Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, today announced that three of its top-level executives have been superstars named in FAO Today’s global Superstars List, now in its fourth year.
Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO, Infosys BPO, Ritesh Idnani, VP and Global Sales Head, Infosys BPO, and Michel de Zeeuw, Vice President, Infosys (Former SVP, Global Finance, at Philips) have been ranked superstars, along with global leaders of the industry.
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Showing posts with label BPO Market Updates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BPO Market Updates. Show all posts
Chennai emerges as a destination of choice for several companies developing BPO activities.
BUSINESS Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the new buzzword in Information Technology (IT) circles. Typically, it involves the farming out of day-to-day operations of companies in the advanced countries to entities in developing countries to take advantage of lower wages. The development of IT facilities makes this possible. While BPOs could be in the form of call centres, medical and legal transcription facilities, airline ticketing and accounting operations, the basic idea is to lower costs for companies in the advanced countries. IT enables the transmission of data on an almost real-time basis so that data from any location can be processed at any other location in the world. The United States market has been particularly lucrative for Indian BPO companies because of the 12-hour time lag, which enables even day-to-day operations to be carried out seamlessly in India when the U.S. markets close for the night.
A call centre at Tidel Park.
Companies located in Chennai have taken advantage of the interest in the BPO segment. Several companies have established bases in Chennai to cater to the needs of companies operating from overseas markets. Speaking at a seminar on BPO held in Chennai recently, Romi Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer and Managing director, Scope International Private Ltd., a subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, said that the city suffered because of "perception-related problems", something which he said was far-removed from reality. He advocated "proactive selling" by the State government in order to enable Chennai to emerge as a destination of choice for BPO activities. Scope employs 3,000 persons at its centre in Chennai; that number is set to increase to 5,000 soon.
THE business process outsourcing (BPO) industry in the country aims to earn $13 billion in revenues and generate one million jobs by 2010.
If this will be achieved, this would mean a total of $6.7 billion in annual salaries that can be distributed through spending in various sectors of the country’s economy, said lawyer Jamea Garcia, executive director for talent development of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP).
Garcia was in Cebu last Tuesday as one of the panelists during the business forum hosted by JobsDB.com at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
Cebu, said Garcia, is known as the second biggest home of BPO companies, after Metro Manila. She said that as of BPAP’s last count, BPO companies in Cebu employ a total of 16,400 workers.
Based on data from BPAP, 30 percent of the projected combined annual salaries for 2010 would be spent on food while 10 percent will go to housing-related expenses, and five percent for transportation and communication. BPAP also said 20 percent will go to taxes and the rest would go to other expenditures.
“Achievable”
Garcia said the targeted revenue in the next two years is “achievable,” considering the 50 percent growth in the BPO industry in the last three years. BPAP has laid out a roadmap that will help the industry achieve its goals. The roadmap considers the supply of qualified personnel as the “most important” factor in the BPO industry’s continued growth.
“Talent will drive the growth of the industry,” said Garcia.
Majority of BPO companies in Cebu, and in the country in general, are contact centers while the rest provide non-voice services that include back office management, animation, transcription and software development.
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If this will be achieved, this would mean a total of $6.7 billion in annual salaries that can be distributed through spending in various sectors of the country’s economy, said lawyer Jamea Garcia, executive director for talent development of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP).
Garcia was in Cebu last Tuesday as one of the panelists during the business forum hosted by JobsDB.com at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
Cebu, said Garcia, is known as the second biggest home of BPO companies, after Metro Manila. She said that as of BPAP’s last count, BPO companies in Cebu employ a total of 16,400 workers.
Based on data from BPAP, 30 percent of the projected combined annual salaries for 2010 would be spent on food while 10 percent will go to housing-related expenses, and five percent for transportation and communication. BPAP also said 20 percent will go to taxes and the rest would go to other expenditures.
“Achievable”
Garcia said the targeted revenue in the next two years is “achievable,” considering the 50 percent growth in the BPO industry in the last three years. BPAP has laid out a roadmap that will help the industry achieve its goals. The roadmap considers the supply of qualified personnel as the “most important” factor in the BPO industry’s continued growth.
“Talent will drive the growth of the industry,” said Garcia.
Majority of BPO companies in Cebu, and in the country in general, are contact centers while the rest provide non-voice services that include back office management, animation, transcription and software development.
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At the concluding session of Nasscom's BPO Strategy Summit in Bangalore recently, 24/7 Customer's co-founder S Nagarajan made an unusual and passionate plea. He asked the large audience to write letters to newspapers whenever they found articles that portrayed the BPO industry in a negative light. "If you have different experiences from that stated in the articles, you should all write to the editors concerned," he said.
The reference was clearly to articles that have highlighted issues like sex and drugs at the workplace, much of that said to be provoked by the young age of those who work in such jobs, and the fact that most BPO jobs involve working through the night. We won't get into the merits of that here. But the reason Nagarajan was provoked to make that statement was this: He believes those articles are exaggerated, and, more importantly, he believes if there is anything that can put the brakes on the industry's growth, it's people's belief that BPOs aren't 'good' places to work in. Parents will discourage their children from entering the profession. In short, the industry won't get the talent it requires.
That's certainly not good for Nagarajan's firm, and especially now when the industry believes it's at the threshold of super-growth. While most admit that the coming year will see a slowdown on account of what looks like an inevitable recession in the US, the country from where most offshoring work comes, the industry's medium term projections are likely to beat that of most businesses. A study conducted this year by Nasscom and research firm Everest estimates "conservatively" that between 2008 and 2012, the industry will see a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28-30%. But it believes this could go up to as high as 45-50 % if supply constraints are eased.
"Supply is the constraint, not demand," says Pramod Bhasin, CEO of one of India's biggest BPO companies Genpact. India, he says, is already creating the biggest pool of business reengineering talent in the world and is fast consolidating its position as the No. 1 BPO destination. So anybody anywhere looking to outsource their non core areas is likely to look first to Indian BPO companies. In fact, Bhasin would perhaps be unhappy that we continue to use the term BPO to describe his firm. He thinks that given the specialized expertise companies are moving towards, the generic term is no longer meaningful.
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The reference was clearly to articles that have highlighted issues like sex and drugs at the workplace, much of that said to be provoked by the young age of those who work in such jobs, and the fact that most BPO jobs involve working through the night. We won't get into the merits of that here. But the reason Nagarajan was provoked to make that statement was this: He believes those articles are exaggerated, and, more importantly, he believes if there is anything that can put the brakes on the industry's growth, it's people's belief that BPOs aren't 'good' places to work in. Parents will discourage their children from entering the profession. In short, the industry won't get the talent it requires.
That's certainly not good for Nagarajan's firm, and especially now when the industry believes it's at the threshold of super-growth. While most admit that the coming year will see a slowdown on account of what looks like an inevitable recession in the US, the country from where most offshoring work comes, the industry's medium term projections are likely to beat that of most businesses. A study conducted this year by Nasscom and research firm Everest estimates "conservatively" that between 2008 and 2012, the industry will see a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28-30%. But it believes this could go up to as high as 45-50 % if supply constraints are eased.
"Supply is the constraint, not demand," says Pramod Bhasin, CEO of one of India's biggest BPO companies Genpact. India, he says, is already creating the biggest pool of business reengineering talent in the world and is fast consolidating its position as the No. 1 BPO destination. So anybody anywhere looking to outsource their non core areas is likely to look first to Indian BPO companies. In fact, Bhasin would perhaps be unhappy that we continue to use the term BPO to describe his firm. He thinks that given the specialized expertise companies are moving towards, the generic term is no longer meaningful.
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The sub-prime mortgage crisis and the weakening of the US Dollar have rendered several rude shocks to the outsourcing industry in 2007. Indian companies were especially hit as the Rupee appreciated by 10.9% in the last 12 months (14.2% in the last 15 months) against the US Dollar. Investors, analysts and the media have been speculating about the impact of margin pressures, risk of business loss in the US, further Rupee appreciation coupled with domestic inflation, etc. This will continue through 2008, as we watch the US slowdown play out – much depends on the extent of the slowdown (will it become a full-blown recession?).
Interestingly, despite worries on the margin front, outsourcing growth expectations stand tall. In our interaction with vendors across the outsourcing spectrum (IT, BPO and KPO), optimism is the prevailing mood, especially as concerns top-line growth. As a result, companies are gearing up to face the year with aggressive plans coupled with some innovative strategies to fight margin pressures. Either way, 2008 promises to provide plenty of action for the outsourcing industry. Our analysts have put together a list of key trends that we believe will make an impact in 2008.
1. Shake-up likely as smaller un-differentiated BPOs will be badly hit
Smaller BPOs with low-end, commoditized services are worst affected by margin pressures, and the worst is far from over. These players will find it difficult to raise prices, and will be unable to pay enough to retain the best talent. Small Indian vendors will be forced to innovate with a focus on "differentiating" their services. In 2008, we believe that this will become critical not just for sustaining competitiveness but also for the very survival of smaller vendors. The vendors that succeed in differentiating their offerings and thereby climb higher up the value chain, will see new growth or exit options open up via better access to funding and M&A activity by larger players. The others, who are unable to get out of the low-price, low-cost game, will start fading away from the competitive landscape.
2. Rigorous cost cutting by vendors inevitable in 2008
The larger companies may hedge forex exposures in the near term, but cannot disregard the threat of lower competitiveness in the long run. Large global vendors and focused, niche providers may be able to raise billing rates, but this will not compensate for the entire exchange loss, and will need a parallel productivity increase to prevent margins from weakening further.
Cost rationalization will be inevitable in 2008 for Indian vendors – whether small or large! The most obvious impact will be on wage hikes and executive perks. Recruitment too is expected to slow down marginally until mid-2008, as vendors push up utilization rates aggressively. But we expect recruitment to pick up again in the latter half of the year as the slack gets wrung out. The impact on attrition rates will also be interesting to see, as large premiums on poaching may no longer be affordable.
Apart from the obvious cost heads, companies will also look to optimize various administrative or marketing costs. Traditionally, the weak Rupee has meant that margins were never threatened for Indian IT and BPO service providers. This has led to considerable slack, in areas like transport costs, procurement, travel, telecom, etc. In the past, management attention was focused only on growth, but now, the quality of growth will matter more.
This article provides guidance on organizational design (OD) for organizations that are undertaking or contemplating a shared service or business process outsourcing (BPO) initiative. It comes from the series, "Guidelines for Shared Services and BPO," developed by Alsbridge to reflect a shared understanding of good practice in outsourcing. Related columns will discuss the following areas: developing a business case, change management and SLAs and service levels, charging and benchmarking.
Organizational design is sometimes used to mean simply the design of an organization chart. However, this article uses a broader definition which covers the operating model, the organizational structure (including the organization chart), the roles, competencies and job descriptions.
For shared services and BPO the model has three main areas, as follows:
- The service management organization is the shared services/BPO operation itself, undertaking the various transaction processing or administrative activities. Some shared services/BPO operations will deliver specialist and expert services. This organization may be an internal shared service center, serving one or many internal customers, or external, which is typically the outsourced/BPO option.
- The retained organization is the term used to describe what is left behind when the shared services or outsourced activities are transferred to the new service provider. There are two aspects to the design of the retained function. First there is a need to design an organization that is effective in "receiving" the service delivered by the shared service/BPO provider. This will require an organization where there is clarity of responsibility for inputs and outputs to and from the provider. Second, there is a need to design a retained organization that is effective in performing its role in supporting the business.
- The governance layer term refers to the activities that are necessary to manage a customer/supplier relationship, including the management of service level agreements, performance reporting, billing, and issue resolution.
Think IT, think South India. Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad have seen unprecedented growth in the last decade owing to the growth of the information technology sector. But, could Bangalore be 'Bangalored' by its own neighboring town? Could Vijayawada or Madurai be the next BPO boomtowns?
Mysore is known as much as for Mysore Pak as it is known for Brindavan Gardens and the Chamundi Hills. This sleepy city has been witnessing a quiet IT revolution since 2003.
According to a NASSCOM - A.T Kearney study, Mysore is all set to breakout into the big league on the BPO scene because of availability of talent and the city’s proximity to Bangalore. So, while the big firms like Infosys, Wipro and HCL are setting up big global trading and delivery centers here, it’s the smaller firms that are actually able to dig in their heels into the local talent pool.
HTMT Global Solutions is one of the first BPO companies is to set-up shop in Mysore. Benjamin Franklin, the Deputy GM at HTMT tells that the 250-seater facility is far exceeding his expectations. Set-up just 1.5 years ago, it has seen some of it’s first employees now become team leaders. The response from the city has been so good that HTMT is already looking to expand by over 500-seats.
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Mysore is known as much as for Mysore Pak as it is known for Brindavan Gardens and the Chamundi Hills. This sleepy city has been witnessing a quiet IT revolution since 2003.
According to a NASSCOM - A.T Kearney study, Mysore is all set to breakout into the big league on the BPO scene because of availability of talent and the city’s proximity to Bangalore. So, while the big firms like Infosys, Wipro and HCL are setting up big global trading and delivery centers here, it’s the smaller firms that are actually able to dig in their heels into the local talent pool.
HTMT Global Solutions is one of the first BPO companies is to set-up shop in Mysore. Benjamin Franklin, the Deputy GM at HTMT tells that the 250-seater facility is far exceeding his expectations. Set-up just 1.5 years ago, it has seen some of it’s first employees now become team leaders. The response from the city has been so good that HTMT is already looking to expand by over 500-seats.
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Bangalore: India, already known as the world’s back office, is now emerging as a big market for such services as its economy matures and the global economy slows down.
The opportunities of business expansion in the domestic market have even made US-listed Indian firms such as Genpact Ltd and EXL Service Holdings Inc.—that presently cater mainly to the US market—devise aggressive strategies to enter and expand the presence in the country.
The opportunities of business expansion in the domestic market have even made US-listed Indian firms such as Genpact Ltd and EXL Service Holdings Inc.—that presently cater mainly to the US market—devise aggressive strategies to enter and expand the presence in the country.
Genpact—listed on the New York Stock Exchange—has signed four customers among Indian financial services firms and banks in the past three months, its president and chief operating officer (CEO) Pramod Bhasin said.
Declining to spell out his firm’s local strategy, Bhasin said Genpact might scale up to 500-600 people by the end of this year from 20-odd now servicing these customers. It expects revenues to flow from the domestic market from the next quarter.
The Nasdaq-listed EXL Service, on the other hand, is scouting for local buyouts. “We are looking for buyouts in the range of $50-100 million,” said its president and CEO Rohit Kapoor, without elaborating. He, however, said the domestic market looks attractive because of its rapid growth and also as a natural hedge against volatile currencies. “With competition increasing in established markets such as US and the UK, they (BPO firms) cannot afford to ignore emerging markets such as India and China,” said Avinash Vashistha, CEO of Tholons Inc., an advisory firm. India’s domestic outsourcing market could emerge as significant as China, he said.
Demand for business process outsourcing, or BPO, services is rising in the country as domestic telecom, banking, aviation and hospitality companies, among others, try to differentiate themselves with sophisticated customer interactions.
The Indian BPO industry, which already employs 7,00,000, generated revenues worth $11 billion in the financial year to March, of which $1.5 billion came from the local market, according to software lobby group National Association of Software and Services Companies, or Nasscom.
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Declining to spell out his firm’s local strategy, Bhasin said Genpact might scale up to 500-600 people by the end of this year from 20-odd now servicing these customers. It expects revenues to flow from the domestic market from the next quarter.
The Nasdaq-listed EXL Service, on the other hand, is scouting for local buyouts. “We are looking for buyouts in the range of $50-100 million,” said its president and CEO Rohit Kapoor, without elaborating. He, however, said the domestic market looks attractive because of its rapid growth and also as a natural hedge against volatile currencies. “With competition increasing in established markets such as US and the UK, they (BPO firms) cannot afford to ignore emerging markets such as India and China,” said Avinash Vashistha, CEO of Tholons Inc., an advisory firm. India’s domestic outsourcing market could emerge as significant as China, he said.
Demand for business process outsourcing, or BPO, services is rising in the country as domestic telecom, banking, aviation and hospitality companies, among others, try to differentiate themselves with sophisticated customer interactions.
The Indian BPO industry, which already employs 7,00,000, generated revenues worth $11 billion in the financial year to March, of which $1.5 billion came from the local market, according to software lobby group National Association of Software and Services Companies, or Nasscom.
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Revenue from the Indian IT and BPO sectors is predicted to grow by 33% in the fiscal year 2008, reported Sify.com.
Revenue from exports is expected to go over $40 billion for the two sectors while that of the domestic market will go over $23 billion. The BPO sector is predicted to reach $12.5 billion in 2008 and can grow five times by 2012. As many as two million people are directly working in the BPO sector and seven to eight million people are indirectly working for this sector.
Pramod Bhasin, Vice-Chairman, National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) and President and Chief Executive Officer, Genpact, at the 2-day Nasscom BPO Strategy Summit in Bangalore on 9 June, said that the BPO industry needs more manpower and is currently looking at employing more than 200,000 eligible graduates. He added that BPOs also have to fight attrition. According to Bhasin, India needs to bring in education reforms and improve infrastructure. He said that a private-public partnership is important in this regard.
Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, Nasscom, and Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Zensar Technologies said that the BPO sector needs to utilise the prospects in rural areas, promote reverse migration and focus on environment-friendly IT practices, cultivate creativity and encourage women to become leaders.
Citigroup has opened talks with prospective bidders, including IBM Corp. for selling a strategic stake in its Mumbai-based captive business process outsourcing (BPO) arm Citigroup Global Services Ltd, earlier e-Serve International.
While additional details of the stake sale plans weren’t available, based on current annual revenue estimates ranging from $300 million to $400 million (Rs1,230 crore to Rs1,640 crore), industry sources estimate the unit could be valued at over $1 billion.
Citigroup India chief executive officer Sanjay Nayar declined to comment on the development, saying the bank’s policy is not to respond to market speculation, but people familiar with the development and who didn't want their names used said, “Citi has started feeling the market for a strategic stake sale. The process has started and it may take a while before concluding the deal.”
They also said the conglomerate will not go for a complete sell-off. An IBM spokesperson in India said: “We do not comment on speculation and rumours.”
Industry watchers are keeping a close eye on the structure of the deal. One person close to the bank, who did not want to be named, said Citi is exploring the possibility of structuring the deal along the lines of the 2004 IBM-Bharti Televentures outsourcing deal.
In March 2004, IBM took over Bharti’s information technology operations in return for assured revenues of up to $750 million over a 10-year period.
“There could be a similar arrangement whereby IBM would run Citi’s BPO operations for a fee. In addtion to that, it could pick up a strategic stake (in Citigroup Global Services),” this person said.
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While additional details of the stake sale plans weren’t available, based on current annual revenue estimates ranging from $300 million to $400 million (Rs1,230 crore to Rs1,640 crore), industry sources estimate the unit could be valued at over $1 billion.
Citigroup India chief executive officer Sanjay Nayar declined to comment on the development, saying the bank’s policy is not to respond to market speculation, but people familiar with the development and who didn't want their names used said, “Citi has started feeling the market for a strategic stake sale. The process has started and it may take a while before concluding the deal.”
They also said the conglomerate will not go for a complete sell-off. An IBM spokesperson in India said: “We do not comment on speculation and rumours.”
Industry watchers are keeping a close eye on the structure of the deal. One person close to the bank, who did not want to be named, said Citi is exploring the possibility of structuring the deal along the lines of the 2004 IBM-Bharti Televentures outsourcing deal.
In March 2004, IBM took over Bharti’s information technology operations in return for assured revenues of up to $750 million over a 10-year period.
“There could be a similar arrangement whereby IBM would run Citi’s BPO operations for a fee. In addtion to that, it could pick up a strategic stake (in Citigroup Global Services),” this person said.
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Transportation carries an average cost of 8-9% of a firm’s operating budget
Transportation carries an average cost of 8-9% of a company’s operating budget in India—a larger expense than even real estate for some companies not sitting on prime land. With fuel costs set to increase, logistics directors are turning to a mix of technology and planning to keep the expense as low as possible.
“What’s good today is not good tomorrow,” says Yash Kapila, who heads the facilities management group in West Asia for the real estate consulting firm Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj and consults on transportation projects. “You look at the need, and you challenge the requirements.”
The firm recently did that for an international financial services company that clocks 17 million km each year in employee transport, according to Kapila, and helped the company cut its annual transport budget by Rs1 crore. He declined to name the company citing a confidentiality clause in the client’s contract.
Part of the savings came from rationalizing the way people were picked up, and trying to pick up as many people as possible in the same area, he says, but the bulk of the savings came from something even morebasic.
“What would traditionally happen: the car picks you up at 7am, and you ride back at 8 pm,” says Kapila, “but you would have that car for 13 hours and the customer is paying for idle time.” In part by telling its vendors it would no longer pay for idle time, the company brought its costs per employee down from around Rs300 per day it was paying last January to Rs170 per day this April.
Other approaches to cutting transportation costs involve less wholesale options and more fine-tuning. The Hinduja Group’s back office services unit HTMT Global Solutions Ltd, which spends more on transport than its office rentals in Bangalore and Mumbai, tried to squeeze costs out through combining pick up and drop locations, according to Narashima Murthy, who led the company’s India operations, and just moved to the North Americadivision.
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