Over the last ten years, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) has proven to be a sunrise industry in India due to its talented, skilled personnel and its geographically strategic location. India has drawn attention and investment from multiple international stakeholders who are looking to hive off their business processes.
Recent times have witnessed a dramatic change in the country’s economic environment owing to the presence of fierce competitors like Vietnam and the Philippines as well as factors such as recession and hike in salaries. Despite this, the BPO industry appears to be churning out “better-than-expected” performances, all the same growing at the steady pace. This is evident in a recent survey conducted by the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), which has estimated a 4–7% rise in IT-BPO export revenues for Financial Year 2009–10, thereby reaching US$ 50 billion, approximately. Other factors contributing to sustained growth include continued domestic demand, recessionary trends in the West and the inevitable cost savings that BPO still gives enterprises. Moreover, some BPOs in India have expanded to other countries in order to leverage cost savings. The domestic BPO segment in India is estimated to increase to 65 billion US dollars by 2010. India hosts around 200 call centres that have a turnover of 2 billion USD and a workforce of 150,000 skilled personnel.
As part of the same survey, NASSCOM also released a ranking of the top ten Indian BPO companies; given below are some facts about these ten companies and their present state in India.
GENPACT: Founded in 1997, Genpact—the erstwhile-outsourcing wing of GE Capital—leads the pact. Having formed an independent entity in 2005, Genpact has a network in 13 countries of more than 30 operations centers, including leading enterprises such as Nissan, Wachovia, Hyatt and GE. It offers a wide range of services including finance, IT infrastructure, supply chain management and analytics and hence is guaranteed to stay at the top of the list for years to come. With a workforce of more than 37,000 employees, Genpact’s revenue for the year 2008 stood at $1040 million.
WNS Services: Principally distinguished by its deep domain expertise and end-to-end service offerings, WNS Global Services occupies the second place in this list. Based in Mumbai, Warburg Pincus is its main investor firm. WNS boasts of 215 plus global clients. Established in 1996, this Nasdaq-listed company has been serving numerous industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, retail, distribution, insurance and travel. At present, WNS has more than 21,000 persons working for it and has clocked revenues of about $539 million as of 2008.
IBM DAKSH: The brainchild of four ambitious and talented professionals, IBM Daksh grew from a relatively small enterprise to a global hub that employs more than 30,000 people today. Celebrated for its excellent leadership and empowering vision, IBM Daksh has been effortlessly managing business processes for its international clientele over the past 5 years. As a result, it has won accolades for its outstanding performance, including the “Most Respected BPO Company in India” by Business World. The company has 25 service delivery centers in India and the Philippines. While IBM Daksh is primarily a solutions provider for various industries such as financial services, communication and distribution, it also offers its expertise to the hospitality and travel sectors.
WIPRO BPO: Spectramind was acquired by Wipro in 2002 and renamed as Wipro BPO Solutions, which has since then carved a niche for itself in the outsourcing industry. The company has been rated one of the “Best Employers in India” by the Best Employers Hewitt Survey in 2007. The HQ of Wipro BPO is based in Bangalore, with over 19,000 employees committed to providing high quality services to its customers. As of 2008, the company generated revenue of approximately $395 million, thus giving it recognition as one of the top 10 BPOs in India. Wipro BPO offers financial and accounting services, HR services and knowledge services to industries including insurance, healthcare, telecom, travel and hospitality, among others.
TCS BPO: One of the key players in the present-day outsourcing industry, TCS BPO offers various services in the realm of healthcare, telecom, travel, media, KPO and banking, among others. TCS BPO has won accolades for its services and performances as a result of which it was named one of the world’s top BPO providers by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals, in 2006. Although its headquarters is based in Bangalore, it is spread across the heart of the country with branches in Goa, Pune, Mumbai, Lucknow, Gurgaon and Hyderabad. TCS BPO Its clientele includes 132 entities that span over 32 countries. At the end of fiscal year 2008-09, the BPO contributed around Rs 1,900 crores to the company’s revenues.
FIRSTSOURCE SOLUTIONS: Firstsource was established in 2001 and was formerly known as ICICI Onesource. Ranked among the top 10 ITES companies in 2007 (by Nasscom), it is a leading player in global business process management. It is commendable to note that Firstsource is the first pure play BPO company in the world to secure ISO 20000 and ISO 27001 certifications. It has numerous leading global clients to whom it offers BPO services spanning customer care, billing and collections, business research and analytics and customer acquisition. Among several notable clients, Firstsource boasts of a clientele subsuming FTSE 100 media companies, 3 of the 5 largest US banks, top 5 UK banks and 2 of the world’s largest telecom companies.
ADITYA BIRLA MINACS: A global IT business solutions company and subsidiary of Aditya Birla Nuvo, Aditya Birla Minacs has over 26 years of experience in offering BPO solutions to over 15 Fortune 500 companies. Nasscom 2006-07 ranked the company as India’s third largest BPO, by export revenues. With a primary focus on three areas, namely contact centre solutions, integrated marketing services, and knowledge process outsourcing, Aditya Birla Minacs has employed over 13,000 employees across its facilities in the world.
AEGIS: A leading player in customer care and acquisition for over thirty years, Aegis has numerable Fortune 500 clients to whom it provides immeasurable support by way of customer interaction, back office and other routine business processes. Aegis has been recognized as eighth among the top 15 BPO exporters for 2008-09 by Nasscom. It operates out of 40 locations spread across the globe with complete support from a 39,000-strong staff strength. Its headquarters are based in Mumbai. Essar Global Limited, its parent company, is an $18 billion group well established in 130 countries.
Infosys Technologies: Infosys Technologies set up Infosys BPO in April 2002 as its business process outsourcing subsidiary. With a focus on integrated end-to-end outsourcing through lesser costs, Infosys BPO holds high ranking among the top BPO companies of India. It clocked revenues of $250 million for fiscal year 2007-08 and has its operation centres in Mexico, Bangkok, India, Poland, China, the Philippines, among others. Backed by over 16,295 employees, Infosys BPO Ltd. is bound to stay put in the slot for top 10 BPOs in India for many years to come.
HCL BPO: Founded in 2001, HCL BPO is a subsidiary of HCL Technologies Ltd. It offers services in various realms of operations such as customer relationship management, finance and accounting services, supply chain management, knowledge and legal services to diverse industries including retail, telecom, media, insurance, publishing and entertainment sectors. Even before the IT industry had recognized the potential and opportunity in the BPO sector, HCL was one of the first IT companies to penetrate into this area. Financial year 2008 witnessed a revenue generation of about $232.15 million by this fast emerging BPO.
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