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08 Mar 2003

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Can the Government "Help"

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Dear Friends,

About the time Kunal (of Truworth, Jaipur) was penning his thoughts
on how Government "Help" was an important issue in the MT industry
[see MT India Digest archives at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MTID
(#099 - Government "Help"!!) if you do not subscribe to our
moderated discussion list for MT professionals], I received an
urgent call from Hyderabad. Apparently the CM had called for a
meeting the next day with the major players of the ITES sector to
help find out ways of sustaining the high growth rate that this
sector was seeing. He was specifically looking for suggestions as
to how the government could help nurture the ITES businesses.

I had a brainstorming session with Ramkrishna Tummala, CEO,
WORLDTECH, regarding local, national and international issues which
could be addressed better with Government "Help". Mr. Ramkrishna
had already identified core issues with the help of members of the
Indian Association for Medical Records Services (IAMR), and he did
an excellent job in representing the issues facing the MT industry
to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, and how the Govt. could
"Help". To read a synopsis of his presentation, please goto:
http://www.mtindia.org/article/default.cfm

The Andhra Chief Executive, on his part, promised that he would
look into the issues at the earliest. The following assurances
were offered by him:

1. To promote training and development further to the efforts
already in place by the government. The CM acknowledged the common
concern of lack of adequate trained manpower in ITES and the
difficulties arising from it.

2. To ensure power and bandwidth supply. He acknowledged the
disparity between rate of bandwidth at cities like Cochin and
Mumbai and the rates in Hyderabad and said he would look into it.

3. Widening of roads on route to Hitec city.

4. Bestowing essential services status to ITES. This would
include protection during bandhs and other emergencies.

5. Setting up an exclusive park for ITES along the lines of
Hitec city.

6. Instituting a taskforce to oversee and aid the growth of the
ITES sector.

7. Quarterly meetings with industry heads to monitor on an ongoing
basis the needs of the sector.

Maybe we could try to put together broad outlines on such agenda,
for such future interactions in any state - and keep it online.
Maybe put-up an MTSOs board/club, for national and international
interaction? Your time to "type" your thoughts would be greatly
appreciated!

And maybe, just maybe... it's time Indian cricketers start lobbying
for our cause - they are doing it for everyone else, as I see
it!!:-)

Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.MTIndia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"

"It takes years to become an overnight success! Inch by inch, it's
a cinch."

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+++++++++++++++
ADVERTISEMENT:
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We are a Jaipur based Company, have opened up our offshore
marketing office in California. We would like to share the workload
of our existing work with an expereinced firm preferably in
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Kunal Jain
Truworth Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
10-B, Dhuleshwar Garden, Jaipur, Rajasthan
Phone : 911412365534
Email : tracking@...
------------------------
NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) MTSOs may come under service tax net

The Budget may have come up with a googly as far as information
technology-enabled services are concerned. The text of the Finance
Bill seems to suggest that ITES belongs to the new category of
services, which would be subject to 8% service tax.

Unless the language of the bill is changed, when finally passed by
the Parliament, most ITES companies could end up paying service
tax. One of the new taxable services mentioned in the Finance Bill,
is any service provided by a commercial concern in relation to
'business auxiliary services'.

Though the Finance Bill states that the service tax would not be
applicable to IT services, the definition of IT services is very
narrow. IT services has been defined as: "Any service in relation
to designing, developing or maintaining of computer software, or
computerised data processing or system networking, or any other
service primarily in relation to operation of computer systems."
However, services like medical transcription, billing, etc may not
fall within the category of computerised data processing and hence
service tax will be applicable.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?artid=39305012

2) U.S., UK Workers Fear Competent, Low-Waged Indians

Business processes outsourcing (BPO) jobs in India have for some
time been a brighter part of the economy. However, that may not be
so for too long as U.S. workers feel threatened by jobs being
outsourced to India because of low wages here.

As if that were not enough, British Telecom' s Communication
Workers' Union (CWU) has also launched a campaign against the
company' s plan to move its call center operations to India.

Indian business and industry leaders are aware of the bill and are
looking for a proper lobbying firm to work against it. The bill is
also seen here as being opposed to the General Agreement on Trade
of Services, which is part of the WTO. India will oppose it in the
WTO if the bill is passed.

The U.S. administration has also announced that it opposes any
movement of services in which the model of delivery is the
electronic medium.

Meanwhile, Indians have become the second largest group to migrate
to the United States. Between 2000 and 2002 nearly a quarter
million Indians have migrated to the U.S., coming second after
Mexico. China stood third with 149,000 migrants.

http://www.islam-online.net/english/News/2003-03/01/article03.shtml

3) Tomorrow's Transcription Tools: What New Technology Means for
Healthcare

The year is 2006, and there are just a few hundred medical
transcriptionists (MTs) still transcribing reports, serving only
those older physicians who haven't changed with the times-and the
times have definitely changed. Physicians have finally recognized
the power of electronic health records (EHRs) as well as the fact
that this power is realized only if they input clinical data
directly into the EHR.

The vast majority of physicians are using empirically refined
templates, pick lists, and other methods of structured,
codifiedinput through the evolved progeny of today's Palm PCs,
pocket PCs, and Tablet PCs. Input methods include touch-screen,
speech recognition, handwriting recognition, and perhaps other
technology not yet invented. There are no longer any delays or
expenses resulting from transcription. Plus, healthcare
organizations enjoy numerous benefits derived from analyzing
codified clinical data. But this is only one vision....

http://library.ahima.org/xpedio/groups/public/documents/ahima/pub_b
ok1_017570.html

4) ITES Vendors should aim for niche areas

Those who have been regularly attending the annual conference of
Nasscom, the apex industry association of IT software and service
companies in India, would have noticed that every year there is a
focus business area which draws the crowds. The last few years have
seen in succession client/server, dotcoms, medical transcription
and contact centres. The flavour of the year at Nasscom 2003 was
business process outsourcing or BPO, for short.

However, offering lower prices will be only a temporary, one-shot
advantage for the Indian vendor. What the customer is more
concerned about is consistently getting the quality of the business
process service that he was used to when it was being done in-house
at lower total costs. A more sustained advantage would be to
consistently offer the customer more value adds such as improvement
in the business processes to enhance efficiency, accelerate
execution, improve quality and lower costs of management. As they
gain the confidence of their customers, Indian vendors should start
seeking higher value processes for execution.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/stories/2003022400010200.htm

5) NASSCOM and Hewitt Associates to conduct Compensation and People
Practices Study for Indian IT/ITES industry

NASSCOM and Hewitt Associates have partnered to conduct a
comprehensive survey of Compensation and Benefits trends for the
Indian IT and IT Enabled Services (IT/ITES) industry. The study
titled "Total Rewards Management 2003" will provide detailed
information on compensation, benefits and people practices
exercised by Indian companies. The study is a broad-based
initiative, which will survey over 250 IT/ITES companies across
India and will be released in June 2003.

The NASSCOM-Hewitt compensation benchmark study will cover:
Compensation, Benefits and People Practices.

The study will also include an "HR Dashboard" - a tool that will
provide business leaders from participating companies with
insightful information on attrition, performance orientation,
differential pay (geographic and functional) and other cost
metrics. The study will look at factors that support not only human
resources (HR) but also all the business unit heads in taking
strategic people decisions. The study also aims to identify the
best-in-class HR practices, incentives & variable pay strategies,
and top management orientation towards people issues.

http://www.nasscom.org/artdisplay.asp?Art_id=1626

6) The transcription market was destroyed by reliable
voice-recognition (VR) software?

A threat to ITES comes from technology. Technology has already
killed one ITES business. The transcription market was destroyed by
reliable voice-recognition (VR) software. VR allows doctors and
lawyers to dictate notes as documents rather than as audio files
requiring clerical transcription.

Another emerging technology could undermine India's USP. NM
stresses the huge pool of cheap, English-competent personnel. What
happens if English competence becomes irrelevant? The World Cup saw
universal realtime translators - clunky things which worked with
the limited vocabulary of soccer. Well, science, technology, law,
accountancy and medicine also have limited vocabularies.

http://business-standard.com/archives/2002/jun/50290602.058.asp

7) Healthcare Webinar to Offer Guidance for Ongoing HIPAA
Compliance

Precyse Solutions and DigiMerc announced that it will co-host a
complimentary Webinar for healthcare administrators entitled
"HIPAA - April 2003 and Beyond: Practical Solutions for Ongoing
HIPAA Compliance," on March 18 at 12 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, 11
a.m. Central Standard, and 9 a.m. Western Standard Time.

In this online seminar participants will learn:

-- How to approach HIPAA as an element of overall organizational
compliance, not as a separate field of activity
-- Strategies for incorporating the HIPAA requirements into your
existing corporate compliance program
-- Understanding the significant changes found in the Final
Security Rule
-- How to upgrade your network security infrastructure and still
stay within your current budget

http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.
030603/230655538&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_fi
le=
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Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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