With over 400 BPO companies, Scotland is emerging as a credible nearshore-cum-onsite destination in mainland Europe for Indian firms, given its competitive costs and sizeable talent pool.

However, the presence of Indian BPO firms has been very few in the region. Hero ITeS, part of the Munjal Group, had acquired Scotland’s biggest call centre Telecom Service Centre (TSC) for about $81 million in 2007 and others such as TCS provide contractor services here. Indian BPO companies that have their own centres in Europe is very limited. The only one worth mentioning is HCL, which set up its call centre in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Mark Hallan, first secretary, Scottish Development International, said that India has been identified as a top-priority market for investments in the region and they are currently holding discussions with around 15 companies, though he declined to name the firms.

NEW YORK: News Corp’s MySpace social-networking unit fired almost 30 per cent of its staff to save money in response to falling advertising sales and gains by larger rival Facebook Inc.

Major social network MySpace has dropped a bomb today by announcing a restructuring phase will result in a reduction of its workforce by almost 30%. Aimed to turn the News Corporation-owned company in a more innovative, efficient, and entrepreneurial business, the layoff plan affects all US divisions and will lower the number of domestic staff at MySpace to 1,000 employees. The announcement suggests the company eliminated about 400 jobs. Dani Dudeck, a MySpace spokeswoman, declined to comment on the firings, severance costs or how much money may be saved.

"Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company," said MySpace Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta. "I understand that these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product." Putting it simple Jonathan Miller, News Corporation's CEO of Digital Media and Chief Digital Officer said that "MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today's marketplace." The reality being that Facebook and Twitter are the 'hip' things these days.

News Corp Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch is retooling his Internet operation to regain momentum. The $580 million purchase of MySpace in October 2005 looked shrewd the next year when Google Inc signed a $900 million accord to sell ads on the site. Facing the expiration of that deal and gains by Facebook, Murdoch, 78, hired former AOL chief Jonathan Miller in April to overhaul the digital operation.

“Two years ago MySpace seemed like it had unlimited upside, and people were throwing around valuations in the multibillions of dollars,” said Doug Creutz, an analyst with Cowen & Co in San Francisco. “The site has lost a lot of that cachet.”

With the global economy facing rough weather, cost cutting has become the new mantra in Business World. Companies across the segments and sectors are trying various measures to rein in costs. From layoffs to issuing hiring freeze to cutting travel costs to giving unpaid compulsory off to cutting stationery and energy expenses, companies are doing all to get a handle on operating expenses. One cost reduction measure that seems to be increasingly becoming common is salary cut. The list of companies announcing a cut in their employees' salaries is growing across verticals. It's no different in IT, where from TCS to Infosys to Microsoft to HP, all have announced a cut in pay packets. Here are the technology companies who have announced salary cuts and freezes to tide over the challenging economy.

Software Testing Going Through a Reinvention Process And Is Moving Away From Being a "Necessary Evil" to An Activity On Its Own Right

LONDON and BOSTON, March 10 2008 /Press release -- NelsonHall, the leading independent analyst firm, dedicated to BPO and ITO advice, today announced the availability of its latest research entitled "Software Testing Assessment and Forecast", a comprehensive review of software testing globally, authored by Dominique Raviart, Research Manager at NelsonHall. 

Raviart commented, "Software testing is increasingly performed as a 'specialist testing activity' by professionals that conduct testing on a full time basis. This is a significant change from the traditional testing activities, where developers would test their own work at the end of the software development life cycle. Specialist testing services typically bring a wider offering that goes further than the classic functional testing. They rely on structured methodologies to conduct testing projects and enhance software quality. Finally, they increasingly are delivered from testing factories and offshore, rather than provided onsite in a staffing mode."