APAC BPO market to reach revenues of $17.47 billion: Ovum

27.09.2011
Asia-Pacific's business process outsourcing (BPO) market will reach revenues of US$17.47 billion in 2015, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.3 per cent from the US$11.18 billion it hit in 2010, predicts Ovum in a new report.

The independent technology analyst finds that strong growth in emerging economies such as India, Greater China (includes Taiwan and Hong Kong) and South Korea is driving the global market forward, as businesses in these regions wake up to the benefits of BPO.

According to Ovum's forecast, the BPO market in Greater China will increase at a CAGR of 16.1 per cent from over the forecast period (the end of 2010 to the end of 2015). Meanwhile India and South Korea's market will increase by 15.7 and 14.6 per cent for the same period, respectively. Among the developed economies in Asia-Pacific, Australia and New-Zealand's BPO market (ANZ) shows the most traction with a CAGR of 7.4 per cent over the forecast period.

Ovum analyst Hansa Iyengar commented: "In the post-recession business environment, it has become imperative for enterprises to keep costs under tight control to maintain competitiveness. BPO eliminates the need to invest in people and systems to manage non-core processes, potentially reducing costs and increasing efficiency. By outsourcing these processes, enterprises can focus their resources on growing their core business.

"Moreover, BPO is also gaining ground in areas such as HR, engineering design, and research and development outsourcing. Enterprises are realising that outsourcing these areas can also be an effective way to achieve reduced costs, increased efficiencies, and faster go-to-market for new products, much in the same way that outsourcing back office processes can."

According to Iyengar, it will be developed economies that will exploit these new BPO areas most, with emerging markets newer to the arena adopting first generation outsourcing such as customer care, payroll processing and help desks.