Feature

The knowledge processors

With India all set to become the hub for Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO), professionals from diverse fields are finding interesting career options in this sector, writes Kusum Makhija.

India is set to become the preferred destination for Knowledge Process Outso-urcing (KPO) as the sector grows to touch the $17 billion mark by 2010, states the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). In its recent study—‘India in the new knowledge economy’—the CII had said that the services sector would grow by more than 8 percent and its contribution to the GDP would be above 51 percent. The study affirmed that India’s transition from being a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) destination to a KPO destination was imminent. Areas with significant potential for KPO include biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, legal services, research and design, intellectual property, and development of automotive and aerospace industries. According to the study, India could emerge as a global KPO hub as the business requires specialised knowledge in respective verticals and the country’s engineering and technical institutes are geared to address the manpower demand.

Diverse backgrounds

The transition from BPO to KPO is also enabling a sea of opportunities for professionals with diverse academic backgrounds. KPO firms are recruiting employees from different academic backg-rounds, right from management to life sciences. For instance, Scope e-Knowledge Center currently has 380 employees, out of which close to 95 percent are engineers, MBAs, professionals with financial background and journalists. “We have engineers, both freshers and experienced, from various disciplines of engineering, including pharma and life sciences,” says Vijayalakshmi Rao, Director, Scope e-Knowledge Center. Scope is focussed on scientific, technical and medical domains.

Unlike BPO companies where being fluent in English is your entry ticket, KPO firms lay a lot of emphasis on educational qualification. The work in a KPO company is academic-oriented, wherein employees have to be fluent in processes with sound academic base of the related field. “We do a lot of database-related work for engineering, chemical, pharma and life science sectors, which require people with in-depth domain knowledge and a good understanding of products and processes in these areas,” says Rao.

The work generally includes abstraction of technical patents, extraction of legacy technical data, cataloguing and indexing, taxonomy building, database creation and updating. All this requires a basic interest and knowledge in specific domains besides an aptitude for working with data and information.

Companies recruit candidates from diverse academic backgrounds as it gives them an edge to leverage their professional competencies. Says Sanjay Shenoy, VP, HR, Ugam Solutions, “We do recruit candidates from different fields due to their functional competencies. Such diversity helps us in getting different perspectives for delivering quality work to our clients.”

But are these highly qualified employees, getting their due working in a 24x7 environment? Answers G Sindhu, Research Analyst, (an engineer and MBA) at Scope, “I find my academic qualifications very apt for projects involving moderate to high levels of analysis, especially those related to industrial sectors. Other management principles help in planning, organising, scheduling, co-ordination, team management, project management, etc.”

Unlike traditional BPO sectors where tele-calling processing skills are more important than knowledge, KPO requires specific domain expertise. Says S Suresh Kumar, Assistant Manager (Projects), Scope, “I feel my academic qualifications along with my experience in R&D has been of immense value to my job in Scope.

In-depth knowledge in the domain is a prerequisite for the kind of work that I am doing since my job involves supervising a large team of chemical engineers who are doing data extraction, indexing and other value-added database work for a US-based client.

Adds Sanjay Shenoy, “Their educational qualification is relevant for the work they handle. We prefer candidates with science back-ground as they tend to perform better in tasks which require data analysis as well as programming. The primary role of an employee is to understand client requirements for programming, online questionnaires and surveys, analysis and tabulation of market research data and coding of open-ended responses.”

This is the right place for professionals who want to explore their own field. “I joined the KPO industry after completing my BE and was involved in an engineering database creation assignment. I joined MBA (HR) course, the area of interest changed and when I approached the management about an opening in the HR department, they willingly offered me the job. I am now closely involved in recruitment and development of entry-level engineers for the company,” says Mabel, Personnel Exec-utive, Scope, e-Knowledge.

Challenges while recruiting

We recruit candidates from different fields on the basis of their functional competencies Sanjay Shenoy Vice President, HR Ugam Solutions

Attrition continues to be an issue in the KPO sector as well. It is not easy for companies to attract and retain the right kind of employees. Most qualified professionals perceive it to be a low grade kind of job. Besides, popular perceptions about BPOs and pressures of 24x7 environment also refrain professionals from opting for KPO companies as a career.

“It is quite tough at times to attract professionals who have such a degree of specialisation owing to the lack of institutes catering to such specialised training. However, we believe this to be a goldmine for PhDs in India who have nothing else to look at but teaching jobs at universities, which are only a handful in number,” says Ranjit Singh, President and CEO, Techbooks.

Rao of Scope adds, “We usually have a cut-off for the percentage marks obtained in engineering, depending on the depth of domain knowledge required for the particular project for which we are recruiting. We also check on the aptitude for doing research-oriented and data-base-related work. Most imp-ortantly, we believe in recruiting for attitude since skills enhancement can always be done through training.”

Companies have to face a major challenge when it comes to selecting people with the right attitude and aptitude. “We keep in mind that the candidate should have the relevant academic background and work experience required for the job. The candidate should possess good communications skills, have an aptitude towards programming, and be able to work in a team, under pressure and in night-shifts whenever required,” explains Shenoy.

Training focus

We check the aptitude of candidates for doing research-oriented and database-related work Vijayalakshmi Rao Director Scope e-Knowledge Center

Training like every other technical industry forms the core of the KPO sector as well. Even qualified employees have to be trained on processes and to cope with the environment. States Shenoy, “A high degree of functional expertise is required along with domain expertise, like understanding of market research objectives and methodologies. Thus we have well-structured training programmes for our employees. We provide general understanding of the market research industry and metho-dologies, technical and client- specific tools and soft skills training, which can last from 2 to 90 days and is provided by local and international trainers in India and abroad. “

Informs Rao, “At the entry-level we take engineers fresh out of college and provide them with project- specific training. They are also trained on soft skills and behavioural issues to help them become more productive. At the supervisory and managerial levels, we take candidates with relevant experience in service functions such as R&D, QC, project management, etc. They are given need-based functional or subject-specific training.”

If a person has a positive attitude towards work, is committed to quality and wants to learn, he can definitely succeed in a knowledge-oriented work environment which a KPO offers.

Career prospects

Although it is difficult to attract experts from traditional fields, much depends on the package and incentives ext-ended to such professionals. Further, information about the work environment and well-defined policies in the organisation becomes a positive factor to induce such professionals to join the organisation and contribute towards its growth.

“Professionals from other industries have varied perceptions about the BPO/KPO industries. There are certain mental blocks (for e.g. night shifts) which makes it difficult to attract talent from these fields. However, now the scenario has changed and people are realising that there are tremendous growth opportunities,” points out Shenoy.

KPO is widely predicted to be the buzzword of the future. High-end KPO opportunities are immense for Indian firms. More and high-end work is being outsourced to India and has expanded to areas such as pharma, aerospace, automotive, engineering, biotechnology, finance, etc.

Professionals today cons-ider this industry as a career option rather than just temporary remunerative option. Since the pool of skilled resources is so scarce, good performers have tremendous opportunity to add to their skill sets and take on higher levels of responsibilities. They can expect growth, not just pay-wise, but in their skill sets, level of responsibilities, managerial abilities, client interaction capabilities, and deeper understanding of the domain in which their client is operating.

Amit Khurana, Research Analyst, Ugam Solutions, says, “KPO offers good opportunities for performers. We can expect growth in salary package, develop our skills (learn new packages/how to interact with clients) and we gain understanding of the global market research domain. It is an interesting and challenging job. Moreover, this industry is fast growing and provides good remuneration.” Adds G Sindhu of Scope, “Extensive lateral growth opportunities exist in this sector. However, vertical growth opportunities depend on the firm’s scale and intentions of expansion.”

Long-term career

Whether KPO companies offer long-term career opportunity is still undecided. Opines G Sindhu, “A professional starting his career in a KPO firm is likely to stagnate. Domain-specific KPO firms (say patent document creation, SEC filing, etc), can well provide long-term career path to experienced professionals. Otherwise, the sector is likely to remain a temporary option to such professionals. The remuneration depends on whether the firm is nascent/developing or well-established with an MNC backing etc.”

The best part about working in a KPO company is that you can make full use of your educational qualifications. Vidya Srinivasan, Team Leader, Scope asserts that KPO jobs will be a long-term career decision and not a stop-gap option, “Freshers entering the KPO industry can also go up the ladder and become domain experts. The benefits are also attractive.”

K B Subhashini, Team Leader, Scope points out that many professionals do not take this as a long-term career option as a BPO tag is attached with this work and there is some degree of uncertainty.

In today’s competitive scenario, planning long-term career path is difficult. With rapidly changing industry trends, individuals might initially see KPO as a lucrative option. Depending on their expertise/interest, they might also consider it as a medium to get updates on recent industry trends. It will however be the ‘survival of the fittest’. Says P Anand, “If a KPO company finds an individual as the best fit, it has to make him survive or if the individual has an intention to survive, it should try making himself the fittest. In any case, the onus is on the company.”

kusum@expresscomputeronline.com