In the recent years, we’ve all seen the Indian BPO industry grow, mature and consolidate. However, the question still remains as to whether the BPO industry moved has beyond simple processes or tech support work that it started out with? Furthermore, Is it ready to take on large chunks of back office operations that will make a dramatic impact on client organizations?
One of the major reasons for the increase in the BPO work is the realization of the importance of having professionals such as Accountants, PhDs, MBAs, economists around, who would essay the role of keeping a tab on quantative research and quality analysis. It also points out to the nature and size of the BPO firm that puts forth such an advertisement. Finally, the advertisement represents the core of the processes, keeping in mind the fact that Financial Research is considered to be the heart of any business. Cynics might point to a number of boutique research companies who have been around for the last two years. However, all these companies are tiny operators who get by on small pilot contracts. This is the first public evidence of scale in the areas of mainstream high-end BPO work like financial research.
This also brings forth the issue of Captive BPO s and their importance. Captives haven’t really been the most preferred choice of global clients as they believe that a captive will never achieve the operational efficiency of a focused, well managed, profit driven third party supplier adds to the perspective. The recent sale of GECIS, following earlier deals done by Swissair and BA (i.e. sale of captive units) are causing clients to seriously question the importance of these captive BPOs for large outsourcing deals. Another reason being sited for this is due to the emergence of credible third party BPO s who have moved beyond the standard roles and demonstrated their ability to handle complex, end-to-end processes.
The recent acquisitions and mergers by the Indian operations of global BPO companies (Accenture, IBM, etc.) show that there is a substantial demand for the Indian BPO market and this also proves that Indian BPOs can compete at the same level as the global supplier. This also shows that India has the potential to win on a larger platform.
To sum it up, these continuing trends point to a phase of Indian BPO where India is an integral part of the customer’s overall business. Captives are not an automatic choice and Indian BPO providers are seen as credible competitors to global providers - a powerful cocktail indeed! To achieve the goal of being able to win on a larger platform the Indian BPO needs to keep aside the other matters such as HR, transport etc and focus on the larger picture. This way, the client community will surely benefit from a wider variety of stronger and more capable service providers and BPO employees will see more complex jobs coming their way.
Priyanka. S
