Recently I met with an old friend who has relocated to London as Sales Head for an IT company headquartered in India. Nothing unusual just that it took him several months to complete the formalities before he could finally land at London. He had to get his passport renewed for which few other documents like birth certificate etc. were required and I wasn't surprised that it took him several months before he could sort out the paperwork. On the other hand his UK work permit processing time was just 3 weeks. As a result of all this his company office opening was delayed and his company possibly lost out on several good business opportunities.
This isn't an isolated case. Business managers in IT companies are quite familiar with such incidents. I have interacted with several Project Managers from India based IT companies and they have cited similar difficulties either faced by them or their team members. Delays in obtaining birth & marriage certificate, name changes and passport renewals are commonplace.
Net result is loss of business or higher cost of doing business. Most IT companies have several administrative staff focused on sorting out employees passports, visas and several related documentation in order to ensure project deliveries aren't threatened. It is obvious that this pushes the cost upwards.
We all know that competitiveness of Indian IT industry is being threatened by several factors. Wage inflation, poor physical infrastructure (roads, ports etc) and rising rupee. Other developing countries are feverishly trying to play catch-up. Indian IT cannot afford to be complacent.
What can be done? The usual approach is to blame it on the government agencies responsible for providing services such as passport and birth & marriage certificates. I believe Indian IT companies have to go beyond playing the blame game. They have the resources, expertise & most importantly vested interest in making things better. They should partner with and offer their expertise to government agencies for developing improved systems and processes. The investment will pay itself several times over by means of shorter lead times for essential paperwork for their staff and the goodwill the whole exercise will generate. Better staff utilization as a result of faster turnaround is another obvious benefit.
Those administrative staff in IT companies may have to look out for a new job though! Maybe they will find one at the government agencies.
