LPO NEWS
Time Is Ripe For LPO Industry In India!
Indian legal process outsourcing industry is growing at over 40 per cent per annum.
Source: EFY News Network
Time: Saturday, November 24, 2007:
The $146 million legal services offshoring industry in India is growing at a tremendous pace. Even as other segments in the KPO space such as publishing, media services, analytics services are growing at 30 per cent to 35 per cent per annum, legal services takes the lead and is growing at over 40 per cent per annum, as per the ValueNotes' latest report, Offshoring Legal Services to India: An Update. The report examines the evolution and maturity of the LPO industry, covers key emerging trends in the Indian legal services offshoring industry and how these might shape up the industry in the near future.
Several large, mid-size and small companies are entering the legal process outsourcing space, and the industry is progressing towards more innovative business models and offerings by the earlier entrants, in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the pack.
The formation of an LPO Trade Association in India is a significant move towards strengthening the industry. Vendors are jointly organising conferences and events in the US to showcase their abilities and portray India as the top LPO destination. Funding from VC/PE firms has also started coming in.
Having reached a certain maturity level in terms of service offerings, most players in this space are developing scale and widening their scope of offerings. At the same time, they are fighting challenges such as rising wages, training and depreciating dollar revenues. The race to acquire capabilities and clients will trigger several inorganic growth actions by ambitious vendors.
Recent developments are an indication of a maturing industry. The current growth rates are also promising and provide significant opportunity for future growth. However, cautions analyst Neeraja Kandala, “to sustain growth and profitability, in a sector with almost no entry barriers, every LPO vendor needs to implement a well-defined strategy. The winners will be those who can build the tallest and most imaginable barriers to entry in their respective niches.”
Smith Dornan Dehn’s Indian Subsidiary, SDD Global
Source: E legal secure
Time: December 31st, 2007
Smith Dornan Dehn an international media, entertainment and intellectual property law firm from New York, Los Angeles, and London, launched its legal service offshoring business from Mysore, India about a year ago. Some of Smith Dornan Dehn’s current clients are Sony Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, HBO and the Clinton organization. Its Indian subsidiary is SDD Global Solutions Pvt. Ltd the only legal process outsourcing company in India managed by a United States law firm.
SDD Global Solutions is a 24/365, state-of-the-art, high-end legal services KPO company. It performs high-end legal research, analysis and drafting, and claims to be the equivalent of a global law firm in many ways.
It has already attracted numerous Fortune 100 clients and their accompanying assets and profits, among them a number of international retail brands, some American book publishers and several major television and motion picture companies and law firms.SDD Global is now in the process of moving to its own 330-employee building. It will soon be hiring 200 new recruits but plans to expand its number of employees to 50,000 in the near future.
The company is funded by SFP Priority Co. Ltd., a member of the SFP Group, a large Asia-based investor, as well as by State Bank of India and investors from Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Cisco Systems.
SDD Global claims to be solving one of the most pressing problems of today’s businesses, i.e. the inadequacy of having legal work done in locations that often are among the most expensive, and the least productive.
It has also described the launch of its India operations from Mysore as a “paradigm shift in the way legal services are provided in the 21st century”.
Outsourcing India to the Philippines
Source: E legal secure
Time: January 3rd, 2008
India’s third-largest software maker, Wipro, has announced the opening of an outsourcing center in the Philippines on Thursday. It explains it has been obliged to do this as a result of soaring expenses as well as a shortfall in domestic talent shortage.From its headquarters in Bangalore, the company has announced the setting up of a 45,000-square-foot (4,180.6-square-metre) facility in Cebu city. It is expected to accommodate 900 employees,
Besides providing customer service the institution will also support Wipro’s global technical and financial accounting.President of Wipro’s outsourcing unit, T.K. Kurien has been quoted as saying, “The Philippines is one of the largest English-speaking nations with a strong information-technology orientation and a talent pool of 29 million.”
“This is one location that we definitely want to expand our presence in,” he continued.At present, more and more Indian technology firms are beginning to develop their outsourcing enterprises in the Philippines.
This is basically because skilled professionals are easily available and it is comparatively cheaper there.
Tholons, the Investment advisory firm, recently described Manila as one of the top five most important outsourcing locations and pointed to Cebu as the new hot spot for outsourcing businesses.
Already employing about 20,000 people overseas in its outsourcing departments, Wipro has established branches in Shanghai and Romania in the past year.
Infosys, Tata Consultancy and Satyam are other Indian information-technology firms that along with other less well known corporations are getting into the act and are expanding their services abroad in order to offset the rising cost of wages at home.
With the rise of the rupee by 12% export revenues having been laid low and the average annual salary having risen by 11 percent in 2007 these information-technology firms have been compelled to set their sights in more reasonably priced realms.