Corporations: Advantages of Outsourcing Offshore

Resources in India offer a significant advantage in terms of cost, legal education, quality of work, speed, and motivation. These services can provide corporations more staying power in protracted litigation, and help dissuade frivolous law suits. They can allow a merger or acquisition to close faster, or help product development teams bring better products to market sooner.  Ultimately, this translates into increased shareholder value.

A recent study from the research firm Gartner Dataquest estimates that India's revenue from BPO will grow from slightly under $1 billion in 2002 to $13.8 billion in 2007, representing 57 percent of the offshore BPO market. A number of corporations already have found that what makes India work in more developed "knowledge BPO" sectors (such as information technology, human resources, and accounting) works for law as well. Examples include, but are hardly limited to:

• Microsoft Corporation using Indian professionals to search for prior written information about an invention in preparation for filing patent applications
• General Electric leveraging an eight-lawyer, nine-paralegal team in India to scan, code, index, and abstract documents to support their lawyer teams throughout the world
• Cisco Systems directing an outside firm to use Indian professionals to perform technical writing for patent applications

The key to India's success in this regard is its ability to deliver on all three value fronts; quality, speed and cost.

Quality

The available Indian labor pool is both well-educated and steeped in quality fundamentals. With over 221 universities graduating over 3.3 million students annually, the Indian educational system today is a global leader in such professional disciplines as science, management and engineering.

Speed

For tasks that involve collaboration with U.S.-based teams, the time zone differential is key. India is 9 to 12 hours ahead of the U.S. and this translates into a potential doubling of work output per day, as the on-shore and offshore teams work sequentially on a shift basis to complete projects.

Cost

The direct cost of labor in India is a fraction of that in the U.S., translating into total cost savings on the order of 50% relative to an equivalent American offering. Moreover, that total cost is decreasing over time, as logistics, communication, and training inputs become less expensive.

For access to the complete perspective paper:

Offshore Legal Services: The Drive For Productivity