European 'variations' will prevent Indian players enjoying same success as in US

The main Indian offshore players do not currently represent a threat to the research and development services industry in western Europe, according to a newly released report. Research by analyst IDC on offshore services said that Indian players are currently "rushing into western Europe", seeking to recreate the success they have enjoyed in the US. But IDC believes that their success in these markets will, at least for the short term, be limited, because of Europe's unique regional variations. "A suitable business model does not necessarily mean that Indian players are going to dominate the western European engineering and R&D services industry," said Dominique Raviart, IDC senior research analyst, in a statement. "The engineering and R&D services in western Europe encompass more than application development and maintenance, and include less IT-focused R&D projects. For those projects, local presence, body-shopping capabilities and engineering skills, rather than IT skills, are a must." The analyst firm noted that the US success of Indian offshore players was based on engineering and R&D services in several vertical markets, including telecoms, high-tech, aeronautics and automotive, often developing, maintaining, enhancing and supporting applications running on embedded systems.