The Hindu Business Line : `Market research to open new doors for BPO vendors'

Cross tabulation, data processing work, open-ended coding, report writing services and survey programming are currently some of the processes being offshored by market research firms.

Bangalore , Sept. 27

THE changing face of market research in technologically advanced countries has given rise to new opportunities for Indian BPO vendors.

Market research BPO presents a $17-billion global opportunity and analysts expect market research organisations to outsource 10-15 per cent of offshore work to countries such as India.

As in other BPO segments, cost arbitrage would play an important factor given that Indian firms charge 30 to 40 per cent less than the US where rates hover in the $75 to $100 range.

The US and Europe each offer a $7-billion market with a CAGR of 200-300 per cent, according to Mr John Taggart, Quantum secialist and Senior Advisor, Ugam Solutions, a Mumbai-based BPO firm specialising in market research BPO services.

The stupendous growth estimated here (MR-BPO) is because "in the US most of the research is telephone or Internet-based so there is a need for generating millions of pages of reports and this is where the outsourcing part comes. CEOs and senior management people do realise the (economic) importance of outsourcing to India," remarked Mr Taggart.

Cross tabulation, data processing work, open-ended coding, report writing services and survey programming are currently some of the processes being offshored by market research firms.

Going ahead, the Quantum software specialist expects actual analysis to be conducted in India. "I already have several firms enquiring about outsourcing their data analysis work here. However, there is a dearth of statisticians and programmers specialising in quantum software right now which we hope to resolve over the coming year," he said.

Working with Ugam Solutions, Mr Taggart hopes to increase the availability of Quantum software specialists in India, having trained 40 people so far. The Mumbai-based BPO on its part recently bagged a $15-million three-year contract from Harris Interactive and anticipates more deals in the near future. Ugam plans to increase headcount from the existing 275 to 500 people by the end of next year.

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