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A product of HP Services’ Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) unit, the Decision Support and Analytics Services (DSAS) team, based in Bangalore and Chennai, has emerged to find itself at the forefront of the next generation of the booming BPO industry: Knowledge Process Outsourcing.
For the uninitiated, BPO is the act of utilizing the resources of a service provider to handle a variety of services such as accounting and payroll, call centre and technical support. Many organizations outsource this work to businesses in their own country, however a large number choose to contract services offshore. And when it comes to offshore BPO, India is head and shoulders above the pack. Undoubtedly the largest player in the industry, India holds a worldwide market share of between 60 and 70 percent.
Recently a new generation of BPO has emerged. More analytical and research-based than the two-party transactional nature of BPO, this enhanced variant is known as Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO).
Unlike rule-based conventional BPO activities, KPO is based on business knowledge expertise rather than process expertise, and typically involves application of domain knowledge for research and development, analytical and interpretive skills. It draws heavily on advanced statistical and econometric knowledge and strategy development to provide value-added knowledge based services to clients.
Analytics and decision support services are typically data-driven business services linked to various business functions such as marketing, finance, risk management, supply chain management and human resources. Analytics helps clients to understand hidden trends and capture key insights, which they can then use to base their strategic plans and operational policies on, and also improve their bottom line. The nature of work handled by KPO service providers is inherently more specialized, requiring highly educated university students and professionals with domain expertise. Industries that typically require services in the areas of business analysis and research, marketing, supply chain, finance and risk management include Information Technology, Financial Services, Retail & Telecom. Thanks to India’s high level of education and expertise, not to mention the advanced state of its BPO sector, the nation looks set to again lead the world in knowledge services, with HP Services’ DSAS team sitting firmly in the box seat. Incubated in 2005 within HP’s BPO Business unit, DSAS has been steadily building up a new business line around knowledge services, taking responsibility for business critical decisions and establishing a strong foundation for offering high end knowledge-based research and analytics services for a number of major organizations.
With a 400+ strong team, comprising PhDs, MBAs, CAs, economists and statisticians from the best universities, HP Services’ DSAS division is one knowledge services unit that is adding significant value, not only internally, and generating interest among an increasing list of external clients.
“This business is not about labor arbitrage, but about truly making an impact on our customers’ top and bottom line,” says Prithvijit Roy, Global Leader, HP Decision Support & Analytics Services. “In the course of our journey in building up this new capability, the team is already showing significant value for entities within HP.”
The ‘new capability’ Prithvijit speaks of is a technology and domain-based service which drives insights from information. Adding a further compelling proposition to clients, the DSAS offerings also seamlessly integrate with technology solutions being offered by HP to its clients, thus increasing decision-making flexibility and positively impacting business outcomes.
Cutting its teeth internally, the DSAS unit proved itself with work for HP Risk Management Office in collaboration with HP Labs to develop an extreme risk assessment framework.
The DSAS team assisted in developing a methodology for the analysis of HP’s exposure to various extreme risk events, within its businesses and supply chain partners (suppliers, customers, channel partners). The project involved building models and then simulating scenarios for each of the 17 business units and three groups within HP, including its enterprise, SMB and consumer businesses. This model offered an integrated view to potential risks and events HP might be exposed to, using a standardized methodology. It also served as a mechanism to ensure proper contingency plans were in place, as well as helping visualize the potential loss figures in each scenario and hence prioritizing and planning the way forward.
For the $45 billion dollar Technology Solutions Group (TSG), which needed, among other requirements, the optimization of its overall marketing spend and campaign management, the team delivered new concepts such as end-to-end shared marketing services, resulting in millions of dollars of financial benefit to the business.
The DSAS unit has backed up these achievements with similar successes for HP’s Personal Systems Group, Imaging & Printing Group, and Software & Storage Group. It has also extended its reach outside of HP with analytical support for HP’s clients in the telecom industry.
Thanks to the strong foundation established by the DSAS team within the field of analytics and research, HP is emerging as a formidable leader in the KPO industry. This ascendancy can be attributed as much to the expertise and future-looking vision of the people working within DSAS, as it can to the belief and support invested in India by HP. And it’s an investment that looks set to deliver shared benefits for all concerned for many years to come.
- 400+ member team supporting analytics needs for clients, providing services such as marketing, sales, finance, supply chain and HR.
- One of the fastest growing analytics group in India and one of the biggest KPOs in India.
- 70 percent of the team has an advanced degree (Masters/PhD) in management or a quantitative science. The team comes with consulting and analytics experience from global companies with Financial Services, Consumer Packaged Group, Retail and Manufacturing industry knowledge.
- Partnering on multiple breakthrough projects along with HP Labs.
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