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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=black face=Cosmos><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Cosmos;color:black'>Please check it out…..Would
someone tell them to and recruit in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Kenya</st1:place></st1:country-region>…<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Business Day (<st1:City
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Johannesburg</st1:place></st1:City>)<br>
<br>
21 June 2007<br>
Posted to the web 21 June 2007<br>
<br>
<st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Johannesburg</st1:place></st1:City><br>
<br>
THE Standard Bank is expanding its recruitment campaigns to suck in <br>
talent from <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">India</st1:place></st1:country-region>
because it cannot find enough information <br>
technology staff locally. It has up to 100 vacancies to fill <br>
instantly and will need 300 recruits by the end of the year, <br>
including programmers, project managers and business analysts. Last <br>
year it hired 600 IT staff, and its total of 2500 means its in-house <br>
IT department eclipses many of SA's specialist IT groups.<br>
<br>
"The shortage isn't breaking us," says its chief information officer,
<br>
Jorg Fischer, but he is tired of postponing new IT projects because <br>
of a staff shortage.<br>
<br>
"We want to try to complement our IT shop with Indian resources. We <br>
are always looking at the South African market, and we need to look <br>
beyond our borders," he says.<br>
<br>
"It will give me another option for how to solve IT or business <br>
issues, instead of saying I don't have the people to do it. I want to <br>
make us more flexible and nimble so IT doesn't become a bottleneck in <br>
delivering."<br>
<br>
As some technologies approach the end of their life, the bank will <br>
request proposals from Indian companies to maintain and support those <br>
applications. That will let the in-house technicians be reassigned to <br>
develop new applications to take the bank forward.<br>
<br>
It should also give them a better career path and more interesting <br>
work, so they do not seek brighter prospects elsewhere.<br>
<br>
The first tenders should be issued in the third or fourth quarter of <br>
this year and will target companies including Tata Consulting and <br>
Satyam, which already have operations in SA.<br>
<br>
One example is the testing and integration of new software, which <br>
demands a large staff complement. That could be outsourced to Indian <br>
workers who could either be brought into SA or could conduct the <br>
testing processes remotely.<br>
<br>
If projects to develop new systems also run into local skills <br>
shortages, technicians could be recruited from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place>. As part of the <br>
job description they would be expected to train South Africans <br>
working alongside them.<br>
<br>
No-go areas for outsourcing will be designing the bank's IT <br>
architecture, project management and business analysis. <br>
<br>
The idea was inspired by what is becoming a common practice for <br>
financial services organisations in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region>
and <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>. Although they <br>
mainly outsource to cut their costs, the Standard Bank will do <br>
it "because we don't have the people and the skills available," <br>
Fischer says.<br>
<br>
He expects many other local firms will follow suit to combat the <br>
skills crunch. The number of students studying IT at universities in <br>
SA, Europe and the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place>
has decreased for three years, so the skills <br>
base is depleting. In comparison, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place> pumps out about 400000 IT <br>
graduates a year.<br>
<br>
The bank hires many temporary contractors from the personnel provider <br>
Paracon, but Paracon has told Fischer it needs another 1000 <br>
technicians to fill all the vacancies facing its customers. Its chief <br>
financial officer, Mireille Levenstein, says: "We have never been in <br>
such a situation where there is so much demand for IT skills, and the <br>
supply isn't there."<br>
<br>
Paracon also looks to <st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region>
for relief, and is flying in technicians <br>
after acquiring 34,6% of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place>'s
Nihilent Technologies last year.<br>
<br>
Growth consultancy Frost & Sullivan analyst Lindsey McDonald says <br>
SA's skills shortage is reaching chronic proportions and fuelling the <br>
trend for outsourcing. Yet the third-party service providers are also <br>
struggling to attract and retain skilled staff.<br>
<br>
"In order to build a reserve of skilled personnel, service providers <br>
should show higher levels of commitment to skills development," she <br>
says.<br>
<br>
A report by the Economic Intelligence Unit shows that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place>'s quality <br>
of service and low costs make it the destination of choice for <br>
outsourcing application development and management.<br>
<br>
Countries such as <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region> and
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Russia</st1:country-region> are ramping up their
outsourcing <br>
capabilities to become more attractive to foreign customers, but <br>
research by Accenture says the cost benefits and experience to be <br>
found in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">India</st1:country-region></st1:place>
are often too large to ignore<br>
<br>
<br clear=all>
<br>
-- <br>
--------------------------------------------------------------------<br>
Life's most urgent question is: What are you doing for others? <br>
.........Martin Luther King, Jr. <br>
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