Move over Sam, it's Shyam's time

That's what a recent article in the Hindu's Business Line suggests:

"After exports, the domestic BPO market is now set to take off in a big way and grow at an estimated 60 per cent to touch about Rs 4200 crore (42bn) in
2005-06."

"The domestic BPO business is expected to grow at 60 per cent to clock Rs 4,200 crore (4.2bn) during 2005-06 compared with Rs 2,640 (2.64bn)crore in 2004-05. As much as 60 per cent of this would be call centre work. Other activities include HR and finance and accounting operations," Nasscom's Vice-President, Mr Sunil Mehta, told Business Line here.

The domestic BPO business is expected to employ close to 50,000 people in 2005-06, he said. In terms of revenues, the market had grown 85 per cent in 2004-05, from Rs 1,425 crore (1.425bn) in the previous year.

And why not. The economy's growing at a rapid pace and although the domestic pie is miniscule compared to BPO exports, it is representative of an important shift from being a derivative economy and holds promise and lucre. In support, the service providers have developed scale and skill in outsourced functions such as customer service support and also acquired a sound understanding of the business, thanks to significant growth in exports over the past few years. Therefore, service providers too are actively exploring domestic opportunities:

Earlier today, Spanco Telesystems announced it has secured a five-year outsourcing contract worth Rs 5 crore for its domestic call centre operations under the brand name `Sparsh' from the Delhi Government. The contract involves setting up a voice and Web-based public grievance management system and providing contact centre services. Sparsh would manage Citizen Relationship & Grievance Management System (CRGMS) in Delhi.

In August last year, telecom major Bharti had announced a Rs 1000-crore deal with four business process outsourcing companies to outsource its call centre operations for the next 4-5 years. The deal signed with IBM Daksh MphasiS TeleTech and Hinduja TMT envisaged setting up contact centers in each of the four zones of the country. The same month MphasiS BPO formerly MsourcE forayed into the domestic business process outsourcing market with a multi-crore multi-year order from State Bank of India.

I've always emphasized that growth of domestic BPO is an indicator of growth of the economy. China's domestic consumption of technology will be among the top five in the world by the end of the year. Such closing of the gap seems a reasonable aspiration for the service economies in this decade of the twenty first century.