Outsourcing enters legal sector

Outsourcing is nothing but contracting out a company's non-core, non-revenue producing activities to third party companies. And recently there has been a big shift to outsource intellectually-based service activities like research, product development, logistics, human relations, accounting, legal work, marketing, logistics, market research.

 Offshore outsourcing has entered to the legal profession as well. However it had not entered the complex agreements but more fundamental labor. BPO companies lifts the burden so that the firm can focus on the aspects that provide maximum value to its clients such as strategy, negotiations, fact development, drafting, depositions and court appearances. Outsourcing legal work, ranging from legal research to proofreading to organizing and indexing documents for trial has emerged as a hot issue in the legal community.

Any talks or discussions on the offshore outsourcing sector leads to Indian BPO companies. India is at the forefront of outsourcing. This is due to technical maturity, cost advantages and the productivity gains firms receive.Today, India is one of the most exciting emerging markets in the world. Skilled managerial and technical manpower that match the best available in the world and a middle class whose size exceeds the population of the USA or the European Union, provide India with a distinct cutting edge in global competition.

 Law firms, legal departments of major corporations and state and federal government are increasingly following the BPO route to reduce cost and increase efficiency. Outsourcing allows them to remain competitive and serve more clients. It has become an indispensable asset to legal community. Moreover Indian BPO companies are more productive because they work six days a week, not five, and they start work 5.5 hours before the UK.

Change is Inevitable and BPO industry is no Exception

The Outsourcing business in India still leads the global IT outsourcing market and its advantages over other regions are distinct. Rising from the periphery to emerge as a viable, high-potential opportunity for the country's IT-BPO services sector, the Indian domestic market has undergone a transformation over the past decade. 

According to the government statistics, India continues to dominate global outsourcing market with market size estimated to be worth about $52 billion. Banking and financial services contribute nearly 40 percent to India's outsourcing industry. Even though the offshore outsourcing industry has been facing bottlenecks like cut-throat competition, severe shortages of trained and skilled manpower, more investment needed in infrastructure, need of higher level of control, maintenance of higher quality standards, the BPO service sector has slowly gone past the hurricanes smoothly. 

However, experts suggest that India's outsourcing industry is on the cusp of a significant change, shifting to knowledge-intensive and value-added services that call for a new way of functioning. In the global outsourcing market labour or cost arbitrage has been the constant concerns. But when it comes to outsourcing business in India, need to scale rapidly, greater focus on core competencies, enhanced productivity, heightened competition and reduced time to market that is driving domestic demand.

There now seems to be shift in the services that are outsourced. Earlier the not-so-important and tedious back office works were outsourced while now the outsourced services are now the areas that require experts. What has triggered the companies to search for experts to offload functions beyond their know-how is essentially the growing competition and market needs. This is not only helping organizations save time and gain value for money but also helping them scale up by capitalizing on their proficiency, says reports. To be precise, the Offshore BPO industry is standing at an interesting focus-shift point. BPO service providers are now adding the knowledge component into the mix in an attempt to deliver greater value.