{"id":1633,"date":"2010-08-28T10:16:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-28T10:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/projects\/horsesforsources\/indianbpo-082810\/"},"modified":"2010-08-28T10:16:00","modified_gmt":"2010-08-28T10:16:00","slug":"indianbpo-082810","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.horsesforsources.com\/indianbpo-082810\/","title":{"rendered":"The hunters and the hunted: Indian BPOs readying for a rebound"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Reetika Joshi is a research analyst at ValueNotes Sourcing Practice<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

We recently debated how the <\/strong>nature<\/strong><\/a> of global service delivery is going to change in this climate of leveling prices, increasing buyer expectations and post-recession lethargy.\u00a0 This is clearly a pivotal time for the industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We decided to get a flavor from India, where their BPO providers are eagerly ramping up for taking on new business, and asked our friends\u00a0based in the beautiful university city of\u00a0Pune,\u00a0ValueNotes<\/a>, to share some insights with us.\u00a0 One of their lead analysts, Reetika Joshi, who can boast the Accenture prize for best student on her Marketing Management\u00a0Masters course at Aston University (UK),\u00a0has shared her insights with us.\u00a0 Not sure what that prize actually was, so let’s hear her views on the Indian BPO provider dynamics instead:<\/p>\n

The hunters and the hunted: Indian BPOs readying for a rebound<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

As the world recovers from recession, the major Indian BPO providers eagerly await a return to the BPO boom, which has paused in the past 18 months as companies have sought to cope with riding out the tough-times.<\/p>\n

As HfS Research recently revealed with a new study of enterprise BPO demand<\/a>, many enterprises are seriously looking\u00a0at outsourcing to solve many of their performance issues, however, it\u2019s clear many are taking their time before jumping into large contracts.\u00a0 In fact, we\u2019re actually seeing more piecemeal engagements from companies making more tentative moves into BPO.\u00a0 While the bounce-back has hardly been resurgent, BPO is clearly firmly on the corporate agenda and many of the leading Indian service providers \u00a0are expanding staff, acquiring competitors, and making new marketing plans to widen market share and penetrate new sectors, such as the mid-market.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even amid the doom and gloom, the Dataquest Top 20 annual industry survey reported that the Top 20 Indian BPO firms increased their combined export revenues by 15 percent in fiscal 2009-2010, with revenues of $6.1 billion, slightly\u00a0 down from the growth of 17 percent achieved in fiscal 2008-2009. After a year of relatively sluggish growth, Indian service providers are now expecting business to grow. Financial and managerial pressures are easing up across major markets, with a collective agenda to optimize costs and efficiencies. Recent research has suggested that in the next two years, companies plan to offshore more, to countries such as Mexico, China, Philippines and of course, India. Accordingly, Q12010 (Apr-Jun) results have already shown volume growth beyond expectations for the major Indian BPO providers such as TCS at 8.1%, Infosys at 6.9%, and Wipro at 4.7%.<\/p>\n

So although things are looking bright for India in the next few years, the next logical question is \u2013 are Indian vendors prepared for a rebound? As they await the uptick this financial year, this much is clear; the industry is not sitting still. In fact, Indian BPOs are attempting a makeover to emerge stronger than ever, by gearing up in two ways:<\/p>\n