Larger and longer term contracts for the LPO industry?
This week, Integreon bagged a 10-year contract worth £582 million from CMS Cameron McKenna. This is a huge gain for the LPO industry. Not only has the industry started seeing larger contracts but also longer term contracts.
Law firms and corporations have mostly restricted their outsourcing contracts to smaller and short-term contracts/assignments. However, lately the legal offshore market is witnessing a gradual change in terms of the size and tenure of contracts.
Established service providers such as Integreon, CPA Global, Pangea3, and UnitedLex have reported longer-term contracts in the last six to eight months. British Telecom shifted work from its captive legal services center (located in India) to UnitedLex. Microsoft signed a contract with Integreon for legal support services. Integreon will provide contract review and offshore document review services to the software giant from its India and Fargo centers. Integreon won a seven year contract worth £50 million from UK based law firm Osborne Clarke. Rio Tinto, a leading international mining group based in the UK awarded a contract to CPA Global.
While contracts in this segment are not largely publicized, there is a visible shift towards recurring and longer-term contracts in the LPO industry.
One might argue that some of the larger contracts do not fall under the definition of LPO. Services offshored are a blend of legal and support services such as document review, legal research, litigation support, accounting and IT services. Of course, currently the contract is tilted more towards support services. And this is benefiting larger service providers with multiple service offerings!!
Last 5 posts by Neeraja
- BPOs in the LPO industry? - May 26th, 2010
- Indian law firms eye LPO business - May 12th, 2010
- Bundled offerings in LPO - April 28th, 2010
- Microsoft-Integreon deal adds fillip to the LPO momentum - April 13th, 2010
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