India is poised to capture a whopping 70 per cent of the latest offing in the information technology arena, the knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) sector that is fast emerging as a serious contender to the popular business process outsourcing.

According to a report by 'Global Sourcing Now,' KPO business is supposed to touch $17 billion by 2010 of which at least 70 per cent -- or $12 billion -- is to be outsourced to India. There will be over 300,000 new jobs from the current just 25,000.

Many players are strongly working on developing the KPO segment.

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Evalueserve is emerging as a good player in the segment. GE Capital, MarketRx, Accenture, and other players have announced plans to develop this segment.

With BPO revolution reaching its limits, its time for KPOs and promises to be the next big thing in the outsourcing sector, says Sameer Walia, director, SmartCube, one of the earliest Indian companies in the business.

Speaking to UNI, Walia said that the BPO sector has been always looked at by all as a quick-money area. Even educated people like IT graduates move to this sector just because of the monetary aspects.

KPO is a new sector that promises to provide long-term jobs for intellectual, analytical and knowledgeable people with a payscale much higher than the BPO sector, he said.

Walia said India has proved time and again that it is a pool of intellectually and creatively brilliant individuals. "But even erudite people face a number of obstacles to get a well paid, decent job of their interest and caliber." Though being capable of much more because of this they move to the BPO sector, which seems to be an easier and safer choice.

The basic difference between BPO and KPO is that BPO mainly deals with customer care and technical support through communication, transaction processing, telemarketing, etc.

KPO is offshoring of knowledge intensive business processes that require specialised domain expertise. It involves high-end processes like valuation, research, investment researches, patent filing, legal and insurance claim, etc.

For such tasks KPO requires people with a good educational background.

According to Walia, "There is a vast pool of people who work for us, including MBAs, chartered accountants, economists and engineers. In The Smart Cube, employees get to work on high-end research for leading clients. It is comparable to the work done at leading international consulting companies.

The difference is that it is done out of India. Those with good education and analytical abilities can look forward to a fantastic career in KPOs."

Chennai and Bangalore have a strong advantage of being the main KPO centres in the country. Both cities are near education hubs. They have large number of graduates with specialised analytical skills, superior English, and IT acumen.

They also have a natural flair for mathematics, science and research, Walia said. High-end outsourcing work has very good payouts and use Indian skills and brains for world-class jobs. WPP and Group M have also announced a data analytics knowledge process outsourcing entity, Meritus.

It will work from Covansys' office in Bangalore. GVK Biosciences has KPO centres in Chennai and Delhi. It is providing R&D services to 20 pharma and 7 biotech companies.

According to Evalueserve Chairman, Alok Agarwal there are already 12 investment banks of the world doing high-end analysis work in India.

They employ 1,200 people and would increase to 6000 in the near future.

KPO potential has been seen in pharma, biotech, data integration and management services, financial services, research and analytics, technology research, computer-aided simulation and engineering. It also includes professional services, like business research, legal services, financial analysis and management consulting.

"The Smart Cube manages international research for some Fortune 500 companies," Walia said.

Some of global major making a beeline for India to set up their KPOs include firms such as Patent Metrix, Cantor-Colburn and Schwegman, Lundberg, and Woessner & Kluth; technology companies like Motorola, Intel, IBM, Cisco, Texas Instruments, Nokia and Philip and pharma companies like Astra Zeneca and GlaxoSmithKline [Get Quote].

The KPO service enables enterprises to reduce design-to-market lead times and manage critical hardware efficiently.

It also provides research on markets, competitions, products and services; enhance organisation effectiveness in business administration all of which help in dealing with rapidly evolving business scenarios.

Among other countries that are behind India are Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland and Israel. Russia, with a huge army of engineers and doctors in the world, could capture the European KPO market. India, replicating the BPO sector could dominate the US market.

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