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Some of the big players in the Indian BPO scenario include Genpact, WNS Global Services, EXL Service, Firstsource, Citigroup Global Services, etc.

Type of Work

The question often asked is what is the type of work that the industry is performing?
Is there any difference or can companies be segregated? Would the risk profile change for different type of companies? Let us try to analyze these at length.

For long, analysts have debated on what could be the best possible method to segregate companies in this industry. I have used two simple means of segregation - by means of Customer Profile and by means of the Service Provided. The purpose of this segmentation is from the perspective of risk analysis; to verify and validate whether the risk profile for a BPO organization depends on this segmentation, or do all companies face the same risk?

By Means of Customer Profile

One of the fundamental ways of segregating the industry is by means of the customers (organizations / clients for which the work is being done and not the end customers) it is catering to.

Customers can be domestic, if the BPO organization is doing the operations for a company based in India. But the norm of the day is having international customers, wherein the BPO organization is performing the operations for a company based outside India. This segment is more profitable, and has a greater potential and scope due to the sheer market size and size of the untapped virgin potential.

Similarly, if the BPO organization is catering to any possible company, and is not confined to its parent company, then it is termed as a 3rd party service provider. WNS, Genpact, EXL Service are some of the larger 3rd party service providers catering to multiple customers. But there are BPO companies which cater to only its parent organization. They are termed as captive units. Most of the leading financial services organizations have their captive units in India. The notable amongst them are Citigroup Global Services (formerly e-Serve, and catering to Citigroup), Continum Solutions (catering to Bank of America) et al.

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* Contributed by: -
Devroop Dhar is a Management Consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Mumbai. He has almost 5 years of experience in the field of Consultancy, Project Management, Six Sigma. He is an alumnus of IIM Kozhikode, specializing in Finance & Operations. He has also worked with TCS and Bristlecone in the past, and done an internship with EXL Service. He also holds a BE Degree in Production Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata.
All views expressed in this article are the author's, and not of his employer.