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BPOs have to look for pockets of expertise

BANGALORE: The two-day Nasscom BPO summit concluded here on Tuesday with industry leaders spelling out the path to follow as Indian business process outsourcing companies took to the offshoring model themselves.

“Less than ten years old, the BPO sector now employs seven lakh people, spread over seven cities and each regular job provides indirect employment to four others. World-class working facilities and training are provided but BPOs still face a ‘perception issue’ and it is a ‘frequently bashed sector,” said Pramod Bhasin, Nasscom Vice-Chairman. One reason could be that even compared to the older IT companies, young BPO staffers earn large salaries very fast.

On the ‘going global’ factor, he said Indian BPOs now had to keep their growth momentum by looking for pockets of expertise, whether in other Asian countries, East Europe or Latin America. Besides proximity to clients, Brazil, for instance, had the second largest Japanese speaking population in the world. It made sense of an Indian BPO aiming to increase its client base in Japan to open shop in Brazil.

“Expanding in such counties is like opening units in Hyderabad or Gurgaon. There will be local cultural sensibilities and differences in dealing with the bureaucracy to be considered”.

Shanmugam Nagarajan, co-founder, 24/7, said gaps existed in the training for fresh recruits in BPOs. A beginning had been made by Nasscom, in association with almost 300 colleges and universities in Tamil Nadu; colleges were being helped to have classes which prepare students for BPO jobs by explaining what employers and clients would expect.

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