Overview

The Indian BPO sector has evolved significantly over the last decade, and has matured beyond the pioneer phase to enter the ‘emerging rapid growth’ phase. Industry’s growth and increasing maturity is reflected across multiple dimensions. From being recognised as the customer service hub of the world, the Indian BPO sector has expanded its service portfolio to include multiple service offerings of varying maturity levels. While Indian providers have acquired extensive service delivery capabilities beyond voice based Customer Interaction and Support (CIS) services, such as F&A services and HRM services segments, several new upcoming areas such as Procurement Services, healthcare outsourcing, and Knowledge Services – which include services such as research and analytics, legal services outsourcing, financial research and data management is expected to aid the growth of the BPO industry in the future.

Led by the sub-prime crisis that began in 2007, global demand for BPO spending witnessed a sharp slowdown as clients scaled down their budgets and put discretionary spending on hold. With rising unemployment, the year 2009 also witnessed rising protectionist sentiment and introduction of new bills in the US congress. Providers now faced a challenging demand scenario, where several clients went bankrupt impacting recoveries, deal flows reduced to a trickle, and existing deals brought on the scanner for renegotiations. Many vendors dependent on single/few clients faced severe business continuity risks.

Indian BPO vendors responded to this changing demand scenario by- a) increasing the depth of client relationships, b) focusing on operational flexibility and enhancing efficiencies, c) designing innovative pricing models in synch with current demand scenario, and d) increase offering around new business models. The industry began to rebalance its customer/service portfolio by providing end-to-end capabilities in core areas, diversify beyond core offerings to provide services hitherto un-provided, and selectively focus on industries and clients that are more likely to withstand the effects of recession. Supported by these measures, and a depreciating rupee for a major part of the year, the Indian industry delivered increased shareholder value and its strongest margins ever.

Further, transformation has been a key theme for the year. Indian BPO companies have achieved client business transformation through a combination of Process Re-engineering Skills using 6 Sigma and other quality improvement tools, proactively increasing depth of services, new business models such as “pay per use”, Technological capabilities such as platform solutions, business intelligence software, advanced automation and application development support. Acceptance of these solutions is dramatically altering existing service delivery techniques, but the increased efficiency and savings provided by such offerings are being accepted by clients.

The long term potential for the BPO industry is immense- the addressable market for BPO services is expected to expand four fold, to USD 895-980 Billion, representing an opportunity which is 50 per cent bigger than the overall IT opportunity. Almost 80 per cent of this incremental growth in addressable market is going to come from current non- core markets.

The NASSCOM BPO Strategy Summit 2010, June 7th and 8th, Hotel Lalit, Bangalore, will provide a forum that will help in aligning businesses with strategies and capabilities that will work. Find out what are the new geographies that should be in focus and how much the domestic sector has to offer. Hear the experts discuss the new technologies and verticals. The conference will offer tactical strategies that can be used to transition resources, measure benefits and risks, engage stakeholders, and manage relationships as well as detail how organizations can capitalize for maximum advantage.

Twelfth in the series, NASSCOM BPO Strategy Summit 2010 would have the following Key Focus Areas:

• Specialty classes by the experts – get hands on lessons from gurus on Risk and Benchmarking
• Riding the language bus in emerging geographies – find out the emerging geographies you should invest in
• How can you de-risk your business 
• Leveraging local: Bullish on domestic growth – find out what drives the domestic market
• How can the BPOs expand their operations – Is acquisition the only answer or are there multiple ways
• What are the new technologies that you should invest in – the latest and most effective technologies that would disrupt the market
• Next generation of verticals, which would drive the market – industries you should concentrate on
• Deep dive into the financial and healthcare verticals
• Taking the centers of excellence approach – developing and leveraging pockets of excellence within organization
• Changing dynamics of the BPO industry
• Next wave in global sourcing
• Moving from process innovation to market innovation: the way forward
• Lessons from the experts: Rural outsourcing sparks interest – would the entry of bigger players mean more business, leading to faster growth