Outsourcing Toolkit

IBM's India headcount soars

Tags:
Oursourcing

Richard Thurston ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 02 Feb 2007 12:25 GMT

IBM has more than doubled the number of staff it employs in India over the past two years, to more than 50,000 workers.

This investment means that one in six of IBM's workers is now based in India. IBM employed 23,000 workers in India two years ago, and now employs 53,000, it said on Wednesday.

Several core IBM activities are now run exclusively in India. For example, all of IBM's software development for service-oriented architecture (SOA) is run out of Bangalore. Its investment in staff in the country follows a similar increase in sales to India-based firms: IBM's sales in India are up 37 percent year-on-year.

IBM's announcement follows the news on Monday that Accenture plans to employ more staff in India than in the US. William Green, chief executive of the global services company, revealed to reporters that he plans to recruit 8,000 more workers by August, taking Accenture's total Indian workforce to 35,000, or one-quarter of its global workforce.

Accenture boasts major offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai.

India is a popular country for many IT services companies, as staff can be cheaper to employ while still offering key skills needed in today's knowledge economy.