WNS: Getting it Right

WNS was the largest third-party Indian BPO service provider

in 2004-05. The transformation story of this once British

Airways captive to today's exalted status is now part of

Indian BPO folklore-this year it became the first

India-leveraged third-party BPO to cross the $100 mn mark. And

with its delivery centers in Ipswich in UK and Sri Lanka,

besides various Indian facilities along with marketing offices

in US and UK, it probably came closest to attaining the

much-touted rightshoring strategy aimed by BPO service

providers worldwide.

Verticalization was the key mantra practiced in WNS

boardrooms as the company enhanced its key business lines like

transportation, insurance, heath claims and knowledge services

besides identifying mortgage, real estate, manufacturing,

distribution and retail as future thrust areas. 90 new clients

came into fold-perhaps the most significant was the three-year

$100 mn contract signed by world's largest media conglomerate,

the WPP group. Projects worth $20 mn involving questionnaire

design, survey programming, the actual survey, data cleansing,

data processing and analysis to preparing the final

presentation were outsourced this year.