MT India Newsletter - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MTIndia

14 Sep 2002

*****************************************************************

"Murphy Rides Again"

*****************************************************************

Dear Friends,

Murphy's Law is alive and well on-line, it appears. :) My execrable
pun in another mailing list I participate in suffered the fate it
deserved due to my lack of forethought in not warning my editor
that "poisson" is French for "fish" and was used deliberately. This
is especially important when the original proverb I quoted says
"one man's meat is another man's poison."

Ahhh... the intricacies of the language and the diligence of
editors combined with the potential for disaster. Truly amazing. :)

The lesson to be learned?

"If anything can be misunderstood, it will." (Murphy's Law,
Thirteenth Corollary.)

Count on it. Anticipate it. Pre-empt it -- if you can. A salutary
lesson for anyone writing a copy, or for that matter doing MT!

BTW - this is a link to a writeup I have to recommend - DO refer it
to your clients:) You will need to cut and paste the whole link:
http://www.memag.com/be_core/content/journals/m/data/2002/0909/show_ar
ticle.jsp?filename=101chart.html

Warm Regards,

Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM
Strategist/Founder ~ amit@...
MTIndia ~ www.mtindia.org - not non-profit on purpose....

**************************************************************
CAUTION:
**********************

The below mentioned company has not made payments to two companies
in India running to over 12,000 USD. To the best of our knowledge,
they are still using Indian subcontractors. Their modus operandi is
to change the service provider when pressed for payments.

Gregory Wells <ProfMedicalTrans@...>
Professional Medical Transcribing, L. L. C.
Las Vegas, Nevada 89117

**********************
ADVERTISEMENT:
**********************
Required - Production Manager
-------------------------------------------
Location: Bangalore
Compensation :
22,000 pm and above, depending on experience.
Position to be closed in 15 days.

Seeking self motivated MTs with >4 years experience in reputable
companies, to manage production and quality.

Mail in confidence to: Maj (Dr.) Amit Chatterjee, SM amit@...

*****************************************************************
NEWS AND VIEWS :
-----------------------------

1) CBay sets up unit in Bangalore

CBay Systems Ltd, an NRI-promoted US-based healthcare business
process outsourcing company, has opened a Health Insurance
Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)-compliant data and
process centre here.

V Raman Kumar, chairman of CBay Systems, said these moves are aimed
at putting CBay in place to grab a share of the HIPAA-compliance
business. "HIPAA is a $24 billion opportunity that will unfold over
five years. Gartner has declared it to be greater than Y2K," adds
Kumar.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/020912/26/1v5mx.html

2) Thumbs up for offshore, but revenues still crawl

HIS was the lonely voice of dissent among a panel of eight that
debated whether an impending US slowdown would affect the Indian
software industry. Everyone else said the politically right thing:
that India, with its skills and other advantages would actually get
more business thanks to the slowdown than otherwise.

You can't find Mr Jason Pontin, editor Red Herring magazine, in the
speaker's list for Nasscom 2002. Visitors to the conference this
year would probably miss him. Miss him not for his entertaining
addresses but for his bizarrely accurate predictions.

In 2000, when the dot.com mania was at its peak, he predicted a
crash. When he returned in March 2001, people grudgingly gave him
his due, but still raised eyebrows when he warned that the US
slowdown could hit India badly. His reasoning: "India, with its
skills in offshore services, may get a larger share of the pie. But
the pie itself is shrinking."

http://www.blonnet.com/bline/2002/02/05/stories/2002020501500500.htm

3) CBay eyes growth through takeovers

CBAY Systems Ltd, a consultant for the medical transcription
industry, announced the acquisition of US-based Arrendale
Associates, a transcription company.

This is part of CBay's unique business model and strategy to grow
through a large number of acquisitions. "We are planning to acquire
30-40 companies such as Arrendale over the next two years," the
Chairman, Mr V Raman Kumar said. The acquisition of transcription
companies in the US (for an average of $2 million each) will help
the company get customers, CBay believes. ``Each of these companies
has reached a stage where it cannot grow any more without further
investment. We will provide the funds for that and the companies in
turn will begin to market more aggressively and get business,'' Mr
Kumar said.

The company recently took over Infokey, a 60-strong medical
transcription company in Bangalore. The team will provide a safety
net in case of emergencies when none of the vendors are able to
take on extra work. "Going forward we are willing to take stake in
our other vendors too," he said.

http://in.biz.yahoo.com/020911/17/1v4a4.html

4) Max India may increase stake in HealthScribe

Max India is considering increasing its stake in the medical
transcription company HealthScribe India. Two years ago, Max India
acquired a majority interest in the medical transcription company
for Rs 37 crore. The group currently has a 71.4% stake in the
company.

According to sources, Max is in negotiations with HealthScribe Inc,
the US-based parent company, to hike its stake. "Max might even
consider buying out the parent company's stake in the Indian
operation," sources said.

The Indian operation currently works with over 40 hospitals in the
US. HealthScribe India has over 1,000 medical transcriptionists. At
the time of the JV, it had announced that it planned to employ and
train 5,000 medical transcriptionists by the year 2004.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=21893073&
sType=1

5) Microsoft Word flaw may allow file theft - Repair available for
only newer versions!

Microsoft's flagship word processor has for years had a security
flaw that could allow a criminal to steal computer files by
"bugging" a document with a hidden code.

The company said it will definitely repair the problem only for
owners of the most recent versions of the software. That
decision -- still left largely up in the air by Microsoft
engineers -- may leave millions of users of Word 97 without a fix.
All versions of Word are susceptible to the flaw, but the problem
is most severe in Word 97.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/09/13/microsoft.word.bug.ap/inde
x.html

6) Nasscom sticks to $24-bn target for enabled services

The National Association of Software Service Companies, the apex
body of software service companies, has said that the growth target
of $21 billion-$24billion for the IT Enabled Services industry by
2008 is very much achievable, taking on global research firm
Gartner that predicted a growth rate of 22% for the domestic
Business Process Outsourcing market achievable by 2005.

While Gartner has been fairly conservative in its predictions for
the BPO market, Nasscom is optimistic about the projections it has
set along with consulting firm McKinsey. However, the difference in
the projections by both Gartner and Nasscom is difficult to
ascertain as the former has forecast figures for 2001 and 05 while
the latter has estimated growth rates achievable by '08.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=21697346&
sType=1

7) Infotech edge

Nasscom, has come out with an extensive study conducted in
association with Netscribes to assess the competitiveness of nine
Indian cities as destinations for IT-Enabled Service companies.

"About 90 per cent of all ITES companies in India are concentrated
in nine major cities while others have not been able to attract
more than two companies each. Our study reveals that despite a
large number of ITES companies being based in Mumbai, NCR and
Bangalore, these cities are facing increasing competition from
other cities. Cities such as Hyderabad, and Kochi are emerging as
attractive ITES destinations primarily due to rapid improvements in
infrastructure (power, international bandwidth and urban
transportation) and lower manpower costs due to lower cost of
living and lack of alternative employment opportunities in these
cities" says , Kiran Karnik, President, Nasscom.

According to Nasscom findings, Hyderabad has emerged as the most
competitive city for ITES. Chennai, Kochi and Kolkata too rank
highly in their infrastructure offerings, policy incentives, and
low cost manpower availability though not at the same level as
Hyderabad.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?artid=20095415&
sType=1

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

P. S. Would you like to share this newsletter with your friends or
post it on your site? Please do! But also be sure to read below:

All original contents of this newsletter is copyright 2002 Mediweb
Infotech Pvt. Ltd. All cited articles are copyright of their
authors and/or respective publications. Please feel free to share
this newsletter with your friends or post it on your site as long
as it is left intact with all links unchanged and this notice.

Thank you for your interest in MT India!

The MTIndia Team
----------------------------------------------------------------
Please DO NOT reply to this mail id to unsubscribe.