Making the Move into LPO
February 09A number of leading BPOs in India are adding Legal Process Outsourcing services into their portfolio. Here’s why.
Wipro and Infosys foraying into the Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) business may sound a bit out of place initially, but when viewed as part of a business strategy for the flat world, they appear to be key moves in an increasingly globalised world. Wipro is understood to have introduced Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) services, including offerings such as patents and contract management, as a part of its Knowledge Services business. Infosys on the other hand has plans to launch services in the traditional legal domain including paralegal services and litigation support.
The outsourcing industry has been predominantly voice-based in the past, though many non-voice based processes have been incorporated into the portfolio of BPOs over the last few years. This broadening of the horizon by BPO organisations is a welcome value-addition for global customers. The debut of Legal Process Outsourcing services by BPOs has to be viewed in the same context.
According to a study by the US-based Forrester Research, the current annual value of legal outsourcing, which is worth USD 80 million, can go up to USD 4 billion and generate over 79,000 jobs in India by 2015. A study by Value Notes indicates that in a span of five years, the offshore legal services industry has grown remarkably (at a CAGR of over 40 per cent). There are more than 100 vendors in the offshore legal services industry employing around 10,000 people as of November 2008. The employee count is expected to reach 55,000 by the end of 2012. Revenues from the offshore legal services are estimated to be USD 325 million for 2008 and are expected to grow over three times by 2012 to cross a billion dollars.
In the case of LPO activity within Knowledge Services, the entire gamut of work is divided into two separate, yet conjoined sectors. While companies require a high-end legal team for the more complex projects work, a lot of the background work involving research, analysis and proofreading of documents can be undertaken by relevantly skilled people who just need to be told what to do.
The BPOs handle the heavy lifting part and pass it on to the Knowledge Services to develop the same into a thought leadership piece. Service lines at the lower end within a Legal Process Unit include legal transcription, litigation support i.e. in e-discovery and coding and indexing, legal research, document review, secretarial services like statutory reports and filings, legal billing and word processing. At the higher end of the spectrum are services such as legal publishing consisting of database creation and compilation, writing head notes, synopsis, directories, newsletters and contract-related services such as contract drafting, contract review, contract abstraction, corporate governance and corporate due diligence.
