Asia BPO market to hit US$15B by 2011

Finance and accounting, customer care and HR (human resource), will continue to be the main drivers of business process outsourcing (BPO) in the Asia-Pacific, a new report reveals.

In its updated report on BPO trends in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan, research house IDC forecasted the market to rise from US$7 billion in 2006 to US$15 billion by 2011, recording a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16 percent.

IDC's previous report in 2006 also identified the finance and accounting and HR sectors as the main market drivers.

Australia will continue to be the biggest market for BPO in the Asia-Pacific region, said Conrad Chang, research manager for IDC Asia-Pacific's BPO services research, in a statement.

According to IDC, businesses in the region appear to have a better understanding of BPO. There is now a greater alignment of BPO solutions with business objectives, resulting in performance benchmarking and ROI (returns on investment) analysis as important deal clinchers in BPO project tenders, IDC noted.

Vendors targeting this space include Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Capgemini, as well as Indian service providers such as Tata Consulting Servics and Satyam Computer Services.