While several outsourcing businesses might have been affected during the US financial meltdown, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Gujarat are upbeat about engineering design services (EDS).
With the EDS outsourcing work growing at a healthy rate of over 50 per cent, the SMEs have begun consolidating on the core competence of qualified manpower. Companies like IceCube and HiTech Outsourcing have either tied up or are in the process of tying up with engineering institutes for specialised training in EDS.
“EDS is a very recent business idea or concept and only a handful of students are aware about this. While in India we have qualified engineers, the passouts are oblivious to the international standards required in markets like the US and Europe. We are, therefore, in talks with the likes of Nirma University and others for initiating specialised training modules in EDS,” said Chirag Mehta, chief executive officer of Ahmedabad-based IceCube.
EDS are usually outsourced to developing countries like India where there is an ample supply of qualified manpower in engineering and labour costs are low. Indian firms are required to conceptualise and prepare detail reports on engineering projects of their clients.
“While big companies like L&T can take EDS work on all domains of engineering, smaller companies like us usually specialises in a particular domain like electrical, mechanical or civil engineering,” added Mehta. IceCube, currently, has around a team of 50 engineers which the company is planning to take up to 100 soon.
HiTech, on the other hand, employs around 130 persons on EDS. With a 100-odd robust number of clients, the company handles EDS work in different domains like architectural structure, mechanical, plumbing and electrical (MPE), etc.
“Even with the slowdown in US, EDS hasn't been affected. The only problem is getting qualified people where India fares much better than other countries. To consolidate on the existing strengths, companies should have good training facilities since standards are different for these western clients and continuous training is a must,” said Pranit Bhantia, chief executive officer of HiTech Outsourcing.
The company, which is also into software development and web research, pegged a turnover of US $ 2.5 million (Rs 10 crore approx.). The other company engaged into EDS is Gandhinagar-based Circuit Systems.