Billing rates crash 60% in BPO services

By agencies   |   Friday, 29 July 2005, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: Severe competition has led to a crash in billing rates in the BPO industry. The rates have slipped by as much as 60 percent since the industry boomed in 1999-2000. The impact has been particularly severe in voice-based processes where rates are down from $12-14 per hour to as low as $6-8 per hour today, according to industry experts. Entry of a large number of small BPO outfits providing voice-based services has caused intense undercutting in the market, leading to commoditization of the call center business. Besides, countries like Vietnam, China, Brazil and Hungary are emerging as new BPO destinations, putting intense pressure on outfits in India. Caught in a bind, bigger players are looking at high-end processes to garner higher revenue per seat. For instance, a legal outsourcing process fetches between $20 and $25 per hour. And a mutual fund research process commands upwards of $14 per hour in India.