Outsource Bulgaria

Indian outsourcing company Satyam suffered a severe backlash when it was discovered billions were squandered by management.

Satyam Computer Services, the scandal-ridden solution provider based in India, this week unveiled a marketing overhaul intended to function as the rebirth of the company.

In April, Tech Mahindra agreed to purchase 31 percent of Satyam’s shares, resulting in an infusion of $351 million (U.S.) into the beleaguered Indian outsourcing firm. At the beginning of the year, the former chairman of Satyam confessed to $1 billion in fraud. B. Ramalinga Raju, his brother Rama Raju, Chief Financial Officer Srinivas Vadlamani, and two Price Waterhouse auditors have been charged with forgery and falsification of Satyam accounts and for causing disappearance of evidence.

This week, the firm unveiled its new brand identity, “Mahindra Satyam.” The logo takes a cue from Mahindra’s current design.

So you can see how a deep belief in reincarnation can actually help Indian outsourcing companies!

I was recently contacted by a Chinese company specializing in 3D art for games. The company boasts a portfolio including Microsoft’s Age of Empires and other A-games.

The rate is a very reasonable $10 per hour and most 3D models were taking between 10 and 16 hours. This makes game outsourcing to China an important competitive consideration, especially if you’re in a competitive field (and who isnt?).

My new project (RiftForge) doesn’t require 3D, so I had to pass. Fortunately, I found the best 2D talent to be in Indonesia. Stay tuned for an update.

Vietnam is holding general elections on Sunday.

The ruling Communist party (I mean Workers party!) is the undisputed leader. Less than 20% of the candidates are NOT members of the Communist Party, so the result cannot be that surprising.

In the mean time, courts have put on trial and jailed a number of political activists and journalists. Two of them were occused of attempts to sabotage the elections.

It’s not cleat what these elections will mean for the thousands of businesses who have invested in Vietnam on the promise of a liberlized market. Intel has already committed to build a billion-dollar chip factory.

One thing is certain – whatever the Communists decide to do, they better not scare these investors. China is a good example of a roaring economy with waving red flags.

World of Warcraft has been a million-dollar business for Blizzard but it’s a million-dollar business for companies who sell WoW gold, accounts, and more.

Game outsourcing has been here ever since Ultima Online came out more than a decade ago. Diablo 2 item trading was quite a big business but recently eBay banned the auctions of virtual goods.

BBC has an article on the implications of game outsourcing, here’s a few quotes:

Qin Shen, who works for a company called Ucdao.com, says: “Many white collar workers want to improve their character on their own, but they do not have much time. They need to go to work in the day and they don’t have the energy to improve at night, so they need someone else to play for them.”

But to say this is hugely controversial among the game’s community is putting it mildly. I posted a message on one website asking for people who buy gold to get in touch – and got a number of quite hostile responses.

Eventually, I did find someone who had bought gold.

“I have a life outside of the game that’s certainly much more important, so the few precious hours I do get to play on my game I don’t want to spend doing the same thing over and over again to get in-game money, when I could just buy that and do the stuff in-game that I actually enjoy,” he said.

Ubisoft might be expanding their Bulgarian operations but this isn’t the game outsourcing I’m talking about.

A new wave of game outsourcing has sprung - mainly on the back of MMOs and has risen to prominence with Blizzard’s blockbuster MMO – World of Warcraft.

The game has claimed seven million lives so far and a whole cottage industry has emerged that delivers simple services and virtual items to the players.

The bulk of the people who procure the items are based in China. In fact, this is the way many people in China are able to pay for the game – by acquiring items and gold and then selling them for real money.

The phenomenon has become so wide spread that Chinese “farmers” are subject of abuse on many servers. The main reason for the special attitude towards “farmers” comes from the fact that they would indiscriminantly collect any rare resources they can lay their hands on – leaving other players empty handed waiting for a re-spawn.

While this isn’t traditional outsourcing, it follows the same model. Looking at it, there might be a niche for an European player in this hot virtual items market.

I haven’t heard of Bulgarian farmers though… maybe it’s just a matter of time before some of us return to our agrarian roots!

On his Dilbert blog, Scott Adams has a solution that will greatly improve the USA government’s decision-making process while making it cheaper. (Dilbert cartoon on outsourcing here.)

The solution? Outsource the government to India!

Here’s how the idea was born:

It’s common knowledge that all major government decisions in the United States are made via a process that Thomas Jefferson described in the constitution as “lobbyists bribing weasels.” Voters attempt to solve this problem by electing the weasels who do the best job lying about their intentions to change the system. So far, this hasn’t worked.

That’s why we need to outsource the important decisions to India. I’m sure a consulting firm in India could help the United States come up with a coherent energy policy, a plan for universal health care, a cure for global warming, and an anti-terrorism plan.

In addition to his musings, Scott has a special Q&A session that is a must-read.

Ernst & Young has published its survey on direct foreigh investment in the region. Bulgaria ranks second.

Distribution of investments (number of)

• Romania – 40%
• Bulgaria – 25%
• Turkey – 20%
• Serbia – 9%
• Greece – 4%

The survey also asked investors which factors need to be improved. Here’s the investor wishlist:

• Infrastructure – logistics & telco
• Political stability
• Following EU standards
• Simplifying administration
• Quality of life

Admittedly, outsourcing attracts only a small part of the direct investments but my guess is the investor wishlist is almost 100% identical regardless of sector.
 

There are many instances where people prefer to outsource work, rather than do it themselves. Popular authors outsource their work to professional writers, major corporations outsource some of their work such as data entry and maintenance to companies who specialize in these types of jobs, magazine publishers outsource some of their graphics and photography works to professional freelance workers and other companies that specialize in working with graphics and the internet has become one of the most popular places for outsourcing work.
Continue reading ‘Outsourcing Your Graphic Design Projects’

Thomas Friedman travels to India to see in person how outsourcing in India works.

It’s a 45-minute video so take your time!

In areas of China and the Asia Pacific, most of software outsourcing projects are accounted at a fixed rate, and this contract mode brings a mistaken concept to firms that it will cause inconvenience but have no effect on project investment because of this project delay. Continue reading ‘Software Outsourcing Project on Schedule’