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.

Session II in Delhi on 'The next frontier for India's outsourcing industry?' was attended by (L-R): Sanjay Sapru, country head-India, Altitude Software; Yazad Boga, head- IT/ ITeS/BPO verticals, Tata Communications; Pavan Bagai, COO, EXL Services; Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia India; Aniruddha Ganguly, associate COO, Wipro BPO; S V Ramana, senior VP- IT, Genpact; Subramanya C, global CTO, Hinduja Global Solutions

Before the first panel discussion, Johnson Varkey, UC practice manager, Cisco Systems spoke on Cisco's customer interaction network. It was followed by a lecture by Salil Khanna, VP-ITeS, enterprise services, Bharti Airtel, on 'Boosting productivity through effective use of telecom service providers'.

Welcome Note by Prasanto K Roy, chief editor, CyberMedia India	Johnson Varkey, UC practice manager,Cisco Systems making a presentation on 'Cisco Customer Interaction Network'

Salil Khanna, VP & Business Head - ITES, enterprise services, Bharti Airtel is making a presentation on 'Boosting Productivity through Effective Use of telecom service providers'	Welcome note by Baburajan K, executive editor, VOICE&DATA

The first panel discussion on technology and solution trends in domestic BPO market was chaired by Rajendra Sawant, CIO, Adventity. The panel included Rajnish Sarna, consultant, BPO industry, Shaikhali Baroadwala, Airtel. On the other hand,  Eyal Kirshner, product marketing manager, Nice Systems threw light on 'Driving operational efficiency and reducing cost', while Bobby Joseph country director-India, Plantraonics spoke on 'The clear call'. Similarly, Navreet Kaur, head- sales, Unicel briefed the audience on 'Enterprise solutions through mobile telephony', and Shrenik Bhayani, senior manager, BD and product management, Orange Business Services on 'Doing more with less recession smart solutions'.

The second keynote address was delivered by Safir Adeni, CEO, Sitel India. Adeni spoke on 'Domestic BPO; services offerings and challenges'.

The last session of the day was on 'The next frontier for India's outsourcing industry?' In the session, the panelist discussed about the opportunity in domestic BPOs and the ways to tap it. Technologies for the BPO industry and how they help improve the efficiency of the employees were also discussed. The most debated issue during the discussion was on the challenges against the domestic market and how they could be handled, especially during the slowdown.

The session was moderated by Sangram Gayal, principal consultant, PWC. The panelists included Milid Godbole, president APAC, Adityya Birla Minacs; Shayam Sunder, director, Magnus Customer Dialog; V Bharathwaj, CMO, 24/7 Customer; Noel Thomas, director, IT and CISCO, Integreon; Nadendra Singh, VP, data and voice, Zenta; Yazad Boga, head, IT/ITeS/BPO, Tata Communications; and Sanjay Sapru, country head-India, Altitude Software.

Clearly, the domestic market is the next growth driver for the Indian outsourcing industry and companies are going out to garner the maximum share of this market.

Gagandeep Kaur/ Akhilesh Shukla
gagandeepk@cybermedia.co.in