SPECIAL ISSUE

Analytics: The emerging area in KPO

- - Deepak Kumar

The article talks about Analytics, an emerging area in KPO. It points out the differentiating areas and the factors favoring KPO. The article concludes that there is a tremendous opportunity for India to explore this area as it has the people with right attitude and skillset for the same.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

High-end KPO : The buck starts here

- - Amit Singh Sisodiya

The global KPO industry is estimated to grow from just over a billion dollar to $17 bn by 2010, of which high-end knowledge intensive processes are going to account for a major chunk. However, issues such as a looming talent crunch, shrinking cost arbitrage, high employee attrition, and importantly rising competition from rivals like Russia and China among others could play spoilsport.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

Outsourcing in financial services Mitigating the risk

- - Krishna Kishore Puranam

Being information-based, financial services industry is well-suited to offshore outsourcing. Outsourcing has the potential to transfer the risk management and compliance to third parties who may not be regulated. The risks involved in financial outsourcing are high, but so are the rewards.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

Retaining knowledge workers : Is outsourcing an option for a CEO?

- - Rajnandan Patnaik

Retaining employees has been a matter of concern for all CEOs. It has also been a subject that has attracted a lot of academic and industry research. Employee motivation is largely accepted as a good practice to retain employees with varied degrees of success in different fields. Similarly, motivating knowledge workers efficiently to retain them sounds an obvious practice. However, knowledge workers have different needs and respond differently to various motivational initiatives. One of the major responsibilities of a CEO is to retain his employees, and more so in the case of knowledge workers, which may be tricky. If retaining knowledge workers is difficult, then is (knowledge process) outsourcing an option left for a CEO to act on? This article discusses the proposed question, keeping the natural objectives of the knowledge personnel, the company, and the CEO in mind.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved.

SPECIAL ISSUE

Knowledge Process Offshoring : Moving up the knowledge continuum

- - Amy Sonpal

KPO is about offshoring the core processes of the organization to the foreign country. This can be beneficial to the companies as it will help in value addition by a multi-cultural judgment and input by knowledge workers having global perspective. But risk involved in offshoring the core processes is much higher. The quality of services should not suffer. The competency or the judgment of the knowledge worker would be crucial for protecting the offshoring organizations goodwill, market share and image.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry in India : Another viewpoint

- - Prof. Rajeev Bhide

Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) requires third parties to perform unscripted knowledge-intensive tasks like business research, equity research and credit analysis. To perform such tasks, third-party service providers also need to have analytical judgment and decision-making skills in addition to the requisite domain expertise. American and European businesses have been savvy enough to leverage the strengths of the Indian service providers to spruce up their operational efficiencies, address issues arising from peak demand imbalances and unlock capital to deploy it in more profitable applications like innovation and brand building.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

Rapid evolution of global knowledge industry : An opportunity to be encashed by Indian entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs

- - KVSS Narayana Rao

The Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry, with a forecast of growth from $120 mn in 2003 to $12 bn by 2010 in India, is a very attractive business opportunity for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs of India. This business opportunity is explored by leading consultancy organizations like PwC, KPMG, and Deloitte Touché etc., and they all came out with reports supporting the scope. Entrepreneurs will have consultancy support to evaluate the feasibility of setting up a business in this activity with the skills and resources at their command.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

HR issues in the KPO/BPO industry

- - Prof. Arunachal Khosla

The rapid growth in the KPO and BPO industry has made the jobs in the industry more demanding and put even more pressure on the human resources employed with them. The jobs in this industry are considered stressful. Moreover, the nature and timing of work in these outsourcing units has given rise to certain issues which are of great interest to the HR specialists. In context of this ever-increasing debate, this article aims to highlight the core HR issues that arise in KPOs and BPOs and the measures that can be adopted to resolve these HR issues.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

KPO in India : The next big thing

- - N Janardhan Rao

The information-driven global knowledge economy is creating new business opportunities on a daily basis. As India is fast becoming a knowledge superpower, it could emerge as a global KPO hub, and this will bring huge opportunities in the coming future.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

SPECIAL ISSUE

Outsourcing R&D in the pharma sector

- - Harsh Bhargava

India has become the worlds most favored destination for outsourcing. The trend has been a steady climb from mere Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) to Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and Research Process Outsourcing (RPO). The growth in the high-end outsourcing is evident from the large number of (over 150) Research and Development (R&D) outsourcing centers established in India. The R&D outsourcing market for IT in India is estimated to grow more than $8 bn by 2010 from $1.3 bn in 2003, at a CAGR of 30%, according to ValueNotes research.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

INTERVIEWS

India is a great KPO destination. There is no country in the planet that produces professionals of literally every type.

- - Sreenivasan Ramakrishnan

Ramakrishnan (Ramki) is an entrepreneur with large-scale experience in the areas of Brand and Marketing Management. He has co-founded two companies that offer innovative technology-driven marketing solutions to global marketers. Ramki is responsible for the strategic direction and management of Marketics. Further, Ramki is closely involved with existing and prospective clients, helping them use Analytics as a business driver to make more effective, data-based decisions. Prior to becoming an entrepreneur, Ramki worked with Procter & Gamble AAI (ASEAN, Australia and India), in the Brand Marketing function. Ramki holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai, and a Bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Madras.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

INTERVIEWS

Knowledge can be collected and disseminated from any part of the world. This has been the driving force for KPO.

- - Shanmugam Nagarajan

S Nagarajan is the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of 24/7 Customer and is based in India. Nags (as he is known in the industry) leads 24/7 Customers 6000 strong workforce in the delivery of offshore-based services for Fortune 500 companies. Through a consistent focus on operational excellence, Nags has been instrumental in building 24/7 Customer into a strong player in the ITES/BPO space. Prior to 24/7, he co-founded the US-based Business Evolution (BEI), a provider of integrated customer interaction technology. Nags played an active role in the development and marketing of BEIs products since companys inception. Nags has also held various technical and senior management positions in the US, Europe, and India at companies such as Comsys Technical Services, Churchill Insurance Co. and Tata Consultancy Services. While at Tata Consultancy Services, he led the development of various versions of the popular financial accounting software EX. At Churchill Insurance in London, he led the development of customer communication software. Nags has a Masters Degree in computer applications from PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, a professional degree in statistics from Loyola College Chennai, and more than 15 years of experience in offshore-based services.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved

INTERVIEWS

India is expected to emerge as a key KPO player in the global market by capitalizing on the intellectual capital and the power of the Internet to offer quality research in a cost effective manner.

- - Sreeram Iyer

Sreeram Iyer is CEO, Scope International, subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, UK and is Head - Technology and Operations, India. Sreeram is an MBA from the UK, a Chartered Financial , a Company Secretary and a qualified Cost and Management Accountant. With over two decades of professional experience, Sreeram is a seasoned multi-national banker with exposure in overseas markets and in India, handling a wide spectrum of banking services in various senior roles. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, he has been in the Financial Services Industry in Mumbai; had experience in the manufacturing industry and also did a stint in Management Consulting. Of late, he has been instrumental in the planning and growth of the Banks Shared Services Centers. As the Group Head, he is responsible for all aspects of operations of the Shared Services Centers and providing overall strategic leadership.

© 2006 IUP . All Rights Reserved