Adding A Legal Punch To India’s Off-shoring / Outsourcing Action
posted in Outsourcing News and Top Outsourcing deals, Outsourcing to India, Nearshore Outsourcing |Source: Times of India
While, legal process outsourcing (LPO) could well prove to be as much of a gold mine as IT / ITeS / BPO; so far, only 30% of India’s Top Ten BPO players have evinced interest in entering the LPO segment. However, that is all set to change, with the legal process outsourcing sector in the country likely to see more action in coming months. Industry experts confirm, big players, such as Infosys, Wipro, including others have been studying the LPO model, and may well look at entering this business, sometime in the near future.
“Demand for LPOs is on the rise. It makes sense for the BPOs to enter this segment because the profit margin in LPOs is higher. And, legal-process outsourcing is part of high-end knowledge process outsourcing, which many of these BPOs are already into,” says Russell Smith, President and Chairman, SDD Global Solutions.
Even as, LPO becomes the next big thing, this buoyant sector could present many challenges to the BPO sector. The biggest challenge would be to find requisite talent, as Matthew Banks, Senior Vice-President, Integreon – Legal Services says: “Finding someone with domain expertise is difficult enough, but to find experienced management is likely to be a bigger challenge.”
As well, LPO firms across the country have smaller teams on board to serve niche clients, so it is important for large-scale BPOs interested, to define a suitable business model for it. Avinash Vashistha, CEO, Tholons affirms, while there is huge potential in the LPO segment, a 3-year gestation period works to slow down growth. Specialised and kind of boutique type legal firms, most of them are doing higher-end work carried out by small in-staff teams, which, makes it rather difficult for BPOs to scale up operations in the current scenario.
However, scaling up could mean $3-4 billion worth of annual revenues, an amount NASSCOM has pegged the LPO business segment at.
