The Hindu Business Line : ‘BPO space has huge scope, needs new biz paradigm’

Redefining processes: (From left) Mr Som Mittal, Nasscom President; Mr Jainder Singh, Secretary, Department of Information Technology; Mr Pramod Bhasin, Vice-Chairman, Nasscom; , and Mr Ganesh Natarajan, Nasscom Chairman at a BPO Strategy Summit 2008 in Bangalore on Monday.

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Bangalore, June 9 ‘BPO’ may be a good catch phrase, but the industry is past the era of mere offshoring; today it is all about globalisation of services and achieving domain expertise and efficiency, said Mr Pramod Bhasin, Vice-Chairman, Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies), and President and Chief Executive Officer, Genpact.

“The term ‘BPO’ has outlived its use. It doesn’t represent the full depth and capacity of the industry and the types of services it offers. Today, it is important to build full scale services and an ecosystem around processes. The industry requires a combination of technology and process expertise. India one day will be known for delivering process and re-engineering expertise. There are unprecedented growth opportunities in this,” said Mr Bhasin, at the two-day Nasscom BPO Strategy Summit held in the city on Monday.

Revenue watch

The Indian IT-BPO revenue is set to grow by 33 per cent in the fiscal year 2008. Exports are expected to cross $40 billion, while the domestic market will clock over $23 billion.

The BPO industry alone is estimated to touch $12.5 billion in 2008 and has the potential to grow five-fold by 2012. The industry today employs two million people directly and indirect job creation is seven-eight million. But shortage of adequate employable manpower is still a cause for concern. “We need about 200,000 more employable graduates in the industry. We also need to fight attrition,” cautioned Mr Bhasin.

All this can be done only if the country “puts its act together in education reforms and infrastructure initiatives,” urged Mr Bhasin. A private-public partnership is required to achieve this, he added.

In his address, Mr Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, Nasscom, and Deputy Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Zensar Technologies, listed out the BPO industry agenda on hand. The industry must look at harnessing opportunities in rural India, encourage reverse migration and adopt green IT practices, nurture creativity and provide opportunities for women to take up leadership roles.

Mr Jainder Singh, Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, stressed the need to create investment regions and the importance of moving up the value chain to stay globally competitive.

Operation locations

At a press meet in the sidelines of the summit, Mr Som Mittal, President, Nasscom, said the industry body has, in a study conducted along with AT Kearney, identified 50 potential locations in the country that are attractive centres for BPO operations.

Apart from the seven main centres of Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai, Kolkata and NCR, the study has identified 43 more centres with varying degrees of attractiveness and advantages. They include Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh (Challengers); Aurangabad, Bhopal, Goa (Followers); and Allahabad, Dehradun and Patna (Aspirants).

Nasscom is in the process of talking to State Governments and other parties concerned to develop these regions as BPO centres of excellence, said Mr Mittal.

It is also looking at international partners for the adoption of Green IT.