Outsourcing Visual Communication

chillibreeze writer — Suma Ramachandran

This is an abridged version of an article published on www.outsource2india.com used with permission.

Sample this:

The dazzling ‘liquid gold’ visuals used throughout the 2004 Academy Awards ceremony have come in for some worldwide praise. The graphics were conceptualized by the famous Kyle Cooper of the Los Angeles-based Prologue Films but it was Indian company Tata Elxi’s Visual Computing Labs (VCL) that actually executed the work. All this while Cooper stayed in LA and the VCL team worked from India.

Here’s another tidbit:

Global consultancy giant McKinsey has also decided to outsource all multimedia presentations for business pitching from a Chennai-based Visual Graphics company. McKinsey officials went on record saying that the productivity of its consultants had risen ever since they stopped spending a lot of time creating presentations and other important visuals.

Those are just two high-profile contracts that Indian companies have snapped up in the last couple of years. It is a clear sign that India is fast becoming a preferred destination for outsourcing of visual communication material.

Across the country, international-standard studios like Ramoji Film City, Pentamedia Graphics, Jadoo Works, Mukta Arts, Noida Film City, Escotoonz, Animation India and UTV’s Toonz Animation are grabbing contracts to create high-end visual content for American and European clients. There are also dozens of medium and small companies that are happy doing even plain vanilla visual content.

Today, foreign firms are outsourcing all kinds of visual content to India: basic PowerPoint presentations to special effects of the kind you see in the movies, and everything in between.

Here’s a sample of both generic and industry-specific applications that can be outsourced to India.

• Architectural designs: Creation of 3D models, automated mapping and facilities management, layering, conversion of blueprints and other paper drawings into digitized format, etc.
• Product demos and software training tutorials
• PowerPoint presentations
• Online tutorials and corporate training
• Medical/medico-legal animation: Renditions of medical images and medical and health care processes used in research, learning, and even re-enactments of accidents/injuries for legal use.
• Illustrated science: Renditions of scientific processes and phenomena that are of immense value not only in classrooms but also in research and to market that research.
• Charts and graphics: For use in a sales pitch, in the classroom or anything else that requires visual interpretation.
• Advertisements: For television, print media and for websites.
• Animated television production and post-production to produce material for TV channels, including Turner Networks’ Cartoon Network and Italy’s Mondo TV.

A few years back, the Indian market was nascent and visual communication here was just finding its feet. Today, it is growing at a mind boggling 200%.

Let’s take a look at why outsourcing visual communication content to India makes sense.

• Low costs: An hour of animation produced in the US would cost $250,000 to $350,000. Production costs in other popular animation destination like Korea , Taiwan or the Phillippines, would drop to $150,000 to $200,000. By contrast, an Indian company can do the same job for as little as $60,000, with absolutely no compromise on quality.

• Infrastructure & Resources: India has a huge pool of high quality engineers and animators. Apart from big Indian companies mentioned earlier, there are a large number of smaller companies that are dedicated to doing outsourced work and have set-ups designed just for that. All such companies have high-speed Internet links that allow for seamless delivery of digitized content.
  
  2003 also saw the birth of the Animation Producers’ Association of India, an indication that the industry is getting organized and ready to take on more.

• Proven track record: Though visual communications outsourcing may be relatively new to India , the country does have a proven track record in executing outrsourced IT work.

• Use of world-class software: The larger studios all have SGI, 3DMax and SoftImage, SFX and processing motion capture facilities. Almost all studios have staff trained to make optimum use of basics like SoundBlaster, Video Blaster, digital cameras, FrameGrabbers, MPEG cards and video conferencing solutions. India also offers advanced sound-editing and post-production suites bundled with leased lines for data transfer over ISDN lines.
  
  In the case of the Oscars, Cooper’s design elements were sent to India over high-speed Internet links and the VCL team delivered the finished package back to Prologue films in the same way. As Cooper himself said: “We were continually impressed with their creative excellence, with their ability to deliver seamlessly — almost as though they were around the corner, rather than around the globe — and with their hands-on attention in LA.”
  
• Transparent working process: Typically, Indian companies have developed sophisticated processes to assure quality and keep the customer in the loop.

• Language compatibility: Most Indians in urban centers are proficient in functional English. And unlike offshore call centers where employees’ verbal skills have come in for questioning, visual outsourcing faces no such problems.

• End to staffing & investment problems: Producing good quality visual communication content requires investment in costly, hi-tech equipment and qualified personnel. And visual content requirements, though important, can fluctuate over a period. When this is outsourced, it means companies don’t have to tie up capital in such equipment or staff. They can simply outsource the job only when it arises.

As NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik said: “(The industry) provides great opportunity for India to capitalize on its two great competencies, viz. computer software and animation.” For companies in Europe and America , outsourcing visual content to India not only makes financial sense but also allows them to optimally utilize their resources. Wouldn’t you call that a win-win situation?

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—About our writer: Suma Ramachandran says, "The best thing I've done is give up a full-time job with a leading national daily to juggle motherhood with so many other things to do and learn. While writing and editing remain my bread and butter activities, I also work as a corporate trainer for English language and executive skill."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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