The Competitive Edge

In the past few years, the world, especially India, has seen a considerable rise in business process outsourcing. And with the boom in the IT industry in India, many global companies are stepping on to Indian shores to set up BPOs, thus enhancing career opportunities. Companies look at outsourcing their business processes not only as a proven way to reduce cost, but to enable greater focus on the core business. Is India ready to face the competition with other countries like China and Philippines, which are becoming viable options for outsourcing? India's competitive edge in the outsourcing sector hinges on its cost effective business model. Certain operations are being outsourced to us, as we possess a language advantage over other competitors like China or Brazil. Eight out of ten organisations thinking of outsourcing think of India first.

"We continue to face the high growth that we have become famous for. There is a lot of talk in the market regarding how the rupee appreciation affects. Some people think that there are two things that might get in the way of the growth of the BPO industry - one is the increasing salaries in India and the other is the rupee. But if you really look at the cost of talent in the developed markets, that is also growing. The basis of offshoring work to countries like India, China and Philippines is not going to go away. We continue to see growth despite these factors," expresses Niranjan Deodhar, Vice President, Hiring Leader, Genpact India.

“BPO is a well established industry. It is built on strong infrastructure of people, processes and technology. With a breathtaking growth rate of almost 42%, the industry has a lot to offer to its young talent in the times to come,” says Navin Joshua, Executive Director, vCustomer Services, adding, “We are one of the fastest growing BPOs with an environment that fosters learning, rewards excellence, and strives to exceed employees' expectations.”

Of all the Asian countries, India, in particular, has seen an upward growth when it comes to the BPO industry. In the IT industry at large, India has the early movers' advantage; this implies that Indian companies, have gained deep understanding of the businesses of the customers along with the market dynamics. Although countries like Philippines, Mexico, Israel, Russia, especially China provide competition to India with regards to providing cheap resources, India's strength is in the intellectual capital of its people which will provide it with a strategic advantage over other countries.

Several Fortune 500 companies have opened centres here, to benefit from the technologically skilled, highly educated, motivated workforce. Indian BPO organisations have successfully built up the scale of operations to match the pace of increasing demands of these services. These companies have now expanded their service offerings from simple processes to providing higher value knowledge based processes. India ranks high in areas such as capabilities, quality of work, linguistic capabilities and work ethics, and thus is ahead of competitors such as China, Philippines, Ireland, Australia, Canada etc. Indian companies also have unique capabilities and systems to set, measure and monitor quality targets. Many state governments in India are offering incentives and infrastructure to set up IT enabled services. As India moves up the value chain, newer countries in Asia will move into lower tier activities. Indian companies are expected to set up and manage lower tier activities from these newer destinations.

This trend of India being a hot spot for companies to set up BPOs will continue in the coming years. Labour costs and abundant supply of skilled manpower are the key factors behind India's sustenance as the top outsourcing destination globally. "Our organisation has a strong growth map and a very definite growth plan for India. We have approximately 10,000 people in India today across 10 centres. At present, we are focusing on hiring quality people based on our future expansion plan, and new and existing clients," expresses Ashutosh Sinha, Director Recruitment, Convergys.

Source - Times Of India