Domestic market lures BPO Cos

Pragati Simlote

NEW DELHI: A number of players are now gearing up to tap the potential of the emerging BPO market in India.

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) has predicting a growth of 40 per cent year-on-year in the domestic BPO market. According to NASSCOM, domestic market revenues grew 24 per cent in the FY 04-05. The market's untapped but significant potential, rapid adoption and small base is likely to result in high growth rate.

NASSCOM president Kiran Karnik said, “The rapid growth of the Indian ITeS sector has been one of the biggest success stories of the Indian economy. Growth in domestic outsourcing is surely going to provide good business and excellent employment opportunities, particularly in Tier II cities, thereby denting the digital divide.”

Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd has already signed a Rs 1,000 crore deal, the largest in the domestic market, to outsource its call center operations. The deal is split among four players, viz., IBM Daksh, Teletech, Hinduja TMT (HTMT) and MphasiS.

MphasiS believes that the NASSCOM numbers are realistic for top Indian BPO companies.

MphasiS president Bhaskar Menon said, “We plan to have 1,500 seats by March 2006 to cater to the domestic market. We currently have three domestic BPO clients in the banking, telecom and airlines space.” The company has over 9,500 professionals spread across 23 offices and nine software development and five BPO centers worldwide.

HTMT also plans to increase its focus on the domestic market. The company expects to up its domestic BPO headcount to around 1,700 professionals by the end of the next quarter.

Partha Sarkar, HTMT ITeS COO, said, “For the Airtel deal, we will be hiring around 1,000 professionals in the next couple of months in our Hyderabad and Chennai facilities. The company is planning to open two more centers, one each in Kolkata and Delhi. We expect to employ around 1,000 professionals in the Kolkata facility by March 2007.”

IBM Daksh has stepped into the domestic BPO market with the Airtel deal. The company plans to target verticals such as telecom, BFSI and travel and hospitality for growth in this sector.