TECHNOLOGY

Top 30 countries for offshore services

Gartner, Inc. has identified the Top 30 countries for globally sourced activities in 2010-2011, each one rated according to 10 criteria*, and found that eight new countries have made their debut in the Top 30. Many organisations that choose to move IT services to lower-cost countries are daunted by the task of determining which country or countries would best host their operations.

"This year the Top 30 countries are exclusively emerging nations," said Research Vice President Gartner Ian Marriott." As the pace of change is slower in developed countries we have chosen to focus on those locations that are still maturing and developing, domestically and internationally."

Nine countries from Asia/Pacific were represented in the 30 leading countries, compared with 10 in previous years.

These included the undisputed leader in offshore services - India - and the greatest challenger in terms of potential scale - China.

Gartner's Top 30 locations for offshore services in 2010, by region, are:

* Americas: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Panama and Peru.

* Asia/Pacific: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

* Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA): Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, Mauritius, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey and Ukraine.

Seven developed countries have moved out of the Top 30 this year - Australia, Canada, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Singapore and Spain. However, they should still be considered important in the context of nearshore locations whose maturity - albeit with somewhat lower cost advantage - offers significant benefits for organisations seeking a balanced portfolio of countries from which services are delivered.

In addition, Uruguay has also been displaced - not because it has been performing worse over the past year, but because this dynamic market has seen other countries making more noticeable progress.

In the past 12 months, Gartner has seen considerable efforts from many countries to consolidate or grow their positions as leading locations for offshore services. Emerging nations have placed significant emphasis on IT and business process services providing a vehicle for their economic growth, as many potential trading partners are moving from recession to tentative growth.

The result of this is that eight new countries have moved into the Top 30 - five for the first time - Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Colombia, Mauritius and Peru - along with three re-entrants - Panama, Sri Lanka and Turkey.

Americas

This year, eight countries from Latin America appeared in the final list of 30 compared with seven from the Americas as a whole in previous years. "This indicates the progress being made in this region, and these countries are becoming an attractive proposition for the largest buying market for offshore services - the United States," said Marriott.

In the past, a lack of government support for offshore initiatives has restricted development by countries in the Americas. Currently Mexico and Chile are rated "very good" for government support, with Brazil and Costa Rica meriting a "good" rating. Mexico leads the ratings for labour pool with a "very good" score, and is followed by Brazil and Chile - both with "good" ratings.

The region performed creditably in terms of infrastructure, with Brazil and Chile rated "best" and Argentina and Colombia "worst".

In the educational system category, Chile, Mexico and Costa Rica were the highest ranked countries with a rating of "good" while Panama scored lowest with a "poor" rating.

In the key evaluation criterion of cost, Mexico was the only country in the region to score "very good"; all others were rated "good", although for Argentina this was a step down from last year's score of "very good".

In the rating for political and economic environment, Brazil was clearly the top performing nation with a rating of "excellent", moving up from "very good" last year. Data and intellectual property security and privacy continued to be a weakness in the region, with Mexico the only country to exceed a rating of "fair".

Asia/Pacific

Government support for promoting their countries as offshore service locations was strong in India, China and Malaysia, although Indonesia continues to be considered poor for government support.

The combination of skills, existing scale and future scalability gave India a labour pool advantage over other countries in the region; Vietnam improved its position in this category, joining China, Malaysia and the Philippines on a rating of "good", and Indonesia managed to improve its comparative rating from "poor" to "fair". China and Malaysia continued to improve their positions and were both rated highly for infrastructure, while Bangladesh fared worst with a rating of "poor". China, India, Malaysia and the Philippines again led the rankings for educational system.

On cost, there was an overall change of leader in the region, with Vietnam moving down to "very good" and Indonesia moving up to "excellent", which is the top score across all the countries Gartner analysed. All other countries in the region were rated "very good" for cost, with the exception of Malaysia, which was rated "good".

Overall, the cost dimension for the Asia/Pacific region continues to offer an advantage over the Americas and EMEA. In the remaining categories however, the region is noticeably weaker - the political and economic environment remains a concern for many companies when moving work to offshore locations, and global and legal maturity is still an area of weakness for the region, with only India and Malaysia reaching a rating of "good".

The category of data and intellectual property security and privacy was a particular weakness in this region, with India the only country to achieve a rating of "good" and no fewer than six nations scoring "poor".

EMEA

This year's final list of 30 countries included 13 from EMEA - a mix of European Union (EU) members some European nations that remain outside the EU and three African countries. Of these countries only Egypt achieved a rating higher than "good" for government support, reflecting the amount of focus still needed to create an environment that will support the drive of these nations to become a part of organisations' global delivery models. However, South Africa did improve its rating from "fair" to "good".

The labour pool ratings in EMEA were also indicative of some limitations, either in quality or in the scale of appropriate resources, as no country achieved a rating higher than "good".

In comparative terms across the Top 30 countries, Gartner observed some deterioration in the scores for educational systems in EMEA in 2010. Russia slipped back this year from "very good" to "good", while Hungary and Romania moved from "good" to "fair".

Last year's leaders on cost attractiveness - Egypt, Slovakia and the Ukraine - all slipped back from ratings of "very good" to "good", while Russia moved back from "good" to "fair", indicating the cost pressures now being exerted by a combination of the economic downturn and increased demand on somewhat limited resources.

"Sourcing managers and service providers should use the various ratings to help determine which locations are right for their individual organisations," said Marriott. "In this increasingly dynamic global environment, multinational providers will continue to extend their footprint in different geographies, carrying with them their expertise and maturity, while local providers will strive to become offshore providers, searching for opportunities and niches they can explore.

Even though some countries are rated poorly for some categories, clients may find individual providers - global and local - whose capabilities mitigate some of the risks."

The top 30 countries for offshore services were rated according to 10 criteria that will help determine which locations are right for individual organisations. The 10 criteria were: language, government support, labour pool, infrastructure, educational system, cost, political and economic environment, cultural compatibility, global and legal maturity, and data and intellectual property security and privacy. The rating scale was "poor", "fair", "good", "very good" and "excellent".

Semiconductor equipment spending - 131 percent growth in 2010

Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending was on pace to reach $38.4 billion in 2010, a 131.2 percent increase from 2009 spending of $16.6 billion according to Gartner Inc. In 2011 spending will be essentially flat, as worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending will total $38 billion, a 1 percent decline from 2010.

"2010 was the strongest growth year ever for the semiconductor equipment industry, a nice rebound from the worst year ever in 2009," said Managing Vice President Gartner, Klaus Rinnen. Companies should prepare for a softer 2011, where equipment purchases will focus more on capacity than technology equipment."

"Two major trends will shape capital spending going forward. The first of these trends is the emergence of NAND Flash as the leading memory segment in terms of capital spending. NAND demand, fuelled by the phenomenal success of media tablets, will continue strongly for the foreseeable future, and require continued high levels of investment to meet surging demand," Rinnen said.

"The second trend is the strength in foundry spending, driven by competition between TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, and Samsung at the leading edge, and by the continued move to an asset lite strategy by the majority of the world's integrated device manufacturers (IDMs)."

All segments of the semiconductor capital equipment market experienced exceptionally strong growth rates ranging from 118 percent to 140 percent in 2010.

In the wafer fab equipment (WFE) market, worldwide spending is on pace to total $29.7 billion in 2010, a 133 percent increase from 2009. Strong global demand for semiconductors, along with underinvestment in 2008 and 2009, led to pent-up demand for equipment once the economy turned.

However, overall fab utilisation rates have been declining slowly since, as more capacity has come online and semiconductor production has slowed, becoming more aligned with end-user demand. This leads Gartner to predict that WFE growth will decline 3.4 percent in 2011, before increasing and returning to positive growth in 2012.

Worldwide packaging and assembly equipment (PAE) spending was projected to surpass $5.9 billion in 2010, a 118.6 percent increase from 2009. In 2011, PAE spending is forecast to grow 7 percent.

On a regional basis, Asia/Pacific will improve its share of PAE purchases with approximately 79 percent of PAE shipments in 2010 to about 86 percent of all PAE sales by 2014. China will be the largest individual consumer of PAE by 2013, accounting for just over 30 percent of the total market in that year.

In 2010, the worldwide automated test equipment (ATE) market was expected to have spending reach $2.8 billion, up 140.5 percent from 2009 spending. Solid growth occurred through the first three quarters of the year, but with a quarterly decline late in the year and into early 2011.

While the ATE market grew substantially in 2010, it fell to very low levels in 2009, with the memory test segment declining to less than $200 million. Additional information is available in the Gartner report "Forecast: Capital Equipment Pauses in 2011 after Record Growth in 2010."

This research is produced by Gartner's Semiconductor Manufacturing program. This research program, which is part of the overall semiconductor research group, provides a comprehensive view of the entire semiconductor industry, from manufacturing to device and application market trends.

Abans introduces Canon PowerShot A495

Now here's a Canon camera for beginners as well as seasoned photographers who are ambitious to capture some really creative photographs.

The Canon PowerShot A495 has the compact sophistication and relaxed simplicity that make it a natural for novices as well as everyone else who craves for style and convenience.

Its 10.0 Megapixel resolution and 3.3 Optical Zoom make it easy to capture the action in dazzling colour and brilliant detail while a bright, bold 2.5 inch LCD makes shooting and playback a genuine pleasure.

To help make the most of your creativity, new Scene Modes make your photographs standout and the DIGIC III Image Processor keeps it all looking extra sharp. For general purpose photography, Smart AUTO shooting mode analyses your scene and automatically selects the appropriate setting. For more challenging situations, you can match the scene yourself to the appropriate scene mode. For example, Night Snapshot scene mode sets the camera so you can night pictures where the main subject lit by flash and the background are both captured.

You don't have to rush back to get in position when taking self-timer group photos: Face Detection Self-Timer scene mode detects faces in the scene and releases the shutter in response to the appearance of an additional face. Low-Light scene mode extends the high ISO up to 3200 when photographing without flash in dimly-lit situations.

Long Shutter scene mode extends the shutter speed range from 1 second to 15 seconds for creative night photography.

For artistic photo effects, My Colours can record your pictures more vivid, neutral, sepia, black and white, or use Custom Colour to adjust the contrast, sharpness and saturation to your taste. You can use Super Vivid scene mode to get intense colours or get a posterisation effect using the new Poster Effect scene mode.

For those who desire a bit more control, switch to Program AE (P) mode and dial in an exposure compensation for scenes that are too bright or too dark. Custom White Balance allows you to obtain the correct colours under artificial lighting conditions.

And if the need arises for a video shot of an important event, you can shoot VGA movie 640x480 pixels at 30fps with natural sound for up to 1 hour or 4GB per clip.

The Canon PowerShot A495 is very easy to operate and is ideal for first-time users. It is very affordably priced and is available in attractive colours blue, red and silver from Abans Showrooms and authorised dealers islandwide and at Abans Duty Free Shops at Bandaranaike International Airport.

Calcey, CompareNetworks celebrate five-year partnership

Calcey Technologies, a web and mobile software solutions and services company, has completed its fifth year providing successful and effective services to CompareNetworks. CompareNetworks is a leading provider of online B-to-B marketplaces for the scientific and healthcare industries, with sites including Biocompare, Dentalcompare, Medcompare, OphthalmologyWeb, and Labcompare.

Over the course of the relationship, Calcey Technologies has delivered a wide range of services including collaboration with CompareNetworks to build a business-to-business (B-to-B) product marketplace platform, creation of a lead deployment system, and information aggregation.

"CompareNetworks has been one of our greatest success stories, and the relationship has truly been a win-win for both parties," said Chief Executive Officer Calcey Technologies Mangala Karunaratne. "The key differentiator is our customer-focused delivery, as we do not apply cookie cutter approaches to any of our projects."

"Each and every customer is viewed as a new opportunity with its own unique challenges, so we always customise our services and our work approach according to the customer's specific needs," said Karunaratne.

"Due to the nature of our business, it is absolutely necessary that we utilise the most effective, efficient and comprehensive information aggregation tools and technologies for our Web sites," said Chief Executive Officer of CompareNetworks Paul Gatti. "Over the past five years, Calcey's solutions have provided us with just that, allowing us to leverage ubiquitous Internet technologies and comprehensive content repositories into content-rich segment-specific marketplaces for our professional B-to-B users."

CompareNetworks, Inc.

Headquartered in South San Francisco, California, CompareNetworks operates targeted, online, B-to-B marketplaces for professionals worldwide. Focused on providing detailed product information for niche markets, CompareNetworks integrates online marketplaces, email newsletters, video, whitepapers and editorial content to bring buyers and sellers together. With an extensive directory of more than one million products with complete specifications, and thousands of product videos, CompareNetworks provides the most up-to-date B-to-B marketplaces on the Web.

Calcey Technologies

Calcey Technologies is a privately held professional services firm, based in San Mateo, California, with its global delivery center located in Colombo. Calcey specializes in providing cost effective and results-driven solutions to achieve an unparalleled ROI for its customers. Calcey focuses on delivering outsourced Web and Mobile Software Solutions, Knowledge and Information Research Services, Multimedia Solutions, and Software Quality Assurance Services for enterprises around the world.

Seated (from left) Jehan Perimpanayagam - Director and Treasurer (CEO, Info Mate (Pvt) Ltd), Madu Ratnayake - Director and Vice President (GM, Virtusa), Dinesh Saparamadu - Chairman (CEO, hSenid), Mano Sekaram - Director and General Secretary (CEO, Eurocenter), Sujiva Dewaraja - Director and Vice President (EVP/Head of IT Sector, John Keells Holdings) Standing (from left) Nalina Wijesundara - Director(Director and GM, eCollege Lanka (Pvt) Ltd), Ashique M. Ali - Director (CEO, Talliance), Sanath Fernando - Director (CEO, Ridgecrest Asia (Pvt) Ltd), Sandra De Zoysa - Director (Group Chief Customer Officer, Dialog Telekom PLC), Mark Webster - Director (Centre Manager, HSBC Technology and Services - Service Delivery), Jayantha De Silva - Director (VP South Asia and Managing Director Sri Lanka, IFS) , Jit Seneviratne - Director (Director, Millennium Information Technologies Limited)

SLASSCOM elects new board for 2011

SLASSCOM plays a catalyst role with aggressive plans to capitalise opportunities for Sri Lanka in 2011.

The IT and BPO industry is projected to grow by 26 percent with export earnings estimated at US$ 390 million for 2010. Mass employment generation with more foreign direct income is being targeted by the national IT/ BPO chamber.

Sri Lanka plans on building a niche focus on a few core areas in the IT and BPO industries globally to differentiate the countries offerings with other outsourcing destinations and with a vision to make the IT/ BPO industry the number one export earner for the country.

SLASSCOM elected its third Board and General Council consisting of key industry leaders and decision-makers to drive this vision for 2011.