Carretek LLC, a transformational business processing outsourcer for transaction processing, jointly owned by Carreker Corporation (Nasdaq: CANI) a leading provider of technology and consulting solutions for the financial services industry) and Majesco Software Inc. (a subsidiary of Mastek Limited, a leading global outsourcing company: National Stock Exchange, India: MASTEK), announced today that Carretek has been awarded a three-year offshoring agreement with a US-based company.
The client, whose identity was not disclosed, expects to realize cost savings in the range of 40 percent to 50 percent. A key aspect of the agreement was the development of unique processes and technology to process transactions in near real-time, to guard customer and company privacy, and to comply with regulatory deadlines for processing timeliness.
The agreement, the first for Carretek, is a "co-sourcing" arrangement, under which the client retains key customer contact, product, operations, control, and technology responsibilities while Carretek provides business process expertise and offshore functions, as well as transition support, program management, ongoing delivery services, and business continuity services. The agreement includes a stated intention to expand the number of functions offshored over the next six-to-twelve months.
To ensure compliance with laws and regulations concerning customer privacy, security, and timeliness of processing, Carretek has adopted three key sets of processes. First, regarding staffing and training, Carretek has replicated the client's processes and controls as much as possible, screening for the same characteristics and adopting similar training regimens. Second, regarding control of customer information, the Carretek process ensures that the information is never resident in India, but remains under the control of the client, with screened and trained staff having access to the information only for the duration of the function being performed. Third, with regard to timeliness, Carretek has created workflows and processes that ensure Carretek functions are performed accurately and reintegrated into the client's processing workflows in order to meet regulator and customer deadlines for posting and balancing.
Said Jay Mehaffey, executive vice president of Carretek, "By solving these issues of customer privacy, timeliness, and control, Carretek can free transaction processing from many of the old constraints of time and place, transforming the processes in the course of offshoring them. As a result, our client can leverage the global work force at this critical period when competitive and market trends are pressuring institutions to reduce their costs beyond the power of traditional cost management practices. Carretek has designed and built specific product offerings targeted to transaction processing functions for this express purpose."
Ketan Mehta, director of Carretek and co-founder of Mastek, said, "Realizing the significant benefit potential in offshoring transaction operations requires solid, transaction-specific expertise and offshoring experience. Carretek clients can be confident they are partnering with an organization that has deep domain expertise in the business, technology and regulatory environment, a discipline of control and security, a proven change management process, demonstrated competence in people and process management in India, and a record of delivering results reliably day after day."
J. D. (Denny) Carreker, chairman and CEO of Carreker Corporation said, "With this agreement, this client, which we have served for more than two decades with a variety of technology and consulting solutions, is confirming their confidence in our ability to help them maintain a leadership position in their operations."
"This agreement validates the strategic effort we launched more than a year ago to respond to the business process outsourcing needs in the transaction processing business," said Sudhakar Ram, CEO of Mastek. "Carretek combines Mastek's focus on quality and operational excellence with Carreker's domain expertise and technologies in transaction processing, making this model unique in the Indian business process outsourcing industry and transforming how business will be conducted in the 21st century."
Forrester Research recently increased its projections for offshoring of U.S. jobs by 40 percent. They now expect 830,000, or 1.6 percent of U.S. jobs, to move offshore by the end of 2005.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom, the Indian technology industry trade body) expects India's exports of software and services to jump more than 30 percent to $16 billion in the current year ending next March.