Friday, June 12, 2009

Indian BPO companies favouring Eastern Europe

Exploring new unploughed terrains, Indian BPO companies are now shifting their focus to Continental Europe for a change. Although Europe accounted for just 11% of India’s BPO revenue in 2008, Eastern Europe has gained favour with Indian companies which are looking to tap the specialised skills available there and address the growing outsourcing needs in Continental Europe.

Rohit Kapoor, CEO, EXL Services, says, “We will be looking at expanding into Eastern Europe by this year-end primarily for language capability and doing work in finance and accounting areas.” Besides EXL, others like Patni and HTMT have also evinced interest in having their centres in Eastern Europe. Sanjiv Kapur, senior VP & Head - BPO, Patni Computer, said, “I think it is important to address Continental European and we are definitely evaluating the option of having a centre in Eastern Europe.”

Hinduja Global Solutions CEO Partha De Sarkar said, “We are exploring the option, but it is part of our three-year expansion plan.”

Indian IT companies, including BPO entities, which have set up operations in Eastern Europe include Infosys, Wipro, TCS and Genpact. They have set up units in near shore destinations having multi-language capability. Wipro has a 250-seater centre in Bucharest in Romania while Infosys has 450 seat unit in Brno, Czech Republic.

The Eastern European region with multi-language capability and a proven skill base has emerged as a strong destination for BPO activity. KPMG in its IT Advisory report, ‘Exploring Global Frontier - the new emerging destinations’ said, “Cities such as Budapest, Prague, Bucharest have established a solid reputation as BPO locations. These cities offer attractive conditions, especially for companies looking for a good base of experience and proof of concept at costs below Western European levels.”

IT outsourcing market in Romania, Poland & Bulgaria is in the range of $250-450 million, which allows the Indian BPOs to have smaller centres with certain niche skills

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