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"IT/BPO Industry Headed Towards A Positive Disruption"
"IT/BPO Industry Headed Towards A Positive Disruption"
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| Big Data, Cloud, Social Media and Mobile Devices are the four disruptive trends that are likely to impact the IT-BPO industry significantly.
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Wednesday, June 27, 2012:
BPO industry in undergoing an important change... a rather revolutionary one. Terms like big data, cloud, mobility and analytics have started making place for themselves. The industry is aware that the technology is potentially changing and so are the offerings of the Indian IT and BPO industry. What will the impact of these four mega trends and how to handle these is a major concern for the industry? Nasscom recently organised a CEO talk on topic 'Is the IT-BPO industry headed toward a disruption?' where the biggies of the industry spoke about how to handle this disruption of the older models and incorporate the new ones. EFYTimes.com spoke to Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice president, Nasscom about what are these trends all about and how the BPO industry in India will evolve on the basis of these. Excerpts:
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What is this discussion all about?
All of us are defining and shaping the future of Indian IT and BPO industry collectively, by design, contingency and serendipity in equal proportions. Entrepreneurs will emerge as new leaders out of nowhere, some of us will find opportunities beyond any reasonable projection, and others will find themselves "disrupted" out. Thinking along these lines, we organised a discussion focusing on four disruptive trends that are likely to impact the IT-BPO industry significantly- Big Data, Cloud, Social Media and Mobile Devices.
Can you suggest a better word for disruption? BPO giants seems to be unhappy with the word disruption used for the current phase in the industry?
We are already seeing the next wave for the industry. The story is not over for the BPO industry, I think the story has just started. The four mega trends that the industry is seeing presently including cloud, mobility, social media and analytics can create the next wave for the industry. My questions is how do you go about doing that. The answer is that it will require new business models. That is exactly what the disruption bit is all about. I think it is a positive disruption that will take the industry to the next level.
Absolutely, but we see this disruption happening only in creamy layer of the industry. What about the penetration in the lower levels?
I think we are trying to make the same point. These mega trends are creating opportunities where anybody from different small niche companies will actually create the disruption. It is no more only about the big boys.
So does that mean even the domestic BPOs are in a position to do this kind of disruption?
Exactly. If you see what is the cost arbitrage in a domestic BPO? There is no cost arbitrage in a domestic BPO and they can leverage (assuming they are serving a domestic client) big data, which is really big there. So the opportunities will also be very strong in the India market also.
How strong?
I think the times are evolving. It is very difficult to put a number to it. When the companies will get orders, big data will be a part of that order. It will be increasingly something that the customers will ask for more often.
Will talent be an issue when this 'disruption' happens?
Yes, the right kind of talent will be an issue. What the industry is really talking about is the analytics skills and how will the curriculum be built around that in colleges today. We are talking about leveraging social media not only to do your personal Facebook or LinkedIn profiles but how do you build right contacts and right analysis around these kind of activities. Bringing in the thinking which is more analytical driven is one things that we can do in our college curriculum which is not being done today.
Is Nasscom taking some initiatives in this direction?
Currently we are not doing anything but we plan to take some initiatives in this direction. These are emerging activities, so right now our focus on the academia side is build a foundation skill. The industry can fill in the rest of the gaps. We are really focused on saying that colleges should build the right foundation skills for the IT/BPO industry and industry can later add on to the specialised skills. |
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