BPO News and Happenings

• Indian BPO Provider Survey
  

• BPO security: Rules Vs relationships
  The spate of news articles and television footage on security in the BPO industry is indeed worrisome. The intensity of coverage seems to be increasing and sting operations have become the tools of choice, as they tend to get highlighted. The question is, why do these things happen in India? Are people in the US and UK out to ‘get us’?
  

• Logistics Outsourcing on the Home Front
  "There's new emphasis on compliance in import and export," Gar Grannell, president of Mohawk Global Logistics says. "And since 9/11, security, of course, is the hot button and rightfully so. There [are] all kinds of new programs coming out that are meant to help secure the supply chain coming into the United States."
  

• United States to look beyond IT, BPO in India
  The US Ambassador to India David Mulford today said American investors are interested in sectors like financial services, telecom, auto and pharmaceuticals beyond Information Technology and Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) in India.
  

• India No. 2 destination for clinical trial outsourcing
  A recent global study conducted by consulting firm AT Kearney says that India is the second most preferred destination for outsourcing of clinical trials for the pharma industry. China tops the list and Russia figures as a close third. The study was done across 15 countries and saw India scoring with a large patient pool, faster enrollment and low cost.
  

• Most Africans have an ID thanks to Delhi based Contec Global
  Here’s another dimension of outsourcing and it concerns citizens’ most critical document for international travel — the passport. Though it’s not about passports of Indian nationals but those from the African countries.
  

• Kuoni takes visa facilitation BPO model abroad
  World's largest travel company Kuoni Travel Group is betting big on VFS India, a visa facilitation BPO arm it started in India. Buoyed by rich dividends from VFS, Kuoni is integrating its wholly-owned Indian BPO subsidiary with its international network. “We have renamed the company as VFS Global Services and would use it as a vehicle to set up subsidiaries in other countries worldwide,” VFS COO Sanjay Bhaduri said.
  

• Nasscom sees 33% growth for IT, ITeS
  Nasscom has released its forecast for the Indian IT and BPO industry. The industry association has predicted a growth rate of 32.6% growth in total software and BPO export revenues, marginally lower than the growth of 33.3% in FY06. The industry is forecast to touch $31.3 billion in exports in FY07 compared to $23.6 billion in FY06. If the local software and BPO industry revenues are also taken into the account, revenues will likely touch $39.7 billion in FY07, and if IT hardware sales are also included, the total revenues will touch $47.8 billion in FY07.
  

• GramIT: Taking BPO services to villages
  The village of Ethakota in India's Andhra Pradesh state hardly looks like a place that has been transformed by the Information Revolution.
  

• Wipro back on BPO deal street with $50-m chest
  More than four years after it acquired Spectramind, Indian IT services giant Wipro is scouting for buy-outs of up to $50 million in healthcare, travel, and finance and accounting space.
  

• Kuoni takes visa facilitation BPO model abroad
  World’s largest travel company Kuoni Travel Group is betting big on VFS India, a visa facilitation BPO arm it started in India. Buoyed by rich dividends from VFS, Kuoni is integrating its wholly-owned, Indian BPO subsidiary with its international network.
  

• UK Outsourcing Giant Vertex Acquired by US Equity Firms
  A group of U.S.-based private equity firms has purchased UK-based business process outsourcing firm Vertex Data Science for $426 million. The purchase includes cash, the repayment of intragroup debt and certain liabilities of Vertex. Completion of the sale is expected by the end of March. Vertex also handles a large number of government contracts in the UK that are unlikely to move offshore.
  

• TCS, Infy, Wipro lead India's BPO charge
  While globally IT firms witnessed an overall drop in new outsourcing contracts in 2006, Indian companies -- such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro -- bucked the trend with a sharp jump of over 14 times in their market share in the past four years, a new study shows.
  

• Hedge funds a BPO opportunity for India
  Hedge funds operating in the US and other parts of the world provide a good business process outsourcing opportunity for India, given the business model of the funds shifting their assets from one market to another, experts have said.
  

• Aircel launches WiMAX in Bangalore, targets ITeS firms
  Aircel Business Solutions (ABS), today announced the launch of wireless Internet services through Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) in Bangalore.
  

• Vashistha is the HRO superstar 2007
  Tholons, a Washington, D.C.-based Investment, Advisory and Management Firm for IT, Business and Knowledge Services Globalization today announced that Avinash Vashistha, CEO and managing partner has been chosen as HRO Superstar.
  

• Singapore Airlines, Wipro discuss BPO deal
  Singapore International Airlines is in talks with the Bangalore-based Wipro Limited to outsource reservations call centre functions from Australia, New Zealand, United States, Canada and possibly UK, over the next one year to a centre in Mumbai. This is part of a trend where several international airlines such as British Airways, Lufthansa, American Airlines, United Airways have already outsourced their reservation services to India as part of their cost cutting drive.
  

• UnitedLex Corporation plans expansion
  Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) firm UnitedLex Corporation has said it plans to embark on a major offshore expansion in India, increasing its headcount from the existing 50 professionals to 500 in the next three years.
  

• SlashSupport wins Nortel tech services deal
  SlashSupport, a business process outsourcing firm, has won a three-year, multi-million dollar deal from communication equipment major Nortel to provide technology support services from its Chennai operations.
  

• US-based LPO firm sets up centre in Gurgaon
  US-based legal process outsourcing firm, UnitedLex, has launched its first offshore delivery centre in India, to serve its clients in North America and Europe and would employ 500 people in the next three years.
  

• BPO unit helps improve operating margins
  The business process outsourcing (BPO) division of Wipro Technologies continues to gain traction and is expanding its service line while also helping the software services major boost its operating margins. For the third quarter of the current fiscal, Wipro BPO unit reported revenues of Rs 235.8 crore, showing a sequential growth of 2.5% in rupee terms and 7.1% in dollar terms. On a year-on-year (Y-o-Y) basis, revenues grew by 24%.
  

• Legal-IP Service provider Pangea3 scouts for IITians
  By 2016, it is estimated that 60% of all legal work, including patent prosecution, would be outsourced to India. The big business opportunity has led companies like Pangea3 to scout for talent beyond the legal fraternity.
  

• Bangalore is truly a jobseekers heaven!
  When it comes to hiring in India, Bangalore is the place to be, it seems. The city remains the favourite destination for jobseekers, with a sharp 7% net increase in hiring outlook for the January-March quarter over the previous quarter, according to staffing major TeamLease. And obviously, hiring in the Silicon City of India is led by IT and ITeS sectors.
  

• Infosys BPO sees fall in attrition
  Infosys’s decision to change the branding and name of its business process outsourcing division from Progeon to Infosys BPO in Q2 2007, seems to have paid off for the company.
  

• Plugging Financial Data Leaks
  Smaller financial services firms have found that the Internet lets them compete with larger financial institutions outside their branch footprints. However, smaller financial institutions are now also contending with phishing attacks, internal fraud and outside hackers just like their larger competitors.
  

• 24/7 Call Center Reps
  unning a 24/7 call center is expensive, which is why many companies have outsourced operations overseas. According to Celent, a Boston-based consulting firm, it costs $6.85 per call to serve a customer compared with $4.95 for e-mail and 50 cents by Internet. Banks on average spend more than $5,000 to hire and train one agent.
  

• The Outsourcing Migration to the Outskirts
  The village of Ethakota in India's Andhra Pradesh state hardly looks like a place that has been transformed by the Information Revolution. To get there, you take a 10-hour train ride from Hyderabad -- the nearest big city -- then drive an hour on narrow roads past rice paddies, coconut groves and ponds teeming with prawns and crabs. The village itSelf Funded is a collection of simple brick houses and thatch-roof huts.
  

• Aviva to transfer 2,900 BPO staff to offshore division
  The UK-based insurance giant Aviva plans to transfer 2,900 employees from its third party BPO partners, EXL and WNS, to its own offshore division - Aviva Global Services, in the current calendar year, a company executive said on Friday.
  

• Outsourcing: Huge cost savings for US cos
  A vast majority of software companies are able to realise between 80 to 100 per cent of their cost savings goals from offshoring, according to a survey.
  

• BPO gets fishy
  After IT outsourcing, it's turn of outsourcing of seafood products from India, according to Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh. ''If we can outsource IT products, why cannot we outsource seafood products'', asked the minister.
  

• Rakesh Jhunjhunwala picks up stake in Inventurus
  Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has picked up a stake in the Mumbai-based Inventurus Knowledge Solutions for $5.5 million. Inventurus is a start-up BPO company, focusing on healthcare and legal process outsourcing.
  

• Revenue officials should refrain from targeting captive BPOs
  The transfer pricing (TP) audits for the third year have just concluded. One of the soft targets of the revenue authorities in the TP audits has been captive IT & BPO companies of foreign MNCs. Indian economy’s phenomenal growth in the recent past has been primarily fuelled by the services sector comprising mainly of IT & BPO companies.
  

• CRM 2.0
  Many people in the CRM business are coming or have come to the conclusion that the CRM that grew out of the 1990s has exceeded its useful life. I am among them. The business climate is different, the economy is different, the types and kinds of products that companies are making are different. In short, CRM 1.0 has not exactly kept up with the changing times.
  

• US Healthcare Outsourcing Grows by 150 Percent Yearly
  Medical services outsourcing from the United States has seen a compound annual growth rate of 150 percent in the last two years. Outsourcing in the healthcare sector has come a long way -- from low-end claims processing and medical transcription to medical analytics and clinical processing.
  

• Infosys BPO and HVS International
  Infosys BPO, the business process outsourcing subsidiary of Infosys Technologies, and HVS International, a leading New York based consultancy offering valuation and other services to the hotel, restaurant, shared ownership, gaming, and leisure industries, have announced a strategic alliance to offer outsourcing solutions in the hospitality industry.
  

• Hinduja TMT acquires AFFINA for $30 mn
  Hinduja TMT Ltd on January 09, 2007 has announced that it has completed the acquisition of the multi-city US-based BPO company, AFFINA, for a consideration of $30 million, including earn-outs.
  

• IT majors outsource work to US company
  Signalling a reverse outsourcing trend, many Indian IT firms with their operations spread across the US and Europe are now outsourcing a part of their administrative work in the US to a US-based firm Hanna Global Solutions.
  

• Healthcare outsourcing now $300m biz, growing at 150%
  Outsourcing in the healthcare sector has come a long way — from low-end claims processing and medical transcription to medical analytics and clinical processing. The US healthcare industry outsources to India not only its medical billing and insurance processes, but also data analysis and software development.
  
  

• It's family first at tech cos & BPOs
  Not many companies find fame in office cafeterias. But it was at just such a venue that Ness Technologies’ decision to “make the first job offer to an employable spouse” of an onsite employee found favour. “If a Ness employee is being sent onsite and has an employable spouse, as a policy, Ness always makes the first job offer. We also retrain the person if necessary,” says Sudhir Singh, VP (HR), Ness Technologies.
  

• Cobra Legal Solutions enters into Chennai
  If Clarvolex, Paneaga and Intellevate are the top MNCs that are in Noida to tap the legal process outsourcing (LPO) opportunity in India, then the entry of Cobra Legal Solutions (CLS) into Chennai, is expected to mark the rush of many legal firms, vying for a share of the $ 250 billion global LPO pie.
  

• Firstsource buys US firm BPM for $30 million
  Firstsource Solutions (formerly ICICI OneSource), a business process outsourcing company, on Thursday acquired BPM - a Delaware-based healthcare claims' outsourcing company.
  

• Banking BPO to Reach $6.7 Billion by 2011
  Core banking BPO -- once largely localized -- is becoming more global for a variety of reasons, according to a new report. Banks in all geographies are realigning the mix of banking products serviced, usually as a result of rapidly changing consumer demand. Also, more emerging economies are adopting the use of banking services and vendors are being forced to adapt.
  

• Convergys Purchases AOL Contact Center
  The human resources and billing services firm Convergys has acquired a contact center in Albuquerque, N.M., that was formerly owned by Time Warner subsidary AOL. The company said it would offer as many jobs as possible to the facility's 800 employees. AOL announced last fall that it intended to close the facility as part of a restructuring plan.
  

• Avoiding Common Outsourcing Pitfalls
  A global sourcing operation can be a highly complex, detail oriented process. For many firms, a profitable global sourcing operation can mean the difference between long term success or mediocre performance. Companies have invested millions in procurement software, in human resources and training to make sure they get it right. Too often, though, they still get it wrong.
  

• Live Chat Customer Service: End of the 'I'm on Hold' Era
  Big companies such as Verizon Communications, Microsoft and Cingular also offer live chat customer service. For tech-savvy consumers, live chat not only offers immediacy not found in e-mail but also eliminates the possibility of "listening to bad music" while on hold, said Jack Aaronson, chief executive officer of New York consulting firm The Aaronson Group.