How critical is the Indian operation to EDS’ global strategy?
EDS's Indian operations are a key part of service delivery to our global clients. We continue to manage and measure our services in exactly the same manner around our global operations. India is one of our key locations for offshore service delivery to our global clients.

What has been the basis for choosing locations for delivery centres in India? Any specific reason why Bangalore has not been selected?
EDS has a process to identify locations that are deemed to be most suitable to support our clients' business needs. Based on the process, we have currently identified Chennai, Pune, Mumbai and Gurgaon as our support locations. Besides several other details, stable infrastructure, overall costs and access to various levels and skills of knowledge workers are some of the key factors while deciding the suitable locations. For our BPO operations we have focused on Mumbai because of the ability to scale operations with appropriate skill sets. The quality of infrastructure relative to power and telecommunications also makes it an attractive location.

Between China and India, where does EDS see itself? Is EDS pumping more resources into India or into China?
Our growth in China or India or any other country are based on our client demands and support requirements. At this stage, both these countries are continuing to see focus based on our business requirements. Our nature of current business in both these countries is somewhat different and hence we cannot compare the two.

Some of the Tier 1 BPO companies are shedding clients that are too small or not profitable. Do you think such a 'review' of client relationships could become a trend?
I believe that the review of client engagement will be driven by the 'value' equation rather than size. In other words, service providers and service receivers will continuously review the value that is obtained in such engagements.
In the long run, I believe each of us needs to go up the value-chain to be successful. These activities could take place either with the current set of clients as these BPO centres start demonstrating better value proposition, or it could be done with a new set of clients.

From an industry perspective, what are the critical roadblocks to successful outsourcing in India, and what steps should be taken to tackle the same?
Investments and upgrade of infrastructure and telecommunication networks are key areas. Several state governments need to focus on these areas to improve the current investments. Airports are the entry point for clients and create first impression about what should be expected. It is also important to take a re-look at the education system and align it more with the business requirements. Some of the training activities that IT industry undertakes can definitely be taken back into educational system. A national database on educational qualification would definitely help.

The market looks strong. Total IT budgets of the Fortune 1000/Global 2000 companies are in the $250-$300 billion range. Customers who are spending about 6%-7% (about $18b-$22b) of the budget will look at spending 15%-20% ($50b-$60b). The market continues to look interesting and robust. There is heightened interest from US companies to do work out of India. Momentum in India for offshoring is strong now and the industry has matured.

How does EDS deal with attrition and other such people-related issues?
EDS has strong processes related to people care. Our global policies are deployed in local operations and employees benefit from the significant investment that EDS continues to make to enhance capabilities of our employees. We continue to invest in our employees and they see it as differentiators. EDS has a process to measure the effectiveness of our people care processes and those are aligned based on the feed back that is received from employees.

What are some of the other key trends that you foresee in the BPO space in the near future?
I believe that the companies will start moving (or are moving) into wider areas of BPO services and improve upon the 'value' provided to clients. In EDS, the BPO offering is very often part of an overall offering to a client. EDS offers end-to-end services and BPO becomes a vital component of that service delivery. We believe that such composite offerings will provide our customers with a single point of delivery, making it easier for coordination, overall process improvements, developing synergies amongst offerings and driving customer satisfaction. For example, EDS can align and optimize its ITO and Service Desk offerings much more tightly to achieve efficiencies, as compared to two or more vendors offering these two services separately. Enhancing the ability to resolve more complex problems at the Help Desk reduces the dependence on field services, resulting in cost savings and increased client satisfaction due to quicker resolution times.