MUMBAI: If Indian BPO and IT enabled services companies don't reach fast enough, they might see themselves in a war-like situation sooner than later. Why? Because, despite India's experience in software development, there is very little knowledge among the captains of the industry about the value of Intellectual Property and how it is a powerful weapon to retain edge in a competitive marketplace.

While the paranoia is focused around China and its lower cost, the fact is that China could patent processes for delivering BPO and IT-enabled services, and shift the dynamics entirely. Indian companies could find themselves fighting a battle with Chinese companies in the US!

Says Alok Agarwal, Founder and Chairman of Evaluserve, a company offering expert knowledge services including patent processing, "our BPO and IT enabled services companies are focused strictly on growth, and are not seeing the implications of not owning IP around their service business. We could see all of that going at one go."

More significantly, the low end of the BPO and IT enabled business, which is where the majority of Indian companies are concentrated, is also in danger of being affected because of the sheer monotony of the job and tweaking with the normal biological clock of people.

According to Agarwal, "India may not get the numbers as indicated by Nasscom from BPO and IT-enabled services. As health problems arising from tampering with the biological clock of the employees, become more pronounced the lure of BPO and IT-enabled services will go away. And unless we are prepared with proper patented processes, it could hurt Indian companies in a big way." Clearly, it is not something that is expected to happen tomorrow, but one can surely expect it in 5 years, unless otherwise prepared.