
We were pleasantly surprised when Gautam Thakkar got the nod to take on the reins at InfosysBPO last month. Here Phil Fersht and Gautam discuss his new role and how he intends to take the InfosysBPO forward
Make no bones about it: 2012 was a pretty dire year for the industry known as "outsourcing". However, brand new data from our State of Outsourcing 2013 Study conducted with the support of KPMG, and the largest-ever research survey focused on IT and business function outsourcing, clearly shows that the majority of enterprises are not only aggressively focused on increasing their outsourcing portfoilios, but many are now taking a more mature and realistic approach.
Life been just dandy since you took 30% off your department's fixed costs, that you'll never need to do anything much again in your career... except stare at a spreadsheet? Just love keeping those lights on and squeezing penalty payments of your provider? No need to improve anything, because the way your firm does this is just, simply, perfect? Then you won't need to waste time with us and leading buy-side organizations from the HfS 50 Executive Council in Boston this October...
TCS' insurance services delivery subsidiary, Diligenta, has become wedded to in a 15-year, $2.2bn, 1900 employee life and pensions BPO engagement with the UK's Friends Life. This represents the largest life and pensions BPO engagement by a considerable margin, eclipsing the $1.1bn Prudential contract awarded to Capita in 2007. We believe this move from TCS signals a sea-change in the industry with regards to the growth strategies and ambitions of the leading BPO providers.
InfosysBPO is now a major BPO contender in the global marketplace, having quietly gone about building its BPO business streams since its inception via the buyout of FAO provider Progeon, exactly five years' ago and expects to reach the landmark of $500m in revenues this year. HfS has always been encouraged by the firm's approach to developing both horizontal and vertical BPO services, and its focus on leveraging its IT heritage to augment its value proposition. Infy is by no means the biggest player in the BPO business nor does it want to be, but it has been able to establish itself as a smart and very respected player in the BPO business.