KPO: India's the Eldorado!

It’s good news for Indian knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firms. India is the most attractive destination for KPO activities, says a study by independent research company Asset Management in collaboration with Kelly Services. The study shows India will have a higher growth rate in KPO segment of 45% compared with 25% in the BPO segment. The latter will, however, remain the lead revenue earner and job creator due to the volume nature of this industry.

Ms Achal Khanna, country general manager, Kelly Services India, said: ‘’India still maintains the competitive advantage for providing the combination of the most cost-effective and high quality manpower. This is India’s strength in the off-shoring business.’’

The whitepaper focusing on India said, “Thanks to its competitive salaries (< 40% of USA); proficiency in English (70-plus million people); large and competent pool of quality professionals (nearly three million new graduates every year), India is the most attractive KPO destination.’’

India is expected to achieve a very high growth rate in all the technically advanced segments of the KPO industry with data and market research along with R&D in medical/pharma constituting 50-plus % of KPO business in India. “KPOs in India have the capability to compete on equal footing with the best in the world on process and technology,’’ it said.

The KPO white paper 2006 says the outsourcing business, which started with BPO, is now propelling the outsourcing of knowledge process work also. The move up the outsourcing value chain to KPO is complementary to the BPO business and not contradictory where BPO is processbased and KPO is the next step in the business (knowledge-based).

Ms Khanna said, “Unlike BPO, where the recruiting process is relatively simpler and aims to check voice, accent or data entry & attitudinal skills, KPO recruiting has to be much more complex as it also involves evaluation of domain knowledge, intelligence , analytical and data mining skills, decision-making abilities, conceptualising skills, verbal and written communication skills, attitude , ability to work in teams.’’