Sify.com: Shell to outsource 3,000 IT jobs

Tuesday, 27 April , 2004, 15:15

Oil giant Shell is planning to outsource almost 3,000 IT jobs to India, Malaysia and China, a company internal document has revealed. Discuss: IT outsourcing fears are overblown. 

A report in The Register, which claims to have seen the document, alleges that central services at Shell have been rebranded Group IT Infrastructre (GITI), although this is known internally as 'Give IT to India'.

The cost-saving project, dubbed ITVision, could save the oil giant 850 million dollars per year by sending jobs overseas.

A spokesman for Shell said, ''the project has been running for some time and is now moving from planning to implementation. We are committed to keeping some IT function in the UK, US, Netherlands and Malaysia. We are in the process of talking to staff and it is too early to be definitive about where the jobs will go.'' Although the target headcount figure is believed to be for the end of 2006, but jobs are most likely to go to India, Malaysia and China.

Shell already has a centralised IT outpost in Cyberjaya in Malaysia which employs 1,000 people.

The latest memo from ITVision lays down its aims wherein it clearly states: ''Locating more work in cost-advantaged locations where there are talented IT professionals, that is, Malaysia and India.'' The memo says Shell expects to cut between 1,900 and 2,800 jobs from its total IT staff of 9,300 - a reduction of 20 to 30 per cent.

Most of these losses are expected in high-cost locations such US and the UK.

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