IT Services Develops Three-Phased Approach for FATCA Quality Assurance

Mindtree, a global technology services company, today released results of their Strategies for Achieving FATCA Compliance survey.  Conducted in May and June 2014, the survey examined the challenges that risk, compliance and IT decision makers face in achieving FATCA compliance. 

 “This survey reinforces that there are still many hurdles to be overcome to become FATCA compliant,” said Gaurav Johri, Senior Vice President and Head of Banking, Financial Services and Insurance at Mindtree. He added, “What most risk, compliance and IT decision makers need to understand is that executing a comprehensive product assessment helps avoid unintended impact of FATCA on their offerings. An assessment validates the way a FATCA-compliant product is offered while dealing with the variables of the client, their location and the generation of US sourced Fixed, Annual, Determinable or Periodic (FDAP) income.”

Complying with FATCA through a product assessment is a complex task with multiple work-streams. To assist financial institutions, Mindtree has developed a FATCA quality assurance pack to reduce testing effort and costs up to 20%, identify gaps in the implementation process, report issues to stakeholders and enable informed decision-making. 

Part one of the pack focuses on test planning to assess the FATCA implementation and design a scope for data-centric, functional, performance, security and interface testing. Part two centers on the test automation, agile testing and product assessment. The third and final part of the pack examines the test results and identifies gaps.  

Additional Resources

            ·         Strategies for Achieving FATCA Compliance

·         Mindtree’s phased approach to product assessment and quality assurance

·         FATCA survey results

 The survey was conducted in partnership with Gatepoint Research, a subsidiary of SimplyDIRECT.

Thrust Laid On Tech Innovation At Indo-US Summit Welcomed

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) welcomes the recently concluded bilateral summit between the United States and India. The Summit was focused on discussing broad Strategic and Global partnership between the two countries and establish continued prosperity and security for their citizens and the world. During his visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized on the priority India accords to its partnership with the United States, a principal partner in the realization of India’s rise as a responsible and influential world power. 

 The two leaders recognized that the bilateral relationship between the two nations enjoys strong support in both countries, which has allowed the strategic partnership to flourish even post the change in government. Both leaders agreed to revitalize the existing partnership and find new areas for collaboration and mutual benefit. The bilateral summit laid additional focus on the need to foster innovation in a manner that promotes economic growth and job creation and to recognize in particular the contribution of the Indian and U.S. IT/ITES industry in strengthening India-U.S. trade and investment relations. 

Expressing his views, R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, said, “We are delighted with the enthusiastic welcome that PM Modi received in the U.S. – from the White House, from hundreds of American business leaders, and from the citizens of the U.S. NASSCOM is encouraged by President Obama and Prime Minister Modi’s recognition to the contributions of ICT sectors in the U.S. and India, and the synergies produced when these important sectors work together to resolve issues, innovate, and invigorate both  nations’ economies. We also welcome restarting collaborative dialogues such as TPF forum. NASSCOM has been working with the government to ease the trade relations and will continue to advocate for the removal of existing impediments and the prevention of additional barriers for India-based IT services companies providing valuable services to customers in the U.S.”

 At the summit, both the countries also recognized the critical role played by the U.S. and Indian businesses in sustainable, inclusive, and job-led growth and development. We welcome US and India partnership on the Digital India initiative and US industry to be lead partner in developing smart cities in Ajmer (Rajasthan), Vishakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) and Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh). At the bilateral summit, the Prime Minister also mentioned the two trade missions to be organised in 2015 which will focused on meeting India’s infrastructure needs with U.S. technology and services. 

India’s R&D Globalization & Services Set To Touch $38 Billion by 2020

Zinnov Management Consulting, a leading Globalization and Market Expansion Advisory firm, today launched its much awaited rating of Global R&D Service Providers’ across geographies. The study titled “Global R&D Service Providers (GSPR) Rating 2014”,  is an annual study to assist business leaders spearheading global engineering initiatives make right decisions in partner selection across geographies. 

The study estimates the overall addressable R&D globalization and services opportunity at $170 Billion as of 2014. Currently only $55 Billion of this opportunity is addressed globally. India’s share of the addressed market is 33% with in-house R&D centers contributing $11.3 Billion worth of services to their parent companies. 

The study finds that the Engineering services landscape is undergoing rapid shifts from the perspective of range and nature of services. The global outsourced Engineering services market currently stands at $26 Billion with players from US, Europe and India having an almost equal share. Indian service providers lead the pack amongst the global service providers. As of 2014 the Indian service providers deliver $6.9 Billion worth of services which is 27% of the addressed outsourced services market. The study estimates that by 2020 the Indian outsourced ER&D services market will reach $15 Billion growing at a CAGR of 13%. This growth will be primarily driven by addressing the increasing demand for embedded systems and software needs across all verticals.

 Zinnov’s annual Global Service Provider Rating is an exhaustive exercise that covers over 50 companies in the ER&D space. The participants were analyzed across key parameters like Human capital, product development capabilities, financials, ecosystem linkages, infrastructure & innovation / IP creation, their non-linear strategy, lab infrastructure and customer relationships. The analysis process involved data collection from participating companies, interviews with end customers, and inputs from domain experts.

 Amongst global leaders in Engineering and R&D services, Wipro, TCS and HCL continue to retain their dominant position in the Engineering services segment. Wipro has a rich Engineering Services heritage and innovation in its DNA, industry leading lab infrastructure and eco-system connects and is a clear leader in Hi-Tech vertical. TCS has a highly diversified and mature R&D practice which is demonstrated through its positioning in leadership zone across all verticals in which it operates. HCL with its positioning in the leadership zone across most of the verticals and its notable capability addition in Medical Devices and Construction and Heavy Engineering continues to be a formidable Engineering services player. However, the leaders like Infosys, Tech Mahindra, L&T TS, Cyient, Symphony Teleca, Aricent, IGATE and Mindtree are fast closing the gap by diversifying into newer verticals by leveraging their embedded and software capabilities and exploring newer customer segments like first time outsourcers and growth stage start-ups. Deep solution capability and better IoT readiness differentiates these companies from the rest. 

Niche engineering service provider category is where the Indian service providers face stiff competition from the Chinese and Central and Eastern European players. Pactera is undoubtedly the leading Chinese service provider in the Engineering services space while EPAM is the leader in Central and Eastern Europe. Ness and GlobalLogic also have a good presence Eastern Europe and have leadership capabilities the software product segment. 

Persistent, KPIT Technologies, Tata Technologies and QueST Global, are leaders in Software products, Automotive and Aerospace respectively and continue to further strengthen and deepen their capabilities. Though the niche players have historically focussed on specific verticals, they are now looking to expand into newer verticals by leveraging their horizontal capabilities in embedded systems and software. CMC, Tata Elxsi and Sasken have made good strides in verticals like Automotive, Industrial Automation, Medical Devices, Consumer Electronics and Software.

Happiest Minds and NeST are the emerging players in the engineering services space. Happiest Minds is building capabilities in disruptive technologies and NeST has established capabilities in Industrial Automation and Medical Devices verticals.

The study indicates a significant increase in the maturity of solutions that service providers are building especially in the IoT space. Solutions are not only go-to-market arrow heads but are significant contributors to non-linear revenues and are becoming the key differentiators. This has shifted the investments from lab infrastructure to solution development initiatives. Also, the attrition rate has come down by 2 percentage points to 12% making it a stable operating environment from a people perspective.

Large and strategic deals are now mainstream in engineering services space. A typical large deal is structured around supporting the customers with their global market expansion. Over the last year, there has been an increased activity around M&A both by the Private Equity companies and niche service providers. This is most likely to translate into deals in Q3 and Q4 of FY 2015. 

Transforming from being a proverbial service provider to a true engineering partner is the key challenge facing the engineering service providers. To overcome this challenge, service providers are putting together structured engagement models to collaborate with start-ups and expanding their eco-system partnerships with OEMs and technology partners. 

Commenting on the study, Sundararaman Viswanathan, Manager-Consulting, Zinnov, said, “Increase in adoption of outcome based business models, growing non-linear revenues and solution led approach have become a common fare. The key trend to watch out for in my view is how service providers are gearing up for the connected world. With significant R&D spend getting channelized to making products better, faster and importantly “smarter”, it is the perfect time for service providers to expand the traditional engineering services offerings to include IoT and Engineering Analytics.”

Cisco Lays Out Blueprint of Indian Smart Cities

Cisco has unveiled ‘Cisco Smart City’ as a blueprint for the future of smart and connected communities in India. The initiative is the outcome of Cisco’s collaboration with the Government of India on the Digital India initiative. 

Cisco Smart City symbolizes what the digitization of a country means for the future of work, education, healthcare and the electronic delivery of citizen services, Cisco said. The Internet of Everything (IoE)-powered Globalization Centre East campus in Bangalore demonstrates how citizens can live, work, play and learn in a Digital India. 

At the inaugural event, Cisco demonstrated the possibilities of the government’s Digital India program where infrastructure would be offered as a utility to every citizen, governance and services would be on demand and citizens would be digitally empowered.

With Internet of Everything, Cisco showcased how connected education, connected healthcare, smart buildings, connected transport and smart parking can transform the way cities and communities are designed, built and renewed to ensure economic, social and environmental sustainability.

Cisco Smart City also explains how a pervasive physical network infrastructure can easily connect to devices (such as sensors, information access points and mobile devices) and with a high degree of security.
The Digital India program focuses on the digital empowerment of citizens by improving broadband connectivity, universal phone connectivity, public Internet access points, public Wi-Fi in schools and universities, digital inclusion, electronic delivery of governance and services, and job creation.
The Cisco Smart City, with LEED Platinum Certified buildings, also showcases the future of work- a future that is not just about connected devices, but also about when and where people work, and how companies can foster creativity, collaboration and productivity in the workplace.

Wim Elfrink, Cisco executive vice president for Industry Solutions and chief globalization officer, said, “We believe that the Cisco Smart City in Bangalore can be a model for smart cities not just in India but around the world. For government leaders thinking about the delivery of citizen services or for companies thinking about how to be ready for the future of work, the Cisco Smart City presents a blueprint on how to be relevant.”

Dinesh Malkani, president, India and SAARC, said the foundation for a Digital India will be intelligent networks which will transform the delivery of citizen services from transportation, utilities and security to entertainment, education, and healthcare.

“The Cisco Smart City and the announcement of the next phase of our expansion of the Cisco India site underline our commitment to deepening our presence in India and helping transform the way citizens in a Digital India will live, work, play and learn,” Malkani adds.

R Chandrashekhar, president, The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), addressed the issues that rapid urbanization brings to cities when the current infrastructure likes transportation, power, water and waste management are already overburdened.

“This presents new vistas of opportunity for the entire IT ecosystem and an opportunity to work cohesively with the government to help transform India,” Chandrashekhar said. “Cisco’s Smart City is a great working example of how technology companies can help the government better appreciate and leverage the role of technology in tackling these infrastructure challenges and help realize its larger vision of a Digital India.”

Globally, Cisco has already collaborated with cities such as Barcelona, Spain, and the city of Canberra, for smart city initiatives.

As part of its Smart+Connected Communities projects, Cisco is engaged in 90 global greenfield and brownfield projects, which include the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor in India, where Cisco is developing the ICT master plan for four pilot cities in the $90 billion flagship public sector infrastructure project.