Source: www.zdnet.com

India may be the best known destination for offshore contact centres but “nearshore” countries such as Egypt also want to get a piece of the action.
Following India’s success, many countries such as Argentina, Egypt, Hungary and Mexico are marketing themselves as destinations for companies looking to cut costs or access particular language skills.

The new competitors are appearing at a tricky time for the Indian market, with a consumer backlash against Indian offshoring combined with increased costs and attrition rates of 75 to 80 per cent in some Indian call centres.

Datamonitor senior analyst Peter Ryan said: “If you have complaints about offshoring, nine times out of 10 they will revolve around India. This is unjustified but it seems to have become a flashpoint for concerns about offshoring.”

By 2010 there will be 10,700 outsourced call centre agents working from Eastern Europe, up from 3,700 now. Growth in North Africa will jump from 7,800 agents last year to 23,000 in four years’ time, largely driven by Egypt boosting its market presence.

Speaking at the Offshore Customer Management International Conference in Cairo, Ryan said: “Egypt’s government has been very proactive in lowering the corporation tax rates.” And with Egypt only a four hour flight from most of Western Europe, Ryan pointed out: “That’s a lot more compelling than getting on a plane and flying for 16 hours [to India]. If you are a busy executive you don’t have the time for that and there’s a cost.”

But concerns over regional stability may put some companies off, as well as a perception that corruption is still an issue in some nearshore countries, he said.

There are also other countries trying to get noticed by companies looking to offshore — including Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malaysia and Senegal.

Latin America and the Philippines continue to be attractive destinations for US companies looking to offshore contact centres, Ryan said.

Another region gaining some interest is China but Ryan said the contact centre expansion there is likely to cater for the increasing number of Chinese consumers. And he added: “The Chinese business environment hasn’t been as solid in terms of cutting through red tape as you might see in India or Egypt.”

Source: Times of India

Even as, law college graduates opt for corporate jobs, rather than face the struggle of murky politics of a corruption riddled judiciary, the future seems bright for those in the legal profession, as a quite different kind of job opportunity opens up for them in the sunrise ITeS sector of legal service outsourcing segment (LPO), a part of the global outsourcing trend.

A recently released research report states, the niche market of legal outsourcing services grew 50% between 2005-06, and stands poised for bigger growth. Today, while India has garnered only a small portion of the global LPO market ($146-million), end-2010 will change that as it grow into a $640-million sector, also simultaneously seeing jobs shift north. With currently 7,500-people employed in the LPO sector, the next three years will see that miniscule number swell to 32,000.

While, publishing the study, ValueNotes, a Pune-based research firm says India’s LPO sector is growing primarily due to an increase in demand, vendor maturity and capability to offer higher value services. In what is but a fledgling market, there are already around 100-LPO service providers in India, whom the study has categorised into three broad groups i.e. captive centres, third party niche service providers and third party multi-service providers. Dominating the LPO space, third party vendors have most of the jobs concentrated with them. However, niche focus and multi-service provider vendors differ distinctly in terms of their service offerings and capabilities.

Quick on the uptake, in the last two years, the legal services off-shoring sector has witnessed rapid changes, in terms of vendor capabilities and service offerings. With around 12-players that employ more than 100-employees, the LPO sector has seen the emergence of a large number of small players, who operate from smaller cities.

As Arun Jethmalani, CEO, ValueNotes explains: “Most vendors start by offering lower value services and gradually move up the value chain by demonstrating domain skills and gaining client confidence. While, others focus on specific high-end services or niches. Fast growing opportunities have led to a mushrooming of new vendors, all across the country.”

Identifying a list of front-runners or firms leading in the LPO space, the report titled ‘Off-shoring Legal Services to India: An Update’ states, they lead the pack due to their strong capabilities, on-shore, off-shore presence, growth strategies, and the strength of their brand in the global LPO market. Leading LPO firms include Evalueserve, Integreon, OfficeTiger, CPA Global, Mindcrest, etc. And, then there are emerging players with potential to emerge as winners within their chosen niches, such as, LawScribe, New Galaxy, SDD Quattro et al.

Jethmalani is of the opinion that both high value services like IP, legal research, contracts, etc, as well as, high-volume, low-value services will witness a high growth rate. While, Neeraja Kandala, analyst and co-author of the report, feels ‘high volume services like document review, eDiscovery, legal publishing and niche areas in Intellectual Property and contract services will drive future growth in this space’. However, irrespective of what drives the market, the upbeat LPO scenario will certainly give the new crop Indian lawyers, a lot to smile about in the future.

Poised today, where India’s IT outsourcing industry was just a few years ago, it goes without saying that LPO is the Indian success story of tomorrow, achieving the same kind of success as BPO / IT and ITeS! And, it certainly helps that the Indian judiciary has much in common with British law, whilst American law has great similarities to the latter, as well. So, who says India will lose its outsourcing edge to China. Hey, does anyone know anything about Chinese law or for that matter do the Chinese know anything about the law of other countries. Not really, so whatever happens, India will retain its outsourcing edge over China, as it explores other outsourcing avenues that keep opening up.