Market Research: Shift from Reactive to Proactive (December 2009)
Published in Global Services; by Suheil Patel

Given the current recessionary crisis, although the market research (MR) industry’s overall growth has been slightly sluggish, it has shown better revenue figures when compared to other sectors. Global MR companies have resorted to budget cuts as one of the precautionary measures to deal with cost pressures caused by the recession.

Changing global legal marketplace impacts LPO industry (November 2009)
Published in Global Services; by Neeraja Kandala and Suheil Patel
 
The offshore legal services industry that was growing at a CAGR of 40+ % over the last four years till 2007, experienced a sluggish growth of 28% for 2007-08, and further tapered off to 16% for 2008-09. Manpower growth also slowed over the last one year - there were close to 12,500 employees working in the offshore legal services segment in India (including third-party vendors as well as captives) as of December 2008.

Productization and SaaS as a Strategy for e-learning (October 2009)
Published in Global Services; by Reetika Joshi
 
Keeping up with the trends in the international e-learning space, Indian companies are also beginning to adapt their traditional software applications into software-as-a-service (SaaS) options. Much like the IT industry, it is predicted that SaaS will drive growth for the e-learning industry in coming years. 

Magazines: The New Frontier for Outsourcing? (September 2009)
Published in Global Services; by Vivek Shenoy
 
A look at the changing outsourcing dynamics in the global magazine publishing segment... The magazine segment represents a major chunk of the global print publishing market. The current economic conditions have certainly exposed the fragility of this industry.

Global Services Media (January 2009)
eDiscovery Goes Offshore
Offshoring of electronic discovery process is growing fast. And, countries such as India, South Africa and the Philippines are becoming the hot offshore destinations for legal services including electronic document review.

Global Legal-Services Market: Crisis Creates New Opportunities
Published in Global Services. Written by Neeraja Kandala.

Offshore legal services industry has been reporting over 40 percent growth annually, we can expect an even higher than average growth over the next two years.
An uncertain economic climate coupled with structural changes in the global marketplace ­ these are challenging times for most businesses. And law firms are no exception. Several law firms such as Clifford Chance, Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft announced layoffs while some like Thelen Reid Brown Raysman & Steiner have shut shop. U.K. conveyancers as well as U.S. attorneys are facing an extremely difficult time with the collapse of the US housing market.

Publishing Offshoring The New Indian Niche
Published in the Global Services magazine. Written by Aradhana Kolhatkar.

The publishing offshoring industry as a whole is demonstrating an increasing level of automation, provider maturity and ability to offer higher value services.

Business Process Outsourcing 2008: The Year Ahead
Our annual prediction feature; Written by Arpita Bedekar, Deepali Sathe and Arun Jethmalani

Despite worries on the margin front, outsourcing growth expectations stand tall. In our interaction with vendors across the outsourcing spectrum (IT, BPO and KPO), optimism is the prevailing mood, especially as concerns top-line growth.

The Future of Outsourcing in India: 8 Scenarios
Sourcingmag.com asked ValueNotes, an analyst firm focused on outsourcing, to explore multiple situations and scenarios for the future of offshore outsourcing in India. It has developed two "situations," both of which examine the potential impact of changes in the availability of a qualified workforce in India, which we see as crucial to the success or failure of the outsourcing industry in India.

Insurance and Global Sourcing: The New Paradigm
Published in the annual magazine of Equinox. Written by Arun Jethmalani and Arpita Bedekar.

The insurance industry is moving towards an “industrialized” model - where labor arbitrage is not the only reason services are getting cheaper, but because companies are innovating and evolving to find newer ways of doing business.

Evolving Buyer Expectations and their impact on SLAs
Published on Outsourcing.com. Written by Arun Jethmalani and Arpita Bedekar.

ValueNotes looks at the dynamics of changing SLAs, but with a difference – by soliciting the views of BPO and KPO vendors. Some of the key trends and issues are discussed in the article.

Bean Counters to the World
Originally published on OSWMag.com. Written by Neeraja Kandala and Arun Jethmalani.

Offshore captives handle a greater portion of finance and accounting processes today. But that is about to change as third party providers build skills and F&A expertise.

Knowledge Process Outsourcing: The Big Game
Published on Sourcingmag.com. Written by Deepali Sathe and Aradhana Kolhatkar.

Touted as the Next Great Thing to happen to the outsourcing industry in India, knowledge services or KPO, could outpace business process outsourcing. While the latter draws upon the process expertise of the vendor, the former utilizes specialized knowledge skills.
The article explains what KPO consists of, what countries dominate, who the major players are category by category, what billing rates you can expect to pay, and what the challenges are for both clients and service providers.

BPO Trends 2006
Published on Outsourcing.com. By Arun Jethmalani.

Despite resistance from political and labor lobbies, the offshoring juggernaut rolls on. During 2005 it became evident that the long-term trend towards outsourcing and offshoring is more robust than many thought. This article highlights some of these trends, and how they're likely to play out over 2006 and beyond.

SourcingMag (July 2006)
Automotive Design Offshoring to India
The intense competitive pressures in the automobile industry, especially in the US and Europe, have created a set of enabling factors, or drivers that are forcing OEMs and ancillaries to explore outsourcing and offshoring options.

The Changing Face of Service Level Agreements
Published on BPO-MarketWatch. (Needs free registration)

ValueNotes estimates suggest that in the next couple of years, more than $100 billion worth of outsourcing contracts will be up for renewal. Buyers with positive experiences are expected to increase the extent of outsourcing. But there are others who are considering a re-evaluation of their strategies. Recent cases of backsourcing and contract re-negotiation serve to highlight the issues involved. Consequently, the humble service level agreement, or SLA faces ever-increasing scrutiny and analysis.

Recapitalising Human Capital: A Tale of Tier Two Cities
Published on BPO-MarketWatch. (Needs free registration)

ITeS revenues climbed up 48% to US$4.6 billion last fiscal, and are estimated to touch US$ 6.3 billion this fiscal. Despite this stupendous growth, the biggest challenge for this sector is attrition and limited human resources. The only way to handle this challenge is perhaps to source talent from semi-urban and smaller cities like Nasik, Indore, Nagpur, Lucknow, and Goa. Who is recruiting, and which cities are now slated to become outsourcing hubs? What does the potential human capital in these cities need to do to qualify for such opportunities, and why should they want to? A view of these issues from various perspectives.