BPO vendors like
Genpact, WNS, etc. have adopted the verticalization strategy in the past couple
of years and according to Don Schulman GM for F&A and Supply Chain Global
Process Services at IBM, verticalizing the
horizontal will be the next thing and
quickly accelerating and is the key to the future for all the BPO services
providers. All along Indian BPOs
have been horizontal focused with service offerings like customer interaction
and support, finance and accounting, procurement and human resources that are
applied across different industry verticals. Nasscom estimates that horizontal
services account for more than 70% of the Indian BPO industry.
According to Technology Business Research (TBR) report, Genpact vertical
strategy focuses on key verticals like manufacturing
and BFSI accounting for 33.3% and 41.9% of top-line revenue and other’s
increased to 24.8% in 3Q12 from 22.8% in 3Q11 driven by life sciences, consumer
goods and retail. During Q3FY2012, the
company exhibited commitment to its vertically-aligned go-to-market
transformation, indicated by front end headcount additions to its newly
targeted vertical industries beyond the core. Business development leads
boasting over 20 years of experience within their respective industries were
added to Genpact’s life sciences, consumer goods, and retail businesses. TBR
expects Genpact to hire additional experienced employees, including
management-level hires, across industries through 2013 to beef up its expertise
and gain vertical-specific clout.
WNS has introduced a completely new strategic orientation, by
verticalization of the company around six areas and the
company expects the restructuring to boost its revenues in the near future. Its
businesses will be divided into six key verticals; with travel and insurance
being the major focus verticals. Other verticals include shipping, logistics,
healthcare, banking & finance and retail. It is also planning to restructure its senior management
strategically to handle the new
verticals which will function as a Strategic Business Unit (SBU) in order to achieve
distinctive as well as overall growth. The company has also realigned the Go-To-Market strategy
for each vertical.
Aditya Birla Minacs focuses on banking, financial services and insurance
(BFSI), manufacturing, and telecom, media and entertainment verticals. BPO
verticalization is forced upon them by Industry-specific
customer preferences and goals and a new orientation in the way BPOs offer
services offerings. For vertical specific offerings, the BPO services providers
have to invest significantly in domain specific human resources and technology
which is a major strategic both at the enterprise level and also at the account level. Clients are
looking for a higher level of domain knowledge and expertise in the Indian BPOs
as clients want BPO service providers to partner with them and deliver work
that will have direct impact on Client’s business. BPOs have to invest in
building domain specific expertise and look to offer standardized product and
platform based offerings along with customized offerings. Verticalization also
helps the BPOs to effectively customize their offerings according to client
needs.
