Wednesday, August 06, 2003
Businessworld's BPO Status Report
Businessworld magazine did a comprehensive cover story on the BPO industry in its issue dated August 04, 2003.
The article covered, among other aspects, statistics on the industry's size, winners & losers, and the sectors which held the most promise.
Some extracts:
"As on 31 March 2003, the sector employed 171,000 professionals. It has $1 billion invested in it, creating about 100,000 smart cubicles in 7.5 million sq. ft of space. And it generated revenues of $2.3 billion in 2002-03."
"The Indian BPO story is replete with such successful examples--and also with abject failures. Around the time OfficeTiger was crafting its success in Chennai, another Chennai-based company, Brigade, was busy writing its own epitaph.
Brigade made a series of errors. Soon after it got its first $50-million infusion of capital from General Atlantic Partners, Brigade went on a mad spending spree. By 2001, it was burning cash at a rate six times that of its revenues. An office setup in the US saw the company employing 162 marketing people even as its delivery centres in Chennai and Hyderabad had hardly taken root.
By April 2002, its attrition rate was a whopping 168% a year. It changed three CEOs and drove down billing rates to such an extent that operations became unviable. Once a flourishing 1,100-men operation, the company is now down to just 450 employees."
Click Here to read the full Businessworld report.
For the story in graphics, see:
Listing of Top Companies
Companies that are "feeling the heat"
(includes FirstRing, which has since been acquired by ICICI-OneSource)
...and the list of reasons "why they are losing"
The most promising sectors by market size.
Other countries for offshore BPO work where Indian companies can set up disaster recovery centers.
