Mumbai Bombings Shake Outsourcing Community

by Mike Bevel CollectionIndustry.com

A terrorist attack in a major Indian outsourcing hub has raised some dramatically important questions for companies that have participated in India?s rise in the business process outsourcing market.

On July 11, nearly 200 commuters were killed by bombings in Mumbai, India.

In the midst of the terror incident, outsourcing providers made sure employees and customer data were safe and secured. More troubling was the tack eWeek.com took, mentioning that, ?Meanwhile, outsourcing customers sought reassurances that their Indian partners could handle future unforeseen events.? Only if because it would have been nice to raise that question after a bit more time had passed. Tragedy plus time and all.

For instance, Mark Nelson, executive vice president of global resources at Indymac Bank in Pasadena, CA, was quoted as saying, ?Our first concern was an impact on operations. The vendor was in contact with us immediately.? It is only later that he adds, ?We were hoping the people were OK.?

The attack does raise questions about outsourcing business practices to areas so close to potential and ? in the case of Israel and Lebanon ? actual war zones. Some questions the eWeek story suggest need answering by companies currently outsourcing to India and the Middle East are, ?Do you know the disaster recovery plans of your offshore services provider? Are their plans integrated with yours? And how prepared are these providers??