Date:11/10/2004 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2004/10/11/stories/2004101101691300.htm

Back `Knowledge outsourcing a new career avenue'

Our Bureau

Mr Chandu Nair, Director, Scope e-Knowledge Center, addressing the students and staff of the Institute for Technology & Management in Chennai. — Shaju John

Chennai , Oct. 10

KNOWLEDGE process outsourcing (KPO), which is estimated to jump from $1.3 billion (around Rs 5,954 crore) currently to a $25 billion (around Rs 114,500 crore) market in 2010, represents an important career avenue for the professionally qualified, according to Mr Chandu Nair, Director, Scope e-Knowledge Center.

Delivering the BL Club lecture at the Institute for Technology & Management here, Mr Nair said KPO, unlike business process outsourcing (BPO) that deals with executing standardised processes, involves higher-end services which require advanced analytical and technical skills; some examples being patent research and R&D in pharma.

Market research and consulting firms, investment banks and financial services organisations, industry associations, publishing and database companies, as also the corporate planning departments of large multinational companies are typical users of such services, he said.

By 2008, KPO could provide 2.5 lakh jobs, and India, with its huge talent pool, stands to gain, the only real threat being China, he said. The political campaign, Mr Nair said, against outsourcing in the US has only served its opposite purpose - it has got India millions of dollars of free publicity. "When I make presentations to foreign clients now, I don't have to sell India anymore. It's more of Chennai and Scope," he said.

But Mr Nair also said that the culture in a KPO company would be quite different from a BPO set-up. The job of a knowledge manager would be akin to that of a conductor of an orchestra. Also, there are likely to be concerns about the quality of the services, he said.