IT partnership targets global market
 Shibu Basheer and Ian Cavanagh stand in front of their IT business Ambir on OCT 18,Monday. (Peter Parsons / Staff) |
A MARITIME information technology consulting company has formed a partnership with an Indian software developer to turn far-shore outsourcing opportunities into near-shore reality.
“Our vision is to be part of the global IT supply chain,” Ian Cavanagh, chief executive officer of Ambir, said in an interview Monday.
Ambir is an information technology and management consulting firm with offices in Halifax, Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton.The company, whose clients include Bell Aliant and the Nova Scotia and New Brunswick governments, has developed a Bridging the Gap to India program with Cabot Solutions of Kochi, India.
Cavanagh said the program is designed to help regional businesses harness the complementary capabilities of the two companies.
“Different regions of the world have different competencies,” he said, explaining the program.
It will provide business clients with the benefits of Cabot’s technical expertise through Ambir’s experienced consultants.
Under the arrangement, Ambir will develop client project requirements and specifications, while Cabot Solutions will build and deliver related project technology.
The partnership will help avoid outsourcing problems sometimes caused by long distances and cultural differences, Cavanagh said.
“Outsourcing is at times challenging.”
He said Ambir has engaged CompreCultures of New Brunswick to provide its staff and clients with cross-cultural communications and global business training.
Large companies such as IBM and CGI have used similar approaches for years and smaller companies such as Ambir, which employs about 50 people, have to adapt accordingly if they want to compete globally, Cavanagh said.
“Work is going from New York to Delhi. We have to figure out how Atlantic Canada can be part of that.”
Cabot Solutions co-founder Shibu Basheer, a Canadian citizen who lived in Halifax before returning to India in 2006, said the software company, which takes its name from the Cabot Trail, has clients in North America, Europe and Australia.
“Most of our clients are in North America,” he said Monday in an interview in Halifax.
The partnership will provide clients with “value-added” outsourcing services, Basheer said.
“Ambir has project management (expertise). We can help add high technology to the equation.”
Basheer said it is easier, given factors like time zone differences, for North American clients to contact Ambir in Nova Scotia than it is to reach Cabot in India.
