外包业：中国难以挑战印度 英
一项权威外包业研究报告显示，西方企业的高管们选择外包时，

对服务质量的关注要多于价格。未来20年，印度仍将在这一领域保持主导地位。

India to keep top spot in outsourcing, says report

By James Lamont in New Delhi 2009-12-02

India will remain a dominant force in IT and business process outsourcing for two decades, while China will struggle to match its success, says an authoritative study on the fast-growing industry by the Warwick Business School in the UK.

IT outsourcing companies such as Infosys, Wipro, Genpact and Tata Consultancy Services helped power the Indian economy to 9 per cent economic growth before the global financial crisis struck last year.

Some of their top executives fear growing competition from China and are making investments in outsourcing capabilities there.

Last week, Wipro opened a global delivery centre in Chengdu, in addition to a facility in Shanghai. The centre will offer services for manufacturing, banking, financial services and insurance industries. It will have expertise in English, Chinese and Japanese.

Genpact operates business process service centres in the Chinese cities of Changchun, Dalian and Shanghai.

But a report by WBS, commissioned by Cognizant, the global consulting and technology group, predicted that the rise of China's less mature industry was far from assured.

“China will emerge as an alternative, though it will struggle to achieve scale in western European and North American markets,” the report said.

Ilan Oshri, one of the report's authors and associate fellow at WBS and the London School of Economics Outsourcing Unit, said India would maintain its lead for at least 15 years as its top companies had established a global footprint.

He also cited the tradition of English being an official language in India, the high quality of its graduates and the development of a domestic market for outsourcing services.

“India is not a powerhouse because it is cheap but because it is smart. That's not the same with China,” Mr Oshri told the Financial Times. “We don't see Chinese vendors emerging to be powerhouses.”

Mr Oshri's research showed that executives in western companies opted for outsourcing, viewed as a means of cost-cutting, on quality of service more than price. It also identified Egypt, Hungary and Romania as outsourcing countries gaining in expertise.

“China is much cheaper than India. But the game is not about cost, it's about accessing talent,” he said.

Last year, the global IT outsourcing market was estimated to be worth as much as $250bn.