Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), the future of research

Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO)
Probably the newest kid on the block.

Competitive intelligence – companies are increasingly wanting more detailed intelligence about their competitors which makes it easier compare and contrast and enables clearer positioning to assist in the bid process. Most of this data is not available publicly and is gathered by research. Previously this intelligence was considered too sensitive or client-specific to outsource but the pace of market change, limited internal resources, lack of enterprise competitive intelligence and the need to fill information gaps is fuelling this KPO market.

360 degree profile of the customer - corporates are looking to gain a tactical edge in the identification and pursuit of business by commissioning research on: organisation structure, centralised and decentralised decision-making and budget processes, vision, strategy, geographic footprint, technology spending forecasts, competitors' share of budget, SWOT analyses, biographies of the management team and financial performance analysis. Once regarded as the knowledge preserve of the business development or accounts teams, the gathering and analysis of strategic and tactical information on major existing or potential clients is now seen as a key battleground where marketing, not sales, owns the research budget and outcome. 360 Degree builds are being requested to: identify unrealised value in existing client accounts; map “cold-spots” - where a costly business development team should not focus their time and attention for at least 12-18 months and to discover “white space” where swift and effective engagement could give you the decisive edge.

Hot-spot identification - a granular examination of market segments using value chain analysis, gap analysis, concentration & profitability analysis, trend analysis, in order to isolate hot-spots. Historically this was undertaken either internally through consolidating industry-specific syndicated research providers or via a trusted management consultancy brand. Now however, large corporates are wanting fresh research from all relevant sources in order to build a unique hot-spot picture beyond the conventional-wisdom approach of traditional suppliers.

Emerging, growing and new market evaluations - to examine, explore and size the market potential for emerging and growing industries, for example: offshoring, digital rights management, customer intelligence software, location-based services, SOX compliance solutions, and so on. The skepticism that today's CEOs and investors have with existing forecasting models indicating exponential rates of adoption, irrespective of the market being examined, is driving firms towards to more rigorous approaches to qualitative and quantitative assessment provided by KPO suppliers.

Tracking industry developments - subscription based or ad-hoc service to large companies for tracking specific developments in a particular domain, for example, M&A, new product launches, executive moves, adoption curve of emerging technologies, market share and rankings. We are finding that there is rapidly growing demand for this type of customised service as an alternative or complement to syndicated research services. This is a KPO monthly reporting process providing: earlier insight; internal time and cost savings from outsourcing the triangulation and distillation of data from multiple sources; and deeper market and segment analysis.

Outsourced marketing team members – additional research project team members to help on time-critical work. This is the inevitable result of getting close to clients via KPO work in described in all of the above categories.

KPO is still maturing, but as a subset of business process outsourcing, it is becoming more prevalent within market research circles. The key of course, is the need for up-to-date and accurate information. This is driven not only by a proactive desire to use better intelligence to gain market share, but as a defence against new entrants and the need for compliance in an increasingly highly regulated business environment.

Business process outsourcing

An interesting and relatively misunderstood area of Outsourcing is Business Process Outsourcing(BPO)

According to Wikipedia.
Business process outsourcing (BPO) is the contracting of a specific business task, such as payroll, to a third-party service provider. Usually, BPO is implemented as a cost-saving measure for tasks that a company requires but does not depend upon to maintain its position in the marketplace. BPO is often divided into two categories: back office outsourcing, which includes internal business functions such as billing or purchasing, and front office outsourcing, which includes customer-related services such as marketing or tech support.

BPO that is contracted outside a company's own country is sometimes called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring country is sometimes called nearshore outsourcing, and BPO that is contracted within the company's own country is sometimes called onshore outsourcing.[1]

The most common examples of BPO are call centers, human resources, accounting and payroll outsourcing.

Use of a BPO as opposed to an application service provider (ASP) usually also means that a certain amount of risk is transferred to the company that is running the process elements on behalf of the outsourcer. BPO includes the software, the process management, and the people to operate the service, while a typical ASP model includes only the provision of access to functionalities and features provided or 'served up' through the use of software, usually via web browser to the customer. BPO is a part of the outsourcing industry. It is dependent on information technology, hence it is also referred to as information technology enabled services or ITES. Knowledge process outsourcing and legal process outsourcing are some of the subsets of business process outsourcing.


According to dataquest the Top 20 BPO's in India are:

* Genpact
* Transworks
* IBM Daksh
* TCS BPO
* Cambridge Solutions
* WNS Global Solutions
* Wipro BPO
* Convergys India
* Firstsource Solutions
* HCL BPO
* Aegis BPO
* Infosys BPO
* EXL Services
* Outsource Partners International
* Sutherland Global Services
* vCustomer
* HTMT Global
* 24/7 Customer
* Aptara
* e4e
* MphasiS BPO


Remember you do not have to chose an Indian provider. Companies onshore can provide what you want a decent price without the hassle of using a company in a different timezone.

One I would like to mention is
Xchanging
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Type Public
Founded 1999
Headquarters London, United Kingdom
Industry Customer Administration, Human Resources, Procurement, Finance, Accounting
Employees 4,000+
Website Xchanging Business Processing Services

Xchanging is a business processing services company working in the financial, insurance, manufacturing and retail sectors internationally. The company handles large, complex back-office business processing in the areas of customer administration, human resources, procurement, finance & accounting.

Founded in 1999 by David Andrews, Xchanging today has more than 4,000 employees located in fourteen countries, including Australia, Belgium, France Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Netherlands, Portugal Spain, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

Who ever you chose please do your research comprehensively and do not cut any corners because they will come back to bite you.
Enjoy.

Innovation 'key' to India's pharma future

Innovation 'key' to India's pharma future

The key to the future of India's pharmaceutical industry will depend on its ability to scale back its over-reliance on low-cost manufacturing and to foster innovation, with drug discovery and biosimilars presenting particular opportunities.

This was the message from Satish Reddy, managing director and chief operating officer of Dr Reddy's, speaking at the recent inaugural Interphex trade show, held in Mumbai, where Outsourcing-Pharma.com was in attendance.

"Innovation has only started to happen in India over the last few years but this is what will drive the real market value for the country," he said in his keynote presentation.

India currently dominates the world's active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing arena - presently almost one in two APIs are now sourced in India and the market continues to grow.

However, Reddy warned that Indian firms involved in this industry must not develop a cavalier attitude.

His concern is that the country's domination in this area is only sustainable if such companies begin to focus on innovation and transform themselves into offering more value-added drug discovery services alongside more traditional ones.

The majority of Indian API manufacturers base their business models solely on offering a low cost base, however, according to Reddy, costs for these firms are rising 30 per cent a year - logistics costs are already high, and as wages increase, the rupee appreciates and time goes by, the country's cost competitiveness will become severely dented.

Looking forward, Reddy believes biosimilars hold a "tremendous" opportunity for India to capitalise on, following in its tradition of being a generics hub. The global biologics market is tipped to grow from its current size of $60bn (€43bn) to $100bn by 2010.

"Dr Reddy's has recently developed the world's first monoclonal antibody biosimilar," he said.

Another major area that Reddy believes API manufacturers and others can realise significant value in drug discovery activities, including both research and clinical services.

"Firms need to start now in finding a way to strike a balance between making high investments in innovation to help drive future growth, while still generating short term revenue growths, in order to partake the high risk drug development market," said Reddy.

"Even though India hasn't been doing this for long, drug discovery outsourcing offers tremendous potential for growth in the Indian market, as pharma companies continue to search for ways to save money and time," he said.

Indian firms have slowly been moving up the learning curve through their dealings with multinational companies - by entering partnership and co-development arrangements and collaborative discovery deals, as well as providing some services in this field and this has put them in the position to begin to dabble more and more in this new business area.

"Drug discovery in India is on the rise - current activities currently only scratch the surface of innovation-led drug discovery potential in India," he said.

"Indian companies are beginning to build front-end capabilities to leverage their low-cost advantages and position themselves as fully vertically-integrated players."

The country still has a mountain to climb however. There is still a lack of expertise in drug discovery, with no Indian firm yet having gone through the entire drug development process from discovery to commercialisation.

In addition, there are still a lack of world class research institutes and government funding; a dearth of trained domain-specific management talent; and a shortage of leadership in science, including thought leaders and those involved in cutting-edge activities - those that are generally prefer to work in Europe or the US, he said.

Furthermore, the patent reinforcement legal system is still nascent. Only last month this very issue caused Novartis to pull millions of planned investment dollars out of India in reaction to intellectual property (IP) fears after it lost an ongoing patent dispute with the government.

Meanwhile, Reddy pointed out that most API manufacturers in India currently do no have enough critical mass - only two generate revenues over $2bn a year - and said that consolidation will also be required for future sustainability