Cisco to unveil network boost for Internet: Source 
February 25, 2010
Source:  REUTERS

NEW YORK: Cisco Systems Inc will announce in March new technology for communications service providers to offer more advanced, high-speed Internet connections, a source familiar with the plan said on Wednesday.

The move comes as the U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to demand faster Internet speeds as part of its National Broadband Plan to be unveiled on March 17. Cisco said on Wednesday it will unveil technology on March 9 that will "forever change the Internet." On its website, the network equipment maker said the change would show "what's possible when networking gets an adrenaline boost."

The company declined to elaborate, but the source said the technology would help telecom service providers like phone companies offer better, high-speed Internet service. The FCC wants minimum Internet data transmission speeds of 100 megabits per second (Mbps) to 100 million homes within a decade, compared with current industry estimates of less than 4 Mbps.

Google Inc has also rattled the service provider industry with a plan to build a super-fast Internet network of its own. Cisco is the world's top maker of routers, switches, and other network equipment that help phone companies and corporations manage their networks and enable faster, more stable Internet connections.

Satyam takes former client Upaid to court over tax matter
February 25, 2010
SOURCE : PTI

NEW DELHI: Mahindra Satyam (formerly Satyam Computer) on Tuesday said it has filed a lawsuit in a New York court against its former UK client Upaid, seeking to make it solely responsible for any tax liability arising from an out-of-court settlement reached by them.

In December last year, Satyam had offered to settle all disputes with Upaid Systems over licence of intellectual property, among others, by paying $70 million to the UK- based provider of mobile and online payment-transaction services.

Mahindra Satyam sources said there is a stand-off between Satyam and Upaid over the tax liabilities.

In a regulatory filing on BSE, Mahindra Satyam said: "In the lawsuit filed on February 22, 2010, Satyam is asking the New York Court for a declaration that the settlement agreement is valid and enforceable... Upaid is solely responsible for any tax liability arising from that $70 million settlement payment, including responsibility for complying with tax deduction requirements."

It further said to the extent there is any tax deduction required, it shall be deducted from the $70 million, plus interest, currently in the escrow account that would otherwise be payable to Upaid.

In its court declaration, Satyam further said under the terms of the Agreements, the disbursement of funds from the Escrow Account must be made in accordance with Indian law, including any requirement to deduct taxes from the Settlement Amounts prior to disbursement.

Satyam is entitled to receive from Upaid all the benefits of the Settlement Agreement, including the release of claims, license of intellectual property and dismissal of pending litigation, the Indian software maker contended in the petition.

Outsourcing to India: Europe plays strictly by the rules
February 25, 2010
SOURCE: ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: European outsourcing customers prefer contract staff and local delivery, as per a latest Forrester study. Western Europe, which accounts for nearly $6.8-billion worth of India’s software exports, follows strict local labour rules and plans to avoid any move that could be viewed as anti-social, according to research firm Forrester.

After interviewing more than 30 vendor and user companies including Accenture, Capgemini, HP, IBM, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Wipro, Forrester reported that while global players such as ABN Amro leverage Indian providers for their global IT development and support requirements, Continental European companies send very little or even no work to India.

While Germany showed relatively solid growth in the past two years, locations such as France, the third-largest European IT services market after the UK and Germany, has sent less than 2% of its overall IT services budgets to India. This is even as Indians service providers offer the lowest rates and offshore scale.

Factors including organisational structures heavy on senior staff, historic preference for staff augmentation and traditional unwillingness to let work go off-site make offshoring from Continental Europe a peculiar market that has eluded almost all service providers — Indians, regional Europeans, and even multinationals.

Companies in Western Europe aren’t in a hurry to cut costs by outsourcing overseas. Instead, their top priority is to be well integrated with the local social fabric, which includes avoiding cutting jobs in their countries, and adhering to local labour rules and other norms.

Indian companies, too, have been relatively inflexible in their approach in Europe. For instance, Infosys’ Poland facility (primarily for finance and accounting services) show how top Indian firms tend to limit their focus to select markets and offer narrow capability in one or two service lines. Moreover, they prefer to manage the staff themselves, and offer delivery from offshore locations.

Besides, most Indian firms see a challenge in ramping up onshore and nearshore resources as it directly impacts their bottom line. To capture more work in Europe, Indian outsourcers are making several moves and investments to become more relevant to markets such as Germany, the Netherlands, the Nordics, and Switzerland.

They are further recruiting local country-level or practice-level leadership, ramping up and opening new nearshore centres, starting language and cultural training centres offshore to train delivery staff and tweaking business models to accommodate lower offshore ratios, the report said.

Global delivery service firms such as Siemens IT Solutions and Services have been using Indian resources for low-cost labour for more than a decade. But, most Continental clients are still taking a cautious approach toward offshoring and show only a moderate growth of offshore initiatives.

Traditionally many believed that European firms typically prefer to send their jobs to nearshore locations such as Eastern Europe for the cultural proximity and similar time zones. However, the report revealed that more than 60% of European firms intend to send their work to India.