Indian business process outsourcers that dream of moving up the value chain will first have to guarantee clients that risks will be eliminated, something that the industry may see happening over the next three years, a senior Infosys BPO executive told Business Line .

“By 2014, we will be able to tell our clients that we will eliminate their risks,” Mr Gautam Thakkar, Vice-President and Head (Finance & Accounting), Infosys BPO, said.

At present, no BPO company can confidently assure its clients that they can manage all the risks, but with time, this will change, Mr Thakkar pointed out.

“Once upon a time, people would not outsource payroll because they were worried about sensitive salary details getting out. But now, this has matured, and nobody thinks twice before outsourcing payroll,” he explained.

According to Mr Thakkar, risk management was a key agenda for any Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

“A CFO is worried about lowering costs, growing revenues and trying to get it done in a risk-free manner by adhering to laws. Therefore, outsourcing today is not about cost reduction but about fixing the business problems of our clients.”

In fact, Mr Thakkar said, risk management is considered so important at Infosys BPO that the employee who handles risks, reports directly to Mr Thakkar, who in turn reports to Mr Swami Swaminathan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.

Apart from risk management, two other things that will shape the BPO of tomorrow will be technology and benchmarking, Mr Thakkar said.

“Technology will play an important role in increasing productivity and efficiency,” he said.

In addition, benchmarking best practices of clients will enable BPOs in India to generate a business articulation framework that will drive future efficiencies.

“This is already in progress. Our scale will help us get there.”

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