Offshore Software Outsourcing

Vietnam, software development, skills impress UK business

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:43:23 +0000

The last weeks have been manic.

Flew to Vietnam on the 11th October to chair a Mission of Chief Information Officers on a week long visit to investigate the software industry in Vietnam. The Mission was organised by Harvey Nash with the support of UK Trade and Investment.

Prince Andrew helps British Firms succeed in Vietnam

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:38:34 +0000

Source: Saigon Times, Vietnam’s Leading Business Daily

Hanoi – Prince Andrew has said he is willing to assist British businesses to achieve successes here in Vietnam as a key regional destination for trade and investment.

Speaking at the third UK-Vietnam Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting which opened in Hanoi yesterday, the Duke of York said Vietnam was quickly shedding it’s image as a place people flew over on the way to other Far Eastern economies.

“It is a fast growing Market that is quickly moving up the value chain,” said Prince Andrew, who also serves as special representative for UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), while presiding over the two-day JETCO meeting in Hanoi.

This year’s JETCO meeting was launched by UKTI Chief Executive Andrew Cahn and Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Danh Vinh. The first such meeting took place in Hanoi in September 2007 and the second in London in December 2008.

“The Vietnamese authorities are very enthusiastic about working with firms from abroad. I want to do what I can to encourage British companies to realise the incredible opportunities there are and help them succeed here,” Prince Andrew told yesterday’s meeting.

The JETCO was established in September 2007 by the British Government to help promote and develop trade, address trade barriers and ultimately create a better business climate between the two countries. It also gives business on the ground a platform to share concerns directly with Government ministers.

The UK is now the third largest European Union (EU) investor in Vietnam with 115 investments capitalised at US$2.1 billion.

UKTI in Vietnam said a number of positive outcomes had been made through the past two JETCO meetings including the local incorporation for UK banks in Vietnam, the clarification of distribution rights for foreign invested companies, and the clarification on data and intellectual property right (IPR) protection for the pharmaceutical sector.

“It is a great example of the benefits of international business. In financial services only 10% of Vietnamese have a bank account. HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank are now the first foreign banks to have domestic branches,” said Cahn of UKTI.

“Another financial services company, Prudential is now the largest single overseas employer of Vietnamese nationals. As a result of off-shoring, software company Harvey Nash now has 2,500 software developers in Vietnam.”

Cahn showed great interest in boosting the economic and investment relations between the two nations during his first day in the Vietnam visit.

Vietnam was recently identified by top-business leaders from across the globe as the most attractive emerging market beyond the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India and China) in UKTI’s recent report “Survive and Prosper: emerging markets in the global recession.”

Over the past decade Vietnam’s growth has been second only to China.

Brand Vietnam creates a real buzz in the UK

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 09:30:55 +0000

Vietnam is causing a real buzz around UK and European business right now. Firstly through the Ministry of UK Trade and Investment and secondly featured in Lord Digby Jones annual Lecture.

Last week I ran Vietnam business clinics at the Asia Taskforce seminars on emerging markets seminar in both London and Manchester. Vietnam proved to be one of the most sought after clinics with a high proportion of delegates wanting to learn about doing business in Vietnam. I spoke about Harvey Nash’s success in Vietnam, about our software development business, the high skill levels of our energetic work force in Vietnam.

Vietnam – Harvey Nash win prestigious software awards

Thu, 14 May 2009 16:33:02 +0000

On the 23rd April 2009 I accepted on behalf of Harvey Nash two excellence awards from Vietnam ’s Vice Minister of Information and communications, Mr Hong. The ceremony, broadcast live on Vietnamese television, was supported by a large audience of senior ICT professionals from across the country.

The first award was for excellence in software exporting. This award is given to recognise significant success in delivering software services to foreign companies through Vietnam. Harvey Nash has been extraordinarily successful in this area, providing software and maintenance solutions to clients in Europe, the USA and Asia from its development centres in HCMC and Hanoi.

Harvey Nash engaged around 3000 IT professionals and in 2008 alone recruited over 400 new developers with some 200 being recruited to support the landmark deal with Alcatel-Lucentin Germany. The build out of our wireless laboratory now enables us to support the development and testing of 3G technology out of Vietnam.

The second award for excellence in process and methodology acknowledges our investment in quality systems and more importantly our consistent quality delivery to our clients worldwide.

I was privileged to be invited to speak at the ceremony when I acknowledged the huge contribution that our Vietnamese engineers had made to Harvey Nash’s success and the energy and ambition that epitomises the Vietnamese nation.

I have to say that I was very proud last year to receive a personal award for my contribution to the Vietnamese ICT industry and even more so in 2009 to see all our staff rewarded for their commitment and success. I have included a picture to show how great I look in a sash!

Visit to Harvey Nash Offshore Facility – Vietnam – March 2009

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:41:37 +0000

I thought I would give you a change and for once stop singing the praises of the Vietnamese technology work force. Instead I have published a document produced by Steve Dowle who recently visited Vietnam to assess the skills and capabilities of Harvey Nash’s development facility. For Steve’s article read on.....

To put my comments and thoughts into context, my previous experiences of using offshore resource was at Charles Schwab Europe and Egg, where we used a group called Global, with Indian resources in Chennai and Mumbai, since bought by Sword.

I’ve never been a great one for wanting to use enterprise level offshoring, like TCS or Wipro, because as with large UK consultancies, you’re never quite sure of what you get for your investment in terms of experience and seniority. Global never aspired to be a TCS and instead referred to themselves as “boutique” aiming to give good service and satisfaction to a small number of clients, and this they did well.

So, how did the Vietnamese facility measure up when compared to my previous experiences, ventures that I feel were successful? Quite simply, extremely well.

Start with language. The Indian folk were good. Their standard of English had to have achieved certain levels to be recruited. When they were onshore in the UK, their language came on leaps and bounds. However, when they returned home, it did deteriorate a little. The randomly selected staff that I spoke to in Vietnam had excellent fluency in English. We were told that English is taught as a second language in schools. I believe it. Even folk in the street, cycle-taxis etc. displayed an exceptional level of fluency.

Next, awareness of their context, the purpose of what they were individually working on. I’ve spoken to developers in the UK, asking them what they were writing and why. Having an answer of “because I was told to” or “because my analyst gave me the spec” is not uncommon. The random handful of Vietnamese developers that I spoke to, explained not only the component, but who the client was and what the overall project objectives were, showing great awareness and empathy with the project.

Their technical capability seemed solid. Difficult to assess from only a random view, but again, they talked knowledgeably, the architects seemed switched on and smart. The numerous leaders who came to speak to us were confident and assured, and carried themselves well. The project and reporting capability as explained and shown to us, was of a high standard and they seemed to be making offshore agile development work and work well, which is no mean feat.

Final point. The average age of the offshore unit was young, reflecting the country demographics. This youthfulness should not be confused with immaturity, lack of confidence or a shortfall in ability. As I’ve already noted, they came out well in those areas. What it does mean, is that they are incredibly enthusiastic and committed. Their excitement about what they were doing was almost tangible.

The acid test in these situations is always “would I use them though?” I would always start with a pilot project, no matter who the offshore company was, but in their case, I would have a high expectation of success and a continued and growing relationship. Yes, I would engage them.

Steve Dowle

Steve has a vast experience of offshoring and has delivered many successfully project for household name companies. With no "axe to grind" his views can be valued has real opinion. If anyone wanted to touch base with Steve feel free to contact me and I will forward your information to him.

Further information on Vietnam: The Lotus Blooms

Visit to Harvey Nash Offshore Facility – Vietnam – March 2009

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:39:47 +0000

So, how did the Vietnamese facility measure up when compared to my previous experiences, ventures that I feel were successful? Quite simply, extremely well.

Steve Dowle

Further information on Vietnam: The Lotus Blooms

UKTI Event – Business Opportunities in Vietnam

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:15:31 +0000

I was speaking last week (Thursday 19th February) at the British Government’s UKTI event about investing in Vietnam during the economic downturn. My colleagues on the speaker’s table were Tim Brownbill, Head of UKTI in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and David Morton, deputy CEO of HSBC in Vietnam.

I thought it was an extremely positive event and I wanted to use my blog to share with you some of the key points that were discussed. There are also some video clips available (below) of myself and the other speakers being interviewed on the Vietnam opportunity.

Business owners, directors and managers from firms as diverse as boat builders, infrastructure engineers, software developers and bra manufacturers came to the event. Tim Brownbill of UKTI opened the session. As the Counsel General in Ho Chi Minh City and Director of UKTI in the region, he provided a clear overview of the current economic climate and emphasised one major competitive advantage that Vietnam boasts, its population size. At 86,000,000 and growing rapidly the Vietnamese economy requires the creation of 1,000,000 new jobs a year to sustain its people; more of this from me later.

I began my presentation by outlining that the Harvey Nash plc choice of Vietnam as an outsourcing hub nine years ago was a major strategic decision in our company’s history. It was not without risk, but the decision has really paid off. During our time there, Vietnam has become the fastest growing outsourcing hub in the World and has changed beyond recognition.

A key element behind the Harvey Nash decision to locate in Vietnam was its strategic geographic location within the South East Asian growth markets, as well as its service provision to the rest of the World. In the last three years we’ve seen a very positive shift in the growth of trade within the South East Asian region itself for Vietnamese goods and services. Trade with its neighbours has grown from less than 10 per cent of GDP in 2005 to over 30 per cent today.

For us, recognition from the World Bank of the business opportunity in Vietnam has been a welcome and reassuring sign continues to move in the right direction. It is becoming an easier place to do business and this point was reinforced to me by the Japanese Ambassador recently while I was on a flight with him. He used a great anecdote and finished it with a memorable phrase: “when the Vietnamese say they’re going to do something, they do it”. I wholeheartedly agreed because the dependability of all our people in Vietnam is something that I see every time I am there.

PwC has also been operating in Vietnam for some time and a recent report by them placed Vietnam at #1 in a list of developing countries to do business with. They felt Vietnam offered the greatest balance of risk and reward in the ASEAN region.

I agreed with Tim Brownbill of UKTI that Vietnam’s people are the key to its success. It is the size of the population that gives Vietnam its economic power, but it is the talent and skills of the Vietnamese people who add the extraordinary value as a business partner. Some very simple statistics that emphasise this for the work that Harvey Nash does in the country include:

80 per cent of all Vietnamese graduates take a science subject… great for creating a pipeline of software developers!
Vietnam has a 20 per cent broadband Internet penetration, which is one of the highest in the region
Vietnam has a 95 literacy rate, which is higher than most of the developed world!
I am also especially proud that Vietnam is very good at mobilising the female workforce that makes up 52% of population, there are no glass ceilings, and in fact 80 per cent of the Harvey Nash management team in Vietnam is female.

A loyal workforce with low churn (less than 6% per year verses up to 30% from some of our Indian competitors) is another feature that many Western organisations will find appealing.

Challenges do exist of course. Middle management is an issue in such a young country, HR experience is lacking, but we have overcome this issue by bringing those skills into Vietnam while training local talent. Talent flows both ways from our investment in Vietnam!

Property is my single biggest challenge; it is not being built fast enough to cope with the level of growth. We are now opening our third office in the country and considering a range of new property options. So while there are challenges there is still huge opportunity for growth.

David Morton from HSBC has lived in Ho Chi Minh for two years and he agreed with me that Vietnam is a place you can very easily fall in love with. Despite admitting his presentation was a typical banker’s presentation, he filled it with anecdotes of the highs and lows of doing business in Vietnam. His presentation was frank and honest but you could clearly see the potential in the country from a financial services perspective.

Vietnam is a major investment hub for HSBC. They are the largest foreign bank in HSBC, with over 1,000 employees. HSBC is still positive about economic growth in Vietnam despite the global economic downturn.

Inflation will drop from 30% last year to 5% this year, this will support domestic consumption. Foreign Direct Investment is going up too, and if domestic growth increases in line with expectations, Vietnam will be in a great position going into 2010.

There has been an aggressive response from the Vietnamese Government in recent years to manage growth better, to encourage more local and regional investment. More Government spending is expected this year and credit liquidity is improving to support the ongoing attractiveness of the economy both regionally and internationally.

Vietnam is expected to be one of the big success stories of this recession. It is a low cost but highly skilled hub. As western countries shift production to lower cost destinations to cope with the global downturn they will likely increase capacity in Vietnam.

At the end of the event there were a large number of questions asked. I was pleasantly surprised by the intelligence with which they were asked and the research that people had clearly done on Vietnam before the event. I believe this is indicative of the level of interest in the country. With more and more events likes this happening across Europe, the United States and other developed countries, the future looks very bright for Vietnam.

Here are a couple of links to additional resources about Harvey Nash in Vietnam:

Vietnam: the Lotus blooms – an analysis of Vietnam’s economic attractiveness that was published in TCWorld magazine

Harvey Nash Safe Haven – a white paper by Harvey Nash on how Vietnam can be a safe haven in stormy economic times

Harvey Nash Vietnam - A safe port in a storm

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:53:37 +0000

Although I live on the River Hamble, I don’t get out on the water as much as I would like. I certainly don’t have the qualifications of a master yachtsman… but I do understand, and enjoy using, the terminology!

That is why I’m choosing to blog on the importance of finding a safe port when a storm hits. It is very difficult to argue that the Indian outsourcing industry isn’t in the middle of such a storm at the moment.

Even the largest outsourcing providers have been hit by the global downturn. However, it is the extremely high profile Satyam fraud, and a number of other recent incidents, that have created uncertainty and mistrust about the integrity of outsourcing to India.

In the past this has not necessarily been a fair assessment, but serious damage has been done to brand India in the past few months. According to FT.com “The main lesson from Satyam is that when doing business in India, companies can no longer rely on spoon-fed figures derived from a Google search by an analyst and a few meetings with management.” *

Now, more than ever, industry analysts are saying that due diligence is vital before making a decision to outsource to India. Part of that due diligence should be to look at alternative outsourcing hubs that can compete on cost savings with India, but give peace of mind too.

Harvey Nash has been providing software development outsourcing and BPO services in Vietnam for over ten years. Through investments in education and market reforms, Vietnam has built a safe haven for software and BPO clients who, understandably, want absolute confidence in an offshore software development partner.

Harvey Nash benefits from having a significant 100% owned outsourcing division with outsourcing centres in UK, USA, Europe and Vietnam. Clients can be secure with contracts written by a successful UK listed company with a reputation for quality, trust and transparency.

We also have the scale to manage large and complex requirements. With over 2500 IT highly skilled professionals available we believe Vietnam offers a real safe haven in uncertain times. Since we began working in Vietnam it has been our mission to ensure your IP is protected, your data is safe, your confidentiality is maintained and your investment will be secure.

Cost competitiveness is always important in our industry, but if you ask those CIOs caught up in the Indian scandals, I wonder what price they would now put on securing peace of mind?

If you want to contact me directly to talk about the Harvey Nash outsourcing capability please email paul.smith@harveynash.com

To learn more about Vietnam as a reliable outsourcing hub click here.

* To view the full article on FT.com click here.

Vietnam meets Top Gear - we three kings of mopeds are..

Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:17:11 +0000

In Vietnam, the traffic moves round you, not you round the traffic. Crossing the road is a truly unique experience and you never forget your first time. Jeremy Clarkson and the team, pictured below filming for an upcoming Christmas special take a somewhat unique "blinkered" approach putting their trust in the Vietnamese motorcyclists - please note that no fruit was harmed during this road crossing.

Of course on all of our trips to Vietnam, safety is of paramount importance and earlier this year motorcycle helmets became mandatory. James "Captain Slow" May below can be seen to be taking this to a new level - but of course they cannot account for the rainy season. The colander that Captain Slow wears will at least keep his hair out of his eyes, and can be useful when draining the spuds for dinner……. but no good for eating Vietnamese Pho!

The Top Gear team has recently come in for some stick from the press for their trip to the Deep South in the USA and for comments about lorry drivers. In Vietnam they have been "modding up" their mopeds in bright colours - below you can see James May, set for the high seas on his way to Ha long Bay, the question I have is will he set sail in that boat, or is Hamster the only member of the team who will fit?!

Some say he is scared of ducks and that if set alight, he'd burn for a thousand days. Some say his ears have a paisley lining, and that he’s been banned from the Chelsea Flower Show for eating the exhibits..

.....all we know is, he's called the Stig and he has a Vietnamese cousin – who we call “Dien Dien Mat Mat”…

One of the highlights of any trip to Vietnam is a visit to Ha Long Bay, where tourists usually travel onboard boats called "Junks". Of course, this is the Top Gear team off on one of their challenges and they have to rise to the opportunity of sailing round some of the 300 islands that make up Ha Long Bay. Do they sink or swim, we will have to watch and see…

Below it is good to see Clarkson has not only got his transport for land and sea covered but also has thrown in a few bed heads for good measure, obviously taking the "junk" theme to a different level.

All of this frolicking about comes at price, as Clarkson gets introduced a little too closely to the streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

I am sure with all the thrills and the spills it will be a comical show, tune in on Sunday 28th December at 8pm to see the team on fine form and find out what makes Vietnam a fun place to be! It has already got me thinking for my next trip, though I think I will be painting my moped Harvey Nash red!

54million Euro Outsourcing Contract with Alcatel Lucent

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 16:39:59 +0000

So why is the Alcatel Lucent outsourcing contract a landmark deal for Harvey Nash?

Apart from the size of the deal, which in its self is significant, the fact that we gather under one roof 180 of the best telecommunications software engineers and scientists in the world is awesome. Add into the mix 2500 software engineers in our centres in Vietnam and you have a potent mix of skills to deliver world class telecoms solutions to add to the existing financial service, media and commercial applications capabilities that already exist.

The Vietnamese are considered to be some of the best mathematicians in the world (3rd in the last global Mathematics Olympiad) which is why they have such high productivity as software engineers. With 180 of the best brains in the business working with them, our Vietnamese team will learn fast enabling us to create a centre of excellence with scalability to compete with the best.

That is not the end of this story; the skills are very transferable. Embedded coding skills are available with experience in the automotive, aerospace and consumer environments.

Harvey Nash now has:

·2500 highly skilled software engineers available in Vietnam

·Nearly 250 onshore engineers in UK, USA and Germany

·The knowledge and scale to support substantial contracts

·A broad experience in applications development and testing

·Wireless technology expertise plus state of the ART labs

·A low cost delivery option

Now that is what I call landmark!

Back to the Future: Reflections on Vietnam

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:24:29 +0000

I mentioned in my last blog that I would report on the CIO mission to Vietnam. Well we took the delegation to our HCMC and Hanoi centres, invited outside speakers and introduced the mission to both the ICT and IT education environment. How did we get on? well I decided it would be better to hear directly from the delegates

The first, Professor Roger James, IT Director, Westminster University wrote:

In October I was invited, together with other CIOs, on a trade mission to Vietnam. The key purpose of the trip was to visit Harvey Nash’s off-shore development company, but the trip turned out to be much more than this.

Harvey Nash have a growing presence in Vietnam starting in 2001. But to understand the company you need to understand Vietnam and its people. Like the rest of the CIOs I think our perception of Vietnam was some hazy mix of the end of the Vietnam war and the Asia effect. It is an opinion partly right and partly wrong – Vietnam is indeed part of the success of South East Asia but with a character and energy all of its own.

Starting with the Vietnam war is wrong, the company and the people have a tremendous energy born from the war – 85 million people with over 50% of the population under 25. The country, the companies and the cities are all incredibly vibrant and energetic. For Vietnam it is their post war generation – their baby boomers – and like ourselves a generation ago they are learning and growing together. In another paradox Vietnam is a socialist communist country, yet with more evidence of entrepreneurism and enterprise that would put any technology hotspot to shame.

In deciding to do business in Vietnam there are two factors: the judgment of the heart and the head. The visit provided much evidence, described later, for the head. For the heart I think we found the people of Vietnam charming and approachable. There is friendliness, an openness and a sense of humour which is completely in tune with our own expectations and values; in discussion there is a quick rapport and easy interchange of information. As a legacy of the French Indochina the alphabet is Roman, English or Japanese is a priority and the courtesy is over-whelming.

Technically the companies are, for Vietnam, well established with some of the most senior Vietnamese IT professionals working for them. Most employees with more than a decade of experience have started their careers abroad and moved home to build the indigenous industry. There is a share option scheme for senior employees, there is post-graduate company sponsored training for many employees and the ties of family and company breeds a strong company loyalty. At the other end there is an individual and societal focus on education with a strong tradition of industry/academic collaboration – from company sponsored universities to ‘industry years’ in degrees. Together the societal and learning produce a generation keen to visit the UK for experience but also keen to return home. An ideal combination for outsourcing services with minimal problems of staff ‘jumping ship’ or applying for permanent residence.

The companies have, quickly, reached very high professional standards – they quote their accreditation at CMMI5. It is to be believed, the use of process measures and metrics needs to be seen to be believed [there was a league table of project managers with their productivity, defect and process scores displayed by the lift]. There is one strange paradox the low investment in development tools (such as Rational Rose), which for me is reminiscent of my early days in programming (circa 1980). Their core activities are driven by a very solid and very thorough in-house process system which is developed around key technological standards (such as UML or waterfall) but implemented ‘mandraulically’. The reason for the relative low adoption of high powered, high cost tools is simply finance; however it results in a rigorous and well understood internal methodology. It reminded me of my own IT ‘apprenticeship’at CAP and how I now struggle to give this opportunity to my team - learning as part of a large team all learning together. The Vietnamese partner in the Harvey Nash Joint Venture has a graduate intake in excess of 200 annually so continuous managed training is critical to their success.

The visit was not just to meet with Harvey Nash but also representatives of the UK Government and investment community. Largely through a series of dinners, with just one morning of presentations, we were able to see the potential and the prospectus for Vietnam. The local knowledge of the diplomats, coupled with a rich lexicon of stories, provided a 3-D view of the country and addressed, then answered, some unconsidered concerns: such as the layman’s guide to WTO and TRIPS. Keen to suggest the professional resources to address any issues, their quick expert advice guided the way on what to ask. Socially the energy and enthusiasm of the diplomats were impressive, Vietnams own energy, size and growth is reflected in the passion and dynamism of the diplomatic corps. The diplomats also introduced us to the increasing policy of ‘China plus One’ – the growing trend of organizations to hedge their risk by running outsourcing from two centres.

Much of the visit was built around case studies and presentations – there were many. For me two provided the best view of the company and it’s capability. The first was a rescue project for a Telecom company [a network telecoms configuration & contract optimization company]. They were committed to demonstrating their new ‘configurator’ at a trade fair some 3 months away. The incumbent supplier had failed to deliver, or make progress, and HN inherited a broken prototype, some vague design ideas and a ticking timeline. In meeting the deadline HN delivered an industry first which included the algorithm for a constrained multi-parameter optimization. This drew on excellent mathematical skills of the team, a legacy of the Vietnamese education focus on science, in addition to those of systems development.

The second was with a Hedge Fund in London, and was, in essence, an off-shoring version of Agile. Anyone familiar with Agile, SCRUM or any of the time bound, feedback driven will know they all struggle with the communication difficulties of off-shoring. Here HN, with their clients, had established a blended on-shore and off-shore team linked their workspaces by ‘always-on’ video conferencing which delivered. For the company the solution allowed the intimacy of peer programming with the economics of off-shore. The guys really should write this up as a case study.

Downsides? Writing this on the plane returning home the travelling is over long, although the much anticipated direct flights will help. Upsides? The team spirit and learning from such a visit, just having time away from the office in the company of CIOs facing similar difficulties sparked any number of new ideas and new insights.

My recommendation: if you get that call just go, Vietnam will educate your mind and refresh your spirit

Back to the Future: Reflections on Vietnam

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:22:28 +0000

The first, Professor Roger James, IT Director, Westminster University wrote:

My recommendation: if you get that call just go, Vietnam will educate your mind and refresh your spirit

UK CTO's to visit Vietnam Software Development centres

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:41:15 +0000

I am on a mission! On the 13^th October I am looking forward to leading a Software Technology Mission to Vietnam. The delegation represents a number of UK businesses interested in using the first class Vietnamese IT resources available in what is the third largest outsourcing destination in ASEAN region.

Given the stormy financial climate, (or is it better described as typhoon) the need for IT to deliver “more for less” is uppermost in every CIO and IT Directors mind. Richard Holway’s thoughts about IT service companies battening down the hatches, illustrates this so well. http://hotviews.blogspot.com/

Offshoring and outsourcing in a controlled way provides one important route to more for less and that is just one reason why some of the most senior CTO’s and CIO’s are visiting Vietnam. The want to see the young and professional IT resources for themselves, visit development centres and understand how others have led the way into Vietnam software development sector.

Vietnams software industry costs are lower and more stable than both China and India with staff churn levels that they, and the UK can just dream of.

The visit starts in HCMC and the journey ends in Hanoi. I intend to give an update over the week and maybe include some insights from delegates about their findings.

Vietnam women in software development

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:03:33 +0000

Vietnam software development skills are already having a major impact in the European and US markets. With real government focus on growing and supporting the Vietnamese ICT industry the number of graduates available to this burgeoning market is increasing year on year. Any one who has experienced the quality of the dedicated workforce will understand just why they are head and shoulders above other countries in the region. What is staggering is the way the Vietnamese have mobilized their female workforce.

What sparked my interest was a speech given by Cherie Blair on workforce diversity and women in business in emerging countries.I started to look at our team of 2500 developers in Vietnam to find that over 56% of our workforce are women! This rate proves to be consistent throughout IT across the country. I then took a look at our management team: guess what? 60% of our senior managers are women! Now I would love to say this is a deliberate policy. We have simple always selected the best candidates for the job and of course at interview we have a pretty even split of male and female candidates.

In the UK just 11.8% of the IT workforce are women with few making it through the glass ceiling to run IT departments or even IT businesses. Maybe it is a Y generation dynamic in Vietnam where women feel empowered and there are no preconceived ideas. More likely is the government policy of promoting science and mathematics in education early in primary schools and the fact that parents see science and mathematics as a great career for their children.

What is it really like to do business in Vietnam? Firstly,

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:39:18 +0000

I was privileged to host Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam on the 4th March at a business forum in London. The event organised by Harvey Nash and Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce attracted over 500 executives. The blog of the whole event can be found at www.harveynash.com I have been asked for the transcript of my speech to the forum so I have published below.

What is it really like to do business in Vietnam?

Firstly, why do I feel qualified to talk with you on this subject?

I have been working with Vietnam for over 8 years now. Harvey Nash has over 2500 local staff engaged in Vietnam developing software and providing Business Process outsourcing services..

We feel we have experienced the very best of Vietnam and have faced most of the challenges. Last year we acquired a Vietnamese Technology business, (Silkroad), testing regulation, employment and legal frameworks. Although we faced a number of challenges we completed the transaction with few issues.

Our business growth is dependent on professional IT development and project management skills, and a strong science based educational infrastructure. Given that our markets are UK, Europe, USA and Australasia; English language skills are vital.

You may be surprised at how successful Vietnam is in some markets. I never fail to be amazed by how the vision of its leaders is converted into reality so quickly.

So a few facts: Vietnam are: number two in rice production, number one in pepper, number two in sports shoes, number two in walking boots, number two in coffee. If you buy a bicycle in the UK it is ‘odds’ on that it was made in Vietnam. If you buy shoes from Clarke’s then your children are walking to school in shoes made in Vietnam.

Speaking of education: if you have children at school, lesson planning, curriculum planning and admissions systems used by the teachers are developed in Vietnam. If you have been to the doctors recently the prescription system, the patient records and online appointment system used by your GP is written in Vietnam.

So Vietnam already touches our lives in so many ways.

The gigantic news screen in New York during the primary’s broadcast live data and interviews to America. I doubt if Mc Cain, Gulliani or Roney were aware that the software delivering the service to the world for MSNBC was written in Vietnam.

So what is our experience in Vietnam?

Firstly, the people. Friendly, enthusiastic, hardworking, committed, loyal, willing welcoming and family orientated. These are just a few words that describe the Vietnamese people but young dominates with over 60% of the population below 35 years of age.

When we first entered Vietnam it took a long time to get some of the basics activities done. We entered through a partnership with a Vietnamese company and frankly, back in 2000, if we had tried to set up on our own it would have been very difficult. Our Vietnamese partners helped us enormously as did our advisers. Local government red tape, business knowledge, ever changing processes, reporting etc were all difficult to manage. Looking back, it was just as much us as it was the Vietnamese business environment. The British Embassy have been magnificent over the last eight years.

The country has moved at an amazingly fast pace and like many emerging economies it will probably leap frog the traditional development processes. WTO accession has really made a huge difference, with improving legal, intellectual property, financial frameworks in place.

Changes to employment law which in my view have always been a positive in Vietnam have made it easier to manage our business, important for a people based business.

The real challenge is keeping up with the volume of legislation as change is implemented. A locally based advisor both from a financial and a legal perspective is a must.

As you would expect, a technology based business such as ours, requires a continuous supply of science based graduates. The Vietnamese government has invested heavily in the education process with significant help from UK and other countries Over the last years this has paid dividends with rising graduate levels through a number of really strong Universities. In the UK our skills crisis, particularly in the sciences is caused by the move towards the arts at junior school and beyond. Only 11.4% of UK graduates study science in the UK. In Vietnam the number is over 80%.

English is the second language taught in schools and universities. The result: written English is very good but spoken and conversational English is variable primarily because of lack of practice. We have had to implement conversational English lessons for all our staff and special English only days in our development centres. It is improving particularly for our team leaders, within our middle management and supervisory staff and recently we have noticed a marked improvement with graduates coming into the business.

In the early days our real challenge was with infrastructure, telecommunications in particular. Mobile reception was not good, not easy to call out or receive and constant dropped connections. Limited bandwidth made high speed computer connections a real threat.

Now, Vietnam internet connections as a % of population are at 18.4%, a top twenty country. We experience excellent bandwidth, constant power, I can’t remember the last time we used back up generators. You won’t see buildings spewing Diesel smoke in Vietnam as you do in India. Video conferences are in constant use and we have adopted VOIP with no real challenges.

With "8 million motorcycles in Hanoi, that’s a fact" ( sorry Katie Meula) the roads are a challenge in Hanoi and even more of a challenge in HCMC. Vietnam cannot build or widen roads fast enough as the car becomes pervasive. But that is not our biggest challenge.

Property is the happy problem that we have. I say happy because it means we are expanding. Prime Minister Dung witnessed Prudential signing a contract with Harvey Nash for a 300 people business process outsourcing project in Vietnam. We are recruiting over 100 graduates in our software centre. This year I will need space for at least 600 additional people.

Currently the demand for space is such that new buildings are committed off-plan. Vietnam cannot build fast enough to meet demand. So those are some of our experiences. Would we do it again! Yes most certainly. The best is to come.

Our new challenge is to harness the talent. Direct the energy, enthusiasm and passion of the people to grow our business internationally and inside Vietnam. We are building our middle management team; we are putting something back into the country through sponsorship of education at university level, through working to create MBA programmes in the UK and through sponsoring Vietnamese students into UK Universities through the British Embassy Chevening programme. We fund gap year students to come to Vietnam to teach English and run an annual mission for technology companies to Vietnam.

Finally, 8% GDP growth brings a healthy consumer market, opportunities in financial services, manufacturing, infrastructure, energy and services. On the plane going to Hanoi you will hear American, French, Australian and German accents. Vietnam is a great country to do business with so not to miss the boat. Even now the Germans are throwing their towels on your business opportunities.

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