According to Gartner, the business process outsourcing (BPO) market in India is estimated to grow 19 percent through 2013.
The domestic India BPO services market grew by 7.3 percent year on year in 2009 primarily due to the global economic uncertainty which led to some price and volume pressures.

Gartner estimates the Indian domestic BPO market will grow into a $1.2 billion market by 2011 and grow to $1.8 billion by 2013.

“In the short term, market trends such as changing demographics and affluence levels, consumption of value-based services, increasing focus on service quality and the continued momentum of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) bear watching, as their impact is certain to influence shifts in buyer needs and behavior,” said TJ Singh, research director at Gartner. (more…)

Lines creased Suman Devi’s forehead as she furiously typed on her computer. A project associate with a business process outsourcing (BPO) firm, the 28-year-old is a pro when it comes to back-office work. Nothing unsual about it except that Suman Devi is a simple village woman from Tikli Akilampur a few km from Gurgaon and was barely literate even a few months ago. But all that changed when the country’s first rural BPO which employs only women set shop in the obscure village. The result: The world opened up for 500 village women like Suman Devi who had never stepped out of their houses till the BPO happened.

The BPO was formally inaugurated by Gurgaon deputy commissioner Rajendra Kataria on Monday. It has been started by a company called `Harva’ which aims at empowering women and harnessing rural values. The BPO project involved an initial investment of Rs 30 lakh and currently has several insurance and legal firms as clients including a US-based company for which data-mining is done by these women. (more…)

BPO major Genpact today said it will expand its presence in Romania by acquiring a new facility in the city of Cluj-Napoca.  Encouraged by the availability of local talent, infrastructure and cost-effective operations, Genpact is now building additional capacity in Cluj-Napoca, Genpact said in a statement.

The new Cluj-Napoca facility is expected to be operational by July this year, it added. Genpact started its Romanian operations in 2005 and set up a centre in Cluj-Napoca in 2007, as part of its strategy to invest in tier II cities.

“Over the last two and a half years, the service delivery centre in Cluj-Napoca has expanded its capability to cover the entire spectrum of finance and accounting services,” Genpact’s Site Leader for Cluj, Romania, Ramneesh Mohan said. (more…)

BUSINESS PROCESS out-sourcing (BPO) firm StarTek plans to hire more than 1,000 employees as it continues to expand its second facility in Ortigas.

“StarTek has experienced significant growth in our Makati site. New program commitments from current telecommunications clients and new business opportunities have resulted in our expansion plans,” StarTek Ortigas chief Rod Spires said in a statement yesterday. StarTek’s second facility, which opened last week, can host 2,100 seats.

Mr. Spires said StarTek would be providing training opportunities in the United States to select employees as well as other benefits and financial incentives. The Philippine BPO industry was able to create an additional 70,000 jobs in 2009. The contact center sector had the most employees in 2009 with a total of 280,000 agents. (more…)

Solartis, a provider of insurance policy administration software and services, has announced the expansion of services to now include Business Process Outsourcing targeted to insurance companies and their distribution partners. The Solartis BPO Services are created to focus on behind-the-scenes processing activities like data entry and clearance, quote and proposal development, rating and policy data entry and assembly, electronic filing and document distribution.

Customers can experience such benefits as more time for underwriting and customer service, improved turn-around time and a minimum of a 33 percent reduction in administrative costs. With this cut in the cost of necessary activities, insurance providers can focus more on driving profits and ultimately delivering a better value to the end customer.

“Expanding into Insurance BPO was a natural extension of our automation and consulting work. BPO reduces ongoing administrative costs without changing technology platforms or modifying business processes,” said Solartis President Nick Richardson (News - Alert), in a statement. (more…)