When BPO companies came to the forefront of the business world's collective conscience in the late 1990s, its primay selling point was the promise of cost reduction through the displacement of non-core services. The structure of such arrangements provides a clear framework of the processes being transported and a detailed set of measuring tools for assessing performance, but it also leaves a little space or appetitite for creative collaboratiob and inventiveness.

 

The movement into knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) by many vendors had led to legacy problems for both parties: providers are prone to a lack of imagination; while clients look upon it as a purely money saving exercise.

 

While many organizations in the knowledge services domain arrive with an IT or business process heritage, Karvy Global Services is different. Founded four years ago as a subsidiary of

India's largest integrated financial services company, the Karvy Group, it offers research capability and discipline bred from a quarter century's experience.

 

'Financial institutions are dealing with three broad problems,' notes Karvy Global Services president Atul Sood, ;an emphasis on reducing costs, information overload, and the need to tap into emerging markets. We are to address all three concerns.'

 

The variety of services Karvy offers is attractive to clients. 'We have a client in the Middle East that needed to produce an information memorandum to raise a $1 billion corpus,' Sood says. 'We did everything: studies into the macro envrionment where they were trying to launch, a micro study of the bsuiness plan itself, evaluating the competitive, regulatory and financial landscape. Such services allow the client o get on with raising the money and keep our talent focussed on the task.'

 

The opportunity to focus additional minds at the base level of research, weeding through what can be an overwhelming amount of data, is compelling - and certainly cheaper than buying in a Wall Street analyst package. However, Karvy's expertise enables companies to undertake otherwsie impossible work in-house.

 

'This is an organization built upon business graduates and we have a base spe cifically schooled in emerging markets not available within most financial institutions,' Sood explains. 'In many cases, we recruit directly from the countries in question, providing unrivalled insight. It makes sense to offshore non-core work, but is also makes sense to tap into a global pool of talent that is better equipped to provide insightful analysis into certian niche areas.'  

 

 

In sectors as veried as green energy, biotechnology or netals and mining, the group's expertise allows customers to experiment with ideas more freely. 'That old cliche of two minds being better  than one can actually be leveraged today because of cost advantages and skill sets we offer our customers.' Sood says.

 

The challenge for Sood and his team is to get that message out into the business community. 'It' also a great opportunity,' he believes. 'Potential customers are ofetn either unaware of the service we provide or have been schooledto think that offshore labour all comes down to how much money it saves. But when there's the opportunity for flexibility and creativity, we like to tie ourselves to the success of the customer in much the same way an investment bank would. That allows us to create innovative pricing models and build a real sense of partnership.'

 

This may go some way towards explaining the long-term nature of so many of Karvy Global's professional relationships. With clients ranging in size from tier one investment banks to fice-person hedge funds, Sood and his team place an emphasis on collaboration and dialouge. 'There's always something new to investigate,' Sood explains. 'I call it "recurring ad hoc". By leveraging us they can keep themselves on the leading else of business developments in a manner that would be undeliverable in-house.'

 

With 10,000 staff, the Karvy group's tapent pool is impressive, but in a sector where knowledge, technology and scope shifts quickly, it pays to be nimble. 'We have the confidence of being backed bu a extremely successful company,' Sood explains, 'but, as a smaller offshoot, we have all the amibition, focus and dexterity of an upstart. It's a perfect blend.'

 

With Karvy Global Services ' continuing emphais on peoplel processes and technology, long may it continue to be so.