It's turn of KPO companies to train guns on China

BANGALORE: After the IT services companies, it’s now the turn of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firms in India to wade into China. The booming economy of China has evinced the interest of the KPO firms based in India, that look at it as a unchartered territory but possessing innumerable opportunities. Unlike the IT services companies, the KPO firms are looking at delivering their services out of India with certain front-end presence in China.

Some of the KPO firms such as AbsolutData, Adventity, Meritus, Genpact, Evalueserve either have their operations in China or are planning to deliver them out of India.

AbsolutData EVP—India operations Suhale Kapoor says the demand for KPO services in China has been steadily increasing as the market is still on the maturing curve and there are enough opportunities from the local Chinese companies. Though some KPO firms have been providing services in China largely for the MNCs from India it is the local Chinese companies, which are becoming the primary target.

As of now, it is only some of the basic services are being provided by the KPO firms. Like Meritus has been providing data consulting services or AbsolutData is looking delivering retail and telecom analytics.

Adventity CEO Kumar Subramanian says there is enough interest by global investors in China but there is lack of indepth market data on different sectors. Adventity for example is looking at coming out with research reports across sectors such as manufacturing, retail, with the number crunching being done out of India.

Meritus CEO Balasubramanium V says the value Indian KPO firms bring is the global learnings and standards which has been lacking among the Chinese companies. Meritus started its China operations 20 months ago and its clients includes MNCs and the local companies with services provided in retail, packaged goods and financial services sector.

By and large most of firms are looking at an front-end office in China to interact with its customer base with the rest being delivered out of India. Further, it is not easy to build an scaleable operations in China due to lack of adequate talent pool. Though language seems to a minor obstacle, there are increasing number of English speaking professionals, especially the Chinese coming back to China after stints in the West.

Genpact Analytics business leader Rohit Tandon says it has been evaluating this space in China. “We have done scattered work but we looking at how much more we can do from there.”