KPO, an emerging arena for India's IT sector

By agencies   |   Monday, 26 December 2005, 20:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: India is poised to capture a whopping 70 percent of the Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) sector. According to a report by 'Global Sourcing Now' the KPO business is supposed to reach up to $17 billion by 2010 of which at least 70 percent or $12 billion is to be outsourced to India. This will generate over 3 lakh new jobs from the current just 25,000. Many players are strongly working on developing the KPO segment. Evalueserve is emerging as a good player in the segment. GE Capital, MarketRx, Accenture, and other players have announced plans to develop this segment. With BPO revolution reaching its limits, its time for KPOs and promises to be the next big thing in the outsourcing sector, says Sameer Walia Director SmartCube, one of the earliest Indian companies in the business. Walia said, “The BPO sector has been always looked at, by all as a quick-money area. Even well educated people like IT graduates move to this sector just because of the monetary aspects. KPO is a new sector, which promises to provide long-term jobs for intellectual, analytical and knowledgeable people with a pay scale much higher than the BPO sector.” The basic difference between BPO and KPO is that BPO mainly deals with customer care and technical support through communication, transaction processing, telemarketing etc. Whereas, KPO is off shoring of knowledge intensive business processes that require specialized domain expertise. It involves high-end processes like valuation, research, investment researches, patent filing, legal and insurance claim etc. This sector requires people with a good educational background. According to Walia, “There is a vast pool of people who work for us include MBAs, CAs, economists and engineers. In The Smart Cube, employees get to work on high-end research for leading clients. It is comparable to the work done at leading international consulting companies. The difference is that it is done out of India. Those with good education and analytical abilities can look forward to a fantastic career in KPOs.”