Partner Article

SunGard Availability Services announces continued growth in India

SunGard Availability Services, the pioneer and leading provider of Information Availability services, today announced its continued expansion into India, through the signing of Workplace Recovery contracts with two leading global financial institutions. This follows continued demand from international businesses for higher levels of resilience regarding key operations, regardless of their geographical location, and a growing domestic market.

Today’s announcement will expand SunGard Availability Services’ presence in India, taking its total available capacity to over 1,000 dedicated Workplace Recovery positions and 260 seats for syndicated recovery. These are located in the regions of Noida, Mumbai and Chennai, strategically chosen to offer the most value to local and international businesses alike, with Pune and Bangalore cited as potential future locations.

“India has a very different risk profile to the likes of the UK, and businesses need to be aware of this,” says Bala Vasireddi, General Manager, India, SunGard Availability Services. “Weather and cultural disturbances are the most common factors, whereas power, previously a regular disruption, is now less of an issue – as most firms have learnt to mitigate against this. India’s also vast in its size, with local regions isolated and susceptible to specific threats. As such, dedicated and syndicated recovery facilities are the most appropriate in delivering resilience and continuous operations – a different delivery model to that of managed and shared services, which countries like the UK are increasingly turning to.”

“Different geographies present diverse cultures and ways of working. However, with these nuances in mind, we are seeing a growing demand for global standards that support organisations and their operations – regardless of the location,” says Mark Runacres, India Advisor, CBI. “With businesses increasingly expanding globally and ‘plugging in’ remote teams, this brings with it the need for reliable and rapid services, which can be delivered around the clock, as demand dictates.”

“The opportunity regarding India is twofold, and comprises both domestic and offshore markets,” says Keith Tilley, managing director UK&I and executive vice president Europe for SunGard Availability Services. “What the country offers is high quality, well educated people that are recognised for delivering processes of increasingly higher value to businesses. Whether it’s IT development work, analytics or data monitoring and maintenance, India is identified as a key outsourcing destination for such services. These services often demand a large portion of skilled labour and business-critical activity that cannot be matched back on-shore, in the event of a prolonged disruption. It’s therefore vital that operations function around the clock with resilience built into them, and this is where our expertise becomes relevant.”

SunGard Availability Services now has over 400 dedicated professionals in India. Included within this are those in an offshore delivery centre, located in Pune, that supports the delivery of complex managed IT and recovery services to SunGard’s globally dispersed client base.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Keith Tilley .