Indian BPO mkt to grow 25 p.c in 2010: Gartner

MUMBAI, INDIA: According to Gartner, the business process outsourcing (BPO) market in India is estimated to grow 19 per cent through 2013. The domestic India BPO services market grew by 7.3 per cent year on year in 2009 primarily due to the global economic uncertainty which led to some price and volume pressures, a study conducted by the research firm said.

Gartner estimates the Indian domestic BPO market will grow to become a $1.2 billion market by 2011 and a $1.8 billion market by 2013.

“In the short term, market trends such as changing demographics and affluence levels, consumption of value-based services, increasing focus on service quality and the continued momentum of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) bear watching, as their impact is certain to influence shifts in buyer needs and behavior,” said T.J. Singh, research director at Gartner.

The BPO services market in Asia/Pacific and Japan consists of a mix of multinationals, regional and local BPO and IT services providers and telecom vendors. Changing demographics, focus on service quality and increasing affluence in Asia/Pacific continues to drive shared services and BPO adoption, especially in Australia, India, Southeast Asia and China, the study added.

There is also a growing demand for multi-country shared services and BPO services within Asia/Pacific. The year 2009 saw significant consolidation in the global and regional BPO market, with some large M&A deals impacting regional BPO deals.

The Indian domestic BPO market is one of the high-growth services segment and has now become more organized, according to Gartner. Some local providers in the domestic market include (in alphabetical order) Aditya Birla Minacs, Aegis BPO, Andromeda , Firstsource, HTMT, Infovision, KPIT Infosystems, Magus Customer Dialogue, Wipro, TCS, Tech Mahindra and, 3i-Infotech.

“In the last two years, many established Indian BPO providers and some of the Multi National Corporation (MNC) service providers focusing primarily on the international offshore services market have shifted greater focus and investments to the Indian domestic market,” said Singh.

“The economic slowdown accentuated this phenomenon. Service providers focusing solely on the international offshore services market recognized the potential in the Indian BPO market, which grew during the slowdown phase. The large and midsize players have now stepped up their activities,” he added.

Gartner also said there has been a major shift in CEO priorities from early in 2009 with top priorities switching from cutting costs to retaining customers and enhancing existing relationships.

Through 2015, a recession-era mentality among CEOs will ensure a policy of paying for future investments from the cost savings obtained from existing IT operations, it said.

“From the CEO’s perspective, growing confidence that is tempered by business caution will result in an aggressiveness to harvest the successes of the past through improved productivity,” said Jorge Lopez, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “At the same time, CEOs are taking those returns and investing them in building a future that can deliver high returns.

Said Mark Raskino, vice president and Gartner fellow, “CEOs are maintaining tight cost control to deliver better margins and more cash to cope with the continuing economic turbulence.”