Abdul Nabeel Abdulla

7/30/2019 Abdul Nabeel Abdulla

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A STUDY OF STRESS AND BURNOUT INVENTORIES BASED ON BANGALORE IT COMPANIES

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

SAMBHRAM ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES Page 1


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Introduction

In every walk of life, people suffer from some degree of stress due to factors

known and unknown. The causes may be the increasing complexity of modern

living, insecurity in work environment, growing confusion regarding the future,

etc. Stress may be lead to psychological, social and physiological disorders.

Individuals need to learn ways and means of effectively copying with stress.

The work place has become ever more demanding of our time and effort. With the

increased efficiency and productivity brought to us by the computer and

communication innovations of recent years, you would think that life would be

easier. But we have been carried into an increasingly frantic work-day by the need

to master ever more complicated technology; to be quicker, faster and more

innovative; and to advance and make more money. There is less time for lunch, for

leisure, for family. Even when we are away from the job, we can be reached or

hooked into a weekend project by computer and the internet.

With work demands more and more intrusive in our lives, we may experience

subtle but progressive symptoms of physical and psychological stress.

In today's world, stress has become a common phenomenon and it is so widespread

that people and organizations should be concerned about how to manage it more

effectively. Pressures to perform in a climate of rapid economic and technological

change, especially in developing countries like India, cause stress. It is a fact that

stress affects individual and organizational productivity and strategies to cope with

stress requires greater attention.



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Reactions or effects of excessive work stress take an exacerbated form in some

occupations. In service oriented jobs, or for instance, in which one is forced to

constantly engage in interpersonal dealings (which are referred to as people

oriented jobs) a stage is reached when one starts feeling that enough is enough, the

job has become impossible. This stage is called burnout and can be likened to the

burnout of an electric bulb, which has had to glow constantly over an extended

period of time. In much the same way, when an individual is forced to put on a

smile, in other words to glow constantly, the eventuality can be burnout. People

working in customer-oriented services such as IT Companies, are more prone to

such burnout effects. The chief cause of burnout is unrelieved work stress which

results in emotional and / or physical exhaustion, lowered job productivity and

increased dissatisfaction and pessimism at work. The utility industry has

undergone a massive transformation over the past decade. Local markets have been

deregulated, while at the same time local and regional firms are rapidly

disappearing as ownership becomes more centralized.

The subject is taken keeping in consideration the need to know the stressors in

Accenture, Wipro, Infosys, TCS, SLK Software Companies. There is a need to

know the various factors (overt and covert), which causes stress for the IT

Companies representatives.The study is a step towards ascertaining the sources of

stress in Bangalore based IT Companies. It is a known fact that in an IT

Companies, people work, often at unearthly hours, under monotonous conditions &

under stress. At such conditions, other than monetary benefits, it is important to

know what else can or does motivate the IT Companies representatives, to ensure

that they do not leave the company. What causes stress and how to minimize

them' is equally important.



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The study was carried out in Accenture, TCS, SLK Software, INFOSYS and

WIPRO. It is a sincere effort to identify factors that lead to stress among the

representatives of IT Companies so that suggestions and recommendations from

the researcher's end can alleviate the same and make them more productive. This

forms the scope of the subject.

In this IT Companies, employees are under intense stress and pressure. A constant

pressure can lead to withdrawal and frustration, which affect the quality of their

work. The identification of these stressors is important to overcome them.

IT Companies industry is said to have the highest attrition rate. This can be related

to stress level they experience. Coupled with the physical symptoms are certain

emotional symptoms. These include excessive and rapid mood swings, worrying

about trivial things, lack of empathy, excessive concern for physical health,

withdrawing and daydreaming, feelings of tiredness, lack of ability to concentrate,

increased irritability and anxiety.

What is Stress?

Stress refers to physiological, psychological & behavioral reactions to events

appraised as threatening or exceeding one's level of coping responses and options.

What is burnout?

Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by



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excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you feel overwhelmed and unable

to meet constant demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose the interest or

motivation that led you to take on a certain role in the first place.

Burnout reduces your productivity and saps your energy, leaving you feelingincreasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel

like you have nothing more to give.

The difference between stress and burnout

Burnout may be the result of unrelenting stress, but it isnt the same as too much

stress. Stress, by and large, involves too much: too many pressures that demand too

much of you physically and psychologically. Stressed people can still imagine,

though, that if they can just get everything under control, theyll feel better.

Burnout, on the other hand, is about not enough. Being burned out means feeling

empty, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout

often dont see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress is

like drowning in responsibilities, burnout is being all dried up. One other

difference between stress and burnout: While youre usually aware of being under

a lot of stress, you dont always notice burnout when it happens

Causes of stress:

1. Poor working conditions, workload & monotony.

2. Role conflict and role ambiguity.

3. Lack of promotional opportunities, policies and job insecurity.

4. Poor relationships at work.

5. Poor organizational culture.



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In present market scenario, IT Companies are in boom. In Accenture IT

Companies, two fifty to three hundred employees work together under one roof

synchronizing their activities to achieve common goals. For optimum co-ordination and effort by the employees it is very crucial for a manager to know

what causes stress and how to minimize or overcome it in their organization.

Although, there has been little research in the field of employees' stress factors and

the management of the same, there is a hardly a record of any such study

conducted for determining job stress factors among representatives of IT

Companies. These aspects have formed a need for this study.

IT Companies Service operations have sprouted in India in cities like Gurgaon,

Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi etc. It has been a window of opportunity for young

graduates who would have been busy hunting for a job, to head for entrance tests

of a BPO outfit or IT Companies. IT Companies have created jobs for India, There

is no doubt about that.

However there are nearly 100's of IT Companies service operators in India that are

just leasing out idle space since they have no projects. Tight budgeting and

managing HR problems must be their strengths; what with high attrition rates in

this sector, they will never be able to sustain their quality of service.

IT Companies Agents need to be continually motivated to avoid those days offrustration when the client shouts at them. Employees on the telephone talking to

US destinations enact an American accent which is often stressful to maintain.



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Added to this the nightshifts and odd timings can get frustrating quite often. This is

where the HR and their team can play an important role.

Apparently, the IT Companies try their best to help the representatives to cope with

the stress and also minimize it.



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CHAPTER -II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND RESEARCH

DESIGN

CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE AND RESEARCH DESIGN

INTRODUCTION



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Stress refers to physiological, psychological & behavioral reactions to

events appraised as threatening or exceeding one's level of coping

responses and options where asBurnout is a state of emotional, mental, and

physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when you

feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress continues,

you begin to lose the interest or motivation that led you to take on a certain role in

the first place.

Burnout reduces your productivity and saps your energy, leaving you feeling

increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful. Eventually, you may feel

like you have nothing more to give.

The study is a step towards ascertaining the sources of stress in Bangalore based IT

Companies. It is a known fact that in a IT Companies, people work, often at

unearthly hours, under monotonous conditions & under stress. At such conditions,

other than monetary benefits, it is important to know what else can or does

motivate the IT Companies representatives, to ensure that they do not leave the

company. What causes stress and how to minimize them' is equally important.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Kahil, Sophia

Canadian psychology, vol 29(3), july 1988, 284-297



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Reviews empirical literature, 19741984, concerning symptoms of burnout among

human service professionals. Symptoms of burnout are grouped into 5 categories:

physical, emotional, behavioral, interpersonal, and attitudinal. It is concluded that

burnout is associated with poor physical health; depression; job turnover and

unproductive work behaviors; problematic interpersonal relations; and negative

attitudes, especially with regard to job satisfaction. Problems with research include

lack of operational definition, defects in instruments, and impressionistic findings.

Future needs include further exploration of content, attention to interactive effects,

and alternative methodologies. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c)

2012 APA, all rights reserved)

MASLAH & JACKSON 1986

Probably the most often cited definition of burnout comes from Maslach &

Jackson (1986, p. 1): "Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion,

depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among

individuals who work". Its popularity is due to the fact that the most widely used

self-report questionnaire, the MBI, includes the three dimensions that are

mentioned in this definition. Emotional exhaustion refers to the depletion or

draining of emotional resources caused by interpersonal demands.

Depersonalization points to the development of negative, callous and cynical

attitudes toward the recipients of one's services. The term depersonalization may

cause some confusion since it is used in a completely different sense in psychiatry,



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namely to denote a person's extreme alienation from the self and the world.

However, in Maslash & Jackson's definition (1986), depersonalization refers to an

impersonal and dehumanized perception of recipients, rather than to an impersonal

view of the self. Finally, lack of personal accomplishment is the tendency to

evaluate one's work with recipients negatively. Burnout professionals believe that

their objectives are not achieved, which is accompanied by feelings of

insufficiency and poor professional self-esteem. Initially, Maslach & Jackson

(1981, 1986) claimed that burnout exclusively occurs among professionals who

deal directly with recipients (e. g. students, pupils, clients, patients or delinquents).

Hence, in their view burnout is restricted to the helping professions. But in the

third edition of the MBI (Maslach et al., 1996), the concept of burnout is

broadened and defined as a crisis in one's relationship with work in general and not

necessarily as a crisis in one's relationship with people at work. As a consequence,

the three original burnout dimensions are redefined. Exhaustion now refers to

fatigue irrespective of its cause. Cynicism reflects an indifferent or distant attitude

towards work instead of other people. Lastly, lack of professional efficacy

encompasses both social and non-social aspects of occupational accomplishment.

So, in attention to the subscale of burnout, and their effects on environmental work

and organization, in the next part, relevant factors of burnout are mentioned.

PINES (1993)

Pines (1993) has argued that specifically individuals who expect to derive a sense

of significance from their work are susceptible Accordingly, burnout is a specific

type of job stress that is characterized by its chronic and multifaceted nature.



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Moreover, it includes the development of negative attitudes, and it occurs among

initially highly motivated individuals.

Bossche Irene Houtman 2003

The field of occupational stress interventions and stress prevention in general has

been rapidly expanding during the last three decades. There are many different

interventions available to prevent and cure the adverse health effects associated

with occupational stress. These interventions may focus on the individual, the

organization or the individual- organizational interface. Most stress interventions

however focus on changing the worker instead of the work environment.

Interventions may also be classified as being primary, secondary or tertiary in

nature, each serving different purposes. In primary prevention interventions thegoal is to eliminate, reduce or change job stressors. The aim of secondary

prevention interventions is to prevent employees who are already showing

symptoms of stress from getting sick, by altering the way they respond to job

stressors. Finally, tertiary interventions focus on the treatment of employees who

suffer from severe stress consequences and the rehabilitation of employees after a

period of sickness absenteeism. Although the activity in the field of occupational

stress interventions has greatly expanded, there is a lack of evaluation research on

intervention programs. During recent years however, the quality of evaluationresearch has improved considerably and gradually more information has become

available about the effectiveness of stress interventions. The aim of the current

paper is to provide a state of the art review on occupational stress interventions.

We will present a description of the different types of interventions that can be

used when employees experience work stress or develop mental health problems.

Subsequently, the effectiveness of these interventions in the reduction of mental

health complaints and rehabilitation of employees who are absent from work

because of these complaints is discussed.

Pfenning & Husch (1994)

According to a meta-analytic study of Pfennig & Husch (1994), role conflict (49

studies) share 24% of variance with emotional exhaustion, 13% with



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depersonalization, and only 2% with personal accomplishment; the percentages for

role ambiguity (38 studies) are 14%, 8% and 10%, respectively.

CHERNISH (1980, 1995)

Cherniss (1980, 1995) claimed burnout is a process that created over time in

response to the various organizational negative factors. In his model workload and

role clarity are two factors that created personnel burnout. Moreover, burnout can

be considered as a final stage in a breakdown in adaptation that results from the

long-term imbalance of demands and resources, thus from prolonged job stress

(Brill, 1984). So, in this study we presumed that workload and role clarity predict

burnout by mediating stress. Outcomes variables and burnout At the organizational

level, the most important manifestations of burnout are absenteeism, turnover, lack

of job satisfaction and organizational commitment Maslach & Jackson (1986).

Schaufeli & Enzmann (1998)

Based on the available studies Schaufeli & Enzmann (1998) estimated that in

general the relationship of absenteeism with emotional exhaustion is most

consistent (2% explained variance on the average), followed by depersonalization

(1%). In contrast, only very few studies have found that reduced personal

accomplishment is related to absenteeism, with an average explained variance of

less than 1%. Thus, despite the popular assumption that burnout causes

absenteeism, its effect is rather small and can best be confirmed with respect

emotional exhaustion. In a similar vein, the relationship between actual turnover

and burnout (exhaustion and depersonalization) is rather weak, with effects in

terms of shared variance raging between 1% and 5% (Schaufeli & Enzmann,

1998). No effects were found with respect to reduced personal accomplishment.



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The fact that the relationship between turnover intentions and burnout is much

stronger than with actual turnover, suggests that a large percentage of burnt-out

professionals stay in their jobs involuntarily (Schaufeli & Enzmann, 1998). In a

similar vein, we assessed the relationships between turnover intention and burnout,

because there isnt good labor market in Iran. Moreover, we examined the

relationships between organizational commitment and job satisfaction with

burnout.

DOLLARD AND MILLER:

Dollard and Miller carried out an experiment on animals and found that when

animal is frustrated, it resorts to an aggressive behavior. Thus, they propounded the

hypothesis that aggression is directly related to frustration. Even employees in the

IT companies when they are frustrated it will result in their behavior, sometimes

times they will show some aggressiveness in their behavior.

PORTER AND LAWLER:

Porter and Lawler found that job performance leads to job satisfaction and not the

other way round. They argued that performance leads to two kinds of rewards-

intrinsic and extrinsic. The intrinsic rewards are under the control of management

such as salary, bonus, etc. intrinsic rewards are more closely related to satisfaction.

For instance, if a person performs well on a challenging assignment, he gets a

immediate feeling of satisfaction.

LUTHAN:

Stress is defined as an adaptive response to an external situation that result in

physical, psychological, and behavioral deviations for organizational participants



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Daniel and George:

Stress is taken to mean a fairly predictable arousal of psycho-physiological

system which, if prolonged can fatigue or damage the system to the point of

malfunction and disease

G. RAVI:

Research work done by Mr. G.Ravi focuses on Effectiveness of motivational

factors for employees in Accenture IT Companies. Also many web sites regarding

various concepts of IT Companies have been set up. But there are few literature

and web sites about Stress and Burnout in IT Companies.

The research work by Mr. G.Ravi does not highlight the purpose of motivation.

The research only focuses on the effectiveness of various motivational factors but

fail to justify that the IT Companies representatives experience great deal of stress

and hence the need for motivation. Thus this project work tries to justify the same.

.

Conclusion of Literature Survey: There are many articles and publications about IT

Companies representatives undergoing stress. But these and many other literature

like that of Mr.G.Ravi research work, fail to identify the representatives' perception

of stress causers. A lot has been said and printed about strenuous working

environment in IT Companies but aspects like what exactly contributes to the

strenuous environment has been sidelined by these literatures. This research work

particularly incorporates these aspects.



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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research methodology is a systematic way to solve the problem. It is the

description, explanation and justification of various methods of conducting

research. This area deals with research design, sampling design, source of data

collection, hypothesis and statistical tools used for the data analysis and

interpretation.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM


Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi etc. It has been a window of opportunity for young


of a BPO outfit or IT Companies. IT Companies have created jobs for India, there

is no doubt about that.

However there are nearly 100's of IT Companies service operators in India that arejust leasing out idle space since they have no projects. Tight budgeting and

managing HR problems must be their strengths; what with high attrition rates in

this sector, they will never be able to sustain their quality of service.

IT Companies Agents need to be continually motivated to avoid those days of

frustration when the client shouts at them. Employees on the telephone talking to

US destinations enact an American accent which is often stressful to maintain.

Added to this the nightshifts and odd timings can get frustrating quite often. This is

where the HR and their team can play an important role.



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Apparently, the IT Companies try their best to help the representatives to cope with

the stress and also minimize it

This study is undertaken with a view to understand the reason of stress and

burnouts in Bangalore based IT companies.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

The study is a step towards ascertaining the sources of stress in IT Companies. It is

a known fact that in a IT Companies, people work, often at unearthly hours, under

monotonous conditions & under stress. At such conditions, other than monetary

benefits, it is important to know what else can or does motivate the IT Companies

representatives, to ensure that they do not leave the company. What causes stress

and how to minimize them' is equally important.

The study was carried out in IT Companies in Bangalore City. It is a sincere effort

to identify factors that lead to stress among the representatives of IT Companies so

that suggestions and recommendations from the researcher's end can alleviate the

same and make them more productive. This forms the scope of the subject.

NEED FOR STUDY:

Managing requires the creation and maintenance of an environment in which

individuals work together in a group toward accomplishment of common

objectives.

In present market scenario, IT Companies are in boom. In Accenture IT

Companies, two fifty to three hundred employees work together under one roof



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synchronizing their activities to achieve common goals. For optimum co-

ordination and effort by the employees it is very crucial for a manager to know

what causes stress and how to minimize or overcome it in their organization.

Although, there has been little research in the field of employees' stress factors and

the management of the same, there is a hardly a record of any such study

conducted for determining job stress factors among representatives of IT

Companies. These aspects have formed a need for this study.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY:

To bring out an explorative & descriptive project work on factors causing job

stress among representatives of Accenture IT Companies in Bangalore.

To find out the factors contributing to stress among representatives

working in this IT Companies.

To find out the effects of these stress causes on this IT Companies

representative.

To find out how men and women representatives differ in their

perception of sources of stress.

To know how the organizational structure and climate can help the

representatives to cope with stress.

To find out what are the motivational factors that drive representatives

to cope with the job stress.

To come out with suitable suggestions & recommendations, based on

the findings of the study.



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RESEARCH DESIGN

The researcher should think about the way in which he should proceed, in

attaining the objective of his research work. He has to make a plan of action before

starting the research. The plan of the study of a researcher is called the research

design. Descriptive research design is used for the study. The main goal of this

type of research is to describe the data and characteristics about what is being

studied. Descriptive research is mainly done when a researcher wants to gain a

better understanding of a topic. The term descriptive research refers to the type of

research question, design, and data analysis that will be applied to a given topic.

Three main purposes of research are to describe, explain, and validate findings.

Description emerges following creative exploration, and serves to organize the

findings in order to fit them with explanations, and then test or validate those

explanations. Descriptive research is used to those studies to those studies which

are concerned with characteristics of a particular individual situation or a group

and to determine the frequency of occurrence of such events.

SAMPLE DESIGN:

Sample design is a definite plan for obtaining a sample from given

population. It refers to the techniques or the procedure the researcher would adopt

in selecting item for sampling. Sample design has to be determining before data

collection.

SAMPLE SIZE



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Sample size refers to the number of items to be selected from the universe to

constitute a sample. Here, sample sizes of 100 employees are selected from a

sample frame of 150 employees.

SOURCES OF DATA COLLECTION

The study was conducted on the basis of both primary and secondary data.

Primary Data:

Primary data are those which are collected afresh and for the first time. Primary

data is collected through questionnaire, which was a closed form of questionnaire

In this project work, Primary Data is collected from the Accenture, SLK Software,

TCS, Oracle, Infosys Companies representatives using the questionnaire method.

Secondary Data:

Secondary Data is that data which is already collected and processed by some other

agency for the generic / specific purpose. For the purpose of this project work, it is

collected from Company Magazines, website through the Internet, Business

Journals & news papers etc.,. The secondary data is used in this project work as a

reference and to co - relate the findings. These secondary sources of data were

identified during the course of carrying out the project work.

(i) Instrumentation Technique: Primary Data for the study was collected

through a structured questionnaire, which was developed based on the

objectives of the study. These questionnaires were distributed to the



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respondents with a request to return after completing the same.

Questionnaire was prepared very carefully using closed probes to

facilitate easy answering by ticking the relevant choices so that it proved

to be effective in collecting relevant information.

A rigid procedure to seek answer to set preconceived questions through personal

interviews was also one of the steps in collecting primary data.

Few respondents, who could not return the filled-in questionnaire immediately

personally, returned it through e-mail.

(j) Plan for Analysis:

Data collected through structured questionnaires were analyzed step by step, in the

following manner:

All the questionnaires were processed and were edited as per the objectives

of the study.

The data were Tran scripted from the questionnaire to the worksheet.

The data was then tabulated for the purpose of consolidation and the

findings were recorded.

The consolidated data were analyzed & interpreted logically.

Based on the findings, conclusions were arrived at rationally.

Statistical methods such as tables, frequencies, percentages, graphical

representations, etc., are used as scientific approaches.



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All the findings of the study are based on the assumption that the information

given by the respondents are accurate.

TOOLS USED FOR ANALYSIS OF DATA:

Percentage analysis methods are used for the analysis of data. Suitable tables

and charts are used for easy interpretation.

Percentage method

Percentage method is one of the statistical methods for analyzing and

interpreting the data collected from the respondents. By the percentage method the

researcher can analyses and interpret the data by using the formula.

Percentage = No of respondents

Total no of respondents

Limitations of the Study:

Time is the important limitation. Due to time constraints only limited

population is taken for the study.


x 100


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There is a chance of giving wrong information by the respondents due to

their busy nature of jobs.

The datas given by the responders limited to their own perception,

knowledge, feelings and awareness.

The datas given by the respondents may not true because of their fear

about the job security.

The samples size taken was not very large, mainly because of time & other

constraints.

Stress factors include a wide array of variables, which was not possible to

include all, hence only a selected few were considered

It has been identified at many time points that respondents appeared uninterested in

filling up the questionnaire. The lack of interest of the respondents is partially

biased responses which cannot be overruled

CHAPTER SCHEME

There are five chapters



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Chapter - I: - Brings out the general introduction of Performance appraisal,

explain the theoretical background, relevant aspects justifying title of the

study.

Chapter II: - Includes review of literature and research design of the study.

It covers the objectives, research methodology, sampling methods, data

analysis tool, over view of the report and limitations.

Chapter III: - Includes the industry profile, profile of the organization,

profile of the study unit, organizational structure and functional department

of the organization.

Chapter IV: - Includes data analysis. It covers the analysis andinterpretation of collected data.

Chapter V: - Includes the summary, which covers findings, conclusions and

recommendations.



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CHAPTER -III

INDUSTRY AND COMPANY PROFILE



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INDUSTRY PROFILE

Information Technology (IT) industry in India is one of the fastest growing

industries. Indian IT industry has built up valuable brand equity for itself in the

global markets. IT industry in India comprises of software industry and

information technology enabled services (ITES), which also includes business

process outsourcing (BPO) industry. India is considered as a pioneer in software

development and a favorite destination for IT.

The origin of IT industry in India can be traced to 1974, when the mainframe

manufacturer, Burroughs, asked its India sales agent, Tata Consultancy Services

(TCS), to export programmers for installing system software for a U.S. client. The

IT industry originated under unfavorable conditions. Local markets were absent

and government policy toward private enterprise was hostile. The industry was

begun by Bombay-based conglomerates which entered the business by supplying

programmers to global IT firms located.

During that time Indian economy was state-controlled and the state remained

hostile to the software industry through the 1970s. Import tariffs were high (135%

on hardware and 100% on software) and software was not considered an

"industry", so that exporters were ineligible for bank finance. Government policy

towards IT sector changed when Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister in 1984. His

New Computer Policy (NCP-1984) consisted of a package of reduced import

tariffs on hardware and software (reduced to 60%), recognition of software exports



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as a "delicensed industry", i.e., henceforth eligible for bank finance and freed from

license-permit raj, permission for foreign firms to set up wholly-owned, export-

dedicated units and a project to set up a chain of software parks that would offer

infrastructure at below-market costs.

Today, Indian IT companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro,

Infosys, and HCL et al are renowned in the global market for their IT prowess.

Some of the major factors which played a key role in India's emergence as key

global IT players are

The evolution of IT industry can be studied in 4 phases:

Phase I: Prior to 1980

The software industry was literally nonexistent in India until 1960. Software used

in the computers till that time, were in built with the systems. Government

protected the hardware industry through high tariff barriers and licensing.

However, in the West, the need for software development was gradually being felt

as the software in built in the system was not sufficient to perform all the

operations. The Government of India therefore, realized the potential for earning

foreign exchange.

In 1972, the government formulated the Software Export Scheme. This scheme

made the provision of hardware imports in exchange of software exports. TCS

became the first firm to agree to this condition. The year 1974 marked the

beginning of Software exports from India.Phase II: 1980- 1990: Despite the government initiatives, the software exports

were not picking up because of two reasons mainly:



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The exports of software, was heavily dependent on the imports of hardware, which

was costly as well as the procedure for obtaining the same was very cumbersome.

Secondly, there was a lack of infrastructural facilities for software development.

To counter these, the government formulated a New Computer Policy in 1984,

which simplified import procedures and also reduced the import duty on hardware

for software developers. In an attempt to make, software industry independent of

the hardware industry, the government in 1986, formulated Software Policy which

further, liberalized the IT industry.

.



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Phase III: 1990- 2000: This decade made several significant changes in the

economy, including trade liberalization, opening up of Indian economy to foreign

investment, devaluation of the rupee and relaxation of entry barriers. These

changes attracted many foreign entities (MNCs) to our nation. These MNCs in

India, introduced Offshore Model for software services, according to which, the

companies used to service their clients from India itself. This model further

graduated to Global Delivery Model (GDM). Global Delivery Model is a

combination of Onsite and Offshore Model. In this model, the Offshore

Development Centre is located at various locations across the globe.

During this period due to the entry of many players in the Indian market, the

competition got intensified. Therefore, the players started investing in research and

development to distinguish their services from others.

Phase IV: Post 2000: The global problems like the Y2K, the dotcom crash and

recession in the US economy, proved to be a boon to Indian IT industry. The Y2K

problem demanded the existing softwares to be compatible to the year 2000. Due

to the shortage of US based programmers during this period, many mid-sized firms

were forced to utilize the services of Indian firms. This had placed the Indian IT

industry on the global map.

Post 2002- 03, the industry had registered a robust growth rate because of increase

in the number of clients, large sized contracts and a strong global delivery model.

IT hubs in India

1. Bangalore:

The total number of Software Technology Parks (STPI) in Bangalore in the year

2012-13 were 2085 (5% growth as compared to the year 2010-11).



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Bangalore witnessed a 23% growth in the software exports as compared to the

national growth of 21% in the year 2011-12.

Major IT/ ITeS in the hub: Infosys, Wipro, TCS, HP, Siemens, HSBC, Compaq

The ICT cluster in Bangalore has over 1500 IT firms out of about 3500 IT firms

in India. In fiscal 2005-06, the state of Karnataka accounted for 37.6 percent of the

total software exports from India and the city of Bangalore alone accounted for

about 97 percent of it. Thus around one third of all of Indias software exports are

from the city of Bangalore.

2. Hyderabad:

Total number of STPI registered units by the end of 2011-12 was 1060

Hyderabad registered a 24% growth in software exports.

21 Innoversant Solutions Pvt Ltd

Major IT/ITeS in the hub: HP, Amazon, Verizon, Convergys, EXL, Infosys,

TCS

3. NCR- Delhi:

Total number of STPI registered units by the end of 2011-12 was 1938

IT/ITeS majors: IBM, Genpact, Oracle, Am Ex, Convergys, HP, General

Motors

4. Kolkata

Total STPI registered units by 2006-07: 166 (28 added in 2011-12)

IT/ITeS majors: IBM, Cognizant, TCS, Infosys, Wipro



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5. Mumbai


IT/ITeS majors: TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Siemens, Accenture

6. Pune


IT/ITeS majors: Cognizant, Convergys, EXL, KPIT, Msource

7. Chennai


IT/ITeS majors: Infosys, Wipro, Accenture, Cognizant

Major Threats to the Industry

1. High Attrition Rate: Staff shortage can prove to be a major bottleneck to thegrowth of the industry. According to McKinsey & Co., only 25 percent of the

technical graduates are competent enough to work in the offshore IT industry in

India. In the BPO sector also, only 10- 15 per cent of the graduates are suitable for

employment. Therefore, managing attrition rate is becoming a big task for the IT

companies in India. High attrition rate results in loss of skilled manpower, loss of

skill sets etc. Apart from loss in skill sets, cost of recruitment, training and

development of the new recruits also becomes a major investment for these

companies.



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2. Competition from other emerging nations: Chinese IT hubs like Beijing and

Shanghai are set to overtake Indian hubs by the year 2011, according to a report by

IDC. These cities are competing with India on account of their stable socio-

economic environment, excellent infrastructure, low attrition rates and skilled

talent pool.

3. There is a need for improvement in the urban infrastructure . According to

McKinsey, further growth of the industry has to come from small districts, outside

the Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities.

4. Lack of fluency in languages other than English, e.g. French, Spanish, Italian

etc. is proving to be a weakness of the Indian IT industry.

5. End of Tax Benefits at STPIs: There is dissimilarity in the tax regimes at

STPIs. This would lead to conversion of these STPIs into SEZ units.

6. Overdependence on US Economy: Almost 70% of the IT industry revenues

come from USA. Therefore, any downscale in the US market, adversely impacts

the Indian market too. E.g. recent downsizing and job cuts due to recession in the

US market.

7. Rupee Appreciation: As most of the earnings are in foreign currencies,

therefore Rupee appreciation becomes an area of concern for the industry.

8. Lack of Product Innovation: India specializes in services but not in products.

The nation lacks in product innovation, which can be considered a major area of

concern. It will be difficult to maintain competitive advantage if productinnovation doesnt occur.



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9. Limited Domestic Market: The domestic market is still in the nascent stage in

India. This makes the whole industry vulnerable to export market only.

IT Companies are defined as Operational Centers set up to utilize

telecommunication and computer technologies to automate various high-volume

inbound and outbound telephone activities and services. Inbound IT Companies are

typically characterized as cost centers. Outbound IT Companies are generally

characterized as profit centers. These days all IT Companies are becoming both

inbound and outbound by taking advantage of blending technology and hence their

characterization into one of the categories is becoming increasingly difficult.

Most IT Companies successfully operational currently are fairly large and have

some experience in the form of promoters having worked abroad or previous

experience with such ventures or as subsidiaries of foreign companies.

IT Companies are typically mixed mode centers used for customer support and

service. Two primary reasons why captive IT Companies are implemented are cost

reduction and enhanced customer service.

There are two kinds of technologies available for IT Companies- Traditional

EPABX based and Server based technology.

Traditional EPABX based IT Companies: Historically, IT Companies evolved

from being a place with just telephone lines landing on agent's desks. Then a PBX



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was added to distribute calls coming on common lines. Over time, Predictive

Dialers, IVR systems and CTI were added to create a full-fledged IT Companies.

Server Based IT Companies: A server based IT Companies integrates all the

components of a IT Companies into server as software components. Server based

IT Companies offer three main advantages. One dramatically lower cost. A server

based IT Companies costs far less.

Standard hardware and software components rather than proprietary systems and

the elimination of expensive and difficult due to the need for integrating

proprietary systems from different vendors the total cost of ownership up to one

fourth of the traditional architecture. Other advantages of server based IT

Companies is, they provide in increasing the sale of operations. Most of the

information delivery is moving towards the web and hence web integration

becomes very important for providing good access to customers. The multimedia

handling capability of server based systems will become crucial in the coming

years as communication will be through rich Hypermedia, which will seamlessly

integrate video, voice and data.

EQUIPMENT SIZING

Both telecommunication and computer equipment must be sized appropriately to

handle call loads projected for an IT Companies. A certain number of incoming

PSTN trunks will be required to handle a specific load. PBX/ACD and IVR units

must have an appropriate number of network connections. Appropriate sizing of

each of these components is essential for efficient IT Companies implementation

and operation. Server based IT Companies architectures are generally non-



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blocking; hence the complexity is reduced to estimating the call load, which is

used to derive the number of PSTN ports required. A general rule of thumb is that

the ratio of PSTN ports to number of agents for effective agent utilization should

be between 1.5 to 2.

Telecommunication equipment is generally sized based on peak loads and desired

performance levels. Various formulas and queuing algorithms are used to

determine line and port configurations for incoming IT Companies operations.

IT Companies initially recruited employees with minimum educational

qualification, with a good command over the English language. A basic graduation

degree will no longer be enough to land a IT Companies job. The slowdown in

securing customers for basic IT Companies is making existing IT Companies

operators move up the value chain by repositioning themselves as help desks.

Several players are already gearing up to offer both services under the same roof.

The transition from IT Companies to help desk will also spur the demand for better

qualified professionals, software engineers for instance, since a help desk's basic

function is to provide customers with quick solutions to specific problems.

According to Harsh Manglik country managing director of Accenture India. A

typical IT Companies is perceived to be made up of low end operators answering

customer calls. But we are moving up the value chain to position the IT Companies

as a help desk for telecom and health care companies.



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India has traditionally been used by multinationals to offer help desk services. IBM

out sources its support and helpdesk services to its facilities in Bangalore for its

operating system OS2. Now independent companies are also getting into the act.

He says Once you can convince the customer about the reliability of the telecom

infrastructure and ensure that the leased lines will not go down, it is easier to get

business. Most customers are aware there is trained manpower in India to offer

these services.

Today, about four percent of the total employment in US is in support services.

Most companies are now looking at relocating their support service functions to

places like India, which offers a cost advantage. To capture this business, existing

IT Companies operators will have to upgrade to help desks, which is where the

money is.

What prospects does India have to have become one the major source of customer

service industry?

With India emerging as IT Companies capital of the CRM world, many MNCs and

start-ups are setting operations here. The country has become an obvious choice of

the industry as it provides a large pool of English speaking professionals who are

also very passionate about making a career in the field of IT enabled services.

India is well placed to handle back office fulfillment and Business process delivery

systems in areas such as Internet-, HR- & Accounting Services, Transaction

Processing Services plus Customers Service.



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India has a large population of highly educated people, a well developed software

and CTI Industry and a large unemployed workforce - cost of labor is Computer

Software Integrators with a proven track record in both software development,

implementation & application area.

But IT Companies business is not just plug and play. You need to have an

excellent understanding of the industry. You have to deal in quality and there is no

second chance. Words once said by the agent are gone. The level of skill and

quality required is much higher when the agents have to sell a product or service to

a remote customer.

The English spoken by Indians is a very heavy dialect. In 1981 when GE

established The GE Answer Center in Louisville Kentucky, 3 months was spent

researching which American dialect would best be suited for all Americans before

the location was decided upon. So here we're 20 years later and an average

American are expected to understand Indian-English-quite a challenge to both the

customers and the staff.

The non-existent Customer Service Culture in India will make training of reps

mandatory and difficult, since such a luxury as service is not part of everyday life

in India.



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There is further need to improve infrastructure. The business culture and the mix of

Government intervention will be a cultural shock for Western Business People

with no previous experience.

Add to this a lack of a IT Companies Industry and very few people with IT

Companies experience which makes it very hard to recruit IT Companies managers

with a proven track record.

It is predicted that the Indian IT Companies Boom will be short lived unless its

based on Indian Joint Venture Partners with experience in handling both regulatory

hurdles and ensuring that the necessary infrastructure is in place.

When India develops its own Customer Service Culture and has de-regulated its

Telecom sector, then maybe we'll see a sustainable IT Companies Industry to

service the large Indian market place.

The Projected Cost savings is best realized by joining up with Indian Company

with a proven track record in IT & project management. Beware of short term

relationships offering a pie in the sky.

But the invisible factor that comes in the way of achieving the objectives of the IT

Companies Industry is the Stress Factor. There is a direct relationship between

stress level and productivity. Particularly, stress in this industry is mainly because

of its very nature of business.



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In the last couple of years India has become the leader in the IT Companies

Services industry. With nearly 66% of the worlds outsourcing and IT Companies

services business in India, its time to step back and access the pluses and minuses

of this industry that has become the panacea for the Indian economy.

1. Euphoria on getting a new job: The person's appointment to a new job is

accompanied by an euphoric feeling of excitement, enthusiasm, challenge and

pride. Dysfunctional processes at this stage would include the depletion of energy

reserves in coping and adapting to the new environment.

2. The full throttle stage: Gradually vague feelings of loss, fatigue and confusion

may arise because of the rapid depletion of resources. Other symptoms include

dissatisfaction; sleep disturbances and escapist tendencies such as overeating,

drinking coffee/tea/alcohol, or even smoking.

3. The chronic symptoms stage: Fuel shortage could gradually lead to the

development of chronic and more pronounced physiological symptoms. Chronic

exhaustion, physical illness, anger and depression may overpower the person.

4. The crisis stage: As the symptoms persist the person enters the crisis stage. He

develops as escapist attitude and feels oppressed. Chronic backaches, headaches,

high blood pressure, insomnia and even peptic ulcers and asthma develop.

5. Hitting the wall stage: No person can continue under strain for too long as one's

energy resources are not infinite. Under the pressure of constant stress couples with

the physical and mental effects, one may reach the end of one's professional career.

In other words, burn Out Stress Syndrome (ROSS) may occur. At the other



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extreme, i.e., under conditions of extreme stress, Rust out Stress Syndrome

(ROSS) may be seen. This is most likely to occur when the gap between one's

capabilities and environmental demands becomes too wide.

Reactions or effects of excessive work stress take an exacerbated form in some

occupations. In service oriented jobs, or for instance, in which one is forced to

constantly engage in interpersonal dealings (which are referred to as people

oriented jobs) a stage is reached when one starts feeling that enough is enough, the

job has become impossible. This stage is called burnout and can be likened to the

burnout of an electric bulb, which has had to glow constantly over an extended

period of time. In much the same way, when an individual is forced to put on a

smile, in other words to glow constantly, the eventuality can be burnout. People

working in customer-oriented services such as IT Companies, are more prone to

such burnout effects. The chief cause of burnout is unrelieved work stress which

results in emotional and / or physical exhaustion, lowered job productivity and

increased dissatisfaction and pessimism at work. The utility industry has

undergone a massive transformation over the past decade. Local markets have been

deregulated, while at the same time local and regional firms are rapidly

disappearing as ownership becomes more centralized.

To date there has been far less attention given to the impact theses changes have

had on workers in the utility industry. Far less is known about the workers who

remain their jobs, their working conditions, their joys, and their struggles. Given

the tumultuous changes in the utility industry, theirs are not the same jobs that

existed five or ten years ago.



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This paper focuses on one group of workers in the utility industry - IT Companies

representatives. These are the women and men who assist residents and businesses

in establishing or changing their utility service and troubleshooting problems that

customers might have with their service, their billing, and a host of other issues.

While perhaps less visible than the men and women who work on poles or read

meters, IT Companies representatives are an important part of the workforce in the

utility industry.

While there has been considerable research on customer service representatives in

the telecommunications industry, [1] there has been virtually no research on IT

Companies representatives in the utility industry. Thus there is a need to know

what causes stress to IT Companies representatives and if their company helps

them to overcome it.

Turnover rates in IT Companies around the world are extremely high. Some

facilities exceed 200 percent.

Although there are a variety of reasons for employee turnover, IT Companies

managers must look to a major psychological factor called burnout.

IT Companies Services offered by a majority of Indian companies are in the low-

end of the value chain. The IT Companies services industry essentially requires

low value skills. The learning curve is low but slow. It does not require high

qualification or degrees to get into IT Companies. The compensation for such IT

Companies jobs is decent, compared to jobs for the same qualification in any other

industry. This often results in mass complacency, where fresh graduates prefer to



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take up a IT Companies job rather than study further or enter any core sector of

specialization.

Looking at the industry from a long-term perspective, India can do itself more

harm than good if it does not move up the value chain. India would not like to

repeat American follies. America in the 50s and 60s had high school graduates

who could get good jobs and a decent paycheck. This generation was caught in a

kind of time warp they are struggling to get out of even now - a general acceptance

of low education levels. In fact this is one of the many reasons that Asian countries

have become the outstanding and IT Companies havens for America and Europe.

On the up-side, IT Companies services have increased the availability of jobs for

fresh graduates substantially. Now, a fresh graduate has more chance of getting a

good paycheck than ever before. Engineering graduates prefer to join IT

Companies Services operations as transit jobs before opting for more technical

jobs. This has made IT Companies job retention a major issue for the HR

department of IT Companies.


Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi et. It has been a window of opportunity for young


of a BPO outfit or IT Companies. IT Companies have created jobs for India,

theres no doubt about that.

IT Companies face a major problem though. Since IT Companies operations do not

require a stringent graduate education like an engineering degree or likewise, IT



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Companies find it extremely difficult to retain jobs. The HR department is hard at

work to retain the people it has, after all, they would gladly shift for better salaries.

IT Companies Agents need to be continually motivated to avoid those days of

frustration when the client shouts at them. Employees on the telephone talking to

US destinations enact an American accent, which is often stressful to maintain.

Added to this, the nightshifts and odd timings can get frustrating quite often. This

is where the HR and their team can play an important role. They try to maintain a

friendly and helping atmosphere in office. They often have displays with the latest

news from America, so that if any client got chatty on the telephone, the IT

Companies representatives won't be in a fix. Very often an HR manager in a IT

Companies will have to contend with office romances and ask them to keep their

cool. Besides trouble shooting personal problems, the HR has to handle many daily

operations problems, both on a personal and group basis.

Many think that working in a IT Companies is a monotonous job and there is a

school of thought, which believes that the growth options are very limited in this

field. However, says one on the HR managers of IT Companies, it is not correct to

say that the IT Companies jobs are monotonous, in fact they are as challenging and

exciting as any other career option.

There are some who believe that IT Companies jobs are too stressful, as they

require working in shifts, mostly at nights. However the companies say they do

understand that working late nights can be a problem, especially for women

employees. Therefore they not only provide transport facilities but also take care of

snacks and other energy revitalizes. Usually IT Companies have five working days

in a week, but if someone works during weekends, a suitable compensation is



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granted. To add more spice' during night shifts, the companies provide an array of

activities which include aerobic sessions, dart boards and mini basketball. They

also have relaxation room where an expert can rejuvenate the employees by giving

massages.

While most ambitious youngsters see IT Companies services temporary jobs, since

starting salaries are often better than average engineering jobs and jobs hard to

find, many prefer to enter the IT Companies services market on a term basis but

they pay

a high price for that. This study concentrates on the Stress experienced by the

agents or the representatives of IT Companies. The sources and effects of the stress

are highlighted with a few recommendations to work on the same.

STRESS IN IT COMPANIESS

Stress exists in every walk of life or work and IT Companies are no exception. IT

Companies are stressful work environments.The demand of serving the customer

in real-time helps to lay the foundation. Add to this, factor such as job repetition,

potential job dissatisfaction, poor ergonomics or low pay and the stress level

climbs higher. Many things cause stress. Time pressures, high expectations, lack of

communication, high call volume, inexperience, ill prepared, to name a few.

IT Companies are living and vibrant workplaces where the demands are high and

the need to manage and reduce staff stress is paramount. Studies have shown that

staff turnover is directly link to a staff person's ability to deal with Stress.



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If stress in the workplace (i.e. the IT Companies) is not on the agenda the results of

stress are revealed through higher absenteeism than other parts of the company,

higher Worker's Compensation claims and ultimately in reduced customer

satisfaction.

Raising the pay isn't necessarily the solution. There are many other creative means

of managing stress in the IT Companies. This paper focuses on one group of

workers in the utility industry - IT Companies representatives. These are the

women and men who assist residents and businesses in establishing or changing

their utility service and troubleshooting problems that customers might have with

their service, their billing and a host of other issues. While perhaps less visible than

the men and women who work on poles or read meters, IT Companies

representatives are an important part of the workforce in the utility industry.

These representatives experience stress from a variety of factors, but particularly

from the constant monitoring, pressure to work fast, and being disrespected by

customers. This stress is leading to physical problems and emotional distress for

employees, which ultimately hurts their work performance. The constant pressure

to answer more calls with less people has given us the Age of the battery IT

Companies'.

Long hours of work , permanent night shifts, incredibly high work targets, loss of

identity are the dark clouds that threaten to mar the sunshine' IT Companies

industry in India?



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Irate customers who never seem to respect to the person helping them are hard to

please even when the service is at its best. Especially American customers are

known for using abusing words very frequently. The representatives who are

Indian by birth find it very offensive. For them, it is difficult to be immune to those

abusive words.

Not finding time to spend with family members makes the respondents feel

isolated, Also due to the time constraint they find it difficult to indulge in their

extra-curricular activities. These frustrations affect the quality of performance

though the representatives are aware that their performance is monitored every

minute.

Many people, between 18 and 21 years, are seeking counseling. Today, most top

executives acknowledge that a steady turnover of staff is an inevitable aspect of

this industry. The reasons could be boredom, seeking better prospects or a change,

or inadequate training for the job. Or the toll taken by this demanding job.



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COMPANY PROFILE

SLK SOFTWARE

SLK Software Services is a growing offshore software development company

based in Bangalore, India. Our strong software team guided by the spirit of

teamwork, creativity and focus on using current and emerging technologies has

enabled us to grow rapidly and continuously. Key strengths are: Full lifecycle

software development in current & emerging technologies offshore software

development for clients in USA & UK E-business and E-commerce software

applications Application domains of engineering, manufacturing, distribution,

retail & healthcare. Software development process compliant with SEI CMM

Challenging environment for employees personal & professional development.



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skill areas include: Methodology: 3/n Tier Architecture, OOPS, UML Core

Technologies: Java, EJB, JSP, RMI, Servlets, Java Script, XML, SOAP, C++, VC+

+, Visual Basic, ASP, ActiveX, HTML, DHTML Architecture: J2EE,

CORBA/IIOP, RMI, and DCOM.

Company Quality Management System has evolved over a decade

and is serving as a platform for consistent delivery of high quality services. Built

on International Quality Standards, it has gone through continual improvement

processes making it a robust system and thus enabling us to deliver predictable,

within cost and time services and solutions. While it is standard and structured, this

unique process and quality implementation model provides the flexibility to blend

and adapt to the needs of our customers delivering great value.

Quality Policy

Company are committed to the success of our customers and thereby SLK, by

providing innovative, high quality and cost effective solutions through continuous

process improvement

Quality Objectives

Deliver defect free software products

Deliver projects on time and within budget

Reduce rework by developing solutions right the first time

Improve productivity by adopting appropriate technologies and tools

Enhance organizations competency by continuous learning



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Company protects their information assets and information systems from

unauthorized access, disruption, modification or destruction from deliberate or

accidental actions.

Information Security Policy

"SLK Software commits to protecting its information assets by maintaining

Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability through implementation of effective

information security controls"

During the last few years, SLK have transitioned from just a mature organization

to a mature and secure organization by accomplishing the following milestones.

ISO/IEC 27001: 2005 Certified in 2006; recertified in 2009 and 2012

Assessed for Financial Institutions Shared Assessment Program, Agreed

upon Procedures - FISAP AUP V.4.0 in 2010

Established an Enterprise Risk Management Framework based on ISO/IEC

31000: 2009 and COSO framework in 2010

VISION

To be the most inspiring business group admired globally for creating

sustained prosperity.

MISSION

To enable continuous growth for clients through world-class solutions and

demonstrated expertise, consistently.



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To ensure continuous growth of people by inspiring and empowering them

to be the best in delivering solutions to meet global IT challenges.

ORACLE

Oracle Financial Services Software Limited (erstwhile i-flex solutions) (OFSSL) is

a world leader in providing IT solutions to the financial services industry. The

Company was incorporated in September 27, 1989 as Citicorp Information

Technology Industries Ltd.The Company addressing the entire financial services

space through a comprehensive portfolio of products, IT services, consulting andknowledge process outsourcing services With the experience of delivering value-

based IT solutions to over 810 financial institutions across 130 countries. OFSSL

has 14 development centers across India, Singapore and the USA. The Company

has a strong global reach with a sales, marketing and support presence in 27

overseas locations operating across four subsidiaries (i-flex solutions Inc. in the

USA, i-flex solutions b.v. in the Netherlands, i-flex solutions pte. ltd. in Singapore

and iPSL in India). In addition, 30 corporate business partners and 32

implementation partners represent i-flex across the globe. The Company also has

strong alliance and/or implementation relationships with industry leaders such as

Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Sun Microsystems and Intel. CITIL (Citicorp Information

Technology Industries Limited), spun off from COSL (Citicorp Overseas Software

Limited), commences first year of operations in the year 1992. In 1995, CITIL

gains recognition for establishing world-class processes and quality Standards, It

attained SEI CMM Level 4, becomes the first financial software firm in the world

and one out of six companies worldwide to achieved this distinction at that time.



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CITIL established the Center of Excellence during the year 1996 for business

intelligence to provide specialized consulting and software products, as well as

services in data warehousing and business intelligence. A complete banking

product suite for retail, consumer, corporate, investment and internet banking,

consumer lending, asset management and investor servicing, including payments

(SWIFT Net and SEPA) was launched in the year 1997 under the name of

FLEXCUBE. Micro Banker becomes the 6th international banking product in the

world to be used by 100 customers in 1998 and the FLEXCUBE starts gaining

traction and international leadership. During the year 1999, FLEXCUBE

Information Center, a Web-enabled business intelligence system was launched

along with a Center of Excellence for CRM and the Java Center for financial

services also established. CITIL was renamed as i-flex solutions limited in the year

2000. During the same year 2000, Center of Excellence for e-services launched

Separate business unit established to address the Applications Services Provider

(ASP) market. i-fl ex solutions b.v., a 100 percent subsidiary of the company

opened in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The company's financial software

development facilities were established in the year 2001 at Pune and Chennai and

fully owned subsidiaries set up in USA and Singapore, i-flex solutions b.v. in

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, becomes operational, i-fl ex Consulting was

launched. EBZ Online, a software company was joined with the company during

the year 2002 through which i-flex's product, Flex cube, for made available to

cooperative banks. Dotex International, a joint venture company supported by

NSE.IT and i-flex Solutions Ltd, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU)

with BgSE Financials Ltd, a subsidiary of the Bangalore Stock Exchange, to give

Internet trading service to the members of the exchange. The Company entered

into capital market with Initial Public Offering (IPO) of an issue of 3,961,700



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equity shares. I-flex opened its first Overseas Software Development Center in

Singapore in the year 2002. In the year 2003, the company's flagship product

FLEXCUBE ranked the world's No.1 selling Universal Banking Solution and

during the same year 2003, I-flex sets up development center in New York, Wins a

major order from HypoVereinsbank Group (HVB Group), Germany, Inaugurated

FLEXCUBE Support & Prime Sourcing Solutions Centre in London and

acquisition of Super Solutions Corporation in all cash deal of .5 million was made.

Waters Magazine ranked Mantas as the Best Anti-Money Laundering Solution and

Best Compliance Solution for 2003. Waters Magazine ranked Mantas as the Best

Anti-Money Laundering Solution for 2003 and also for 2004. During the year

2004, i-flex opened its wholly owned holding company in US, namely i-flex

America, for carrying out all future acquisitions in the USA. The Golden Peacock

National Quality Award was awarded to the company. i-flex Solutions ties up with

Barbados-based first Caribbean International for internet banking and e-finance

platform of i-flex Solutions. The core banking solution Flex cube had won The

Banker Core Banking Solution of the Year and Application of the Year'' awards.

The Company and YES Bank has signed Global Strategic Memorandum to

collaborate on technology led innovations to enhance quality and efficiency in

banking products and delivery processes. i-flex joined hands with People Soft to

develop and market an integrated solution for the banking industry. Entered into

strategic alliance with Castek Software Inc., a Toronto based provider of insurance

systems for the global Property & Casualty (P&C) in the year 2005. The decade-

old relationship between Oracle and i-flex was further strengthened in 2005 at a

strategic level. In August 2005, Oracle Corporation bought Citigroup's 41 percent

equity interest in i-flex and floated an open offer to purchase up to an additional 20

percent ownership from existing shareholders. I-flex assessed at CMMi Level 5



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also certified BS 7799 compliant. BS 7799 is security standards and policies

addressing information security. In the same year i-flex and EDB Business Partner

ASA had entered into an agreement to jointly offer comprehensive retail banking

solutions to financial institutions in the Nordic region. Revalues was positioned in

Gartner's 'Leaders Quadrant' in its 'Basel II Risk Management Application

Software Magic Quadrant for 2005' and '2006 Basel II Software Applications

Magic Quadrant'. Reveleus was also 'Highly Commended' for its Compliance

Initiative Innovation in The Banker Technology Awards for 2006. The Black Book

of Outsourcing, ranked i-flex BPO as the top outsourcing vendor to the Mortgage

Banking Industry in 2006. The FLEXCUBE 10.0 was released in 2007, it helps

financial institutions respond faster to market dynamics and define and track

processes, while ensuring compliance. The suite also equipped with SWIFT 2007

enhancements and supports SEPA payment processing. New Version of

FLEXCUBE Core Banking for IBM System z active from April 2008. During

August of the year 2008, the company changed its name from I-flex solutions

Limited to Oracle Financial Services Software Limited. FLEXCUBE, reveals,

Daybreak, Mantas, Prime Sourcing, i-flex Consulting and iPFB are trademarks of

i-flex solutions and are registered in several countries.

TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LTD (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd is an information technology (IT) company. The

company offers a range of IT services, outsourcing and business solutions. They

also offer IT infrastructure services, business process outsourcing services,

engineering and industrial services, global consulting and asset leveraged



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solutions. Their segments include banking, financial services and insurance;

manufacturing; retail and distribution, and telecom. The company is a part of Tata

Group, one of India's most respected business conglomerates and most respected

brands. They are headquartered in Mumbai. They are having 142 offices in 42

countries as well as 105 delivery centers in 20 countries. The company shares are

listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange of India. Tata

Consultancy Services Ltd was incorporated in the year 1968. Tata Sons Ltd

established the company as division to service their electronic data processing

(EDP) requirements and provide management consulting services. In the year

1971, they started their first international assignment. The company pioneered the

global delivery model for IT services with their first offshore client in 1974. In the

year 1981, the company set up India's first IT R&D division, the Tata Research

Design and Development Centre at Pune. In the year 1985, they set up their first

client-dedicated offshore development center for Compaq (then Tandem). In the

year 1989, they delivered an electronic depository and trading system called

SECOM for SIS SegaInterSettle, Switzerland. In the year 1997, the company

opened their new corporate training facility at Trivandrum. In the year 1998, they

started virtualization of business. In the year 1999, they got SEI-CMM Level 5

certification for their Qwest, HP, SEEPZ &Sholinganallur centers. Also, in the

year 20000, they got SEI-CMM Level 5 certification for their Calcutta, Bangalore,

Lucknow, and Hyderabad, GEDC, Ambattur and Ahmedabad centers. In the year

2001, the company completed the acquisition of public sector unit, CMC Ltd. In

the year 2002, they expanded their geography into new growth markets like China/

Uruguay. The company saw outsourcing opportunity in E-Commerce and related

solutions and set up its E-Business division with ten people. By 2004, E-Business

was contributing half a billion USD to the company. During the year 2004-05, the



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company acquired WTI Advanced Technology Ltd and TCS Business

Transformation Solutions Ltd (Previously, Phoenix Global Solutions (India) Ltd),

subsequently these two companies became the subsidiaries of the company. In

August 9, 2004, the company became a publicly listed company. During the year

2005-06, the company acquired three companies Comicrom S A, Chile, Financial

Network Services (Holdings) Pty Ltd, Australia (FNS) and Swedish Indian IT

Resources AB (SITAR). The company made strategic alliances with Diligent Ltd

for Life Insurance business. Also, they entered into a Joint Venture Agreement

with the State Bank of India. The new company was formulated and named C-

Edge Technologies Ltd (C-Edge) for providing advanced technology solutions and

world-class domain consulting for the banking and financial services sector.

During the y

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Abdul Nabeel Abdulla