This has been a region of strong outsourcing activity. The Australian government and several commercial organizations have expressed their interest in farming out large pieces of business. The result has been some of the largest outsourcing deals ever. For instance, September 1997 saw the Commonwealth Bank of Australia signing a 10-year $2.9-billion outsourcing contract with Electronic Data Systems.

The Australian government has been a major driver, and a number of government agencies have been outsourcing their requirements. On 24, April 2001, the government announced a new policy under, which contracts under A$10 million and those above that figure would be treated differently. For contracts under A$10 million (US $5.07 million), the only requirement is that the contractor and sub-contractors be endorsed under the government’s ‘endorsed supplier arrangement’. For contracts over A$10 million, tenderers must spell out the level of small and medium enterprise involvement.

Today, service providers headquartered in the US, Western Europe and Australia are key players. However, in the new emerging environment, Indian companies are likely to win as part of bigger consortiums, and also selective outsourcing contracts. This should create new opportunities for Indian companies here.

Ishan Ranjan is VP, projects, CMIL. He has also been founder-editor of Voice & Data. Previous columns can also be read at dqindia.com