A news story last week on Silicon India has caught my attention – Wipro employee commits $4 Million fraud. The Indian IT services outsourcing firm has lost millions of dollars due to one of its employees embezzling money over the last three years. The employee stole a password and transferred funds from Wipro’s bank account.
This will undoubtedly have major implications for the company. Confidence in Indian outsourcing firms is at a low following the recent scandal at Satyam Computer Services. Satyam served as the back office for some of the largest banks, manufacturers, health care and media companies in the world. The fall of Satyam was supposed to have created a big opportunity for Wipro but with the latest news, not only has it lost its chance of monopolizing on this, but a big shadow has been cast over the company’s credibility and trustworthiness.
Commenters on the news story at Silicon India have the measure of the situation.
“Think about the Client INFO…… If wipro not able to protect their own money how will they protect client’s data ? This is truly a shameful situation.” RanjeetMemane 18 Feb, 2010
“This is really Shameful, A reputed company like Wipro cannot be so careless in Financial matters. when they are not able to protect their company information how they can protect other client’s data?” Arun Kumar PB – 18 Feb, 2010
Perhaps the worst thing is the slur that these companies have cast over Indian outsourcing as a whole. It has built up to be a billion dollar business with some genuinely great and reputable service providers out there doing a fantastic job, such as our partner AppLabs. I do hope that they are not all tarred with the same brush.