Dallas Tech Jobs Created by Indian Outsourcing Company
An international company's effort to expand into the American market will help create Dallas tech jobs.
Infosys Technologies Limited, which is the second-largest outsourcing firm in India, recently announced that it will launch Infosys Technologies Inc., a subsidiary based in Dallas. That branch will be responsible for garnering information technology contracts from state and local governments.
It is estimated those contracts could reach about $59.5 billion through 2012. While the company has not yet disclosed the exact number of people it plans to hire, experts predict that number could initially be in the hundreds and grow over time.
"If you're going to have a service industry in the United States, Dallas is one of the places you're going to have it," Peter Bendor-Samuel, chief executive of Everest Group, told The Dallas Morning News.
Dallas has a historic legacy in the outsourcing business, which dates back to Ross Perot's founding of Electronic Data Systems Corporation in 1962. Since then, the area has been capable of producing the skilled workers that companies need in order to succeed in America.
In addition, many experts believe it is crucial for companies to maintain a presence in America if they want to land government contracts. In some industries, such as healthcare, many providers and federal agencies are hesitant to send work overseas, while law dictates that defense and homeland security contracts be handled by United States citizens.
Infosys is not the only company that has brought some of its operations to America. Most recently, Tata Consultancy Services, the largest outsourcing firm in India, opened a facility in Cincinnati, while Wipro Technologies, another Indian-based outsourcing company, is hiring hundreds of workers in Atlanta.
Bendor-Samuel said these expansions are good news for the national and local economies. The companies should have no trouble finding qualified workers, he said, but they may have some trouble adjusting to work practices in the United States.
"It's not so much about wages," Bendor-Samuel said. "It's how they treat people. It's not so much they're putting people into a dark room feeding them bread and water. It's as subtle as expense reports when you travel. They're very, very careful with expenses, to the point that they make their own people pay for much of the stuff."
"Well, that's not going to work here," he added. "People don't cheat, but they expect to be treated with more trust and the company to be picking up those expenses."