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India diary, day 3: Inside the outsourcing campus
Complete with golf course, swimming pool and zoo...

By Steve Ranger

Published: Tuesday 06 March 2007

Wednesday 7 February - Hyderabad

The basic business infrastructure - roads, power and telecoms - can be patchy in Indian cities, so many of the bigger IT companies have built their own campuses where staff can work, shop, play and in some cases live.

I'm up early to see one such campus in Hyderabad. Satyam's site covers 120 acres and is the place of work for 4,300 employees. It's quite a journey down winding roads to the campus but when I arrive it's an oasis of green in the dust.

Special Report: Inside India

In February silicon.com's Steve Ranger visited the Indian tech hotspots of Bangalore, Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad to explore the exploding Indian offshore tech and BPO industry. Keep up with his daily diaries here.

♦ India diary, day 1: Cyberbad on Sunday
♦ India diary, day 2: Emergency calls and rural life
♦ India diary, day 3: Inside the outsourcing campus
♦ India diary, day 4: Hyderabad's tech park
♦ India diary, day 5: Margaritas to Mumbai
♦ India diary, day 6: Prime Minister's question time
♦ India diary, day 7: Mobiles in Mumbai
♦ India diary, day 8: Pune or bust
♦ India diary, day 9: An auto-rickshaw ride and a catwalk show
♦ India diary, day 10: Lost in Pune
♦ India diary, day 11: I heart Bangalore
♦ India diary, day 12: Searching for the next big thing
♦ India diary, day 13: Thirsty in Bangalore

"This was barren land - now you see it with greenery," my guide tells me.

The campus has a golf course, tennis court, pool tables, table tennis, gym and horses, and families are encouraged to come at weekends. There's also a dormitory for staff engaged in critical projects or working on round-the-clock support. There's even a zoo on site. For pictures, see the photo story here.

It's slightly strange to have all these amenities in this private world outside Hyderabad - the zoo in particular seems more in keeping with the lair of a Bond villain than a tech services company.

But there are hard-headed business reasons behind the creature comforts. Staff attrition in IT services and BPO is a huge problem, and anything that can persuade top members of staff to stay - whether it is a swimming pool or fluffy rabbits - is money well spent.

After the tour of the entertainments I'm off to see the top execs in the gleaming towers on the other side of the campus. Tall structures clad with blue mirrored glass tower above the trees and I get to look around the giant cafeterias built to feed the workers. And then it's into one of the towers with a green atrium inside for my meetings.

Satyam's founder and chairman B Ramalinga Raju gave an upbeat assessment of the Indian market. "From a few hundred million 15 or 16 years ago the industry has grown in leaps and bounds," he said.

But globalisation is an opportunity for developed countries just as much as developing countries, he added, especially if they see the chance to sell their goods and services around the world. "If developed countries actively participate in the global opportunity then the market is six billion people," he said.

Other execs are also quick to talk up the strength of the Indian tech market.

Hertzel Folden, Satyam senior vice president, said: "It's truly a global playing field and India is becoming a part of that and any large deals of $50m or more the Indian companies are competing and winning. We are now competing with each other and the multinationals."

Certainly the scale of the campus gives a sense of the ambitions here.

Have you visited India to check out the outsourcing options? Or have you been affected by offshoring here in the UK? We want to hear your stories about India. Leave your comments below or email editorial@silicon.com.