Managed services remains strong, opportunity enormous in India
For IBM, business process outsourcing (BPO) represents an enormous opportunity and India remains extremely important, Erich Clementi told a reporter from The Financial Express of India.
Clementi, who recently became General Manager, Business Systems Division, believes that managed business process services (MBPS) can surpass even the market for traditional business IT.
"The market that MBPS services is a huge opportunity and is growing. It can be bigger than traditional enterprise IT," he told the Express.
The GM also noted how successful Daksh eServices had become since the Indian BPO company was acquired by IBM in 2004.
"Daksh is a key initiative in IBM's managed business process services business. In just three years, Daksh has grown to 20,000 employees, up 234 percent from 5,000 employees at the time of acquisition," he said. "Today, it is well integrated with our global delivery network. In fact, Daksh does twice the work under the IBM name than under Daksh."
And, despite the strengthening of the rupee against the dollar, Clementi sees India as critical for IBM.
"Given the direction of dollar, India will not be the only place impacted," he said.
"Currency is an important factor but not the only one. Besides cost savings, we look at time zone, risk arbitration and talent available so that we can create scale. India will have to find a way to deal with currency... Work at IBM goes to wherever it can be done best. India scores very high on customer relationship management and finance and accounting skills, while Philippines, Costa Rica and Hungary are very good with HR."
The article was posted on the Indian paper's web site on January 28.