The New KPO Mogul : Architectural Designing Offshoring

The Indian Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) industry is witnessing the growth of a whole new segment. Indian architectural KPOs are stepping up on infrastructure and technology and ramping up skilled manpower to cope with the influx. Architectural designing outsourcing to India is growing at an unprecedented pace and is showing no signs of slowing down. With the availability of talented manpower, lower costs and best of the best infrastructure architectural outsourcing to India has gathered commendable speed.

With the increase in offshore demands and wielding the latest software and technical skills, architectural designing outsourcing in India serves clients from UK, the US and the Middle East. A number of small-medium firms with 50+ employees have mushroomed across the country offering quality architectural designing outsourcing serves at a fraction of the cost. The growth in the industry has been so spectacular that the rupee crunch and fall in the number of skilled resources has not drastically affected most firms.

Industry estimates predict architectural design KPOs will form the second largest segment in the service industry of India. Offshore architectural designing poses enough benefits to the overseas markets, which is the reason behind a marked growth in the demand for these services in leading KPO industries such as in India. Accounting to $16.7 billion in revenue, India is expected to contribute to two-third of the global KPO by 2011.

Several architectural design outsourcing companies in India have bagged small scale design projects abroad, mainly from UK and the Middle East. A decrease in the number of skilled professional abroad along with the quality of services and the lower costs offered by offshore architectural design companies are driving this demand home. There is a disparity of one tenth of the cost between designing process in the US and in India.

New Players Eye Architecture KPO Business

The growth story of knowledge process outsourcing industry in the state is witnessing a new sub-plot. Architectural designing outsourcing has seen new players entering into the segment in the state.

Domestic architectural designing units, on the other hand, are also upgrading their facilities and infrastructure and equipping themselves with the latest technology to participate in the process.

Armed with the latest software and growing offshore demands, architectural design KPOs are making their client-based in the US, UK and Middle East happy with their service. Rupee appreciation and crunch of skilled human resources notwithstanding, these firms have been holding up to the difficult times.

In the last two years, there have been a few additions in the number of such KPOs in the state, most of them being small-and-medium-enterprises with around 50-plus workforce.

What’s more, with the industry estimates predicting architectural design KPOs tipping BPOs to become the second largest segment in service industry in the country, they feel a good time is in store for them. The country on a whole, it is expected, will contribute two-third of global KPO by 2011, accounting to $16.7 billion revenue.

According to industry sources, there are already around 40 architecture design firms with 50-plus manpower in the state that are specifically focussing on architectural designing. Several of these companies were, until recently, catering to domestic requirements.

However, of late, they have begun to bag designing projects abroad, although on a small scale. Cost factor coupled with a decreasing pool of professionals abroad are driving force behind this growth, say industry sources. Designing process here costs about one-tenth of what will cost in the US.

Burthill Design, a recognised global architectural design unit, opened its India unit in Ahmedabad recently. Although basically an architectural firm, the Ahmedabad unit is the first design unit of the company that will outsource international projects. Most of the projects handled by the unit are from the US and West Asia.

“Ahmedabad was our first choice because of the skilled pool of architects here. Cost cutting on international projects is another incentive to our Indian venture. But we are not completely in outsourcing business. We also have our domestic designing operation,” said Nitin Narang, project Architect of Burthill in Ahmedabad.

Big design units are paying good packages and several incentives to the architects they hire. However, small firms are making extra efforts to retain skilled architectures as they are less in number and more in demand.

City-based London Infotech Ltd, which started operation two years ago in Ahmedabad specifically as an architectural design firm, has benefited from outsourcing architectural skills in architectural design segment, to which it caters exclusively. However, the company is facing the heat of shortfall in skilled pool of designers and are making extra effort to retain them.

“This field has a good future but the shrinking talent pool coupled with the recent rupee appreciation has upset us, like any other service sector. However, there is still no dearth of projects,” said London Infotech Inc director Gunjan Chag. While companies like London Infotech Inc might revert to cater to the domestic requirements, there are several small architectural firms that have sensed an increase in international demands and are turning to global market to increase profit margins.

Take, for example, Meghana Infotech, which started off as a domestic architectural designing unit in 1998. Now, the firm has at least 40% of its turnover of Rs 1.15 crore from offshore projects. “We recently begun outsourcing our business, encouraged by the growth story of the architectural design outsourcing market. We upgraded our services for the new client-base in the US and UK,” said Meghna Infotech CMD Udit Vivekia.

“Lack of talent pool is an issue. But we are also running a CAD training centre, which is also the first authorised training centre for Autodesk Inc.USA. This addresses our manpower requirement.”

Source from: Time Of India