domains of kpo

The essential skill sets required in the various important domains within the KPO sector can be listed as below:

1. Market research and analytics – Market Research involves secondary & primary research, fact finding, report writing, etc. A person in this field should have excellent communication, presentation, modeling and analytical skills. Additionally, he should be well aware of the various statistical tools and research techniques.
2. Legal Services – This service includes reviewing transactional and litigation documents, drafting contracts, research memoranda and due diligence reports, prosecuting patents, negotiations, etc. The skills required to perform such services include advanced and up-to-date knowledge of US/UK regulations (or other country based on requirement), expertise in legal application, research and reasoning abilities.
3. Writing and content development – It involves editing, content delivery, content digitization, data warehousing and data mining, etc. People with excellent communication skills and expert knowledge of relevant databases are preferred in this domain.
4. Engineering R&D – 3D modeling, finite analysis, computational fluid dynamics analysis, technical specifications for tenders, value engineering, etc., are involved in this domain. A person should have knowledge of CAD/CAM, product design, drafting and modeling to succeed in this field.
5. R&D for Pharma companies – It includes advanced research, drug discovery, clinical research, etc. A doctor or pharma specialist is preferred in this domain.

A KPO unit is basically divided into different teams to facilitate and expedite the entire process. The entire work is majorly divided into three parts – business research, business analytics & modeling and reporting. In order to succeed in the KPO industry an analyst needs to have cross functional knowledge and expertise.

Today, the Indian KPO industry faces the challenge of adequate talent availability and high attrition rate among young professionals. Further, services in this sector are specialized and professionals with specific domain knowledge are only preferred. A higher education degree and an experience within the sector most often becomes a prerequisite to getting employed with a KPO company. However, these knowledge professionals often lack the inclination towards continuous learning and understanding of the dynamic nature of this profession. Furthermore, continuous training of business-related skills is essential in the outsourcing services sector. This is because, unlike the BPO industry, which is process oriented, the KPO market demands professionals with decision making, problem solving and analytical skills.

During the recent economic crisis, all the industries across the globe felt the pinch on their revenues, forcing them to cut down their costs. The situation was further fuelled by the growing political pressure, driven by the ever increasing unemployment in developed countries. This had a huge impact on the Indian outsourcing sector. Some other challenges faced within the Indian KPO sector is the continuously improving quality standards, further investment towards the KPO infrastructure, requirements of higher level of control, confidentiality and enhanced risk management. Despite all these challenges, the Indian KPO industry is expected to reach USD8 billion in 2011 and USD10 billion by 2012, implying a CAGR of around 32.5% (2010-2012).