Knowledge Process Outsourcing MARKET & OPPORTUNITIES
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Knowledge Process Outsourcing MARKET & OPPORTUNITIES Knowledge Process Outsourcing MARKET & OPPORTUNITIES CONTENTS KPO Industry in India 2 Market Size and Growth Trends of the KPO industry 9 Emerging Trends 12 India Advantage 13 Major KPO Hubs in India 16 A report by Evalueserve for IBEF 2 MARKET & OPPORTUNITIES KPO Industry in India Indian KPO Industry – Evolution sent to the client. In contrast a KPO vendor functions at a different level viz, as follows: KPO focuses on delivering The evolutionary phases of the Indian KPO industry are very value-added services to the clients. Its prime objective is to similar to that of the Indian IT industry. Activities related to provide clients with useful insights that may assist them in IT offshoring/outsourcing commenced in India in the late their strategic decision making process. 1980s. During this period, foreign companies such as IBM, • KPO companies provide knowledge-intensive work and Texas Instrument, Motorola, HP, etc preferred establishing engage highly skilled professionals such as MBAs, CAs, captive centres in India. A few third-party players were also CFAs, engineers, PhDs, doctors, lawyers, etc. active in India during this period. Subsequently, the number • Training is an essential component of the KPO industry. of IT vendors in India increased with more companies As the market is highly dynamic, one has to keep abreast venturing into IT. The Nascent KPO industry is following with the latest trends, technologies and developments. the footsteps of the IT industry. Both industries started with KPO professionals continuously hone their skills through captives, and subsequently saw the rise of vendors. rigorous training plans. KPO will follow the IT model with a time lag of 10 years. • Hourly charge rates for KPO services are significantly higher. The number of players in the KPO domain is also Evolution of IT and KPO Industries in India less as compared to the BPO industry. This results in less Indian vendors surpass congestion in the KPO market, which eventually translates Globalisation captives and domain into better profit margins. specialisation Overall, KPO creates value for the client by focussing on Rise of of services Indian KPO domain expertise rather than process expertise. Arrival of vendors Western captives Indian vendors KPO Services vs BPO Services - A Comparison between Expansion surpass Different Industry Segments of Indian captives Rise of Vendors Indian BPO KPO Arrival of vendors Western Insurance Contract centre Claim analysis Underwriting Captives and customer and asset support management 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 Consulting Back office Global research Synthesised support reports n IT Industry n KPO Industry to clients Source: Evalueserve I-Bank Settlement Financial Equity research analytics Pharma/ Contact centre Patent design IP portfolio Although KPO and BPO sound synonymous, they are Healthcare and customer analytics support involved in activities which are completely different. In the Telecom/ Contact centre Analytics Strategy BPO sector, the vendor acquires a process from the end- Retail/etc. and customer research client and runs it at its site until the process reaches its support logical conclusion, after which the results, if any, are then Source: Evalueserve KnoWLEDGE ProCess OutsourCinG 3 Value Proposition of KPO company. The investment required to establish a captive centre is incurred by the parent company. As the capital The increasing competition in global businesses has investment involved (in establishing a captive centre) is resulted in a smaller cycle time for introducing products large and the payback period is also high, these set-ups and services. With customers demanding high-quality are generally established only by large MNCs. Moreover, services, enterprises are forced to adopt systems and the scalability of the captive centre is dependant on the business models that will not only provide operational amount of work, which is generally low as the centre caters efficiency, but also add strategic value to their products and solely to the requirements of the parent company. services. This is where KPO helps enterprises by enabling • Examples of prominent captives in India include Goldman companies to reduce design-to-market lead times; manage Sachs, Morgan Stanley, McKinsey, JP Morgan, UBS, critical hardware efficiently; provide research on markets, Deutsche Bank, etc. competition, products and services; enhance organisational • Lack of adequate management integration and effectiveness in business administration; and help in dealing management support with rapidly evolving business scenarios. Customisation enhances the value proposition of KPO. Third-party Service Providers (Third-party players) KPO Services and Value Creation Since the cost associated with captive centres is high, especially if the volume of work is not large, third-party Profits 20% Value Creation Other Variable 32% Costs 35-40% service providers offer a viable option to companies. A number of large and small companies are working as Profits 20% Variable Employees third-party services providers and supplementing KPO Costs 60% 35% services from India. One of the key benefits of third-party Variable Costs 30% Profits 15-25% service vendors is that operations can be ramped up as and when required. At the same time, third-party vendors Fixed Cost 20% Fixed Cost 18% offer greater flexibility and customisation to clients. Some Before Outsourcing After Outsourcing KPO Vendor of the companies operating on this service model include Evalueserve, Irevna, Aranca, etc. CLIENT Source: Evalueserve Since KPO services involve the assimilation and dissemination of sensitive information, clients place great Companies outsourcing work to a KPO vendor can help emphasis on data security and other data confidentiality save costs up to 32 per cent on revenues, assuming that the parameters. Third-party service providers address these profit margin remains constant. concerns by formulating service-level agreements with clients and certifying their process under quality audits Business Model such as ISO 27001. Indian KPO vendors operate mainly through three business Virtual Captives models, i.e., captives, third-party and virtual. The selection of a business model depends on many parameters such Virtual captive centres have both the functionality of as the complexity of the work, internal competency levels, captives and third party service providers. It is a hybrid nature of business (core or non-core) and costs involved. business model. There is no upfront investment undertaken by the parent company in establishing the centre as in a Captive Centres captive centre. This centre acts as an overseas resource centre for a client in the third-party service provider setup. In a captive centre set-up, a multinational company The major advantage of virtual captive is that, it provides establishes its dedicated operations in countries offering higher quality of services involving higher transparency, high talent availability and low cost of operations. Captive control and security. The clients are usually willing to pay a centres cater only to the requirements of the parent premium for virtual captive services. MARKET & OPPORTUNITIES Indian KPO industry is witnessing a significant growth The following are some of the major services that are of third-party service providers with respect to captives. currently being provided by KPO players: The prominent reasons include the range of services, cost advantage and scalability which is driving higher growth of With India becoming an important player in the KPO industry, the range of services being outsourced is Knowledge Process Outsourcing Business Models in India continuously increasing. HIGH • Data management, search and analytics • Contract research and biotech. Third-party Virtual Captives • Engineering design Service Captives • Remote education and publishing Provicers • Animation and gaming services • Banking, securities and insurance • Market research and competitive intelligence • Scientific and medical content publishing • Business and consulting research LOW LOW Management Control HIGH • Network optimisation and analytics Source : Evalueserve • Legal research and IP • Translation and localisation third-party service providers. According to a study by Everest • Remote logistics services and procurement Research Institute, third-party service providers are 5 to 15 per • Human resource research and analytics cent less expensive than their captive peers, in terms of the • Marketing and sales support total cost of operations. The seven largest segments of the KPO industry in terms Major Segments of KPO Industry of revenue are described below: The Indian KPO industry is estimated to be worth US$ 3.05 Data Management, Search and Analytics billion in 2006-07. Indian players provide a wide range of solutions to diverse industry segments such as FMCG, Data Management, search and analytics services include engineering, automobile, telecom, R&D, banking and information regarding the market, competition, products financial services, insurance, etc. It is expected that in the and services, customers, etc. These services assist clients in coming years both the volume and complexity of the work gaining a better understanding of their business issues and being outsourced to Indian KPO players will increase. developing effective solutions to mitigate these. This service segment is availed by a large number of clients across KPO Services Outsourced