Major IT firm to move from Oman to India
Bahwan CyberTek is moving its HQ to Chennai in India, according to the Khaleej Times.
The company, established in 1999 and part of the Bahwan Group in Oman, has expanded significantly since then, offering both onsite and offshore services.
It won a five-year contract to manage Gulf Air's call centre at KOM in 2003-4. It has secured a $500 million contract to run 4th party logistics from PDO in a joint venture with Exel. It has implemented over 50 Oracle e-Business Suites.
The company claims to have several government contracts to offer e-business services nationally, including the $12 million worth of Sanad Citizen Services offered at 150 points across the country.
It won the Corporate Gold Award in Oman's annual web award contest.
And it's moving to India. What can we infer from that? The biggest cost in supplying electronic and IT services is likely to be in skilled labour. The company must feel that there will be fewer constraints in operating from India, where presumably most of the skilled labour is, than from Muscat.
How does this tie in with implementing and upgrading IT skills in Oman, and Omanisation? If headquartered in India, the company is free to hire and fire Indians. Naturally, it could bring Omanis over for training, but its services would be unhindered by labour and visa requirements in Oman.
Would Bahwan CyberTek ever consider moving back to Muscat should the pool of IT-qualified Omanis increase? Quite possibly not if the aim of the company is to diversify and expand its work internationally. It would need access to a very substantial workforce of qualified staff.
Compare this with another story from the Khaleej Times published the same day, in which the President of Oman's State Audit Institution (SAI), Sayyid Abdullah bin Hamed Al Busaidi, appealed for auditing institutions to keep abreast with the latest developments in IT.
I think I would like to ask how successful IT training has been in Oman. What are the forecasts for not just IT literacy but also in-depth skilled practioners who could create and implement solutions such as those which Bahwan CyberTek undertakes? How does Oman's national IT policy propose to keep local companies in country to employ local staff rather than having to watch them go overseas?
The company, established in 1999 and part of the Bahwan Group in Oman, has expanded significantly since then, offering both onsite and offshore services.
It won a five-year contract to manage Gulf Air's call centre at KOM in 2003-4. It has secured a $500 million contract to run 4th party logistics from PDO in a joint venture with Exel. It has implemented over 50 Oracle e-Business Suites.
The company claims to have several government contracts to offer e-business services nationally, including the $12 million worth of Sanad Citizen Services offered at 150 points across the country.
It won the Corporate Gold Award in Oman's annual web award contest.
And it's moving to India. What can we infer from that? The biggest cost in supplying electronic and IT services is likely to be in skilled labour. The company must feel that there will be fewer constraints in operating from India, where presumably most of the skilled labour is, than from Muscat.
How does this tie in with implementing and upgrading IT skills in Oman, and Omanisation? If headquartered in India, the company is free to hire and fire Indians. Naturally, it could bring Omanis over for training, but its services would be unhindered by labour and visa requirements in Oman.
Would Bahwan CyberTek ever consider moving back to Muscat should the pool of IT-qualified Omanis increase? Quite possibly not if the aim of the company is to diversify and expand its work internationally. It would need access to a very substantial workforce of qualified staff.
Compare this with another story from the Khaleej Times published the same day, in which the President of Oman's State Audit Institution (SAI), Sayyid Abdullah bin Hamed Al Busaidi, appealed for auditing institutions to keep abreast with the latest developments in IT.
I think I would like to ask how successful IT training has been in Oman. What are the forecasts for not just IT literacy but also in-depth skilled practioners who could create and implement solutions such as those which Bahwan CyberTek undertakes? How does Oman's national IT policy propose to keep local companies in country to employ local staff rather than having to watch them go overseas?
Comments
muscati wrote:
03/07/07 20:12:40
Bahwan Cybertek has always had its major hub in India even though it was technically an Omani company with "headquarters" in Muscat. I think they have more people in India than in Oman and they do most of their work there even for Oman operation. Whatever they do in Oman is mostly cosmetic, IMO. Even the much talked about $500 million 4PL contract with PDO is actually a joint venture with a UK logistics company Exel, in which Exel does the actual logistics management work and BCT provides the IT support.
They have been talking about having an IPO in India for the past couple of years. I think maybe this is the final step before the IPO. Now they can get Indian investors to buy-in into the IPO.