BPO sector weathers the slowdown storm

2009 will be remembered as a year of great uncertainties and challenges for India's back office industry.

Reeling under the impact of the global meltdown, business process outsourcing companies had to fire-fight their way by tweaking the fundamental way of doing business in the endeavour to counter thinner margins and volume reductions during the first part of the year.

Yet, industry pundits believe BPO companies have been able to mitigate the slowdown effect better compared to their software industry counterparts. This is because BPO spends are part of a company's operational budgets which, unlike capital expenditure budgets, cannot be deferred for a long time. Relief did set in towards the second half of the year with deals, earlier on the backburner, starting to see light of day, driven by changing macro-economic dynamics.

Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2009/12/26/stories/200912265189...