clearwire’s network, evenas the Swedish company wasnamed the latest to be inter-ested in the trove of wirelesspatents being sold by thebankrupt Nortel for poten-tially $1 billion or more,according to a report.
Clearwire and Ericsson haveannounced a major outsourc-ing deal for the running ofClearwire’s network. Underthe terms of the deal, some700 Clearwire employees aregetting transferred to Erics-son, although Clearwire willmaintain ownership of thenetwork. Financial terms ofthe deal were not disclosed bythe companies.
Ericsson has been one ofthe trailblazers in the move-ment among operators tooutsource network manage-ment. It already has a simi-lar outsourcing deal withSprint, part-owner of Clear-wire. The move will free upClearwire significantly interms of operating expenses,which might go some way tohelp the company financethe buildout of the rest of its4G network.
BPO Watch India
Apple & Androidface tighterlaws in EuropeSMARTPHONES of Appleand Google are likely to facetighter regulation in Europeafter a data protectionpanel ruled that locationinformation collected by thedevices should be classifiedas personal data, accordingto a media report.
Apple smartphones andthose running on Google’sAndroid system look set tocome under tighter regula-tion in Europe, after an EUdata protection advisorypanel ruled on Wednesdaythat location information col-lected by the devices shouldbe classed as personal data.
This is likely to mean strictlimits on how location datacan be collected and storedby smartphone companies,telecom operators and anybusinesses hoping to runlocation-related services onphones, the report said.
The report said the propos-als are a first step towardformulating a law on mobilephone location data andcould be written intoEurope’s revised Data Pro-tection Directive this year.
The panel said companiesshould get permission fromsmartphone users before col-lecting geographic informa-tion and specify what purposethe data is being used for. PTI
China Mobile eyeing acquisition avenuesCHINA Mobile Ltd , the world’slargest mobile operator by mar-ket value, said on Thursday thatit is seeking acquisition oppor-tunities in emerging Asian mar-kets, including Myanmar.
The company will not issue
new shares should it decide tolist A-shares in China, Chair-man Wang Jianzhou toldreporters after a shareholders’meeting. The mobile carrier,which had more than 600 mil-lion users, in April posted a 5.4
per cent rise in first-quarter netprofit to 26.9 billion yuan ($4.1billion). Like peers China Uni-com and China Telecom CorpLtd , China Mobile has been try-ing to reverse a decline in aver-age revenue per user. Reuters
INTERNET security has once againcome into sharp focus with Sony dis-covering a loophole in their website setup to reset passwords for its usersaffected by the hacking of the PlaySta-tion network.
Sony on Thursday announced that it hasfound a security flaw on its website thatcould have allowed a hacker access to pri-vate details of its gaming buffs.
“We are in the process of continuous restora-tion of the website loopholes that have beenidentified and it will be healed pretty soon,” saidAtindriya Bose, country manager at Sony Com-puter Entertainment.
Last month, Sony’s PlayStation network washacked and user data such as email ids andcredit card details were possibly stolen in hugenumbers, affecting users worldwide.
“Some users could say botnets (a collection ofinfected computers or those taken over by hack-ers) are the largest threat today because they havethe potential of shutting down websites, onlinestores and even Governmental websites and crit-ical resources,” Costin Raiu, director of the globalresearch and analysis team, Kaspersky Lab, said,explaining the present online threat scenario.
“Others say that a much moreserious threat can come frommobile malware, because thereare a lot more mobile phones thancomputer systems,” he noted.
“Even though hacking is goingon we are prompt to enhance oursecurity measures. But only thesewon’t help. The Indian users alsoneed to be conscious; they alsoneed to be vigilant about privatedetails such as credit cardswhen they are on the web,”Bose explained.
“A lot of companies aresuccessful in e-commerceand have been in theindustry for quite long. Butregarding such flaws, itdepends on how fast thecompany reacts to thesituation,” he said.
Hacking is like anarms race, accord-ing to Sunil Abra-
Concern over fresh graduates.
ham, executive director, cen-tre for Internet and society.“It is going side by side withthe security measures thatpeople are taking,” he said.
Abraham said there aremany reasons behind the
recent rise in hackingwith data beingstolen very often.
Firstly, the infor-
mation system nowadays ismore complex though notmature enough to handle suchthreats. Secondly, the social net-working sites are a key playerwhen it comes to damage under-gone due to hacking. The level ofdata loss is huge when onehacks a social networking sitewhich, was not the case before.Thirdly, new updates of these
networking and gaming sites arereleased very frequently, whichleaves little time to check thesecurity flaws in the website.
“New features are more proneto attacks,” Abraham said.
“As attackers become moresophisticated and targeted,hacking continues to be a seri-ous threat. In fact, Symantec’sInternet Security Threat Report16 revealed that an average of260,000 identities were exposedper data breach caused by hack-ing in 2010, nearly quadruplethat of any other cause,” AbhijitLimaye, director, securityresponse, Symantec, said.
However, there are ethicalhackers who feel the need forsecurity and also think thathacking will be a major issueworldwide, in a couple of years.
By Shayan Ghosh in Bangalore
Sony site f lawputs focus onInternet security
Sony on Thursday said it has found a security flaw on its website.
SAFE PRACTICES FOR USERSChange your account pass-
word at regular intervals
Do not keep the same pass-word for all your accounts
Do not disclose informationsuch as credit card numbersover emails or on social net-
working sitesBe watchful at gaming sitesFor online transactions use
more secure ‘https’ or anencrypted website
Remain vigilant about yourcredit card transactions
NOKIA’S share of the mobilephone market dropped to 25per cent in the first quarter of2011, the lowest in 14 years,down from 30.6 per cent atthe same time last year, tech-nology research group Gart-ner said on Thursday.
Its market share declined 5.5percentage points year-on-year, and its share hasreached its lowest since 1997,Gartner said in a study.
Nokia had released its ownfigures on April 21 puttingfirst-quarter market share at29 per cent, down from 33 percent in the first quarter of2010. Earlier this year, thecompany announced a radical
restructuring to overcomeincreasingly fierce competi-tion in the smartphone mar-ket. The Finnish company,which had a global marketshare of 40 per cent as late as2008, nonetheless remains themobile industry leader.
It still ranks well ahead ofsecond-place Samsung, which
holds 16 per cent, followed byLG at third with 5.6 per cent,Apple in fourth with 3.9 percent and RIM with 3.0 per cent.
Nokia announced in Febru-ary that it expected a periodof uncertainty as it phased outits Symbian platform in favourof a tie-in with Microsoft’sWindows Phone. AFP
Nokia’s mobilemarket shareslips to 25%says Gartner
Atindriya Bose
