MUMBAI, INDIA: The BPO industry captains discussed the ways to overcome the challenges of financial crisis and hoped for the bright future for the industry.

At the second day of the NASSCOM Leadership Forum 2009 in Mumbai, today top leaders from the BPO industry - including Pramod Bhasin, Ganesh Laxminarayan, David Andrews, Kevin Campbell and Peter Bendor Samuel - shared their views on the future of BPO.

Peter Bendor Samuel, Everest Group's founder and CEO, initiated the discussion by raising the point about BPO's future, in the backdrop of the current global economic crisis.

In reply, Ganesh Laxminarayan, vice president, Global Consumer Services and Support, Dell, said, "It's not for the first time recession is happening in the industry. Dell has studied past four recessions, which suggest that even in such recessions there are factors that help you survive."

According to Kevin Campbell, Accenture's group chief executive, outsourcing, "There will always be boom and burst cycle in the economy. And in such situation there's lots of opportunities to look, as top companies are cutting its cost.”

So, from service provider's point, companies should keep its cash in hand, look for growth in new emerging markets and the pricing policies, he added.

Interestingly, Laxminarayan raised the point of captives versus outsourcing and how it should be looked at.

"There needs a strong bench mark whether it is outsourcing or captives and it should be more customer centric, adding values in form of quality of services to drive the business and not just the cost arbitrage.

In downturn, the debate of outsourcing and offshoring is getting vocal, as was evident in the discussion.

Pramod Bhasin, Genpact's president and CEO, suggested that the industry has moved out of the offshoring or onshoring.

"It's the services that matters, which are offered with good communications to our customers. Hence, good services and values will always be in demand and will reflect the industry's future," he said.     

Discussing the industry's future, Campbell said there's need to focus on technology and business models like Saas and Clouding computing and look at sectors like banking, communication and content services.

Adding a new angle, David Andrews, Xchanging's CEO, stressed on quality and high standards for the IT/BPO industry irrespective the boom or slowdown.

"For global success, bank on quality services, values and precision processing, which is required in the banking and insurance sectors," he said.

Moreover, Andrews said it is important for the service providers to invest in technology in downturn as large enterprises like banks would not have enough funds to do.

On the business models, Laxminarayanan suggested that the future in the downturn depends on three factors - cost, moving from transaction model to volume model and investment in front sides.

Concluding the discussion, Everest Group's founder and CEO Peter Bendor Samuel said that in difficult times people need to pick their partners who can deliver the quality and value services.

"Overall there's just three per cent penetration of the industry and still vast to explore. Hence BPO industry needs more innovation, scalability and there's more room for expansion in future."

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