Uncertain global macro economy may have slowed the pace of growth for the Indian BPO players, but it is nowhere near stagnation and companies need to explore new geographies to keep the momentum going, BPO firm EXLService Holdings said on Wednesday.

“The industry (BPO) is growing. It is slower to what people have historically got accustomed to, but it is certainly not stagnant.

“It is consequent to what is happening in other parts of the world. Also, the industry is maturing... maintaining growth rates of mid-2000 is going to be challenge,” EXL Service Executive Vice President and COO, Pavan Bagai, told PTI.

“However, we do not see the industry anywhere close to stagnation...we are still bullish about the industry,” he added.

Bagai said most of the large banks and companies have already outsourced many of their processes.

“BPO firms now need to tap into regional or mid-tier insurance companies/banks/or whichever industry they are playing in, in the existing geography,” Bagai said, adding that the players also need to expand into new geographies in Europe or other parts of the world where they see potential.

Stating that going forward, healthcare and analytics will be two major areas for the industry, Bagai said the work that the BPO companies are now handling is more complex than before and they need to focus on enhancing domain expertise to tap new businesses.

“We need to enhance our capabilities and our offering because the new stuff is more complicated and requires greater understanding of the business of our clients... domain knowledge is extremely important to tap into new set of areas and activities that have not been out sourced,” he said.

The Indian BPO industry contributes to over 37 per cent of total global sourcing BPO revenues

Talking about the industry growth in the near future, Bagai said: “The current rate of growth will continue for next couple of years... depending on what happens to the rest of the world, if they come out of recession and investment activity are aggressive.”

He, however, added that while the global economic slowdown does open up more opportunities for the sector as clients look to outsource business to save cost, the decision making process by potential clients also slows down and the deal sizes also shrink.

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