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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