1 November 2004

NIIT Launches First Ever UK Newsletter!

Welcome to NIIT’s first customer Newsletter. As an existing customer, we will be writing to you quarterly, providing updates of recent developments within the NIIT Group; to give notice of forthcoming industry events, and share customer stories that NIIT are associated with.

In this month's edition, we have featured prestigious awards some of our clients have won. There have been some changes within the UK team, and we are really excited about some of the events we have scheduled.

You will also find details of future events that NIIT are proud to be associated with. We have been talking to our clients for some time now and are proud to announce our first ever Customer Group Meeting (CGM).

Whilst not a common offering within the Offshore market, NIIT believe customers will grasp and make use of the forum whole heartedly.

Is your diary to hand? We are announcing our next seminar campaign, featuring a host of guest speakers from industry leaders to analysts.

What's in a Name

Those perceptive enough may have noticed a slight name change. NIIT Europe Limited has recently been changed to NIIT Technologies Limited to reflect its business expansion program by trading on The Stock Exchange, Mumbai and National Stock Exchange of India Limited. There is no need to worry about existing contracts; these have all been novated to reference NIIT’s new name. The team at NIIT remain unchanged.

In line with this company name change, NIIT has also updated its website address to: www.niittechnologies.co.uk. All events, updated company information and latest solutions and service offerings can be found on the website. However, if you don’t have the new address to hand, the old address will automatically redirect you.

People News...

David West, head of Software Solutions business for Europe has been promoted to Senior Vice President of NIIT Technologies Limited. Within the software business, his role and responsibilities extend to cover transportation in Western European countries. David remains responsible for its UK clients and intends to continue his hands on approach of meeting and working with clients and their Business Development Manager.

Jyoti Kumar has been promoted to Vice President of NIIT Technologies Limited’s Software business. Jyoti has over 22 years of experience in software development and maintenance, and is passionate about his customers, with emphasis on delivering 'Zero Defect on-Time' projects.

Sivakumar Swamiappan (Shiva) has been promoted to Account Manager at one of our largest transport customers. Shiva will manage the entire span of operations, whilst continuing to be responsible for delivery of all projects within the client.

Industry Links

David West was honoured to be a guest speaker at a practical one day seminar on Offshore Outsourcing: An Introduction to the Global Services Revolution.

David was joined by a host of other speakers, including Paul Davies, Ralph Jackson (MD of The Jackson Consultants) Jeremy Newton (Partner at Nabarro Nathanson), Graham Nixon (CE of Nixonbrooke), Andy Passey (Director of Genisys Software) and Aparup Sengupta.

Held at the Holiday Inn London Regents Park on 30th September, the event tackled issues surrounding the scope of offshore outsourcing; the risks involved, the potential benefits and how to get started.

"Offshoring is on the increase, it is
important that industry has the right
information for making strategic
decisions to offshore"
David West, Senior VP of NIIT

NIIT Launches First Customer Group Meeting

NIIT’s first Customer Group Meeting is scheduled to take place 1st December. Channel 4 has kindly offered to host the first meeting at their offices in London. This meeting will be Chaired by Ian Dobb of C4, with a formal committee to be voted in on the day. The CGM event provides the ideal opportunity for customers to get together, share experiences, and exchange ideas and best practices in a secure, private and confidential environment. It also offers the opportunity to present future requirements and needs in a united approach. The CGM will be the CUSTOMERS FORUM, held BY the customers for the customers. NIIT are happy to sponsor the event and invite all attendees to an evening dinner after proceedings close. Interested? Here’s what it’s all about This half day event will comprise of a closed customer session so that customers may feel at ease, and informally, they may bring together their own agenda. Thereafter there will be a vendor session where feedback from earlier discussions can be raised to NIIT for response, this session also enables NIIT to present a guest speaker, which will alternate between industry analysts and NIIT corporate representatives. Formal invitations to the Customer Group Meeting will follow shortly, but we’d like your contribution into the agenda. This is your opportunity to have input into the development of a charter, so don’t lose your chance to have your say. If you have something you’d like to see included on the Agenda, please contact NIIT’s Marketing Department directly at marketing@niit.co.uk or telephone 01494 539333.
NIIT Seminar Announcement
Gain Competitive Advantage Through IT Outsourcing

NIIT are hosting a Free seminar on Wednesday 24th November at the Institute of Directors, London, continuing to bring to the market awareness of the Offshoring industry.

This event, Gain Competitive Advantage Through Outsourcing, How to Achieve it, How to Sustain it, has a host of prominent guest speakers including Mike Croucher, Head of IT Delivery at British Airways, Mike Dodd, Analyst at Forrester Research, and Paul Davies, author of “What’s this India Business”.

Mike Croucher will give and example of a global development project within British Airways. Mike Dodd of Forrester will describe the competitive advantage offshoring can bring, and Paul will give the benefit of his knowledge and experience of how to get the best out of Indian Offshore suppliers.

Offshore partnering can go beyond the obvious benefit of cost reduction. Learn how other vital areas; quality, speed, flexibility and functionality can also be achieved through the application of innovative models. Find out the top ten critical success factors.

Link to on-line seminar registration HERE.  

Customer Wins Prestigious Award
Channel 4 has received a prestigious award at The 2004 Tif Awards for Corporate IT Excellence in Business.

Adam Adshead, Senior Project Manager for Advertising Sales was honoured to collect the award for demonstrating Excellence in the Category of Innovation for their Stellar project, achieving the status of Highly Commended at an evening presentation in June this year.

The Tif awards are given by The Corporate IT Forum, a subscriber based organisation representing the corporate IT User Community.

A record number of entries were made form a large cross section of organisations, these were then reduced to 9. The judges were particularly impressed by the high level of IT professionalism demonstrated by all of those short-listed, and by the shared nature of the projects with involvement of business users and managers at all levels" says Adshead. Proudly receiving the award on behalf of the whole of the Stellar team, Adshead continues "we are particularly pleased to have been recognised by our peers in the industry and it is a credit to all members of the team - both Channel 4 and NIIT - that we have done so well". Another of NIIT’s customers was also presented an award at the same ceremony. "This is very exciting for our two clients and our whole team. Two Tif Awards in one year! It must be very special, maybe even a unique feat," says David West, Senior VP of NIIT UK.  

Going Offshore—Staying Onside: A Great Success
The high turnout at the NIIT sponsored industry event shows there is still life for such forums. Held on a very wet and chilly July afternoon (what else could we have expected from England’s midsummer weather?), the IOD was packed full of delegates who came to hear a host of high profile speakers present their views on the Corporate and Social Responsibility Issues surrounding Offshoring.

The event promised a lively debate, and that’s what delegates got. The event was kicked off with Mark Kobayashi-Hillary, author of Outsourcing to India: The Offshore Advantage, providing a Macroeconomic overview of how outsourcing can benefit the UK economy. Rory Murphy, Joint General Secretary of UNIFI, shortly followed. Not all of Rory’s views on Outsourcing matched those of other panel members, but he did say that although he’s not against offshoring altogether, he stressed “we’ve got to get it right”.

Paul Davies, author of What’s This India Business? discussed comparative advantage and corporate social responsibility, this was followed by Sally Costerton of Hill and Knowlton. Sally advised the audience how managing the PR of strategic decisions such as offshoring, should be a top priority; good PR increases share prices, bad PR has a negative hit on bottom line. Last to speak was David Smith, Economics Editor of the Sunday Times explaining that although we won’t believe it, offshoring is good for us.

With the amount of passionate debate, the conference remains one of the more memorable events of 2004 Going Offshore—Staying Onside: A Great Success and NIIT plan to host more in the future.  

NIIT Technologies is a diversified global IT Services company offering e-Commerce, CRM Solutions, Offshore Development, Applications Maintenance/Support, Legacy Transformation, Knowledge Solutions and Business Process Management Services. Spanning 19 countries across Europe, Asia Pacific and India, it has been working with global corporations for over two decades. NIIT understands the complex issues surrounding outsourcing and offshoring while partnering with its customers to provide practical IT Solutions.