Gung-ho

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With the US economy in a bearish phase, it is but natural that the Indian outsourcing industry is looking at newer geographies to sustain the growth momentum. It is in this context that the domestic industry is emerging as a lucrative arena for the outsourcing industry as it is one of the few economies in the world which is still growing at a reasonable pace.

However, the challenges of addressing the domestic market are totally different from those of the global market. To brainstorm about these challenges as well as the growth drivers, VOICE&DATA organized a day long event in Delhi on June 5, 2009 and in Mumbai on June 3, 2009.

Delhi Chapter
The Delhi chapter of the event was kick started with a welcome note by Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia, followed by a keynote address by Pramod Bhasin, president and CEO, Genpact. In his address, Bhasin spoke about `Managing the industrial slowdown through domestic BPOs'.

“Domestic BPOs are an emerging opportunity. Telecom, finance, retail, and e-governance are some of the verticals which are likely to be the growth drivers of the industry. However, we will do well to remember that the domestic market is not about cost arbitrage at all. We find the domestic market to be as profitable as international business. The rates may be lower, but the costs are equivalently low, and the flexibility to operate helps in reducing the cost,” Bhasin, in his keynote address said.

The keynote address was followed by a presentation on `Cisco customer interaction network' by Johnson Varkey, UC practice manager at Cisco Systems, and a presentation on `Boosting productivity through effective use of telecom service providers' by Salil Khanna, VP and business head, ITeS, enterprise services at Bharti Airtel.

Session I in Mumbai on 'Technology and solution trends in domestic BPO market' was attended by (L-R) Shrenik Bhayani, senior manager, BD and product management, Orange Business Services; Bobby Joseph, country director-India, Plantronics; Rajendra Sawant, CIO, Adventity; Shaikhali Barodawala, Bharti Airtel; Eyal Kirshner, product marketing manager, Nice Systems; Rajnish Sarna, consultant, BPO industry; Navreet Kaur, head of sales, Unicel

The first panel discussion was on `Technology and solution trends in domestic BPO market'. The session was chaired by Subramanya C, global CTO at Hinduja Global Solutions. The panel discussion was attended by Sanjeev Johari, VP-IT, Omnia BPO; Saurabh Sanghoee, head, consulting and solution integration at Orange Business Services; Navin Joshua, executive director, vCustomer; Arun Bhardwaj, COO, industry verticals, enterprise services at Bharti Airtel; Eyal Kirshner, product marketing manager, Nice Systems; Bobby Joseph, country director, India, Plantronics and Naveen Iyangar, director at Unicel.

“Domestic BPOs have been around for a long time now. The biggest challenge in domestic BPOs is to offer world-class service, which means the best technology, the best-in-class process, etc. And this has to be offered at a price point at which the domestic market is comfortable. The cost management has to be critical,” says Partha De Sarkar, CEO of Hinduja Global Solutions. He delivered the keynote address on `Domestic BPO: service offerings and key challenges'.

The insightful keynote address was followed by a panel discussion on `The next frontier for India's outsourcing industry?'. The discussion was attended by Pavan Bagai, COO, EXL Services; Aniruddha Ganguly, associate COO, Wipro Services; SV Ramana, SR VP-IT, Genpact; Subramany C, global CTO, Hinduja Global Solutions; Yazad Boga, head-IT/ITeS BPO verticals, Tata Communications and Sanjay Sapru, country head, India, Altitude Software. The session was moderated by Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia India.

Session II in Mumbai on 'The next frontier for India's outsourcing industry?' was attended by (L-R): Milind Godbole, president APAC, Adityya Birla Minacs; Noel Thomas, director IT and CISO, Integreon; V Bharathwaj, CMO, 24/7Customer; Sangram Gayal, principal consultant, PWC; Yazad Boga, head-IT/ ITeS/BPO Verticals, Tata Communications; Shyam Sunder, director, Magus Customer Dialog; Sanjay Sapru, country head-India, Altitude Software; Narendra Singh, VP, Data & Voice, Zenta

The discussion centered around the challenges and growth drivers of the domestic BPO market.

A dipstick survey was conducted at the event, in which around thirty people participated. Around 70% of the participants said that they already had a significant BPO business in the country. Besides this, the #1 challenge for conducting business is 'cost and pricing'. The other challenges include getting manpower and business.

Domestic market size is around $1.6 bn and is growing at a CAGR of 31% and is likely to reach $2 bn by 2012. The main challenges of the domestic Indian market are that the industry is very fragmented and the margins are low, believes Yazad Boga, head-IT/ITeS BPO verticals, Tata Communications.

Session I in Delhi on 'Technology and solution trends in domestic BPO market' was attended by (L-R) Naveen Iyengar, director, Unicel; Saurabh Sanghoee, head, consulting and solution integration, India, Orange Business Services; Subramanya C, global CTO, Hinduja Global Solutions; Arun Bhardwaj, COO, industry verticals, enterprise services, Bharti Airtel; Bobby Joseph, country director-India, Plantronics; Eyal Kirshner, product marketing manager, Nice Systems.

Though the industry in general is gung-ho about the domestic BPO market, some companies like EXL Services are still weighing their options. “We haven't got into mainstream domestic BPO. It is a related business, but very different. You cannot extend your existing business model and be successful domestically. We might spin off an ancillary company and have totally different centers,” says Pavan Bagai, COO at EXL Services.


Keynote in Delhi on 'Managing industrial slowdown through domestic BPOs' by Pramod Bhasin, President & CEO, Genpact	Keynote II in Delhi on 'Domestic BPO: service offerings and key challenges' by Partha De Sarkar, CEO, Hinduja Global Solutions


Keynote in Mumbai on 'Managing industrial slowdown through domestic BPOs' by Aparup Sengupta, MD and global CEO, Aegis	Keynote II in Mumbai on 'Domestic BPO: service offerings and challenges' by Safir Adeni, CEO, Sitel India

Mumbai Matinee
In Mumbai, the seventh VOICE&DATA BPO summit was held on June, 3, 2009. The event was started after a brief introduction and welcome address by Baburajan K, executive editor, VOICE&DATA.

The day started with a keynote address by Aparup Sengupta, MD and global CEO, Aegis. He spoke on 'Managing the industrial slowdown through domestic BPOs'.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that the BPO industry was no longer serving international clients only. A lot of business has been coming from the domestic market as well. “The day is not far when international and domestic BPO markets will be on the same level as far as revenue is concerned,” he affirmed. Talking about the growth prospective in India, he revealed that in the next ten years, domestic market size would be equivalent to the international IT/ITeS/BPO market.

Throwing light on the myth surrounding the downturn, Sengupta said, “People think that during the downturn spending on outsourcing is reduced. But actually, outsourcing becomes a more viable option during such times.” A lot of projects which took a back seat during good times, have been seeing daylight now, he pointed out. He also said that another general perception about the downturn was that people cut costs aggressively. “Progressive organizations keep on investing, along with rationalization of costs in order to embark on future train,” he quickly added.

Further Sengupta said that in every challenge, there lay an opportunity. One has to look out for an opportunity for a business model, and reposition products and services and value proposition. However, he cautioned about the challenges in the domestic market. The global CEO and MD said that India was diverse country. The needs of the people are different at different places. India has about fourteen official languages, and foods and dialect change every 100 miles.