Genpact company is eyeing around 30 outsourcing deals in India across sectors like manufacturing, telecom, utilities and financial services, according to the company’s president and CEO Pramod Bhasin. The country’s largest BPO firm by sales has also zeroed in on China, Japan and West Asia as growth markets. The country’s BPO market, valued at $1.3 billion, is expected to grow by 40% in 2009. “The domestic market is very receptive towards outsourcing. Deal sizes, however, remain small, ranging between $1 million and $5 million,” Mr Bhasin said.

IT-BPO companies ignored the home turf in the past due to lower margins as there is no significant cost advantage in catering to a domestic firm. In contrast, cost differentials can go up to 50% while servicing foreign firms.

With the slowdown hitting business in developed markets, companies have now turned their attention homeward.
Mr Bhasin said margins in the domestic market are becoming comparable to those overseas. Genpact’s operating margin hovers around 17%. “We don’t have high telecom and other infrastructure costs in India and we can work out of smaller towns, thus saving further,” he said. (more…)