WNS is the top ranked ITES (call centre and BPO) company in India, followed by Wipro Spectramind and Daksh e-Services Pvt Ltd (which has now been bought out by IBM but retains its original name) in the second and third positions, respectively.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies, the apex industry body of software and service companies in India, has released the top 15 ranking of third party ITES (call centre and BPO) companies on the eve of its annual ITES-BPO event in Bangalore.

The rankings are based on revenues for the fiscal year 2003-04 reported in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States (US GAAP).
 

India's top BPO firms
Rank	Company
1	WNS
2	Wipro Spectramind
3	Daksh e-Services
4	Convergys India Services
5	HCL Technologies BPO Services
6	Zenta Technologies
7	ICICI OneSource
8	MphasiS BPO Services
9	EXL Services
10	Tracmail Group
11	GTL Ltd
12	vCustomer
13	Hinduja TMT
14	24x7 Customer
15	Sutherland Technologies

The IT-enabled Services-BPO segment contributes 29 per cent of the total IT software and service exports from India and witnessed a growth of 46 per cent to reach $3.6 billion in 2003-04 from $2.5 billion in 2002-03.

Speaking on the ITES survey, Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM, said, "The ITES-BPO industry has witnessed phenomenal growth, and this has included 'third-party' players. Given this growth, rankings are necessarily dynamic. The Nasscom rankings, which we release today (Tuesday) are in accordance with the US GAAP format and reinforce Nasscom's initiative of encouraging the Indian industry to adopt the global best practices, which are transparent and reliable."

"The Nasscom rankings have emerged as an industry benchmark, which is used by analysts and customers globally," Karnik added.

ITES firms were largest recruiters

In the last financial year, ITES-BPO companies were the largest recruiters in the IT/ITES sector, adding about 70,000 jobs. This sector is estimated to register a growth of about 40 per cent in FY 2004-05 to reach revenues of $5.1 billion.

The survey also enumerated the key highlights of the Indian ITES-BPO sector:

The ITES-BPO sector continues to gain traction, with more than 80 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies evaluating offshoring most of the non-strategic processes now.

The industry is targeting new service lines viz. technical help desks, finance and accounting services, engineering services, equity research, etc, to widen its gamut of services to achieve sustained growth.

Captive units continue to account for 65 per cent of the ITES-BPO industry with one new captive centre being added every week in 2003-04.

Greater presence beyond metros, in cities like Vizag, Jaipur, Kochi, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh.

Multi-lingual processes are the natural progression for successful ITES-BPO players and part of their expansion to new markets.

Strong focus on data protection, security, audit compliance Ahmedabad, Chandigarh.

"According to the Nasscom survey, there are more than 425 ITES-BPO companies in India that include a healthy mix of captives and third-party players. Despite the challenging times, the ITES-BPO industry has seen the emergence of many new players reinforcing the fact while there is growing competition, the growth in this sector provides opportunity to innovative entrepreneurship too," Karnik added.

ITES-BPO Summit from June 9

In order to provide further impetus to the ITES-BPO segment, Nasscom is hosting its annual two-day ITES-BPO Strategy Summit on June 9-10, 2004 in Bangalore.

The Nasscom ITES-BPO Summit has evolved over the years from defining new opportunity areas, charting the roadmap for the industry to providing a dedicated platform this year to achieve operational excellence and maintain the competitive edge.

Prominent international speakers who will be addressing sessions at the summit include, Edward Males, Managing Director, Broadview International Ltd; Stefan Spohr, Vice President, AT Kearney; John Hodgson, Director, Strategy and Planning, Norwich Union (Aviva); Deborah Nanton, VP-HR, Unisys (I) Global Sourcing; Kelly Bains, Contact Solutions Director, Addeco UK; Malcolm Wagget, COO, HSBC India; Gabriel KARAM, Business Development Manager, Alcatel Enterprise and James Hale, Managing Partner, FTV Management Company.

Methodology for ranking

Nasscom collects figures from its member companies on a quarterly basis for the IT software services and IT-Enabled Services industry. These figures are collated on behalf of the Reserve Bank of India.

In addition to this, Nasscom also sends out a detailed Snap Survey questionnaire annually to all its member companies, accounting for 95 per cent of the Indian IT software and service (and ITES -BPO) industry revenue. Information collated through the questionnaire includes: aggregate performance; service lines; verticals and geographies. The Snap Survey form also takes into account the contribution of the 100 per cent owned overseas subsidiaries after deducting all the double accounting, said a Nasscom statement.

Nasscom, in the year 2001-2002, initiated the exercise of introducing the Top 15 players - (third party call centre and BPO players) within the ITES sector. The objective was to give the same impetus to the ITES sector as to the IT software and services and at the same time provide detailed information to the interested target audience, viz customers, visiting India. This was based on the information collected from the Snap Survey questionnaire -- received from Nasscom member companies and further revalidated with the Software Technology Parks of India.