Indian BPO industry is moving ahead amidst challenges that continue to dominate the scenes. In 2007, it is expected to grow at 30 per cent to reach $10 billion in exports creating more than 500,000 jobs, said Nasscom President Kiran Karnik, on Monday, at Nasscom ITeS-BPO Summit here.

The Summit saw speakers touch upon trends and challenges faced by the BPO industry. The industry is plagued by appreciating rupee; putting pressure on margins. They felt that innovation will be key to moving up the value chain and effective to tackle profitability problems. Also attrition rates of IT workforce are detrimental for productivity and growth of the sector. There needs to be better HR policy and National Skills Registry made compulsory for attracting best talent.

Need for change
But, as BPO industry is showing signs of maturity global customers are demanding more from their partners in India.  Gartner Research Vice President (Research) Benjamin Pring said, “As BPOs are expanding, customers are demanding niche processes. Feedback reveals that customers are looking for balance between process automation and movement up value chain.” Gartner notes that customer satisfaction levels for Indian BPOs are not promising and there are problems in delivery models, specially when a BPO company is serving multiple clients, said Mr Pring.