India expands IT outsourcing reach

In the past few years, India has become a hotbed for technology outsourcing. When companies in the U.S. realized that they could set up call centers in India, where labor and other overhead expenses are much cheaper, they flocked to the Southeast Asian country, taking many jobs with them.

Such an outsourcing revolution has continued to shift jobs to India, but has moved beyond call centers. Today, IT services are being outsourced, including network operation monitoring, helpdesk support and maintenance, and database administration. These jobs require more skilled labor than the labor needed in call centers, and an abundance of skilled labor, especially in technology, is one of India's more valued characteristics.

The Gartner group, a technology research firm, has estimated that 60 to 70% of a company's IT needs can be outsourced safely and to the economic benefit of a company. This statistic translates into a total global infrastructure management market of approximately $86 billion?an enormous figure that spells high growth both for India's and other IT outsourcing firms.

Although India's share of the global infrastructure management market has increased, meaning that more IT jobs have moved overseas, the bulk of the market is still dominated by two American companies, EDS and IBM. Their revenues still eclipse the largest of the Indian outsourcing firms.