Indian BPO Company Genpact Gets Into Training Business

Genpact, a BPO (business process outsourcing) company in India, is investing in a training joint venture with NIIT, a large Indian training company. Genpact's entry into the training business reflects the extent to which Indian companies are finding it tough to attract and retain top quality talent.

"Our focus is not so much on profits, but to have access to top quality staff trained at the institute," said a spokesman for the company on Wednesday. Genpact is to hold 25 percent of the equity of the training joint venture, called NIIT Institute of Process Excellence, with NIIT holding the rest of the equity. The joint venture will be managed by both companies.

As Indian industry shifts focus from voice-based services to business-processing functions, there is a strong demand for professionals with business-processing knowledge in addition to voice capabilities, the companies said.

Genpact was the Indian back-office subsidiary for GE Capital, until it was spun off in 2005 as an independent BPO company. The company currently has 34,300 staff in India and other locations.

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BPOs back in demand

NEW DELHI: The global economic slowdown is beginning to spell a windfall for some BPO firms. Companies such as WNS, EXL, Steria and Quatrro are
finding new opportunities as clients aggressively pursue cost-cutting.

“With reality dawning that these are going to be tough times, companies have become more aggressive on outsourcing,” said WNS (Holdings) CEO Neeraj Bhargava.

The BPO firm recently renewed its contract with Centrica that includes a new, three-year transformational plan for streamlining the energy firm’s operations. WNS, which is witnessing traction in utilities, telecom and insurance, is in active discussions for 5-6 deals that it expects to close in the next quarter.

BPO firm ExlService Holdings says the last few weeks have seen clients cut down on their decision-making time to four weeks from 12-18 weeks earlier. “There is a healthy business pipeline and there is a fair number of companies looking to cut costs,” president and CEO Rohit Kapoor said. Apart from insurance vertical, the firm is also seeing demand for finance and accounting work in retail and manufacturing.

Clients are now looking towards their outsourcing vendors to suggest ways to cut costs, Genpact president and CEO Pramod Bhasin had said recently. “There are some project cancellations but there are new opportunities too.”

As per a report by telecom and software consulting firm Ovum, BPO will overshadow the importance of IT in the outsourcing market in 2009. While there is lower level of offshoring in BPO at present, it is more non-discretionary in nature.

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BPO looking for more workers—Arroyo

MANILA, Philippines—President Macapagal-Arroyo on Friday said a business process outsourcing (BPO) company has denied reports that it had laid off hundreds of Filipino employees and was in fact looking for more workers to hire.

The President said Malacañang was alarmed by reports that Advanced Contact Solutions Inc. (ACS) had laid off 700 workers, and verified these with the company itself.

“We checked with that center, ACS, and they totally denied it,” she said in a speech at the launch of the UP-Ayala Land Techno Hub at the University of the Philippines on Friday.

According to Ms Arroyo, ACS said it had been receiving calls from other call centers which expressed interest in hiring the laid-off workers.

“But ACS said we’re not laying off anyone, we’re looking for more,” she said.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines called the attention of the Department of Labor and Employment to the supposed mass layoffs, urging the DOLE to redeploy the displaced workers to other BPOs.

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Indian BPO creates jobs in Northern Ireland

We started operations here two years ago in October 2006. We now have over 600 staff in Derry and [the] announcement of 160 jobs will bring it up to around 800. The staff have done a phenomenal job over the last two years with the customer, and we have a very positive relationship with the customer," said Shaun Harnett, a Firstsource manager.

The Indian-BPO attributes its hiring spree to a successful relationship with Sky.

"What's working for us in this relationship is the ability to hit targets every month for the last two years. I do think there is a significant difference here. The people are very friendly and are committed to the job. We've had a lot of people coming to us and what we are looking for are people with an ability to talk - something the people in Derry are good at," added Harnett.

Firstsource opened its first office in 2006 and employs 550 individuals in Belfast. The new positions will be filled in the Londonderry facility, which is staffed by more than 600 workers. An increasing number of Indian companies have chosen Northern Ireland as their European base, including HCL, Polaris, Pix Transmission and Tech Mahindra.

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Call centers and business process outsourcing providers are among industry sectors in India that are likely to cut more than 25% of their staffing

Call centers and business process outsourcing providers are among industry sectors in India that are likely to cut more than 25% of their staffing soon, according to a report by a trade body.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) said on Wednesday that companies in those sectors were faced with shrinking margins.

The prediction comes as the Diwali festival in India draws to a close. Companies postponed layoffs until the festival was over on humanitarian grounds, ASSOCHAM said.

Earlier this month, top Indian outsourcers like Infosys, Wipro and Tata Consultancy Services reported slower revenue and profit growth in the quarter to Sept. 30. These companies get most of their revenue from the U.S. and Europe, with a large number of their customers in the troubled banking and financial services sectors. (Listen to a podcast asking whether outsourcers can survive the down economy.)

India's economy is also slowing down. The country's central bank, the Reserve Bank of India, last week cut its estimate for the country's gross domestic product growth for the fiscal year ending next March 31 to a range of 7.5% to 8%, from an earlier forecast of 8%.

New hiring by India's IT and services outsourcing industry has slowed down, but companies are not yet considering large-scale cuts, according to analysts.

UK's Serco buys InfoVision for $75 mn

NEW DELHI: In a first of its kind acquisition of a India-focused BPO by a foreign company, the UK-based $6-billion Serco Group has bought out
Gurgaon-based BPO major InfoVision.

The deal marks the entry of Serco Group, a business services company, into India. The company has bought a 60% stake and will acquire the rest over the next couple of years.

According to sources, Serco will pay about $75 million for the Rs 250-crore InfoVision. ET had reported earlier in September that Serco is among the frontrunners to acquire InfoVision.

InfoVision group has about 10,000 personnel and 60 clients. Serco, which offers a whole spectrum of support services but did not have a presence in the BPO space prior to the InfoVision acquisition, plans to have a workforce of 20,000 in the next 2-3 years.

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Rural BPO's next revolution in Indian IT industry: NASSCOM

AHMEDABAD: Rural BPOs are the next revolution in Indian Information Technology (IT) sector to happen, as the industry gears up to achieve $50
billion export target this year, NASSCOM member Ashank desai said.

"The host of rural BPOs that are coming up in the country, is the next revolution in industry to happen, rural BPOs is about creating jobs, Desai who is also the chairman of Mastek, said this at IIM-A confluence here today.

"Rural BPOs will reduce the cost for Indian IT companies first, and later on globally," Desai said. Such BPOs are coming up in Karnataka and Haryana, he said.

"Over last 15 years we have increased the business size of industry almost 800 times, in 1990 our exports were 100 million this year we will do 50 billion, we have created 2 million jobs in the country directly, and another 6-8 million indirect jobs," Desai said.

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Bad news on Citi side may hit TCS too

MUMBAI: TCS, the country’s biggest IT exporter, may see trouble ahead if one of its biggest clients Citigroup sells its business, as cited by
media reports.

This could also put a question mark on TCS’s decision to acquire Citi’s subsidiary Citigroup Global Services (CGSL) last month along with a long-term contract of assured revenue of $2.5 billion from Citigroup.

TCS had acquired CGSL, a captive BPO subsidiary of Citigroup, in the second week of October for $505 million. The Indian firm’s management had cited that the deal would help the company to be the financial giant’s top IT vendor.
However, the talks of Citigroup’s possible sellout would steal the colour off this deal on several counts.

CGSL is a captive outsourcing unit, with Citigroup as the only client. If Citigroup’s businesses are sold in parts to several suitors, TCS may find it difficult to retain the current business volume of CGSL, as the new owners would rethink about existing outsourcing arrangements of Citigroup.

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BPO attrition down 5-15%

he US financial meltdown has finally managed to do what the business process outsourcing sector has been trying to do for years on end - reduce the attrition rate of employees by 5-15 percentage points. BPOs that were coping with 30-40 per cent employee turnover are now reporting numbers between 20 per cent and 30 per cent.

Industry insiders as well as sector experts said that companies are unlikely to miss this opportunity to rationalise bloated boom-time salaries. "Companies are aiming to go back to the cost levels of 2005 and 2006. So, we will see an across the board reduction in salaries," said KPMG Head (people and change advisory) Ganesh Shermon.

Genpact, the largest BPO in the country, reported attrition rate of 26 per cent for the nine months ended September 30, 2008, down from 30 per cent in the same quarter of 2007. 24x7 Customer said the drop in attrition has been 10 percentage points this month. The company's annualised attrition rate is 38 per cent.

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Women are vital part of India's IT workforce'

Bangalore, Nov 19: NASSCOM President Som Mittal on Wednesday, Nov 19 said Women consttuted a vital part of India's IT workforce and the industry will continue to attract more women employees and leaders.

Speaking at the third annual IT Women Leadership Summit here he said the Indian IT-BPO industry was a highly diverse and an inclusive industry. It has set world class HR policies in all areas including recruitments, training, retaining and promoting strategic business plans. NASSCOM announced the winners of Gender Inclusivity Awards at the Summit. The awards, in the second year now, honour companies in the IT-BPO industry which have implemented outstanding practices that promote gender empowerment and women leadership development.

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Tata CEO sees opportunity as US banks cut back

NEW YORK: The economic crisis may present a growth opportunity for India's top outsourcing firm, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), as US
financial services companies look to cut costs, but that opportunity is likely some months away, the company's CEO said on Wednesday.

It does not make sense for Wall Street firms to run their own "captive" back-office information technology operations that perform functions such as order processing, TCS Chief Executive Subramanian Ramadorai told Reuters.

"Captives will disappear, in my opinion," he said in an interview. "It's one of the big ticket items that will give them the savings they want."

TCS, part of India's Tata Group, provides services such as consulting, system integration and back-office outsourcing. Last month, it bought Citigroup Inc's back-office unit in India for $505 million, a deal that is expected to close by early January.

Ramadorai did not hold discussions with Citi while in New York this week, but added: "We continue to meet them."

As clients consolidate, Ramadorai said he saw further opportunity for Tata.

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Genpact yet to feel slowdown impact: CEO

NEW DELHI: Country's leading BPO company Genpact on Monday said that it is yet to feel the impact of the ongoing global turmoil on its revenues.

"The company is yet to feel the impact of the ongoing slowdown on its revenues," Genpact CEO Pramod Bhasin told reporters on the sidelines of the India Economic Summit 2008 here.

He, however, said that "clarity would emerge in the next three-four months if there has been any impact on the company's finances".

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Layoffs: Techies turn to trade union

NEW DELHI: The software industry is willing to talk to the sector's trade union on layoffs and other work-related issues, a top official of the
industry's representative body said.

"If you want to talk to me why should I refuse simply because the colour of your shirt is red or green or whatever," Raju Bhatnagar, vice president for business process outsourcing (BPO) and government relations at the National Association of Software Companies (Nasscom) told IANS.

Nasscom will be meeting the Union for Information and Technology-enabled Services (Unites) has enlisted the help of the Switzerland-based Union Network International (UNI).

"Yes, we will be meeting union officials but date is not confirmed," Bhatnagar said.

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Outsourcing one bright light in sea of global gloom

MANILA: Business outsourcing may not be the most glamorous industry in the world but it is one of the few bright lights amid the doom and gloom
of the global financial crisis.

The two countries which have benefited the most from outsourcing, India and the Philippines, expect to see some initial pain from the financial turmoil but the industry is confident it will ride out the storm.

In the Philippines the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry expects growth this year of between 35-40 per cent on revenues of around seven billion dollars.

"We are part of the solution, not part of the problem," Oscar Sanez the chief executive of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) said in a recent interview.

The BPO sector expects annual growth of around 40 per cent with revenues hitting 12 billion dollars by 2010 and employing one million people compared with 300,000 this year.

In India, where the industry generates some 40 million dollars in annual export revenues, the story is much the same although it admits that it could expect some initial pain.

The sector traditionally views bad times as offering opportunities as Western companies cut costs by moving work to cheaper destinations offshore.

India leads the world when it comes to outsourcing with more than half the global business while the Philippines is a distant second with around 10 per cent.

Both countries place a great deal of importance on the sector as its growth creates jobs and much-needed revenue.
Rick Santos, the Philippine country chairman for global property services company CB Richard Ellis, told AFP that the crisis would "actually drive more BPO business to the Philippines".

"You will see many more companies having to go offshore just to survive," he said.

He said he expects about 502 million square metres (5.4 billion square feet) of Philippine office space to be leased this year, up 52 per cent from 2007.

India and the Philippines are the preferred destinations for European and American banks and IT companies for outsourcing their back room and call centre operations due to the highly educated work force and English speaking skills in both countries.

Sanez said that despite the financial turmoil he was confident the BPO industry in the Philippines will continue to see growth.

"Judging from the investor meetings we've been having recently our clients will want to ramp up their outsourcing activities in order to accelerate cost savings," he said.

"The Philippines is in a very strategic position due to its strong and successful experience with BPO particularly with large American and British multinationals giving it a high level of credibility and trust especially in critical times."

He conceded that in the short term there could be a "bit of distraction" due to management and ownership realignments in the banking sector.

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Slowdown cools attrition in outsourcing industry

Bangalore: First they tried bonuses. Then award programmes, and long-term planning for career. But the US financial crisis has helped Indian outsourcing firms do what they couldn’t quite do on their own: get employees to stick around.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) companies have struggled for years with a labour pool largely defined by young workers who hopped from one employer to another, and stayed with one, on average, for only 11 months. But that was before several of the world’s largest banks collapsed, the credit markets froze, and people started to worry more about whether or not they had a job than how good a job it was.
The BPO industry’s churn rate has come down below 20% in the third quarter, down from 35% in 2007, and the low 20s earlier this year.

At outsourcing firm Genpact Ltd, often considered an industry benchmark, attrition dropped from 31% last year to 24% in the first half of this year. “Is that the impact of the market around us, or the impact of the absolutely outstanding work that Piyush Mehta and his team are doing?” asks Genpact’s human resources head Piyush Mehta. “I don’t want to completely exclude what we have done, but it is mostly the market impact.”

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Outsourcing deal for HP

Godrej Industries Limited GIL, the flagship company of the Godrej Group, has shifted its entire information technology staff to Hewlett Packard HP, India. The move is a part of the outsourcing deal that GIL has signed with HP, for its in-house IT operations. The IT workforce of GIL have been transferred to HP, and operations have been outsourced to the company. We have not laid anyone off, said Adi Godrej, chairman of GIL. He declined to give the size of the deal.

Industry sources pointed out that the company would make a significant saving with this deal. Earlier this year, the Future Group had inked a similar deal worth about USD 150 million Rs 741.1 crore with Wipro under which more than 250 employees of Pantaloon Retail were moved to the IT company.

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TPI sees slowdown in outsourcing

While numerous studies have been pointing to a possible softness in IT budgets next year, the closely watched TPI Index of global contracts shows a definite slowdown in outsourcing. The Houston, Texas based TPI, the worlds largest sourcing data and advisory firm, released the quarterly numbers of global outsourcing deals on Thursday. About 128 outsourcing contracts worth only USD14.4 billion in TCV total contract value were signed in July September, the third quarter of calendar 2008.

Compared to the previous quarter, contracts dropped 22 per cent, and both TCV and ACV dropped 50 per cent quarter on quarter.

Though the third quarter is typically the weakest quarter of the year, this year it was lower than the historical average by almost 20 per cent, TPI said.

What is more disconcerting is that, according to the TPI numbers, there was only one mega deal valued at just over USD1 billion compared to the reported deals of more than USD9 billion in value in each of the past three consecutive quarters. The last time the industry had one or fewer mega deals in a quarter was in 1996. The softness in outsourcing in the financial services industry continued in Q3.

The silver lining is that despite the softness in the Q3 numbers, the full year for 2008 looks to be on course for a strong overall result as transactions involving the transfer of certain backoffice operations as part of an outsourcing arrangement are expected to increase in the coming quarters.

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Outsourcing trends

A recent report from TPI shows a slowdown in the signing of outsourcing deals . According to the report new outsourcing contracts in Europe fell from 75 to 56 in the 2nd to 3rd quarter of this year and the only one significant mega deal was signed during the 3rd quarter. This has got people within the industry wondering whether we are about to see the decline in outsourcing contracts as more end users keep a close eye on the bottom line, maybe bring services back in house or just dont do anything at all.

Despite TPI’s reports, organisations are going to turn their back on outsourcing altogether. Instead we may see a change in the nature of outsourcing deals.

In the past couple of years the mega deal has been consigned by many to the outsourcing scrap heap in favour of multi sourcing that is choosing separate suppliers for different processes.

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Systems Plus Solutions opens up in NJ

Systems Plus Solutions, Indias fast growing IT Consulting and Outsourcing Advisory firm, has announced the recent opening of its North American sales and operations office headed by the Systems Plus Solutions, LLC USA President Merveille Nagarsheth. Systems Plus is pleased to have the first USA office in New Jersey, said Merveille Nagarsheth, President of Systems Plus Solutions, USA LLC a newly incorporated division of Systems Plus Solutions, India. The opening of our new office in NJ reaffirms our commitment to delivering strong relationship and the best of industry practices to our clients in North America.

The office will initially focus on Business Consulting and Technology Solutions groups of Systems Plus, which include IT Audits, India Outsourcing Strategies, Application Development, Product Engineering, Offshore IT Support and Legacy System Migration.

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Extentia extends offshoring services to Europe

Extentia Information Technology, a global software development company, today announced the formalization of a strategic development relationship with CoSMIT GmbH, Germany, to provide software development and consulting services to their European clients.Extentia Information Technology is a software development and consulting organization primarily servicing North America and Europe. With strong technical skills both on Microsoft and Java platforms, Extentia is committed to delivering high quality, information technology solutions. The company focuses on providing global solutions, and addresses the needs of corporations and software development companies requiring Internet, webbased and clientserver solutions based on industry standards and emerging technologies.

With their consulting services and software solutions in the business intelligence space, CoSMIT have enjoyed rapid growth and success and can look back on numerous profitable years of business. CoSMITs product and service range covers Actuate Consulting, BIRT, Portal and Dashboard development, Databases, Training and custom tools for Business Intelligence.

With the increasing importance of open source software, BIRT solutions have become more attractive for organizations of all sizes. And with the increasing demand for BIRT based skills, CoSMIT, as an established integration service provider, is well positioned to further drive business and focus on customer needs in Europe.

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Opportunities for Indian IT Industry in Japan

Nasscom, the premier trade body and voice of the Indian IT BPO industry, and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, the leading professional services firm in India, today released a report on Japan titled Opportunities for Indian IT Industry: Japan. This is the second report in the Country Report series that focuses on specific countries , regions that are alternate markets, competitive destinations and or potential partners for India.

Speaking at the launch, Som Mittal, President, Nasscom, said, The Indian IT-BPO companies are fast diversifying into near territories and opening up new opportunities for growth. Currently, 90 per cent of the exports happen to the US and Europe, with rest of the world contributing just 10 per cent. These markets are investing in Information Technology IT offering huge opportunity. To facilitate this, Nasscom has launched the emerging market series.

Japan, as a second largest country economy and highly dependent on technology, currently constitutes only 2 per cent of our exports. With shortage of technical skills in Japan, and urgent need for business transformation, Japan would be a large market. While Indian companies have been targeting this market, a new concerted approach needs to be taken by both sides.”

Ambarish Dasgupta, Partner and Head of Consulting practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers India, the Knowledge partner for this report said, Indian companies must change the mindset, and move from being transactional to transformational in their approach, and be ready to invest in strong relationships upfront. The alternative markets to the US and the UK, like Japan, which we are covering in a series of reports, are very relationship focused. The prospects expect the partners to prove themselves in a relationship, building trust and being a trusted advisor rather than a vendor selling them products and services.”

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HCL expecting huge outsourcing deals

HCL Technologies CEO, Vineet Nayar, has said he sees deals worth about USD2 billion, on which decisions would be made by clients in the next 90 days. Revealing this in a conference call with analysts after announcing results for the quarter ended September 2008, Nayar said, I havent seen something like this in the last 3 years. He cited outsourcing advisory companies as saying that deal flows would slow down. Despite this, I feel that Indian service providers would see a larger deal flow should decisions go in their favour, referring to the same deals.

Of these deals waiting to be decided on, 45 per cent are from the manufacturing sector, 25 per cent from the media and entertainment segment while financial services brought in the rest, according to him.

He also clarified that 55 per cent of deals that HCL Technologies pitches for is populated by non Indian MNCs as competition. That is, no other Indian provider figures in these deals we pitch for. Also, for 34 per cent of these deals, or five deals, in this context, we have to compete with only one large player.

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Offshoring IT Services To India To Expand

Indian offshoring is expected to grow from current USD 1.4 billion to USD 4.2 billion before year end 2010. Zinnov, a management consultancy outfit, forecasts Infrastructure Management Services IMS to be the next big growth Indian offshoring. The banking, financial services and insurance industries are the biggest users of IMS services and will constitute approximately 43 percent of the market. High tech telecom, manufacturing and retail industries will constitute approximately 12 percent each and will be second biggest consumers of offshored IMS services.

Management consulting firm, Zinnov, today released the results of its study regarding the offshoring of Infrastructure Management Services IMS to India. Zinnov forecasts offshoring of IMS to India to grow from USD1.4 billion today to USD4.2 billion before yearend 2010, with hardware support services accounting for the majority of those revenues. According to the report, the banking, financial and insurance segment BFSI represents by far and away the largest market for such services, at 43 percent. The high tech telecom, manufacturing and retail industries are the next biggest consumers of offshored IMS services at approximately 12 percent each.

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IT outsourcing deal from Godrej

In a major domestic outsourcing deal, Godrej Industries and Godrej Consumer Products have signed a 10 year outsourcing contract with HewlettPackard HP. The value of the contract was not disclosed, but would include application development and maintenance, infrastructure management and transformational initiatives. As part of the agreement between the firms, HP will also take over the staff working in the IT operations of the two companies.

This strategic outsourced partnership between HP and Godrej, one of Indias best known brands and leading corporate houses, will power various business transformation initiatives within Godrej and ensure longterm growth and competitive edge.

Since the first such outsourcing deal between Bharti and IBM, a number of similar deals have been announced by Indian business groups. In February this year, the Future group had signed a similar outsourcing deal for USD 150 million with Wipro, in which about 265 employees of Pantaloon Retail had moved to the IT firm. In this case, the IT management staff will be retained by Godrej, while the IT operations staff will move to Hewlett Packard.

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Outsourcing challenges

Offshore outsourcing is no longer a novel idea. It is an accepted business practice and for many the offshore operation has become a significant part of their overall operations. So it is essential they succeed in this endeavor. However the reality is that better than 50 percent of offshoring initiatives fail to meet original expectations. Successfully managing offshore projects requires that you understand the major challenges. These have broken down into two categories, External and Internal.

External Challenges

Staffing and retention

Competition for the right skills in countries like India is very high, you need to determine whether the vendor has and can offer you the staff with right level of experience. Once you establish a team, you need to proactively manage staff retention.

Time Zone Differences

Your staff in the US will need to get used to staying up late and/or coming in early for telecons with the offshore team.

Country and vendor infrastructure

Both can be issues, you need to determine if your project needs special tools and/or other infrastructure.

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Indian IT outsourcing to benefit

Doomsday predictions not withstanding domestic IT companies are hoping to dig for gold in the rubble from the collapse of some of the biggest financial giants in the US and perhaps in other regions that could follow. The global financial crisis they believe could in fact result in bigger volumes of IT outsourcing they believe as the banking, financial services and insurance BFSI, majors are forced to cut costs and improve efficiencies.

For instance, Vineet Nayar, CEO of HCL Technologies Ltd, is looking at capitalising on the zones of frustration of the IT clients.

That is what the company had done during the 200001 dotcom bust.

We believe in converting threats into opportunities. During the previous slowdown also we did the same, we will do it again. In my view, 200809 will be a watershed year for the Indian IT industry, where we will see volume surge, and tech companies offering new services and entering new geographies, said Nayar.

Srinivas Vadlamani, chief financial officer CFO, Satyam Computer Services seconds that. The contrarian theory will come into play the same as in 2000 01.

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Indian cities top global outsourcing list

The Top 8 Global Outsourcing Cities includes as many as six Indian cities led by Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi National Capital Region, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Pune. Dublin Ireland and Makati City The Philippines are the other two cities in the list, according to a study by Cyber Medias Global Services and investment advisory firm Tholons. Indias representation in the top 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing cities has grown to four, from last years three, with the addition of Jaipur to the list at No 31.

The other three cities in the list include Kolkata at No 6, Chandigarh at No 12 and Coimbatore at No 17.
Cebu City The Philippines, Shanghai China and Beijing China lead the list of emerging global outsourcing cities.

The Top 50 Emerging Global Outsourcing Cities 2008 list has nine entrants Quezon City, Toronto, Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City, Jaipur, Singapore City, Chengdu, Guadalajara and Mandaluyong City.

Six Chinese cities are a part of the top 50 emerging cities for global outsourcing list, compared to Indias four.

These are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen, Dalian, Guangzhou and Chengdu.

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The Indian IT growth

With GDP growth of about 9 percent and wider expectations from analysts that in near future Indian economy can rule the globe, Indian business is on a roller coaster ride. Indian business, especially IT and ITeS segment is the backbone of this commendable GDP growth. Although IT sector was doing reasonably well, however it seems retrenchment has hit India also. The Indian counterparts have been constantly appraised, no wonder Indian IT industry has spearheaded towards consolidated global expansion.

Sky is the limit, when you know where you are heading to. Correlating these words with success of Indian IT, these are the key acquisitions made by Indian IT.

1. Infosys, the leading IT giant of India, recently announced its plans to acquire UK based consultancy, Axon Group plc. The deal will be cash based and company will purchase SAP consultant Axon for USD753 million. The deal will be a landmark in Infy’s history as will give a ready made access to existing market of Axon in Europe. Also, Infosys can leverage Axon’s strength and consultation expertise to win big transformation deals in US and Europe, where Axon has a strong foothold.

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Outsourcing solutions from TCS

Tata Consulting Services TCS small and medium business SMB unit is all set to tap the global market with its total outsourcing solutions developed in India. The company will market its solutions globally, starting with emerging markets like Latin America LATA, Middle East ME and Africa in the next two to three quarters.

Venguswamy Ramaswamy, global head SMB, TCS, said, We are in a process of adding new solutions to our existing ones
every quarter. As it is very cost effective to develop innovative solutions in India, we want to leverage it and take these solutions to the global market.

TCS SMB unit, based on IT as a service model, started in March 2008 to provide basic end to end solutions like providing hardware and software solutions to SMBs.

As of now, the company has more than 30 clients in India. It plans to concentrate on client acquisition in the next one year and then ramp up its revenues in another two to three years. According to IDC, small and medium businesses in India have grown at a rate of 14.8 percent in the year 2007 2008.

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BSNL, C and W ink network sharing deal

Public sector telco giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam BSNL has inked an agreement with Cable andWireless India to offer managed network services MNS Public sector telco giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam BSNL has inked an agreement with Cable and Wireless India to offer managed network BSNL is focusing on broadband, network monitoring and managing MPLS networks for big corporates as the next big growth area. We have plans to invest roughly USD 10 billion on network expansion over the next three years, It is therefore important for us to partner with a leading and trusted telecom provider such as Cable and Wireless, who have one of the most resilient network infrastructures available BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal said.

As per the understanding, Cable andWireless India will support BSNL to expand its global network and provide better services to its customers expanding their global footprint, BSNL in return, will enable Cable and Wireless India to leverage its extensive domestic network reach throughout the country.

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Recent fraud case has alerted Kolkata's BPO hub to its security troubles

Ever since the recent BPO fraud, wherein, a young woman working at a call centre was arrested for splurging Rs. 200, 000 with credit cards of her company's US clients, the IT hub in the Salt Lake area is going full throttle to ensure tight security control by involving the police.

As Oney Seal, the Miami-based CEO of Databazaar.com, says, "It is high time we all came together to ensure an all-encompassing cyber security. We must follow best practices and certain standard certification and auditing by authorities like ISO or BS7799 (British Standard),"

"Law enforcement agencies need to be trained in potential areas of security fraud so that when an incident occurs, the police should have some idea of the problem," said Seal, whose company, a wholesale distributor, exporter and e-tailer of computer and printer supplies, has its sensitive back-end office in the IT hub.

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Outsourcing the Drug Industry

By Pete Engardio and Arlene Weintraub

In her swank headquarters just blocks from some of Mumbai's worst slums, Swati Piramal is midway through an impassioned pitch about revolutionizing the world of drug discovery. Sanskrit passages of the Bhagavad Gita, the ancient Hindu text that guides her business philosophy, adorn the office walls of her company, Piramal Life Sciences. Its logo is gyan mudra, a finger gesture used in yoga meditation resembling the Western sign for "A-O.K."

Journey now to Bangalore. After a crawl through the city's notorious traffic and a bone-rattling ride over a cratered road that washes away with each rainfall, the four-wheel-drive van arrives at the glistening, ocean liner-shaped headquarters of Jubilant Biosys. The laboratories inside are world-class. But when equipment fails, repairs often take a week, scientist Ajith Kamath explains sheepishly. Lunch is Domino's pizza with toppings that include corn, Indian paneer cheese, and hot spices. Turns out Jubilant is co-owner of India's Domino's franchise.

At first glance, companies such as Jubilant and Piramal may seem too undeveloped -- or perhaps just too culturally remote -- to rub shoulders with the world's top pharmaceutical makers. But judging from all the deals taking shape in India, they may have a critical role to play in the industry's future. In recent months, Western executives have been flocking to India's hastily built science parks, looking for allies in the never-ending quest to develop blockbuster treatments. With little fanfare, they've started a process that could lead to wide-scale outsourcing of drug research to Asia.

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BPO exports grow 21.4 per cent

NEW DELHI: India's third party business process outsourcing (BPO) services exports in 2007-08 grew 21.4 per cent to Rs.264.23 billion, up from Rs.217.60 billion in the previous fiscal, according to a new study.

In dollar terms, the growth was even more impressive at 36.6 per cent to $6.6 billion, up from $4.8 billion last fiscal, said the study. It ranked Genpact as the No. 1 export revenue earner with revenues of Rs.26.59 billion, up by 19.8 per cent from Rs.22.20 billion that the company earned last fiscal.

Aditya Birla Minacs, the second ranking revenue earning company last fiscal, maintained its rank this year as well. Its revenues grew 3.1 per cent to Rs.15.63 billion up from Rs.15.16 billion last fiscal.

Apart from these two top rankers, the other companies that managed to maintain their ranks this year were Wipro BPO and HCL BPO. Wipro BPO maintained its 7th rank by growing 22.7 per cent to Rs.11.47 billion up from Rs.9.35 billion last fiscal.

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US Manufacturing Business Outsourcing & 3rd Party Services Expenditures, 2007-2012

DUBLIN, Ireland — Research and Markets
(http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/7abb4d/us_manufacturing_b) has announced the addition of the "US Manufacturing Business Outsourcing & 3rd Party Services Expenditures, 2007-2012" report to their offering.

This Excel-based Data-rich Deliverable (DRD) that is part of the Manufacturing subscription includes market intelligence on IT: Outsourcing expenditures for the Manufacturing vertical. Outsourcing & 3rd Party Services consists of expenditures on services rendered by 3rd parties, including IT outsourcing companies. These services include, but are not limited to, managed and hosted services (from a provider other than a telecom operator), application development and integration and IT support/Help desk. Manufacturing includes establishments engaged in the mechanical or chemical transformation of materials or substances into new products. Size of business includes SOHO (1-4 employees), Small Business (5-99 employees), Mid-Sized Business (100-999 employees), and Enterprise Business (Over 1000 employees). The Expert Guide for this deliverable is Stephanie Atkinson. Forecasts are from 2007 through 2012 and include annual growth rate, as well as percentage of total market.

Table of Contents

Sources: Our segment and market forecasts, which include business expenditures, market demographics, and usage and adoption statistics, are built using multiple sources, including our proprietary research. These sources include, but are not limited to:

- Secondary research

- Government data and statistics (e.g. department of commerce, federal communication commission, bureau of labour statistics and us census bureau)

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BPO Companies Highest Attrition Rate in India, Says Hay Group Report

Incentive Plans in BPO Companies Lag General Market Practices

DELHI, India & MUMBAI, India--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Attrition rates in India’s lucrative BPO industry are about 7.8 percentage points higher than in other industries, according to a report released today by Hay Group, a global management consulting firm.

The finding comes from a new report, BPO Special Sector Survey 2008, based on Hay Group’s global online compensation and benefits database, PayNet. It showed that in general, staff turnover in India is 15.7%, but at BPO companies, attrition is the country’s highest at 23.5%, followed by Communications (22%) and Retail (18%).

The report explained that one of the factors is that the remuneration structure design is not as attractive when compared to other industries in India:

• Short-term incentives account for only 4% of total remuneration, compared to 10% generally
• Benefits are limited to those that can be enjoyed only post-retirement, like pension fund and gratuity, and not during the employment period.
• While pay is generally designed to give employees more take-home cash, a higher portion is allocated to allowances like housing/rent and not base salary.

“The BPO industry hires a large number of graduates who are bright and ambitious. From our analysis, the overall compensation structure design is not competitive when compared to general market practices.
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BPO Companies Highest Attrition Rate in India, Says Hay Group Report

Attrition rates in India´s lucrative BPO industry are about 7.8 percentage points higher than in other industries, according to a report released today by Hay Group, a global management consulting firm.

The finding comes from a new report, BPO Special Sector Survey 2008, based on Hay Group´s global online compensation and benefits database, PayNet. It showed that in general, staff turnover in India is 15.7%, but at BPO companies, attrition is the country´s highest at 23.5%, followed by Communications (22%) and Retail (18%).

The report explained that one of the factors is that the remuneration structure design is not as attractive when compared to other industries in India:

-- Short-term incentives account for only 4% of total remuneration, compared to 10% generally

-- Benefits are limited to those that can be enjoyed only post-retirement, like pension fund and gratuity, and not during the employment period.

-- While pay is generally designed to give employees more take-home cash, a higher portion is allocated to allowances like housing/rent and not base salary.

"The BPO industry hires a large number of graduates who are bright and ambitious. From our analysis, the overall compensation structure design is not competitive when compared to general market practices. This means that BPO employees do not receive as much cash-in-hand as their peers in other industries. When you add unattractive remuneration to working shifts, lack of career development, and monotonous tasks, it is not surprising that employees leave when offered a small salary increase," states Mr. Oscar De Mello, Country Head of Hay Group´s Reward Information Services in India.

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Search: in Satyam BPO Names New Chief Operating Officer

India-based Satyam Computer Services has appointed Vijay Rangineni as the chief operating officer of its outsourcing arm Satyam BPO as the company strengthens its focus on specialty offerings.

Rangineni has 20 years of experience in the services industry. He was previously chief operating officer of GE Money, India. He is an alumnus of Kellogg's School of Management, Illinois, and holds a Masters' degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Texas.

Rangineni said: "Satyam BPO's strong foothold in the specialty sphere has made the organization a leader. My focus will be on taking this leadership position forward by looking at creating more such leadership opportunities, especially in operational excellence."

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Indian outsourcers haemorrhaging staff

Indian outsourcers are facing record staff turnover according to a new report, with companies struggling to hold onto bonus-hungry workers.

Attrition rates in the country's business process outsourcing (BPO) industry are about eight per cent higher than the national average, according to a report by global consulting firm the Hay Group.

Annual staff turnover at Indian BPOs stands at 24 per cent, ahead of the country's average of 16 per cent.

The report blames lower and less attractive short term bonuses – worth about four per cent of total pay for BPO workers compared to 10 per cent generally.

Oscar De Mello, head of Hay Group's reward information services in India, said in a statement: "The BPO industry hires a large number of graduates who are bright and ambitious. From our analysis, the overall compensation structure design is not competitive when compared to general market practices.

"This means that BPO employees do not receive as much cash-in-hand as their peers in other industries.

"The BPO industry is a critical sector in the Indian economy, worth $11bn and employing more than two million people.

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BT extends BPO deal with Steria for £75.5m

BT has extended its IT service support and development contract with Steria in a six-year £75.5m deal.

The new BPO (business process outsourcing) deal lasts until March 2014, and Steria will continue to support the key applications that underpin BT's UK operations for finance and accounting transaction processing, ledger and payroll services.

Building on a 20 year relationship with Steria, the contract extension, said BT, will enable it to optimise use of Steria's integrated delivery capability to move towards a more cost-effective and efficient service.

Kevin Richards, director of the Enterprise Management Platform at BT Design, said, "Steria has worked with BT for many years and has evolved its services and approaches along with BT's changing business and IT requirements.

"Keeping the business process and IT service closely coupled provides us with a streamlined and efficient service that maintains effectiveness at critical business periods."
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Infosys opens second BPO campus in Jaipur

JAIPUR, INDIA: Infosys BPO Ltd, the subsidiary of Infosys Technologies Ltd, today announced the inauguration of its second BPO campus at Mahindra World City, the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in Jaipur, Rajasthan.

The Chief Minister of Rajasthan, Vasundhara Raje was the chief guest on the occasion. She was accompanied by Dr. Digambar Singh, Minister of Industries, Government of Rajasthan. Infosys' CEO and MD, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Mohandas Pai, along with CEO and MD of Infosys BPO, Amitabh Chaudhry, were also present.

The new campus at the SEZ at Mahindra World City, Jaipur, spread over 42 acres, is being set up in phases and an estimated amount of Rs. 531 crore would be invested in the project, said a press release.

In the first phase, Infosys has made an investment of Rs. 171 crore, creating a built-up area of 3,69,100 sq. ft with a seating capacity of 3,200.

It works with universities in Rajasthan through 'Project Genesis', a program to enhance skill-sets in students and make them industry-ready.

Since October 2005, it has worked with 229 lecturers in 110 colleges and imparted training to 3,250 students in industry-relevant skills including language, presentation, and analytical skills, the release said.

As a part of company's drive to become carbon neutral, this campus would have 49% of the total area as the green belt.

"Jaipur is becoming an exciting destination for the IT-ITES industry. The Honorable Chief Minister, Smt. Vasundhara Raje has proactively put in place progressive policies and has invested in infrastructure to ensure rapid growth," said Kris Gopalakrishnan.
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BPO sector on track to meet growth target

The Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry is on track to meet its year end growth target as it employed 345,000 workers during the first half of the year.

"The industry employed 345,000 workers for the first six months of the year and we are hoping that we will meet our yearend target of 420,000," Business Process Outsourcing Association of the Philippines (BPAP) president Oscar Sanez said in an interview.

The offshoring and outsourcing (O&O) industry earned $5.8 billion for the first half of this year. "We are on track to meet our full year revenue target of $6.8 billion," Sanez said.

According to Sanez, O&O revenue for the first six months of the year is up 1.8 percent when compared to the same period the previous year.

Sanez said the slowdown in the world economy had no adverse effects on the industry. "The first half results are encouraging. I think we will meet our target stated in the 2010 roadmap."

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MNYL signs outsourcing deal

IBM India has entered into USD450 million IT outsourcing contract with private insurance player Max New York Life MNYL. The technology services behemoth, which has already showcased the advantage of total IT outsourcing with the telecom major Bharti, is expecting this deal to pan out in the similar manner. The deal, spread over ten years, will see IBM India providing complete end to end back end IT infrastructure to MNYL. IBM India global technology services vice president Nipun Mehrotra said, This life insurance is a growing market and the work we have done has the potential to change the sector.it is likely to change in similar lines to what happened in telecom sector.

According to IRDA, the market for insurance both life and non-life in 2006 2007 stood at USD41.74 billion, with the life insurance market growing at 47.38 percent while the non life business rose by 21.51 percent. It is estimated that life insurance market alone is expected to touch USD80 billion in the next couple of years.

Life insurance premium collections including single premium, first year and renewal in 2006 20007 stood at Rs 1.56 lakh crore representing a year on year growth of 47.38 percent. IRDA statistics indicates that the Indian insurance market accounts for a paltry 1.12 percent of the global insurance market estimated to be at USD3,723 billion.

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Indian IT Services market to grow to USD 8.1 bn by 2011

IT majors in India have been dependent on international markets since a very long time. But the newly published report from Springboard Research should compel them to thing otherwise and concentrate on the domestic market as well. According to the report, the Indian IT services market is set to grow from USD 4.1 billion in 2007 to USD 8.1 billion by 2011 at a CAGR of 18.6 percent.

The report highlights that the Indian IT services market is heavily dominated by infrastructure services which is expected to grow to USD 4.27 billion by 2011. Application services is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 19.6 percent and IT consulting is expected to reach USD 400 million by 2011. The report says that enterprise IT outsourcing in India will grow at a CAGR of 24.4 percent.

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Satyam BPO appoints new COO

Rangineni will primarily be responsible for driving business transformation across customer engagements, a critical component to stay ahead in the marketplace.

Prior to joining Satyam BPO, Rangineni was associated with GE Money, India, as Chief Operating Officer.

He has over 20 years of experience in the service industry with leading organizations and has worked with global organizations like American Express and California Micro Devices (CMD).

During his global career, Rangineni focused on critical assignments/turn-around stories ranging from delivery to technology and business process reengineering.

Speaking about his new assignment, Rangineni, said, "Satyam BPO's strong foothold in the specialty sphere has made the organization a leader. My focus will be on taking this leadership position forward by looking at creating more such leadership opportunities, especially in operational excellence. The focus will be on end-customer delight which will pave way for the 'One Customer' experience".
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Australian BPO may set up branch in Davao

MANILA, Philippines - Australia-based business process outsourcing (BPO) operator Admerex is eyeing Davao City as the possible location of its second contact center in the Philippines, an umbrella group for outsourcing services said Thursday.

Eriberto P. Barriga, Jr., vice-president for external affairs of ICT Davao, Inc., said in a statement the Admerex group had inspected the area as it plans to expand within the year.

Ces A. Sembrano of Admerex Philippines confirmed that the company was considering Davao for its second site. It has one contact center in Makati City with 500 agents. The expansion will require 500 more agents.

There are 18 call centers in Davao City operated by companies like Cyber City, Call Box, Sutherland and Western Wats.

"Their interest [in Davao] now is higher [than] two years ago," Mr. Barriga said. He said the increasing willingness of property owners to adjust to requirements of the information and communications technology sector has attracted investor interest.

At present, 12 sites are available for locators, and most property owners are willing to retrofit buildings to accommodate investors’ needs.

The Business Processing Association of the Philippines earlier said the country must develop three-quarters of talent living outside the National Capital Region. The BPO sector, IT and engineering sectors can grow by as much as 40% annually through 2010 if this talent is tapped, the group said.
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Infosys opens BPO campus at Mahindra SEZ

Infosys today announced the inauguration of its BPO at Mahindra World City's SEZ with an investment of Rs 171 crore in the first phase.

Rajathan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who inaugurated the facility, said it was not the issue of land or money, but she had to changed the mindset of people specially bureaucratic set up.

"Though we are lagging behind in the race of SEZ set up, but it is an amazing efforts that the goal was accomplished in less than 2 years of its inception," she said.

Infosys CEO and Managing Director Kris Gopalakrishnan said," Jaipur is becoming an exciting destination for the IT-ITeS industry. Raje has proactively put in place progressive policies and has invested in infrastructure to ensure rapid growth."

The new campus at the SEZ would be spread over 42 acres of land with a total investment of Rs 531 crore to be made in phases, he said.

Infosys HR Director T V Mohandas Pai said their campus at Sitapura near Jaipur has been operational since August 2006 and seen an investment of Rs 22.77 crore with a capacity of 890 employees. The Sitapura BPO made a revenue of USD 15 million, Pai said.
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Are BPO jobs no longer attractive? Working for a BPO today is a fast way to rake in the moolah!

But what’s it like to be a BPO employee? The popular perception now is that ‘BPO’ is no more the acronym for Brighter Prospects & Opportunities. But is this true?

Well, the truth is that the BPO industry has done a whole lot of good for the country in terms of providing mass employment opportunities. In the early 1990s, it was unheard of for a graduate to get a job without having any additional qualifications. Today, an English-speaking graduate from any town or city in the country can easily find employment.

So, while the West continues to depend on us because of the relatively cheaper costs and intellectual capital here, why are people still hesitant to take up a BPO job? A former BPO employee, Arvind quit his job and opted for higher education. “It’s difficult to climb the corporate ladder beyond a certain point without a master’s degree.

A stint with a BPO became absolutely necessary to kill spare time while preparing for the numerous entrance exams to various colleges. I don’t want to be a BPO employee all my life,” he says.

Source

BPOs get `code of conduct` for employees` security, finally

Taking the first concrete step towards curtailing the rising incidents of crime against business process outsourcing (BPO) staffers, a group of 32 Pune-based BPOs and National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) have framed a "code of conduct" to ensure their physical security.

The code of conduct, which is soon expected to be replicated across the country, deals with aspects such as security during travel, selection of transport vendors, internal communication and security within company premises.

Pune city has a BPO community of more than 95,000 and some 3,000 cars and jeeps are used as pick-up and drop vehicles for them by the 32 units.

Prominent players like Wipro, Zensar, WNS, KPIT Cummins, Mphasis and Ocean Connect have all agreed to implement the code of conduct framed by the best practises committee.

BPO vendors see larger US deals by year-end

Clients expected to complete internal evaluation process by then

Mixed fortune

It is a temporary slump in offshoring due to the US credit crunch and the BPOs expect the same factors to fuel increased demand for outsourcing by year-end.

The uncertain environment has indeed forced client companies in the US to ‘reprioritise’ and ‘review’ their roadmap for the future
Adith Charlie

Mumbai, May 4 Is recession good or bad for the business process outsourcing sector? Probably both! Recession in US seems to be a mixed bag for Indian BPO vendors.

They do agree there has been a temporary slump in offshoring due to the US credit crunch, but expect the same recession-related factors to fuel increased demand for outsourcing by the end of the calendar year.

Both IT and BPO companies are witnessing a spate of project delays and cancellations, especially in the financial services space, due to recession in the world’s largest economy. It must be noted that clients can save up to $5 million in costs annually if they enter into a major outsourcing contract. So why are the US companies going slow on their BPO engagements even when they want to cut costs in a recession?

Says Mr Raju Venkatraman, Joint Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer of Mumbai-based Firstsource Solutions, “When a company is hit by a crisis that is at least 100 times bigger than the cost benefits that outsourcing will bring, would it think about saving $5 million a year or find solutions for the bigger problem?” Outsourcing is important, but not a priority in a crisis-like situation, he adds. -
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BPO opportunity seen in UK due to UK 'knowledge worker' shortage

MANILA, Philippines--The current shortage of "knowledge workers" in the United Kingdom is good news for the country's outsourcing push in Europe.

A recent report from The Work Foundation, a London-based research and consultancy firm, said that the UK will need to attract more highly skilled workers from overseas for its high technology and "'knowledge intensive" industries.

The report's author noted that numbers are "relatively low," with only 167,000 high skilled workers in the country.

Reached for comment, Stephanie Weber, European IT Services Center (EITSC) business development manager, said UK companies have been suffering from the skills shortage for some time now.

According to the report, Filipinos are the third largest group of highly-skilled migrant workers, with a population of around 10,000. Indian nationals are by far the largest group with more than 45,000 followed by about 25,000 workers from the United States.

Next to the Philippines is South Africa (8,000) and Australia (6,500).

Under the previous work permit regime in the UK, 24 percent of highly skilled migrants were ICT professionals, 13 per cent were service managers and almost 10 percent in the healthcare sector.

The IT Examiner's quick guide to outsourcing

In recent years India has become an outsourcing Hub for the West, mainly because of lower costs and a good talent base available in the country.

The outsourcing services include customer care, BPO, medical transcription, telemarketing, market research , manufacturing, designing data management services, engineering services, financial services, creative services, web analytics services, healthcare services, ghost writing, digital image editing services, and software services.

So what exactly is outsourcing and why do companies do this, with India hogging the limelight? There are questions whether or not the economic slowdown will affect the outsourcing trend and even whether it will expand to other areas.

Outsourcing can be defined as a process in which a company delegates some of its in-house operations/processes to a third party. Thus, outsourcing is a contractual transaction through which one company buys services from another while keeping ownership and ultimate responsibility for the underlying processes. The clients inform their provider what they want and how they want the work performed. So the client can authorize the provider to operate as well as redesign basic processes in order to ensure even greater cost and efficiency benefits. Importance in outsourcing should be understood where the third party or partner company takes full responsibility of any part of operations undertaken.

When a company decides to concentrate on what it's best at, it decides to subcontract some of the process such as testing, manufacturing, development to a certain extent to a vendor company to reduce the overhead costs of the main company and make more efficient use of land, labour and resources for more important activities.

Source and more details

50% BPO staffers smoke: Study

MUMBAI: A stressed-out youngster who works odd hours and is addicted to his cigarette. If that's your image of a BPO employee, it may not be too way off. "Smoking is common in BPOs," say doctors from cancer hub, Tata Memorial Hospital, who have recently launched an ambitious study to track the tobacco consumption patterns in four BPOs in the city.

The two-year-long study was launched in August 2007 and preliminary findings showed that more than 50% of employees turned to cigarettes during work hours.

Their concerns coincide with the growing emphasis on creating smoke-free environments, especially to keep youngsters away from passive smoke, which was the focus of the World Cancer Day observed on Monday.

While the BPOs in the study were no-smoking precincts, nothing stopped workers from taking a puff in their breaks, every two hours. So also, hookah bars nearby were also to blame for the addictive habit.

"Through the study, we are trying to understand why youngsters in BPOs who are generally educated and fall into the high income earning bracket take up smoking," said Dr Gauravi Mishra, consultant in preventive oncology at Tata Hospital.

As part of the study, doctors would also be initiating employees into behaviour therapy, pharmaco-therapy, education material and conducting focused group discussions to help workers kick the habit.

But it's not just youngsters in BPOs we need to worry about. Head of Tata Hospital's preventive oncology, Dr S Shastri pointed out how school children, too, were being initiated into tobacco, many being just passive smokers. This was an area of concern as cancer is already among India's leading killers with 8 lakh Indians being diagnosed with cancer every year. "We should have zero-tolerance when it comes to tobacco exposure for school children. Passive smoking is particularly harmful to the metabolism of children and pregnant women," he said.

The statistics were alarming. The Global Youth Tobacco Survey showed that a stunning 13% of school children were using tobacco in some form and one in three students lived in homes where someone smoked. Another doctor pointed out how children were more harmed as they inhaled more air and in turn more carcinogens.

Filmmaker and cancer survivor Anurag Basu joined the Tata doctors and Salaam Bombay Foundation in a smoke-free childhood campaign. He said, "When I was young, I thought it was macho to smoke. But looking back, I think one should be taught about the harmful effects of tobacco just as one is taught traffic rules, in school itself," he said. Basu was forced to quit smoking when he landed up in Tata hospital, years ago.

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ESO (Engineering Services Outsourcing)

ESO stands for Engineering Services Outsourcing.

Engineering Services Outsourcing (ESO) includes product design, research and development and other technical services across sectors like automotive, aerospace, hi-tech/telecom, utilities and construction/industrial machinery.

Spending on engineering services was $750 billion in 2004 and is projected to grow to $1.1 trillion globally by 2020, according to a recent Nasscom and Booz Allen Hamilton study - Globalisation Of Engineering Services - the next frontier for India.

ESO also stands for Educational Services Outsourcing. Education is a growing sector and the demand for Indian educators is on the rise. ESO market is estimated to be USD eight billion dollars and Indian teachers are currently offering services to countries like US, UK , Canada , and the Middle East. Though the main demand is from USA, newer markets of Netherlands and Europe too are fast opening up for Indian teachers.

Eastern Europe could soon become a favorite location for offshore outsourcing, with activity in the region estimated to triple between 2005 and 2008.

That’s according to consulting firm McKinsey, which predicts that the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry will support 130,000 jobs in the region by 2008.

Although only 1 percent of the world’s total BPO spending–worth $30 billion–is currently located in Eastern Europe, the region emerged as one of the favorite locations for Western European companies to invest in between 2004 and 2006.

McKinsey identifies three main advantages for companies locating BPO operations in Eastern Europe in the winter issue of McKinsey on IT.

The region offers low wage levels, comparable to India’s, with slow wage inflation looking likely to keep the region economically competitive for at least 15 years.

Also, compared with competing regions around the world, Eastern Europe is a relatively low-risk location for investing, due to the reliable infrastructure already in place.

The other benefit is the region’s geographical and cultural proximity to Western Europe, making the process of setting up offices much easier. There are also fewer language barriers compared with elsewhere, with German and French both being widely spoken.

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Essar arm to buy US BPO firm for $250m

BANGALORE: Aegis BPO, part of the Essar Group, is buying Nasdaq-listed offshore BPO provider PeopleSupport, in an all cash deal of $250 million through its Mauritius subsidiary Essar Services. The combined entity will have around 30,000 people and revenues of $500 million, making it India's biggest BPO after Genpact.

Under the terms of the agreement, Aegis BPO will pay PeopleSupport stockholders $12.25 per share, which represents a premium of about 29% over PeopleSupport's closing share price on August 1, and a premium of about 42% over the weighted average trading price of the company's shares during the previous 30 trading days.

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Citibank to beef up BPO subsidiary in RP

MANILA, Philippines--Financial services firm Citibank says it is ramping up its business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in the country in response to demand for customer support services worldwide.

Established in 2004, Citigroup Business Process Solutions (or Citigroup BPS) is a subsidiary of Singapore-based Citibank Overseas Investment Corp.

The Philippine subsidiary provides support services to Citibank's overseas operations including consumer banking and wealth management segments.

Citigroup BPS currently employs around 1,200 workers. The company announced a partnership with training school Excel Asia to provide agent-staffing services starting last January.

The company did not disclose specific numbers on how much workers it will need to add, noting that demand varies depending on client projects that come up different parts of the year.

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US slowdown puts BPO buyouts on fast track

MUMBAI: The BPO deal space for acquisitions is looking hot again after a lull for over the last six months. The US slowdown is pushing more third-party outsourcing firms and captive operations to sell out, according to industry players and investment bankers. Compared to the last quarter when both potential targets and buyers were in a wait-and-watch mode, large third-party BPO firms and integrated IT and BPO players are now keen on using their cash reserves to gain scale and new service lines, while potential targets that were holding out hoping for a recovery in their valuations are now interested in exiting before further value erosion happens Many of the smaller players which are unable to scale up are now looking to sell out. Some of the investors in these companies were planning to exit through IPOs but given the market conditions they cannot go IPO now. Many multinationals with captive back office operations of less than 5,000 people are also in the market,” said one large IT and BPO player. Read more News...

Talent crunch forces BPOs to dilute tasks

HYDERABAD: The Indian BPO job may be getting onto a factorylike assembly line chore. Similar to automobile shop floors, where jobs are broken down into miniscule tasks and processes demarcated step by step, BPO companies in India are experimenting of breaking a complex activity into numerous simple chores, to be easily performed by even school passouts. The dilution of task difficulty is primarily seen as a solution to talent crunch and a way to check attrition and battle wage inflation. Although it is not yet mainstream, if scaled up, it will throw up an opportunity for rural India to become the backoffice for BPO According to Nasscom vice-president Ameet Nivsarkar, “These experiments are being piloted by some BPO firms and the results are encouraging. We have to see how this can be scaled up. Essentially, this could help the BPO industry spread to tier II and III towns where smaller tasks can be offshored.” The BPO industry in India is currently centred around six metro cities in India which account for over 90% of the operations. Offshoring within India would capitalise on the vast rural and school dropout population. Says rural back office vehicle GramIT chief integrator Verghese Thomas, “Destinations like Dhaka and Philippines are becoming attractive as lowcost centres. There are 30 million 12th pass people in rural India who could be part of the rural BPO revolution.”

Honing BPO skills - BPO News

Getting the right talent to work for you, is like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack. Who would know this better than BPO firm 24/7 Customer? The company has initiated several programmes as part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives to expand the base of professionals in the BPO industry.

Recent research and studies have shown that the BPO sector is going to face a talent shortage of about 262,000 professionals by 2012. Keeping this in mind, the company has chalked out CSR programmes which focus on empowering youth, providing them with equal opportunties and educating the underprivileged.

Take its 24/7 Ascend programme, for instance. Under this initiative, students are taught the skillsets needed for the BPO sector. The website www.247customer.com/ascend helps any student get free information on skills needed to join the BPO Industry.

They also have a career opportunity programme wherein common doubts that college students have in pursuing a career in the BPO industry are addressed. To improve the skillsets, courses on language/communication are provided and special study courses are also taken up. Career planning tools like interview tips, resume writing lessons, counselling on BPO careers and scholarship information are also offered.

For the academic staff in colleges and universities, 24/7 Customer offers special programmes (24/7 Varsity programme) to train students who are interested in pursuing a BPO career.

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BPO scales a new peak with version 3.0

NEW DELHI: Move over night long slogs on mundane outsourcing jobs. The $9-billion business process outsourcing (BPO) sector has graduated to the third generation services, or BPO Ver 3.0. Thanks to moving up the ladder many of the over 5,00,000 staff now see a meaningful career in outsourcing and companies are able to get tasks with higher billing rates. Sample the work in BPO 3.0: developing structured products for investment banks, using Monte Carlo simulation (statistical tools, in common lingo) based patent valuation, providing actionable legal and engineering reports for products that can be launched in multiple global markets and more.

This is far too complex from what the industry started with — that is, transcribing medical records, answering phone calls and data entry (BPO Ver 1.0). Later the firms graduated to doing problem solving and decision-making tasks such as processing insurance claims or enhancing limit on credit cards. That was BPO Version 2.0.

While the third version is being incorporated by BPOs over the last few months, it is still in its infancy. What distinguishes itself perhaps from the other versions is that the companies are recruiting experts with up to 15 years of experience and the higher billing rates.
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Indians write the BPO script in Philippines

NEW DELHI: BPO firms, which have so far been big job creators in India, are now shifting employees from here to emerging outsourcing destinations, including the Philippines.

Not only are domestic BPOs like Genpact, Sitel and Intelenet hiring people in India in droves for their Philippine operations, MNCs like Citibank and Accenture with operations in that country, too, are relying on Indian talent.

“While at the associate level, the Philippines has talent that is comparable or superior to their Indian counterparts, there is a complete void at middle and senior management level. It’s largely Indian executives who fill this void at Indian, local and captive BPO firms in the Philippines,” says Quatrro BPO Solutions managing director Raman Roy.

The Philippines has emerged as an attractive rival outsourcing destination to India, on the back of its large English-speaking population, a slew of fiscal incentives and lower property rates. Apart from the capital, Manila, other places — Cebu, for instance — have also come up as favourites for setting up call centres.
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IGNOU To Start A Diploma Course For BPO Jobs

The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) will soon start a diploma programme to train students from across the country to take up jobs in business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, well known as call centres. This will be a one-year diploma course conducted jointly by Accenture Services, a Bangalore based global technology service and outsourcing company.

“You know the BPO situation in our country. It’s a growing industry and the number of trained manpower required is huge. Here we have stepped in to provide trained human capital,” IGNOU spokesman Ravi Mohan told.

Mohan said the varsity has already signed an agreement with Accenture. Candidates who have passed 10+2 or equivalent can apply for the course.

“It is just not outsourcing for foreign companies, many Indian companies, government offices too have opened and will open call centres for better customer relations.

“This course will create a pool of professionals who will be able to handle the job better and reduce attrition rate,” Mohan added. Those having IGNOU’s certificate course in communication skills will have an edge but alternatively students shall be screened through a communication evaluation test.

The specialization would be offered in finance and accounting, insurance, banking, human resources, sourcing and category management, customer contact services, health care, pharma, engineering services, equity research, capital markets, order management and technical writing and learning services.

IGNOU shall ensure that the course will be imparted through a mix of education delivery channels across India including print, CD, web-based learning materials, contact sessions and simulated exercises labs for language and application learning.

India most mature spot for BPOs - BPO Updates

BANGALORE: India has emerged as the most matured location for offshored IT and BPO services, though this dominance might be chipping away given the rising costs. Everest Research Institute in its report “Global Sourcing--Market Vista Q1 2008” said that the cost inflation in Indian cities is exceeding the 2007 levels and this has increased the risk of labour arbitrage closing very rapidly.

There has been a constant threat of newer locations such as China, Philippines and Eastern Europe, which are challenging the dominance of India. Everest said that players are continuing to expand and the competitive intensity for talent remains unabated. Further the consumer price at an alltime high since 2004 is potentially creating inflationary pressure on wages.

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