I attended the UK premiere of John Jeffcoat’s movie ‘Outsourced’ at the Soho hotel screening room in London last night. I was fortunate enough to be introducing the film as I started the ball rolling and created the possibility of arranging the screening in the first place.

It all started a couple of years ago when I saw this video on youtube. I liked the fact that someone had turned a current affairs story into a human-interest story – an actual movie that would interest people beyond the business community. I started using the video in some of the MBA classes I teach, as an example of business strategies crossing into general consciousness. One day I just thought I would contact the person who uploaded the video – out of interest. I was surprised to soon receive an email from the director (and writer) John Jeffcoat!

I then had some chats with John about the movie and how we might arrange a London screening. I started trying to put it together as an event that the National Outsourcing Association (NOA) could host. What I found though was that all the companies I approached for funds (to pay for the cinema, drinks etc) were all a bit scared of the subject matter. The film has some amusing sections, comic situations involving cultural misunderstandings and many of the companies I spoke too just shied away from associating themselves with comedy when the press is often accusing them of stealing jobs from the UK and sending them to India.

Eventually the NOA board even rejected me. Not that they didn’t like it – we had a private screening on DVD and the board liked it, but they were wary of using membership funds on an event that was ‘fun’ rather than educational or research driven.

However, the NOA provided a sponsor in the end. Buffalo is the marketing and communications agency that works for the NOA. I had an offer of some cash from the law firm Olswang, but it was not enough to completely cover all the costs. Buffalo stepped in and said they would match Olswang and cover any additional costs so the event could happen!

So… Buffalo did a lot of work and organised a great event at the Soho hotel screening room. There were drinks, and a really nice screening in a great theatre. What was really nice was that I managed to get hold of the actress Ayesha Dharker via John Jeffcoat – i was communicating with him the day before the screening on Facebook and he sent some text messages from the USA to the actors from the movie. She was in London and managed to change her diary for the day so she could come to the screening and also do a Q&A after the movie finished. You can see some video from the Q&A session here…

If you haven’t seen this film then I’d recommend trying to obtain a DVD copy. Yes, it’s a love story, but a friend of mine described it as a cross between Local Hero and Slumdog Millionaire. That’s not a bad description of the film – and it’s about outsourcing too.

As outsourcing destinations go, Sri Lanka is not having the best of times. Protests have been taking place non-stop in London for months, with Tamils trying to encourage the British government to do something about the civil war in Sri Lanka – generally by making a lot of noise for their cause in Westminster. The heat of these protests has barely died down, though since the death of the Tamil Tiger’s leader, the Sri Lankan government has now declared the country officially ‘at peace’.

So it was with some trepidation that I took a call today from the director and general secretary of SLASSCOM, Madu Ratnayake. SLASSCOM is the Sri Lankan hi-tech services chamber of commerce – and the name sounds familiar to those of us who know similar organisations, such as NASSCOM and BRASSCOM.

With Sri Lanka in the British news over the past year for all the wrong reasons, what was he going to tell me about outsourcing to Sri Lanka that would make it a compelling proposition?

He had some good - and confused - messages in my opinion. The good thing is that Sri Lanka has accepted they need to specialise. They are drilling down into some specific industries, like the legal, and leisure businesses, and trying to focus on becoming a destination of choice for companies in that space. They are also keen to target the Small to Medium sized Enterprises (SME) that often elude much larger offshore destinations, such as India.

The SME focus is essential for Sri Lanka to succeed. They have a very different service industry to some of the larger locations, with over 300 suppliers in this sector. They really do have the potential to be a hub for SME activity because it always works better for smaller companies to work with smaller partners.

But, on the downside, the outreach for SMEs is far harder. SMEs in the UK don’t often go on trade missions, or attend big conferences in London, let alone Colombo – so how do you reach them? Unfortunately SLASSCOM don’t seem to have much of a plan on that yet, though to be fair Madu said it was early days and they not only need to figure out how to reach people, they need to change the war-torn perception of the country too.

The thing I found most unsettling though was the tired low cost argument. I guess it’s one of those things in offshore outsourcing – everyone always returns to cost of labour and service as the primary driver. I asked Madu about why SLASSCOM tries to position Sri Lanka as a specialist, a niche operator, and then returns to the low cost of labour as a ‘key differentiator’. In fact, low cost is the primary reason for outsourcing to Sri Lanka according to their website – and it’s something Madu echoed when we talked. He even stressed that it’s the “primary reason” for anyone to be outsourcing offshore.

But surely that defeats the purpose of SLASSCOM focusing on niche areas, focusing on having top class talent, and focusing on the quality of life in the country? I think SLASSCOM needs to work a bit more on their messaging, but they are at least away from the starting blocks.

A supplier asked me recently if I could provide them with information about which CIOs are ‘thinking’ about outsourcing, so they might have some advance warning and they can pitch for business earlier.

It struck me as a strange thing to ask. CIOs don’t just randomly share their thoughts about what areas of the business might be outsourced, and even where they might be considering an outsourcing programme it is likely they will keep it very silent. Even their own staff won’t hear about it until the strategy has been decided, because rumours and discussions about plans that are undecided could cause chaos in most companies. And I might add, that where a CIO has asked me for some opinions in confidence, I’m hardly going to repay that trust by ringing up a few suppliers with the news.

So I get tired of seeing supposedly respected news sources, like the India Times, running stories like this. If UBS wanted to go on the record and talk about their plans then there would be a story. If the newspaper can’t confirm the story then why print a rumour? Unless they just want to force the UBS public relations machine into issuing a confirmation or denial? It’s no better than the mish-mash of rumours and speculation that filled the Internet when Michael Jackson died.

If the boss of UBS wants to talk to someone who understands what they are doing and can comment on their plans without resorting to rumours then it’s obvious how to reach me.

So an Infosys executive has finally made it into the upper echelons of the Indian government, but it’s not the one everyone has assumed would eventually seek an elected office. Though rumours about Narayana Murthy one day standing for a senior government position (possibly even President) have swirled around tech business circles for years, now it is actually Nandan Nilekani who has taken the leap into public service.

Nilekani has been a frequent visitor to media studios recently as he has used his celebrity in business circles to write a book about imagining a new India. The government handpicked Nilekani to run a new scheme assigning a unique identification number to every citizen. With over a billion citizens, that’s a tall order, but asking one of the founders of Infosys to run the programme seems like a shrewd move.

Rob Preston’s blog in InformationWeek earlier this month caught my attention recently. He recounts a recent event in New York where the CEO of HCL Technologies, Vineet Nayar, said he doesn’t hire greater numbers of American graduates because they are ‘unemployable’.

Notice the focus on ‘greater numbers’ though. HCL does employ a lot of Americans, but when he was pressed on why they are not hiring more kids straight from college Nayar explained that he just felt that the American college system is not preparing them for work in the technology industry.

We have heard similar arguments about technology or computer science courses in the UK for a long time. Commentators always argue that the universities need to include more project or programme management, more relationship-led soft skills – not just the hardcore code cutting.

What’s interesting though is that Nayar thought some other skills were missing from university curricula in the developed world. Global history and foreign languages were two areas he cited that would prepare tech workers for life in a more global industry.

I studied Computer Science and Software Engineering and my first job was with a big German tech firm, then Japanese, then French, then American… and this globalisation of services has only just begun. I think Nayar is on the right track, but what do you feel about his comments?

I was at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) this morning because their equivalent body in India (the CII) had brought a large delegation of Indian business leaders over to London to talk about trade between the two nations.

I was most interested to hear a speech by the new commerce and industry minister, Anand Sharma. The minister has only been in the job for three weeks and yet he spent last week in the USA talking to business groups there and here he is today in London talking to similar British groups.

The general debate, and Sharma’s speech, was not specifically themed around outsourcing or the tech industry, however the tech sector was mentioned a number of times – particularly when the discussion turned to work visas. Minister Sharma sounded somewhat frustrated when he talked about the recession-led protectionism that is flaring up in the USA – particularly over the granting of H-1B work visas. He stated that there are some critics who might want to look at the 250,000 or so jobs already created inside the USA by Indian technology firms.

It felt at times like the minister wanted to yell ‘I told you so’ to the assembled British business leaders. Because the Indian government had never given their banks such freedom as we did in London, their banking system has not collapsed in a similar manner. In fact, the minister was talking of GDP growth rates in India creeping back up to 7%, with strong predictions that the trend can soon get back up to 8% or 9%.

That’s astounding - if it happens as the politicians are predicting. What can’t be disputed is that a fifth of all the children in the entire world are Indian. Think what that means for the future of doing business with the region. In our sector we are already getting quite familiar with the India story, but you can bet there are other industry sectors out there that India will excel in before long. They had better start taking a look at what we have been up to in technology.

When I do talks about outsourcing, I often try to illustrate different points by using video or images. Let’s face it, someone talking to PowerPoint slides for an hour is about as interesting as a rail timetable, so I try to find ways to liven it up a bit.

I like using this video when reminding people that most people out there find outsourcing to be annoying, useless, or pointless.

It’s a funny little viral that has been sent all over the web in the past couple of years, but it does explain some of the issues around outsourcing in an amusing way. The useless high-priced American is replaced by an Indian, who is in turn replaced by a Chinese computer -  so it not only illustrates human call centres, but the industrialisation of customer services.

I think it’s funny and a useful way to remind managers that not everyone sees the point of their change programme. But I was talking to an MBA class a few months ago and I used this video and one of the students said it was racist and I shouldn’t be using materials like this.

Was he just a bit touchy or do you think it’s offensive?

I came late to the Gartner outsourcing summit yesterday. I knew I had to be at the conference all day on Tuesday because I was presenting, but Monday was going to be more of a networking day.

When I did arrive, I talked to a few people and then went to a session highlighting the outsourcing opportunities in Brazil.

Robert Janssen of Brasil IT gave an interesting presentation, of course full of all the usual information one would expect, but used an interesting analogy I’d like to repeat.

Robert said: “I was at my favourite pizza place in San Francisco the other day. The owner was smiling so I asked him what was so good today. He told me that he had just had his best day ever for pizza deliveries – even delivering more than the local pizza chains like Domino’s. I asked him, what ‘s his secret? How can he deliver more pizza from one store than Domino’s can across the Bay region? The pizza restaurant owner replied: ‘I only hire Brazilians to deliver my pizza.’”

Robert then went on to explain the reasons the pizza restaurant owner gave for his choice of delivery riders: “There are three reasons. Firstly, if they can ride bikes like they do in São Paulo then they can deliver fast anywhere. Second, they just get things done, whatever happens, and third, they are completely flexible. Whatever unforeseen event occurs can be dealt with – my riders come to me with solutions, not problems.”

It’s a nice little outline of some of the cultural advantages of Brazil. The usual presentations listing the number of college graduates and internet connections can get a little boring so kudos to Robert for livening it up.

What made the session even better though was that the global technology head of HSBC in Brazil, Jacques Depocas, was there and he talked at length about the experience HSBC has had in the country. This was supposed to be a closed session – no bloggers allowed – but I got special permission directly from Jacques to reproduce some of his comments.

He said: "So why did we set up our centre in Brazil? There were many reasons, but it started off because, when the decision was taken in 2005, the global head of the GLTs had previously worked in Brazil for three years and he knew that due to the maturity of the Brazilian IT industry he could find skill sets that were very hard to find in other regions. The time zone is favourable. There is a strong cultural similarity with Americans and Europeans. People think of their career in the long-term and there are good union relations in the industry, plus it's a very mature industry - about two million people work in IT in Brazil. There are other factors, such as political stability and good infrastructure, but the real difference is in the experience of the people. Brazilians often work through university, so they are getting valuable work experience much earlier than in most regions. If you look at my team, almost 25 per cent of my people have more than 10 years’ experience - that's very hard to find in some other areas."

That final point was supported in some of the other Gartner sessions today as a key differentiator. There are a lot of people out there more worried about the quality of their team than the cost reductions. And for those organisations it looks like Brazil has something to offer.

I was wandering around the Gartner outsourcing summit in London today and I bumped into Christoph Neut, the European head of Techteam.

Techteam was founded in the US in 1980, so it has been around for a long time, but I’m not really familiar with the company. Christoph explained to me that they have been working in Europe since 1996 – which is when he joined the company.

Techteam focused on helpdesks – the poor guys and girls who get the brunt of users’ anger when their IT falls apart. But they have an interesting angle on the old helpdesk model.

Christoph explained to me: “We all know the egg timer. Microsoft uses it extensively and we all love the symbol because we need to look at it so often when waiting for applications to open. I want to use it as an analogy for business and IT though. The top of the egg timer can be considered to be the business, and the bottom is the IT organisation. The bottleneck in the middle is the relationship between then two and that is usually through a help desk.”

Christoph’s analogy is certainly true, and IT staff are forever being asked to try behaving like the business – especially in anything that advises them on their career. What Techteam seem to be offering though is a re-organisation of the way the helpdesk is structured, so the technical team is completely aligned with the business.

Christoph went on to explain: “Helpdesks are rarely staffed with the A-team. However this needs to change. You need to reposition the role of the helpdesk and to change so it moves away from just being a part of the IT organisation. Helpdesk agents often report to a helpdesk manager who reports to an infrastructure manager who reports to the CIO. It makes the helpdesk team feel like they are stuck at the bottom of the IT organisation!”

He added: “Business owners need to operate with the helpdesk, creating a combined business and IT function. This results in the neck of the egg timer widening. It can change the whole way of dealing with IT and it becomes more of a service desk approach.”

Their approach seems very interesting. I even heard a couple of the IT suppliers from India talking about the Techteam approach with some grudging respect.

When Christoph was explaining his analogy he added: “You know that TV show The IT Crowd? That’s a lesson in how NOT to run a help desk!” I tweeted that comment after the interview only to find that minutes later the writer and creator of The IT Crowd, Graham Linehan, had tweeted a message back saying: “They’re right!”

Techteam has a new fan thanks to the wonders of Twitter.

Did outsourcing cause the expenses scandal that has rocked the foundations of the Palace of Westminster in London? It’s highly likely as The Daily Telegraph managed to get hold of more than a million pieces of information related to expense claims by British parliamentarians – all in a single place and stored digitally.

According to a report in The Times last Friday it looks as if the information that was leaked was a comprehensive collection of paper documents that were scanned and were to be edited and filed – not used in their raw form.

So, could it have been a leak from the printing firm TSO, formerly Her Majesty’s Stationery Office?

If so, it makes all the other outsourced data leaks we have heard about in the past pale into insignificance. This one could end up changing the very nature of government in the UK regardless of who wins the next election.

Hat tip: Thanks to Alan Lee at London South Bank University for pointing me to this article.