IT firms seek the gift of tongues

With an eye on more IT offshoring work from Europe, large software companies are encouraging their staff in India to master some continental languages.

Employees are being prompted to learn German, French or Dutch as part of in-house language training programmes at several IT companies. The idea is to ensure staffers from both the client and the vendor side are confident in outsourcing to India.

Capgemini India Chief Executive Officer Aruna Jayanthi said the company has trained more than 2,000 personnel over the last five years in either German, French or Dutch.

While this initiative may not fully bridge the cultural gap, it helps team members understand the documentation and workflow related to their particular projects, said Jayanthi.

Atos India looks to recruit engineers from Puducherry as French is commonly spoken in the Union Territory, says Milind Kamat, CEO. The technology company has about 100 employees fluent in German and about 30 in French.

“With French and German, we have covered two of the most spoken European languages. It helps a great deal in our global delivery model,” said Kamat.

Sachdev Ramakrishna, Marketing Director of Steria India, says that 10 per cent or about 500 of the company’s staffers are conversant in either French or German.

In fact, the company has recruited many non-engineers with exceptional French or German language skills in the last few years, he added.

The companies generally provide on-premise training to employees, thanks to tie-ups with Max Mueller Bhavans for German and Alliance Francaise for French. Employees have the option of higher level training once they have their basics in place.

“Employees in India who know European languages will feel even more involved in the projects. Collaboration and coordination will become easier between the European and offshore organisations,” said Peter Schumacher, CEO of management consultancy firm Value Leadership Group.

Mastering a client’s native language also helps bridge the cultural gap while promoting acceptance, trust, bonding, and open-mindedness — critical factors for success in global virtual teams.

“While many Europeans believe Indian employees often over-commit, many Indian employees are uncomfortable with the bluntness of Europeans,” said Schumacher.

R. Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice-Chairman of Cognizant Technology Solutions, says that language capabilities on the delivery side are important, but not the only determinant for a successful offshoring strategy.

“While it helps in serving European customers better, you can make offshore work more effective only if there are client-facing capabilities onshore,” he said.

This probably explains why Indian IT companies have been making a beeline to acquire European software firms.

Germany and France are the second and third largest IT service markets in Europe, respectively, after the UK.

Industry body European Information Technology Observatory pegs the size of these two markets at about €155 billion.

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