With Nasscom, the software industry's apex body advising its members not to go to campuses for recruitment, the placements at engineering colleges has dried up. However, although 2008-09 was a difficult year for training and placement officers (TPO) at engineering colleges, 2009-10 could be the most critical year for campus placements, reports Economic Times.
JN Pitambare, Dean of Sinhagad Institute says, "Normally, 75-80 percent of the placements used to take place by mid-August. However, this year I will be happy if I am able to place even 10-15 percent of our students by December."
SV Dravid, TPO, DY Patil College of Engineering at Akurdi, near Pune said, "Last year, we had placed 150 students by this time. This year, not a single student has been placed. I hope the situation improves by December." Normally the big software companies finish recruitment by mid-August, placing around 75 percent of the college students.The core sector companies used to come from August, but this year they are non-committal.
Companies have been telling TPOs that their placement requirements are yet to be firmed up since things are not planned yet or they do not know how many projects they will get. "Most of the core companies are in a dilemma. They have promised to come for placements by December," said TPO Federation President Professor Shital Rawandale. Not only are there fewer jobs on offer for 2009-10 but the companies are adopting various techniques to defer the joining dates of candidates recruited last year or even to reject them.
Top colleges like the College of Engineering Pune (COEP) are also facing problems. "Of the 576 students placed last year, only 150 have joined till now. For the rest of them, joining has been deferred from July to December," said Assistant TPO, COEP, SA Meshram.
Some of the selected candidates are being asked to take more tests. With the recession, singing of bonds has also returned. "Some small and medium-sized software companies now want the candidates whom they had already selected to enter into two-year bonds," said a TPO.
Economic Times
Showing posts with label IT companies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IT companies. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
Are 1,000 employees of TCS under scanner?
Putting employees under performance scanner seems to be the new thing at IT companies. The country's largest software company TCS has reportedly put its 1,000 employees under performance scanner.
The Mumbai-based IT company joins its smaller rival Infosys which too has put around 5,000 of its employees under the so-called performance scanner.
Incidentally, TCS spokesperson denied that the company's performance improvement plan is any different this year than previous years. The spokesperson claimed that this is an annual exercise to ensure that we continue to drive delivery excellence for our customers. Less than 1% of our workforce has been put under the scanner in the current fiscal.
Last year, the company had asked 500 employees to leave after a similar performance improvement plan.
Recently, in a client note, brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said that TCS has seen project cancellations in the last four weeks. Quoting TCS chief financial officer S Mahalingam, CLSA said that the company sees slowdown in demand bottoming out in the March quarter and expects a recovery in the June quarter.
In Infosys case, the company has asked senior managers (project managers, senior and group project managers, delivery managers) to give lowest performance rating (4 on a scale of 1-4) to the 'underperforming' 5 per cent as a part of its consolidated relative ranking (CRR). Though lowest rankings are not new in the company, this is the first time that Infosys has made it compulsory.
Some 40-50 sales executives at Infosys too have been reportedly asked to quit in the last two months. Most of these were located in the US and were from consulting background.
Indiatimes
The Mumbai-based IT company joins its smaller rival Infosys which too has put around 5,000 of its employees under the so-called performance scanner.
Incidentally, TCS spokesperson denied that the company's performance improvement plan is any different this year than previous years. The spokesperson claimed that this is an annual exercise to ensure that we continue to drive delivery excellence for our customers. Less than 1% of our workforce has been put under the scanner in the current fiscal.
Last year, the company had asked 500 employees to leave after a similar performance improvement plan.
Recently, in a client note, brokerage CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets said that TCS has seen project cancellations in the last four weeks. Quoting TCS chief financial officer S Mahalingam, CLSA said that the company sees slowdown in demand bottoming out in the March quarter and expects a recovery in the June quarter.
In Infosys case, the company has asked senior managers (project managers, senior and group project managers, delivery managers) to give lowest performance rating (4 on a scale of 1-4) to the 'underperforming' 5 per cent as a part of its consolidated relative ranking (CRR). Though lowest rankings are not new in the company, this is the first time that Infosys has made it compulsory.
Some 40-50 sales executives at Infosys too have been reportedly asked to quit in the last two months. Most of these were located in the US and were from consulting background.
Indiatimes
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Indian IT cos eye Japanese outsourcing biz
After neutralising their mother-tongue accent and mastering the American drawl, Indian geeks are busy learning Japan’s Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana symbols.
Reason: The recession is eating into the volume of outsourced IT work from the US; and after the US, Japan is an important market from the IT perspective, more so during the current period.
Take the case of Suman Reddy Ragidi, a business analyst of Cognizant. Japanese language training has enabled her to converse with clients both in formal as well as informal situations.
“The training has also made it easier for me to understand all project documentation written in Japanese,’’ says Reddy Ragidi. On its part, Cognizant runs foreign language training in its offices and its mandatory for employees to enroll in such language courses.
“Language is an important aspect of culture and such training is helpful in everyday communication. Importantly, employees are able to articulate their viewpoints to clients,’’ says K Venkataraman, director of Cognizant.
The Japanese IT services market is valued at $108 billion, according to a recent survey by Nasscom and Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. India has bagged only 13 per cent of this offshoring pie. Moreover, demand for software is primarily driven by the BFSI (banking, financial, services and insurance) and manufacturing companies which consume 42 per cent of the total IT services.
Another Chennai-based IT player Infoview Technologies, whose business comes fully from Japanese majors, is making sure its employees know Japanese symbols by heart. Around three-fourth of the company’s employees have learnt the language and the top management team which accounts for 10 per cent of the workforce has reached the ‘near native level’ in terms of mastering the language.
The company also recently launched an online Japanese learning software for beginners in India. JWEIC is developed by WEIC Corporation, a Japanese company that is into production and sales of e-learning language and learning management systems. Infoview, which has the rights to sell the software in India and Singapore, is targeting executives and college students alike for the online course. It is targeting 10,000 learners during the first year.
Similarly, Noida-based Nucleus Software which generates half of its revenues from Japan is encouraging its employees to learn the language. “Right now, we are utilising the services of interpreters and translators,’’ says chief executive and managing director, Vishnu Dusad.
For Indian IT entrepreneurs like Chandrasekaran of Infoview Technologies and Dusad of Nucleus the lure for doing business with ‘The Land of the Rising Sun’ is the importance that the Japanese place to long-term relationships. “It’s tough to crack the market initially,” says Cheran Chandrasekaran, CEO, Infoview Technologies.
Source: Times of India
Reason: The recession is eating into the volume of outsourced IT work from the US; and after the US, Japan is an important market from the IT perspective, more so during the current period.
Take the case of Suman Reddy Ragidi, a business analyst of Cognizant. Japanese language training has enabled her to converse with clients both in formal as well as informal situations.
“The training has also made it easier for me to understand all project documentation written in Japanese,’’ says Reddy Ragidi. On its part, Cognizant runs foreign language training in its offices and its mandatory for employees to enroll in such language courses.
“Language is an important aspect of culture and such training is helpful in everyday communication. Importantly, employees are able to articulate their viewpoints to clients,’’ says K Venkataraman, director of Cognizant.
The Japanese IT services market is valued at $108 billion, according to a recent survey by Nasscom and Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. India has bagged only 13 per cent of this offshoring pie. Moreover, demand for software is primarily driven by the BFSI (banking, financial, services and insurance) and manufacturing companies which consume 42 per cent of the total IT services.
Another Chennai-based IT player Infoview Technologies, whose business comes fully from Japanese majors, is making sure its employees know Japanese symbols by heart. Around three-fourth of the company’s employees have learnt the language and the top management team which accounts for 10 per cent of the workforce has reached the ‘near native level’ in terms of mastering the language.
The company also recently launched an online Japanese learning software for beginners in India. JWEIC is developed by WEIC Corporation, a Japanese company that is into production and sales of e-learning language and learning management systems. Infoview, which has the rights to sell the software in India and Singapore, is targeting executives and college students alike for the online course. It is targeting 10,000 learners during the first year.
Similarly, Noida-based Nucleus Software which generates half of its revenues from Japan is encouraging its employees to learn the language. “Right now, we are utilising the services of interpreters and translators,’’ says chief executive and managing director, Vishnu Dusad.
For Indian IT entrepreneurs like Chandrasekaran of Infoview Technologies and Dusad of Nucleus the lure for doing business with ‘The Land of the Rising Sun’ is the importance that the Japanese place to long-term relationships. “It’s tough to crack the market initially,” says Cheran Chandrasekaran, CEO, Infoview Technologies.
Source: Times of India
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Terror puts brake on Mumbai cos
Hardly 14 hours have passed since Mumbai have come under siege of terror. Taj Mahal and Trident Hotels, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus (CST), Colaba and other locations in south Mumbai are virtually terror-stricken in the attack that claimed 78 lives and injuring hundred of people.
As the hubs of activities in the city are still under the gun-wielding terrorists, the impact of these heinous crimes against humanity is evidently being reflected in the city's business affairs and the IT sector is no exception.
As a reflection of the terror siege, many IT companies have closed their shutters for the day and some have reportedly asked their employees to work from home.
Netcore Slutions Pvt Ltd, an IT product and service company based in Mumbai, decided to down the shutter for the day considering the situation in the city.
"Whatever has happened is unfortunate. And we have decided not to work today considering the security of the employees," said Abhijit Saxena, CEO, Netcore.
However, he hoped that things would normalize soon and people would be back to work. "After all, terror attack is not something exclusive to India and hence I don't think it would have any major impact on the industry or the economic scenario of the country as such," said Saxena.
TCS House near CST, the main office of Tata Consultancy Services in Mumbai has also downed the shutters today considering the extremely panicking situation. However, the TCS offices in north Mumbai are working.
"TCS employees that work out of our offices in South Mumbai can operate out of any of the offices in North Mumbai until further advise," Pradipta Bagchi, senior general manager, Corporate Communications, TCS said a in a statement.
"A team of TCS experts continue to monitor the situation continuously and the company has very well established business continuity plans in place should the need arise to implement them," he added.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Government has declared a general holiday for today. The terror strike has also resulted in the cancellation of many IT events in the city. Sun Microsystems, which had planned to announce its new initiative targeted at emerging markets sales region in India, has been called off the event for the time being.
Another such event of Sony Ericsson slated for today, which was set at ITC Grand Central in Parel, Mumbai's central suburb has also been cancelled.
It appears that the IT businesses are under the 'wait and watch' mood till the tense situation in the financial capital improves and the business is back to normalcy.
Source: CMN
As the hubs of activities in the city are still under the gun-wielding terrorists, the impact of these heinous crimes against humanity is evidently being reflected in the city's business affairs and the IT sector is no exception.
As a reflection of the terror siege, many IT companies have closed their shutters for the day and some have reportedly asked their employees to work from home.
Netcore Slutions Pvt Ltd, an IT product and service company based in Mumbai, decided to down the shutter for the day considering the situation in the city.
"Whatever has happened is unfortunate. And we have decided not to work today considering the security of the employees," said Abhijit Saxena, CEO, Netcore.
However, he hoped that things would normalize soon and people would be back to work. "After all, terror attack is not something exclusive to India and hence I don't think it would have any major impact on the industry or the economic scenario of the country as such," said Saxena.
TCS House near CST, the main office of Tata Consultancy Services in Mumbai has also downed the shutters today considering the extremely panicking situation. However, the TCS offices in north Mumbai are working.
"TCS employees that work out of our offices in South Mumbai can operate out of any of the offices in North Mumbai until further advise," Pradipta Bagchi, senior general manager, Corporate Communications, TCS said a in a statement.
"A team of TCS experts continue to monitor the situation continuously and the company has very well established business continuity plans in place should the need arise to implement them," he added.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Government has declared a general holiday for today. The terror strike has also resulted in the cancellation of many IT events in the city. Sun Microsystems, which had planned to announce its new initiative targeted at emerging markets sales region in India, has been called off the event for the time being.
Another such event of Sony Ericsson slated for today, which was set at ITC Grand Central in Parel, Mumbai's central suburb has also been cancelled.
It appears that the IT businesses are under the 'wait and watch' mood till the tense situation in the financial capital improves and the business is back to normalcy.
Source: CMN
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