India to emerge leader in the KPO market
Business Process Outsourcing or BPO was the buzzword a few years ago. India emerged leader of the same with 70% share of the global BPO market. Now the trend is shifting towards Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO. KPO involves offshoring of knowledge intensive business processes that require specialized domain expertise, thus delivering high value to organizations by providing business expertise rather than just process expertise. It is estimated that by 2010, the size of the KPO industry would be worth $17 billion globally, out of which India would hog almost $12bn. Nasscom and Evalueserve estimate that by 2010, 300,000 jobs would be created in the KPO space and 70% of these jobs are expected to come to India. However, the KPO industry will have to wade through many challenges to keep up the expectations and predictions for its bright future. One of the major problems faced by the KPO industry is the dearth of skilled manpower with domain expertise. “Raw talent is available in plenty but an experienced talent pool is what is lacking in India,” says Amanjeet Saluja of Inductis. “Getting the right people, the right scale, at the right price is tough in India,” adds Anurag Srivastava of WNS. Another challenge is the high attrition rates. “The industry is still evolving and lots of poaching is going on to tap the limited manpower,” feels Saluja. Apart from internal problems like dearth of skilled manpower and attrition rates, there are also issues involving the client’s comfort regarding offshoring, data security and confidentiality. The client’s expectations and quality requirements with regards to KPO are very high. Also the client conversion and development takes longer compared to other processes. If India wants to get 70% of KPO jobs by 2010, then serious intervention at the educational level and investment in training are imperative. Strategic alliances between companies and training institutes to enhance training programmes and minimise the lead-time to get a person trained should be welcomed.
