Develop education sector to boost IT/BPO industry - CEO WNS Group

by Surekha Galagoda

Sri Lanka has tremendous potential to develop the IT/BPO industry, therefore focus on developing the education sector rather than trying to attract individual clients, said CEO WNS Group Neeraj Bhargava.

" Create a very high quality pool of English speaking graduates and investors will come naturally as the country has already made a name internationally as having a talented and productive workforce," said Bhargava. He was addressing the National IT-BPO Capacity Summit 2007(NICS ' 07).

He said that US$ 600 bln. of work is outsourced annually by the developed world, equivalent to one-third of the manufacturing industry and is continuing to grow. India has already capitalised on it and has a US$ 20 bln BPO industry.

Two million are directly employed while 4-10 more jobs are created indirectly around the BPO industry. He said that the Indian BPO industry is expanding tremendously. As the industry is growing salaries are increasing which results in the individuals changing jobs quickly.

This whole process has resulted in investors looking at other options such as Sri Lanka which has a high quality workforce specially in the accountancy field. It's a clean country with great work attitudes. We already have a BPO operation in the country and during the past six months we have been trying to expand operations but the main challenge we faced is finding the right number of people.

Therefore create a large pool of graduates who are fluent in English and it will help solve the problem of unemployability as well as income disparity, said Bhargava. Chairman, Technical Committee NICS' 07 Madu Ratnayake outlining the National ICT Capacity Development Strategy said that Sri Lanka is emerging as an offshoring destination for IT and BPO services.

In 2007 for the first time Sri Lanka was ranked among the top 50 outsourcing destinations by the global consulting giant AT Kearney in their global services Location Index report. The estimated export revenue in 2006 has crossed US$ 250 mln and the industry employs over 11,000 people. At the same time the future looks equally promising with a high growth potential, said Ratnayake.

The worldwide market for IT-BPO offshoring is estimated at $330 bln and only a small percentage of this market is exploited worldwide primarily due to the lack of qualified professionals.

He said that the Sri Lanka IT-BPO industry growth potential also primarily depends on the ability to increase the number of IT-BPO professionals in a timely manner.

IT revenues can reach US$ 1 bln from the current US$ 150 mln and BPO revenues can reach US$ 1 bln from the current US$ 125 mln . However, if the current capacity issues are not handled effectively the growth potential of the entire industry will be dampened, he said.

Ratnayake said that the aim now is to maximise the opportunities that lie ahead for the industry and the approach that Sri Lanka needs to follow to exploit the potential will be through focusing on a few niche areas. He said that these niche markets that have been identified are driven by global demand and the chosen sectors have clear local domain expertise.

Overall the industry needs to attract more people by improving willingness of the student population to enter into IT and BPO jobs, expand capacity of the education system and take measures to keep education relevant and business aligned.

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Short term initiatives

* Launch a nation-wide awareness campaign for IT/BPO careers

* Make advanced ICT education affordable

* Accelerate ICT teaching capacity development

* Encourage investment in education

* Initiate a short term accelerated capacity program

* Initiate a single industry backed standard English competency program.

Long term initiatives

* Basic IT literacy for all

* English for all

* Develop an eco system of innovation