Outsourcing for Mid-Size companies

Though there is a major difference in terms of services between Outsourcing and Offshoring, Indian mid-size companies seem to be very competent with the larger companies like Wipro, Infosys and TCS. Offshoring is basically chosen to cut certain costs in business by making use of affordable services from across the world, while Outsourcing is a way to utilize the staff of a company to perform various core functions to cover up any lack of resources. India has grown as one of the hubs for Offshoring and Outsourcing markets because of its low labor costs and competent services offered. One of the articles in CIO this week mentions that, for medium size Indian outsources to be on par with the larger companies like Wipro, INFY and TCS, they have to focus on specific industry, services or specific geography as their potential markets. 

The major advantage for the mid-size customers to work with the medium-size outsources of India would be the direct contact with its high level management and the specific focus and attention they receive. In my point of view, to gain contracts, the medium-size companies should first focus on the services they are ready to provide and should equip themselves with the facilities that none of the other companies on par with them have. One close example in the U.S. market for such a scenario would be the Wimax Forum Designated Certification Labs (WFDCL). Even though all of its 7 labs are equally competent all over the world, AT4 Wireless, Inc.  gains a slight edge over the others by acquiring the latest testing equipment and thus gaining additional sub-contracts (Outsources projects) from the other labs apart from major contracts from larger companies like, Sprint, Clearwire, etc.

Apart from getting high-end projects, India has proven itself to be the single largest location to receive projects related to IT application development and maintenance (ADM) and remote infrastructure management (RIM) services. Also, the stats show that India accounts for 50 percent of the global offshore IT services industry. In such a scenario, the grave threat that the mid-size Outsourcers face from the larger companies is a lack of contact base with global customers, may be mainly because of the poor marketing strategies they use or not being aware of the way they are introduced to the world by media. If they can get hold of these factors, am sure the day for them to announce a bigger share in the market is not far away.