Aug

18

Brutal cost-cutting have taken a bite out of the Big Apple and knocked some numbers of Big Ben as banks and financial firms in New York and London are now farming out data-intensive tasks to lower-cost regions, primarily to the biggest region of them all: India.

The No. 1 and No. 5

In March 2008, UBS AG–a global financial services company based in Switzerland, finalized a list of the 71 most expensive cities in the world, to live as well as work in. The list was produced from a study that took in account of the property, residence values, products and services.

United Kingdom’s London took the hottest spot at number 1 while the United States’ New York City earned number 5 place. Big business is done in both cities, big business that can influence world matters but with the prestige comes a price tag that some big companies are no longer eager to afford.

An Empire begets Empire

After 61 years of independence from British imperial rule, and in spite of a few setbacks such as political crises and natural calamities, India is about to emerge as an empire in the modern world of business and information technology.

The country, which was once a colony, is now more than a region for low costs. It has become a haven for high-value, through a vast, educated populace of engineers, doctors, bankers and post graduates in mathematics whose skills are respected and renowned around the world.

Extending Wall Street

It is because of those world-renowned skills that major financial firms and investment banks have shifted equity, fixed income and trading research reports—considered as “grunt work” but often enough performed by M.B.As  (whose annual salary is USD250K) back in New York.

Though this is a sensitive subject for most of these financial firms whose representatives have been ambiguous to what tasks (particularly those considered “high value”) are exactly being outsourced, the cost differences and the specialized talent pools of India are too clear not to take advantage of.

“If you are living off the river, make friends with the crocodiles”

A major issue that faces this shift of delegating high-value bank work to India is client confidence.

This has been addressed by some outsourcing industry leaders in India through a manner that appears to be ironic: to open captive service facilities and hire business school graduates in America to deal directly with the clientele there.

India and its outsourcing industry once again proves that high value jobs do not necessarily come at a high cost. No longer a “hypothesis”, world finances are now banking on India.

Outsourcing Solutions, Inc. – your outsourcing partner!

 

References:

  1. Prasad, Swati. “India@61: From low-cost to high value”. 15 August 2008. ZDNet Asia. Accessed 18 August 2008. Link here
  2. Timmons, Heather. “Cost-cutting in New York, but a Boom in India.” 11 August 2008. The New York Times. Accessed 13 August 2008. Link here
  3. “London is the Most Expensive City in the World…” March 2008. Citymayors.com: Economics. Accessed 18 August 2008. Link here
  4. “World’s Most Expensive Cities to Work in 2008.” 26 June 2008. Skorcareer.com. Accessed 18 August 2008. Link here

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