Indian ITES-BPO Industry – Fact Sheet
INDIAN ITES-BPO INDUSTRY : NASSCOM ANALYSIS
The Global ITES-BPO Scenario
Indian ITES-BPO continues to grow from strength to strength, witnessing high levels
of activity – both onshore as well as offshore. Continuing pressure on cost bases at a
time of growing competitiveness is driving companies to look at offshore outsourcing
as a strategic alternative. Access to global talent, economies of scale, process
engineering and enhancements, wage arbitrage, increased profit margins and
improvements in quality are some of the gains that companies have realized.
Complementing the growth in ITES-BPO exports was the spurt in domestic demand
for especially in the BFSI and telecom verticals. The industry also witnessed a high
degree of M&A activity involving some of the key players in the sector. In spite of the
consolidation, the share of the top 20 players remained relatively unchanged at
approximately 49 percent of the industry as the rest of the industry also witnessed
impressive growth.
The Indian ITES-BPO Scenario
(US $ bn) 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 E
ITES-BPO 2.7 3.9 5.7
- Exports 2.5 3.6 5.1
- Domestic 0.2 0.3 0.6
Source: NASSCOM
• The Indian ITES-BPO industry is Indian ITES-BPO
(US $ bn)
forecast to grow at approximately
44.4 per cent to US$ 5.7 bn, 5.7
6
including domestic market revenues
5 3.9
of US$ 0.6 bn in FY 2004-05
4
• Indian ITES-BPO exports registered a 2.7
3
growth of 44 per cent in FY 2003-04 2
clocking revenues of US$ 3.6 billion. 1
The Indian ITES-BPO exports are 0
likely to reach revenues of US$ 5.1 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05E
bn in FY 2004-05
• Some of the key drivers of the Indian ITES-BPO industry include:
o Competitive pressures on client organizations
o Ability of Indian vendors to ramp-up operations rapidly
o Widening breadth of services
o Shift towards high-value services
o Sustained cost advantage - In spite of the rising elements of cost, Indian
offshore operations provide cost savings of 40-50 percent
o Delivery process enhancement and improvement
o Access to an abundant skill pool - India has the largest English speaking IT
talent pool in the world - over 120,000 trained IT professionals and
approximately 3 million other graduates are added each year
Indian ITES-BPO Industry – Fact Sheet
• Key markets: The US remains the SERVICE FY 2002-03 FY 2003-04
key market, accounting for over LINE
two-third of the total ITES-BPO
exports from India. Western USD MN EMP REV EMP REV
Europe, primarily the UK, accounts Customer 66,400 830.0 96,000 1,200.0
care
for approximately 20 percent.
• Market segmentation: Customer Payment 12,000 230.0 21,000 430.0
services
care and support services remain
Finance 25,500 540.0 41,000 835.0
the largest segment, accounting
Administration 26,000 325.0 40,000 540.0
for 38 percent of the sector’s
employee base and a third of its HR 2,100 45.0 4,500 75.0
revenues. Finance, administration Content 48,000 510.0 51,000 550.0
development
and content development were the
TOTAL 180,000 2,480 253,500 3,630
next three segments contribution EMP: Number of Employees
23 percent, 14.9 per cent and 15 REV: Export revenues
percent, respectively to the
revenues.
Source: NASSCOM
India’s value proposition
At the core of India’s great attraction as the outsourcing destination is its unbeatable
value proposition – PQR (Productivity, Quality and Rate) factor.
Key drivers of global offshoring, along with India’s strengths are continuing to stoke
the Indian ITES-BPO growth engine. Some of these drivers include:
Focus on margins and cost pressures: Highlights: COPC–QAI study
Outsourcing to India has helped companies • As per the COPC-QAI study,
Indian ITES-BPO providers have a
achieve 40-50% cost savings. Companies are client satisfaction level of more than
also able to generate higher free cash flows 80%
due to reduced investments in physical • Less than 2% of quality fatal
infrastructures, telecom and equipment. defects.
• Telecom reliability rate of less or
Wage arbitrage has also led to increased cost equal to 99%
savings. • Indian ITES-BPO players are
Growing demand for high quality, skilled world class in their offerings as
workforce: India has a large pool of compared to the other countries
• At the bottom most level there
educated, highly skilled, English speaking are some areas of mediocrity, which
manpower. This has placed India favorably needs improvement in terms of End
over other offshore locations, since other than User Satisfaction
wage arbitrage, companies benefit from
improved quality and higher productivity rates
Global quality accreditations: In an increasingly competitive economy,
customers demand and expect highest levels of quality. Indian vendors are
quality centric and have adopted several industry standards such as SEI-
CMM, ISO, TQM, 6 Sigma Quality and COPC. The various quality certification
processes practiced by the players are: COPC; ISO for process mapping; Six-
Sigma initiative for defect and cycle time reduction and eSCM for continuous
quality process enhancement especially for the ITES-BPO players. COPC
quality certification emerged as the most widely accepted certification process
Indian ITES-BPO Industry – Fact Sheet
6 from the top 25 third party players, already having COPC certification and
an encouraging 12 having applied for.
Secured environment for
businesses to operate in: Indian Laws India China Philippines
companies as well as the IPR
Government have been proactive in Copyright √ √ √
taking appropriate steps to tackle Patent Product x x
patents-2005
security concerns. Many Indian DATA PROTECTION
companies are aware of and are Data Comprehensive x x
opting for international security Protection framework-
standards such as ISO 17799, Laws 2004
Vertical x x x
BS7799, COBIT and ITSM. Specific
NASSCOM, with the Indian Laws
government, has laid the foundation CYBER
for the required legal framework. Digital √ √ √
signatures
The IT Act, 2000 includes laws and
Hacking √ √ √
policies concerning data security and Privacy √ √* √
cyber crimes. Other than IT Act, the
Indian Copyright Act of 1972 deals *Privacy laws exist in China, but they are not comprehensive
Source - Evalueserve Analysis
with copyright issues in computer
programs.
Increasing focus on core competencies: The need to focus on core
competencies to remain competitive is driving more companies to offshore
outsourcing. Offshoring helps free up resources and help higher management
focus on core business requirements. Offshoring also allows for access to new
technologies and talent to help strengthen business offerings.
According to the NASSCOM – McKinsey Report, in the long term, the two parameters
that will differentiate the business models of successful ITES-BPO players would be
the level of intellectual property and the breadth of offerings the player specializes
in. Thus four distinct models would emerge:
• Service Factories which would be back end processing arm or third party
services provider for global BPO major
• Process Expert who would be specialists in a process that may or may not be
specific to a vertical like payroll, credit card processing
• Service line aggregator who would specialize in a group of relates processes
like pay roll, benefits in HR and inbound call center
• Bundled Service provider who would provide combined BPO and ITO services
Trends in Indian ITES-BPO market
• Continued market consolidation: The last eighteen months have been a
period of significant market activity for the ITES-BPO sector in India. Coupled
with the growing stock of firms expanding their offshore initiatives in India, the
wave of consolidation as several large M&A deals were scripted in the industry
• High levels of absorption: The rapid growth of Indian ITES-BPO in the last
eighteen months has contributed to a continued mismatch between the demand
and supply of experienced resources in the industry. Consequently employment
generation and attrition levels remain high. Indian ITES-BPO added approx.
74,000 jobs in FY 2003-04 – with the number expected to double in the current
fiscal. Even so, demand for experienced professionals outpaced their supply and
attrition levels in the industry remain between 25-40%
Indian ITES-BPO Industry – Fact Sheet
• Vendor maturity – managing people risk: In spite of the relatively high
people risk – attributed to the high turnover and attrition – Indian companies
displayed increasing maturity as companies deployed innovative employee
retention strategies. These included – employee recognition schemes, career
planning services, educational guidance and assistance and a greater emphasis
on improving the quality of work-life.
• Maturity pricing and engagement models: The maturity of the third-party
model has brought with it a variety of pricing and engagement models. The most
commonly adopted pricing models include: 1) Per-unit time / variable costing
(per seat, per hour, etc.); 2) Per seat or full time employee (FTE) per month;
3) Activity based billing; 4) Gain-share models; 5) Hybrid-pricing models
• Onshore expansion to strengthen global delivery capabilities: According to
Gartner, Indian ITES-BPO companies are acquiring companies in the U.S. and
other locations with several objectives. These include access to a new market
beyond just a toe-hold, with ready resources, clients and revenues, access to a
new set of skills or domain and process expertise in the target market, access to
a new technology or intellectual property and also greater credibility with target
clients, by having a strong local presence beyond just a sales office. This growing
trend further highlights the transformation of offshore outsourcing to global
sourcing.
NASSCOM Initiatives
NASSCOM ITES-BPO Forum
In early part of 2001, with the phenomenal growth of the ITES-BPO industry in India,
there was an increasing realisation on the need to have a separate group that can
address the needs of this market segment.
It was therefore felt that a "NASSCOM's ITES-BPO Forum" under NASSCOM banner
can best serve the dual objectives of addressing the specific needs of the ITES-BPO
industry and at the same time build the India brand in IT Enabled Services.
Initiatives under the NASSCOM ITES-BPO Forum
• HR Strategy Group
In India over the past few years, the ITES industry has been growing rapidly and this
growth has fueled a lot of HR challenges. The biggest challenge of them all is to
manage the ambitious and transient workforce. Moreover, since the industry is pre-
dominantly service oriented the importance of attracting and retaining talent has
become very critical.
Realising the importance of the issue, NASSCOM has initiated focused regional
meetings on HR best practices sharing; under the aegis of NASSCOM ITES-BPO
Forum: HR Strategy Group.
Indian ITES-BPO Industry – Fact Sheet
• Workforce Development for ITES–BPO industry: Assessing and Certifying
Talent
NASSCOM and the ITES-BPO industry at large want to undertake initiatives to help
create a steady pipeline of talent for the industry. As an immediate priority, an
assessment and certification process is to be designed which can provide a credible
standard for ascertaining minimum skills for prospective candidates. Once the
Assessment and Certification framework is in place, develop the course content
aligned with industry needs and create a model for licensing the same to training
providers.
NASSCOM will work with respective stakeholders to develop a long-term strategy for
workforce development, and undertake initiatives to
o Generate a buy-in of various stakeholders viz. concerned government
ministries at the state and national level, formation of nodal agency etc.
o Ideate, plan and facilitate systemic changes in the primary and secondary
education in the country to make the education system more aligned with the
economic trends
• BPO Newsline
BPO Newsline, a monthly newsletter, aims to inform people about the goings on in
the BPO industry—both on home turf and the geographies beyond. The newsletter
serves as a unifying, interactive link between NASSCOM members (Indian BPO
companies), central and state governments, global players and customers.
• BPO Website
NASSCOM has an exclusive website on the BPO industry (www.bpo.nasscom.org)
which highlights India’s value proposition, key issues and challenges and provides a
platform for stakeholders to voice their opinion on the industry. The website has
sections focusing on human resource, process excellence, policies and promoting
India as a favoured BPO destination.
