Vision India to organize High End ITES/BPO/KPO Summit in city on Nov 14

Vision India will be organizing the 5th Edition- High End ITES/BPO/KPO Summit "Outsourcing Ventures 2008" on 14th November 2008 in Pune. Leveraging Global Knowledge resources will be the main focus of the event. The Conference is being organized for the benefit of IT/ITES/BPO/KPO companies, Animation companies, Manufacturing industries, Pharma and Biotech companies, Consultants, Educational Institutes, Govt. Departments, Entrepreneurs, Law firms, Accounting firms, Design organizations, HR Heads .Top officials from major companies in the sector like ASM Group of Institutes, Mindcrest (India) Private Limited, S G Analytics Pvt.Ltd., Value Notes Database Pvt. Ltd., Wipro , Techknit IT Enabled Services Pvt.Ltd, Boston Analytics Ltd., DataStraits India , WNS Global Services (P) Ltd, Satyam BPO Ltd, Infosys BPO Limited will be presenting papers on related topics.

Wipro, Copal mull Lehman BPO buyout

Business Standard reported today that IT major Wipro Technologies and Gurgaon-based knowledge process outsourcing firm Copal Partners have expressed interest in bidding for the Indian back office business of Lehman Brothers Holdings, the US-based investment banking firm that filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday.
Investment banking sources said Wipro and Copal have been looking at buying opportunities in this space for some time.

BS standard also reported that tthe Lehman BPO unit does not have an anchor client it may help them quickly scale up the business. But I am failing to understand why these companies have to bid for a company that does not have any client. If it is for acquiring the brains they are now out on roads seeking for potential buyers. I don't know if Wipro and Copal would like to acquire the set-up (the leased space and second hand chairs and computers) in Powai. Considering an IT mammoth such as Wipro, which has proven capabilities in setting up offices across the globle, we did not understand the bigger strategic agenda, if any, behind this bidding.

Lehman likely to shutdown back office

Lehman is expected to close its captive unit in Mumbai by the end of this month. The unit’s 1,200 employees, who work on equity research and analytics support for the mergers and acquisitions business, have been orally told to quit by September-end. They have also been informed that they will be paid only for this month, which will be treated as a severance package.
(Source: Business Standard)

What Lehman and Merrill turmoil means to its KPO business?

Both Lehman and Merrill are big players in the Indian KPO market.
Lehman has a captive in Mumbai, which serves as a one-shop-stop for all its verticals including investment research, banking, library management etc. According to ET, the company also outsources technology related work to Wipro and TCS.
Merrill is believed to work with third party vendors in India for its research and banking operations along side a captive in Mumbai. Satyam, TCS and Infy serves Merrill with Satyam being the biggest vendor, according to ToI.
Bank Am has as its captive in Hyderabad, Continuum Solutions, a 100% owned subsidiary that provides support in investment research, Wholesale and Consumer Banking operations. In technology space, TCS works with Bank Am, according to ToI.
What is the potential impact on KPO operations?
We believe Lehman’s bankruptcy puts an end to all new businesses (and most of the existing businesses) in its Mumbai center. However, there has been no official confirmation either from management or employees on lay-offs or shutting down its operations at its Indian unit.
On the other hand, Merrill’s outsourcing partners will have to adopt a “wait-and-watch” strategy. There has been no announcement made by Bank Am on outsourcing strategy but we believe the following are the immediate, medium-term and long-term implications on the Merrill’s KPO vendors:
Immediate: Receivables would become sticky and put pressure on revenue and margins. According to ET and ToI, some of the vendors have already been involved in talks with the banks to understand the situation.
Medium term: The lay-offs across the globe are inevitable for both Bank Am and Merrill. As a result, their offshore consultant/analyst teams will directly get impacted. While the captives will adopt the similar ‘onshore-type-lay-off’ path, we believe ‘pure-play’ BPOs and KPOs should be able to sustain in the medium term, albeit with an increased bench strength. IT BPOs with their deep pockets should be able to sustain much longer than pure-play BPOs or KPOs.
Long term: This is an interesting development to watch as the KPO industry is now going through its first business cycle. While it is widely believed that Bank Am will eventually consolidate its off shoring operations, it is unclear whether the consolidation will happen by moving its entire operations to its captive (either in Mumbai or in Hyderabad) or by opening it up to third party vendors.
KPO Experts view:
So far, in the outsourcing growth story, we believe that captives are lagging far behind third party outsourcing vendors. Going forward, we feel that there is very little appetite left in the banking system to make huge investments in offshore captives. Banks have been successful with vendor strategy in IT outsourcing and now they probably pursue the same strategy to outsource some of their research and analytical work to third party vendors, which is currently being done out of their captives. With good service level agreements on quality and continuity of service, banks should be able to derive better value from third party vendors. However, we believe that banks would still like to keep their captives alive and would still like to do some ‘critical-work’ in house due to compliance and confidentiality reasons.

Integreon appoints Mark Jewell as VP-AIPM

Integreon has appointed Mark Jewell as a vice president in charge of account implementation and program management (AIPM) in Europe.
Integreon will enjoy considerable business process outsourcing insights and project management expertise of Mark Jewell. He will work closely with Chris Niccolls, who previously served as operations manager at Bear Stearns & Co. and currently directs Integreon`s AIPM function.
He will work closely with Chris Niccolls, who previously served as operations manager at Bear Stearns & Co. and currently directs Integreon`s AIPM function.
Prior to joining Integreon, Jewell was director of global offshoring for business information services and computer graphics at Lehman Brothers, where he had been charged with managing the offshoring of some of the firm`s support services. He was previously European director of business information services, where he was responsible for the firm`s non-real time data expense and vendors, as well as research and information services.
(Source: Myiris)

Brown-Wilson Group Survey - 2008 Top Ten KPOs

According to Brown-Wilson Group’s latest survey for 2008, Integreon is ranked as No.1 KPO firm. The other firms in the top ten include:
1. Integreon
2. Evaluserve
3. RR Donnelley/Office Tiger
4. Satyam BPO
5. Genpact
6. iGATE
7. Copal Partners
8. Adventity
9. Wipro
10. MphasiS

Infosys estimates LPO market size rise to $ 2 billion in four years' time

According to T.V. Mohandas Pai, director and head of Human Resources at Infosys, the company is looking at Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) and Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) as new areas of business opportunity, as law firms as well as corporates, mainly in the United States, have begun outsourcing of legal documentation work to India. Mr. Pai added that they estimate the current market size of LPO segment at $ 200 million and expect it to rise to $ 2 billion in four years' time.
Apart from labour cost arbitrage, IT is also playing a significant role in outsourcing processes and companies are increasingly focusing on leveraging new technologies in generating efficiencies in routine tasks. We believe Infy's proven capability in technology space would help it in leveraging a variety of tools such as automated document production and workflow tools in their legal documentation work. However, the market size is fragmented with thousands of law firms (small and big) in the US and Infy's strategy to tap key clients and ability to bag big deals would be a key factor in achieving success in this new initiative.