The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Australia presents great chance for IT firms”

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Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Australia presents great chance for IT firms”

Staff Reporter

The country is looking to outsource because of skill shortage and escalating costs, says Sarat Chandran

CHENNAI: For Indian IT and BPO companies scouring for markets other than the U.S., Australia presents a great opportunity, C. Sarat Chandran, director, Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at a workshop on Off-shoring and Outsourcing Opportunities in Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region here.

He said Australia was looking to outsource because of skill shortage and escalating costs. In the past six months, 20 Australian companies had set up shop in India on their own, or through joint ventures. This, he said, indicated India’s potential to further business ties with Australia.

Information Technology Secretary P.W.C. Davidar said Australia followed a systemic approach that focussed on creating a system that worked rather than depend on individuals. This approach would create a stable environment for companies wishing to do business with Australia.

Addressing the small and medium enterprises interested in Australian business, Govind Babu, vice-president, emerging business unit of Attra Infotech, said either domain or technology expertise was needed to beat the bigger players.

Attra Infotech was started in Australia in 1995 and is now a mid-sized IT firm, focussing on the consumer finance industry, with 300 people and an offshore centre in Bangalore. Drawing lessons from Attra’s experience, Mr. Babu said that only by being a niche player, small and medium enterprises could distinguish themselves.

Off-shoring was not just a business opportunity; it was also about people, said Shane Freeman, managing director, ANZ-OTSS, an Australian banking major. He said that for off-shoring to work well, attention must be paid to human beings. As off-shoring was sometimes equated with job losses, it was a sensitive issue that needed to be handled properly. There had to be adequate efforts to ensure people whose jobs were off-shored were redeployed and well placed. Only a humane approach to off-shoring, he reckoned, would ensure its success.

P. Gopalakrishna, secretary, Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce, said a trade delegation from India would visit Australia in February. The visit to Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney would be organised by the Chamber.

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