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02 Aug 2003
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Integrating Speech Recognition...

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Dear Friends,

FOCUS is a multidimensional IT enabled services company serving the
niche segment of Healthcare vertical. Headquartered in Boston, USA,
Focus has its state of the art facility at Bangalore, India and
sales offices in Los Angeles & Tennessee. Established in 1999,
Focus today has grown to a 400 member strong organization with over
40 employees in the USA.

Focus has a service portfolio which includes Medical Transcription,
Medical Coding/ Billing, Software Development , Call
Center / BPO services, Healthcare Staffing services and
International Distance Education services for nurses.

A chat with Jayesh Nagda, CEO, on the occasion of Focus' 4th
Foundation Day:

MTIndia: What has been Focus' experience with speech recognition?
What role do you see speech recognition playing in MT in the near
future?

Jayesh: Focus's experience with Speech Recognition is very
encouraging. We are not only working on the SR enabled platform,
but we also have an in-house Software R&D team which is working to
integrate SR into our enterprise wide management software to
improve productivity and efficiency and help the beginner
MT improve and move up the ladder in his career to take on the role
of Proofer / Editor

MTIndia: How does Focus plan to overcome the acute shortage of
trained MTs?

Jayesh: As the saying goes, if you cannot buy, plant, so we have
now set up our own in-house training facility, which will not only
help in getting an adequate supply of well trained MTs but will
also help us achieve better quality of work by these trainees due
to inhouse grooming on the quality of end service / product
delivered to the client.

MTIndia: Do you feel ISO or other standards are relevant to an MT
company?

Jayesh: In the international arena, now the contracts will be won
not only on price competitiveness but also on quality and timely
delivery of services and ISO or other standards will definitely
help India MT Service provider companies to establish their
credentials with certification, be it ISO or any other. From this
perspective, standards will be very essential.

Cheers!!!

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist / Founder ~ mailto:amit@...
MT India ~ www.mtindia.org
"The Community of MT Professionals"
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MTIndia placements:
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*. QA with 4+ years experience?
*. Present gross salary over 2 lacs per annum?
*. Ready to relocate to Bangalore?

If you can implement, uphold, and maintain total customer
satisfaction with regard to quality, we have an exciting
opportunity for you! QAs from Bangalore are also welcome!

Apply in confidence to:
Anusha - anusha@..., before 05th Aug.

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NEWS AND VIEWS :
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1) Healthcare services find a burst of activity

The healthcare services sector is seeing a sudden burst of
activity. At one level, medical transcription (MT) firms are
aspiring to grow through valued added services. At another level,
business process outsourcing (BPO) services are gaining ground in
the healthcare sector.

The combination of escalating healthcare costs and growing
acceptance of outsourcing is pushing diverse opportunities towards
local MT and HBPO companies. New entrants into this space are
experimenting with services that promise to make healthcare BPO
(HBPO) the mother of all BPO services.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/030726/77/26ejb.html

2) World Bank hails India's IT success

THE World Bank has lauded India's success in the information
technology sector. In its latest development policy review, the
World Bank said India had emerged as a leader among developing
countries in providing cross-border IT services.

Factors such as the existence of a skilled English speaking
workforce coming out of India's engineering schools and earning
lower wages than the European and US counterparts, low dependence
of IT on physical infrastructure, and introduction of current
account convertibility and easing of controls and regulations in
the early 1990s had contributed to the take-off of the IT sector,
it said. IT-enabled services such as back-office operations, remote
maintenance, accounting, public call centres, medical
transcription, insurance claims, database, and other bulk standards
processing, were also expanding rapidly in India.

At an earlier stage of development, the IT-enabled services had the
potential for broader job creation than IT itself, the bank said.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/bline/stories/2003073001560700.htm

3) ITeS firms in anti-poaching pact

About 14 IT-enabled services (ITeS) companies, including major call
centers in the city, have agreed to abide by a code of conduct to
check poaching of employees in the sector.

The code of conduct, designed by the ITeS task force of the
Hyderabad Software Exporters Association (Hysea), makes it
mandatory for an employee to serve for a minimum of one year in an
organisation before he or she changes the job. ''ITeS involves
investments. However, human capital is important too,'' Hysea
president Shakti Sagar said.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=76510

4) Outsourcing no threat to US: Bill Gates

The outsourcing mantra continues to work its magic. Despite the
continuing backlash against outsourcing of both white-collar and
blue-colur jobs, it has become very much a part of life as
cost-concious US companies continue to outsource work to low cost
markets, including India.

Bill Gates, Chairman of the company said that Microsoft and other
US firms may be sending work overseas to cut costs, but the market
for software developer jobs in the US remains strong and needs more
qualified candidates.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow
?msid=104223

5) Hot new IT destinations

No, they're not Bangalore or Hyderabad. In a quest for lower costs
and staff, IT companies are rushing to a host of small towns like
Coimbatore, Mysore, Hubli and Kochi.Companies back the point. KG
Information Systems, Asia's largest medical transcription company,
is based in Coimbatore and employs over 1,000 people there.

S Sridharan executive director at KG, explains why the company
decided to locate itself at Coimbatore: "We have 25 engineering
colleges and over 1 lakh students pass out of them every year. And
the entry-level salary for BPO is only Rs 5,000, half of the Rs
10,000 in, say, Delhi or Bangalore. So there is a large talent pool
to tap in the city. In fact, companies from outside are coming to
recruit people here."

KG Information Systems received 60,000 applications for the 2,000
posts it sought to fill.

http://www.business-standard.com/ice/story.asp?Menu=7&story=19595

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Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
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