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Global Reach
In August 2008, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India allowed phone subscribers to choose
any long distance service without changing local phone providers and allowed Internet providers
to offer PC voice-over-Internet protocol (VOIP) calls to mobile phones. (Previously, VOIP providers
had been prohibited from connecting to domestic networks and using equipment that
would compete with landline services.)
Bay Area Connections.
Bay Area firms are an integral part of the computing, network and Internet environment in India,
having been present at the creation of India’s computer and software industries in the 1980s and
having provided much of India’s telecom and Internet network infrastructure. Today, a new race
is on to create new services and advertising opportunities over a new kind of Internet, via mobile
phones reaching deeper into the country’s interior.
As previously mentioned (see HCL Technologies: India’s Homegrown Hewlett-Packard
Diversifies in the Software/IT Services/Business Process Outsourcing section of this chapter),
Hewlett-Packard was an early arrival among transnational tech firms in India. An early
focus on local distribution in 1988–89, was followed by more than ten years of intensive growth.
HP partnered with Hindustan Computers Ltd. (HCL) from 1991-96, outsourcing R&D and offering
its peripherals with HCL computers as part of jointly developed systems integration and
networking solutions for Indian businesses. Today HP has two manufacturing facilities and is the
largest PC manufacturer in India. The company also produces low-end servers and is considering
making a laptop for the Indian market. All of HP’s production in India is for the domestic market
and not for export.
HP was the second U.S. IT firm to establish a BPO facility in Bangalore (after Texas Instruments).
In August 2000, it began centralizing its internal global accounting and transaction processing
(vendor payables, fixed assets tracking, freight cost management, order processing, etc.) in
Bangalore under a BPO captive, Global e-Business Operations Pvt. Ltd. This necessitated not
only recruiting business graduates, but also language experts. Over time, Global e-Business
Operations was hired by outside firms such as Procter & Gamble, Gillette, Nestlé, and Reed
Elsevier to provide similar services.
The India unit currently handles more than 70 percent of HP’s back office activity (including $40
billion in global payments), has more than 6,500 employees at four centers in Bangalore and
Chennai, and plans to grow that total to 7,800. Ultimately, HP sees Global e-Business Operations
as a profit center, with a network of centers worldwide (it now has 11 total) and with half of its
business internal and half coming from external contracts. HP maintains a call center for U.S.
customers separately from its BPO operation, with 500 direct and 350 contract employees.
The company’s venture into software applications started with its 2002 acquisition of Compaq,
which gave HP access to Compaq’s significant India presence, including Digital GlobalSoft, a
software development and IT services joint venture employing more than 4,600 people, in which
Compaq held a 50.6% stake. HP acquired the remainder of the company’s publicly traded shares
in 2003 and renamed it Hewlett-Packard GlobalSoft. Today the unit has more than 4,800 employees.
Among its software offerings are Digital InfoLife, a program that gives users simultane-
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