Niyamath Parveez

The recent news that Xerox were ploughing $100m into a new outsourcing venture in India may have led many critics and industry experts to predict that the trend towards this market was going to continue but the unpredictable nature of the market is alive and well. The ink will have barely dried on the Xerox contracts, and the firm has probably not got around to copying the documents before news of another major US firm cancelling its outsource deal in India surfaced.

Sallie Mae, responsible for the vast majority of student loans in the United States of America has announced it is pulling 2,000 jobs from its outsourcing location in India. These jobs are returning to the United States of America with Newark, New Jersey expected to be one of the recipients of this bold move. With the job market being particularly depressed, any influx of jobs in the United States will be warmly welcomed by politicians and the population as a whole which means this will certainly be viewed as a popular decision by Sallie Mae.

The importance of Sallie Mae to the US economy is not only due to the fact that it is the major loan provider to the student population but also because the firm currently manages a sum of around $180 billion in loans in the education sector and has a customer base of around 10 million people, relating to students and their parents. The firm has a tradition of using offshore outsourcing options and has centers in the Phillipenes, Bangalore and Pune. All of these centers have assisted the firm in providing loan originating, maintaining and collection activities.

Sallie Mae have almost four decades worth of experience in supporting American students and there is no doubt that they are one of the organizations that people strongly associate with America and indeed their own lives. This is because countless of people who have went through higher education will be aware of the organization and of the support they received from them which means there is a greater emotional requirement for Sallie Mae to acknowledge the mood of the nation. Bringing 2,000 jobs back to the United States over the next 18 months will not be enough by itself to move the country from these harsh economic times but at least Sallie Mae can state that they are playing their part in helping to re-stimulate the economy.

There is no doubt there is a growing trend and political movement to maintain more jobs in the United States and this means there is an opportunity for US based outsourcing firms to provide an outlet for companies who require the support and assistance of outsourcing but not the political flak that comes from moving overseas.

One such outsourcing firm is Xpanion, a company who have their headquarters in Atlanta and who mainly operate in the software field. Xpanion pared back their testing facilities from Pune to Nebraska and are just one of the firms who are hoping to entice US based companies back to working with outsourcing partners in the United States. Xpanion can point to working with illustrious companies like Goldleaf Financial Solutions, NCR and Coca Cola as a sign of the quality and capabilities they can add to the market.