India, May 13 - 2008: Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, today announced that three of its top-level executives have been superstars named in FAO Today’s global Superstars List, now in its fourth year. Amitabh Chaudhry, MD and CEO, Infosys BPO, Ritesh Idnani, VP and Global Sales Head, Infosys BPO, and Michel de Zeeuw, Vice President, Infosys (Former SVP, Global Finance, at Philips) have been ranked superstars, along with global leaders of the industry.

Full News

The economic recession in the United States has affected the BPOs in India. But this has not totally fractured the outsourcing industry, as there are scopes opening up beyond US like Europe and Australia or changing client exposure.

THE BUSINESS Process Outsourcing (BPO) vendors having United States based clients share mixed reactions due to the temporary slump in the US economy. This will be further heightened till the time final election results are not out and the new president doesn’t announce some relief with string of measures to combat the credit crunch heat.Those BPOs or KPOs, which focus on large US companies or big ticket outsourcing contracts, are facing the recession crisis as seen by the delays in contract renewals or temporary freeze in awarding of new contracts. One of the associated factors is the lengthened decision-making time with a lot of top heads losing their jobs under the recession pressure.

Large companies have now focussed their energies on restructuring their companies through vertical acquisitions or major divestitures besides analysing their internal processes. This has chiefly been observed with IT and financial service companies. It seems that ’outsourcing’ is now on the back-burner for them, as they focus more on meeting their budgeted business targets first.

But there’s some hope in these tough times. The economic crisis has forced the small to mid-sized US companies to assess outsourcing as an option as they struggle to survive against the big mammoths. They are re-evaluating their internal processes to find solutions within tight business budget constraints. This, in fact, opens up a galore of opportunities for BPOs and KPOs from India, which focus on small to mid-sized US clients with revenues lesser than $5 million.

There are few other smart choices available too, like looking beyond the US to stretch the sights to Europe and Australia or changing the client exposure from the typical IT and financial service clients to other industry verticals.

Source

Prominent BPO firms like Essar Group’s Aegis BPO, WNS and Capgemini are designing in-house curricula to suit the sector’s requirements while others like Wipro and HCL Technologies are partnering key universities for certified courses.

The broad idea is to help freshers and high-potential employees develop soft skills not generally taught at universities, and simultaneously increase retention rates in an industry that has attrition rates between 30 and 50 per cent. The industry, according to Nasscom estimates, accounts for almost $11 billion and employs slightly over 700,000 professionals (in terms of direct employment).

MANILA, Philippines — Despite the depreciation of the US dollar, the effect on profit margins for business process outsourcing (BPO) companies remains insignificant, according to a top official of PLDT.

A recent survey of BPO executives noted that further depreciation will take its toll on industry competitiveness once it moves down to P37 per dollar.

“The margins are still deeper,” said Ray Espinosa, president and CEO of ePLDT, when asked by INQUIRER.net to comment on the matter at the sidelines of PLDT’s financial briefing this week.

At present, Espinosa estimates BPO companies are still able to deliver 40 to 45 percent operational cost-savings to offshore clients.

ePLDT, the information and communications technology arm of the PLDT Group, reported P2.6 billion in revenues for the first quarter, 85 percent of which is contributed by its BPO businesses Ventus and SPi.

The two companies have a combined employee base of 14,000 located in 22 delivery centers.

The peso appreciation has more impact in its voice-based or call center business where revenues are dollar-denominated. Dollar revenues grew 21 percent but in peso terms the growth is only seven percent.

“But our voice-based business remains promising with new contracts in the pipeline and expansion of existing contracts,” Espinosa said.

ePLDT currently pumps in six percent of PLDT’s total revenues. The goal in the near-term is to increase that share to 10 percent, Espinosa said.      Source/courtesy

Indian IT and BPO sectors will ramp up its staff by four times from its existing workforce of two million to eight million by 2018, with Tier 2/3 cities contributing two million of the target, according to a recent study.

Currently, the top 7 IT-BPO locations in India contribute almost 90% of the workforce, but in a decade’s time, trade body Nasscom and management consultant A T Kearney expects that to move down to 75% and the rest by the other cities.

Full News

Infosys BPO, which started knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services as a part of its BPO offerings four years ago, is aiming to make Gurgaon the hub for its KPO business.

The company is setting up a large centre for ‘knowledge services’, capable of accommodating 800-1,000 people. It will be operational by the end of the current financial year. Currently, Infosys has a team of about 200 people in Gurgaon.

To step up business, Infosys BPO also aims to build new practices within knowledge services and establish near-shore presence. Knowledge services, at present, contribute about 8-10 per cent of Infosys BPO’s annual revenue of around Rs 1,000 crore. Infosys offers KPO services from three centres: Bangalore, Pune and Gurgaon.

Read More

Indian IT and BPO sectors will ramp up its staff by four times from its existing workforce of two million to eight million by 2018, with Tier 2/3 cities contributing two million of the target, according to a recent study.

Currently, the top 7 IT-BPO locations in India contribute almost 90% of the workforce, but in a decade’s time, trade body Nasscom and management consultant A T Kearney expects that to move down to 75% and the rest by the other cities.

Nasscom president Som Mittal is hopeful on the industry to achieve a more even split.

“We prefer other cities apart from the top 7 to contribute about 40% of the workforce over a period of time, so that the ecosystem of non-leader cities can evolve too,” Mittal said.

The study on assessment of 50 Indian cities puts and validates the general perception that Bangalore, National Capital Region, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune belong to the leaders quadrant.

The study states that cities including Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur, Mangalore, Vadodra and Nagpur etc. are vouching for their share of the pie.   –source