High-end BPO jobs turning attractive to engg graduates
By agencies   |   Monday, 10 October 2005, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: In the early stage of information technology growth in India every one was having an impression that IT services have been a coveted ground for engineers. But, this belief has been changed with the development in this sector and with the increasing numbers of business process outsourcing (BPO) companies. Now, a small but growing number of engineering graduates seem heading towards BPO industry. The $5.8-billion industry is now moving towards the high-end segment of domains such as technology-centric business research and engineering design. In Annik Technology Services, a market research services and analysis firm, around 20 percent of the workforce comprises engineers and MCAs. Raman Roy, chief of the company said: “This is not surprising as high-end services in BPO require high-end technical capabilities that can be provided by engineers, doctors and actuaries.” The perception that IT services was superior to BPO services are changing and the label of only call center was slowly changing, he said. Now high-end work, until now being done by captives, would start coming to third party BPO companies, he added. Manoj Madhusudanan, Assistant Vice-President (Business Research), Evalueserve, believes that engineers can best handle technology-specific business research work. "In activities that involve comparing the technical features of products to provide market intelligence data, companies go for engineering graduates," he said, adding that Evalueserve hired engineers in business research and intellectual property (IP) domains. Another factor that attracts people from engineering stream is that BPO industry is growing at between 25 percent and 30 percent, making it easier to find leadership opportunities, said Amit Bhatia, CEO (Knowledge Services), WNS, a company where roughly 500 of the 8,000-employees are engineers.

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