Japan's NTT Com signs first India outsourcing deal

MUMBAI - Japan's NTT Communications Corporation (NTT Com) announced a two-year outsourcing contract to India's SlashSupport, a Chennai-based tech support company.

The deal will earn the Indian company about $10 million over three years, Kashiwagi said. Under the contract, SlashSupport will support NTT Com's desktop management contract and management of infrastructure such as servers and networks.

"This is our first partnership in an outsourcing deal with India," Machifumi Kashiwagi, vice president of NTT Com's global business division, told Reuters.

"Of course we expect India to be an IT superpower. We also find abundant talent in India," he said. "Apart from that, Japan and India make a good match."

NTT already outsources work to China, the United States and Europe.

NTT Com, the global data and Internet services arm of Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corporation, expects to make a 30 to 40 percent cost savings, which will start to impact from the second year of the contract.

This is not an exclusive contract, Kashiwagi said, adding NTT Com would look for other partners as necessary.

SlashSupport will add 500 employees in infrastructure management services to its current 100 in the next year alone, Chief Executive Shiva Ramani said. Infrastructure management, which forms 6 percent of its revenues, is expected to touch $50 million, or 25 percent to its revenue, in three years, he said.