Domestic focus pays off for many BPO firms

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Chennai, June 15

A ship's journey is complete when it returns home. Having sailed through the Americas, Europe and some parts of Asia-Pacific, Indian BPO companies in recent years have been heading home to dock their businesses.

"From a few domestic (BPO) operators in 2003, today the number of players is in thousands," says Mr Anish Zaveri, Associate Director, Sourcing Advisory, KPMG.

A strong rupee and recession in the US market (which contributes over two-thirds of total Indian BPO exports) have pushed companies, who were hitherto reluctant to start Indian operations, to look inward. If this momentum continues, the dip in overseas revenues will be offset by the rise in domestic revenues, he says.

HTMT Global Solutions chose to go domestic in 2004-05 when the US Presidential elections were around and there was a wave against outsourcing. "At that time we chose to de-risk and look inward. This model has been successful and we have been consolidating operations," says Mr Viswanath Rao, Senior Vice-President, Operations, HTMT. From bagging its first domestic client in September 2005 and closing the year with Rs 25 crore in revenues, the company today earns over Rs 100 crore and has about 6,000 employees dedicated to the Indian business.

About 25 per cent of Intelenet Global Services' revenues come from the domestic market. With 15,000 employees the company provides services in 15 Indian languages for over 40 clients in telecom, banking, retail, consumer durables, aviation and public sector.

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