Global LPO Conference, 2011: What’s special!

Posted on May 9, 2011 by admin

A global conference in any sphere of activity will always invoke a great deal of interest and is no different in the case of the legal process outsourcing sector. The upcoming Global LPO conference to be held during June 15-16, 2011 is expected to provide a greater thrust in the legal outsourcing arena. The presence of all the big wigs of the legal outsourcing industry is expected to generate new avenues and open up new doors not only in terms of outsourcing work but also from the stand point of investments and infrastructure on off-shore sites.

It is fairly evident that most outsourcing companies in India are gearing up for this conference in order to make their presence felt in the legal outsourcing circles. These LPOs’ cannot ask for a better opportunity to promote and market their organization and showcase their cause. Since the resurgence of the US economy, most LPO providers in India have realized that the bottleneck has disappeared and the flood gates have opened.

This formal “buyers and vendors” meet is expected to generate a spurt in the legal outsourcing activity both in the USA and in India. The conference is the ideal platform for the outsourcing provider as well as the concerned LPO in India to exchange ideas, build relationships or consolidate them. New tie ups and ventures are expected to evolve out this conference and all those involved in this industry are jumping onto this bandwagon. So, if you are in this line of activity, don’t just stop at your door step, book your tickets and hop on to the flight that takes you straight to New York for this conference.

Nandini Ananth
Legal Associate
Unicita Consulting Pvt Ltd.

Posted in Legal Process Outsourcing | Tagged , , , , | 42 Comments

SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL………. If you are an LPO…….

Posted on May 9, 2011 by admin

Recent surveys have shown that there has been an increasing trend in the recent past where western companies are outsourcing their legal processes to smaller companies. The recent pattern of outsourcing as available in the data monitor indicates that, smaller and medium sized LPO firms have become the preferred supplier of legal outsourcing activity.

The survey indicated that the smaller companies/vendors are satisfying their global clients in a much higher fashion than their larger counterparts. The outsourcing provider is keen to look into the responsiveness, expertise and cost effectiveness of the program. The smaller LPO players are able to achieve this through their specialized knowledge, deep client understanding and personalized attention. They are in a position to tailor make themselves to the needs of the overseas provider and offer cost effective packages. This unique selling proposition has propelled the smaller law firms into the limelight as the outsourcing providers see “value for their money.”

This ongoing trend seems to indicate that smaller and medium sized LPOs are striking the right cord in the legal outsourcing circles and in all probability would be much sought after in the days to come.

Raman KSV
Legal Associate,
Unicita Consulting, Bangalore.

Posted in Legal Process Outsourcing | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

Obama’s tax reforms and its aftermath

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

Legal outsourcing has been on the rise irrespective of the economic or political scenarios since the time this industry has been in force in India. Much has been said about Obama’s new tax reforms and its pre-emptive impact on the legal outsourcing industry in India. However, if the market trends indicate anything, this industry is growing in spite of the incentives offered by the Obama regime to the overseas attorney. It is fairly evident that the cost effective program, coupled with high quality levels of work delivered by Indian LPOs are proving to be of immense benefit and value to the attorneys, something the overseas attorney cannot ignore. Law firms, legal counsels and attorneys in the US save about 50% to 70 % of their costs by outsourcing work to India. Even with the tax breaks provided by the Obama regime, the savings for the attorney by way of outsourcing would measure in the range of 30% to 50%, a sizable amount indeed.

The disparity between the wage costs in the USA and that of the LPOs based in India is too great to be ignored, that too for the same quality of work and for greater outputs. Moreover during these pressing economic times in the US, outsourcing is the ideal and time-tested option for an attorney to manage the expenditure involved. The writing is very clear, days of protectionism are over and globalization is here to stay.

Sudarshan Iyengar,
Unicita Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Posted in Legal Outsourcing Services | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

LPOs – A boon for the overseas attorney

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

India’s LPO industry has proved to be a blessing for attorneys based in the USA and UK and continues to do so during these post-recession times. LPOs are providing not only back office and paralegal work relating to personal injuries, contracts, medical malpractice etc., but also work pertaining to bankruptcy, foreclosures, intellectual property which emphasizes the high end and quality of work of the LPO industry.
There are various reasons that attribute to this trend such as availability of low cost labor, cost effectiveness of the legal outsourcing program and the improvisations made by the LPOs in regards to work content. The focus of the overseas attorney has always been to achieve greater productivity at low cost and LPOs in India have been the logical answer. A proven track record during the past decade stands testimony to this fact. Attorneys in the USA and UK are deriving benefits from high quality work at cost effective rates, which was previously unheard off in the western world.
Another advantage that the overseas attorney has been deriving is the improvisation of India’s work force. Due to recessionary trends, there has been a change in the pattern of work that is being outsourced by overseas attorneys. Activities pertaining to litigation, document reviews, bankruptcy, foreclosure and corporate compliances have gained ground and attorneys have relied heavily on Indian LPOs to provide services in these sectors for them.
For example, bankruptcy and foreclosure cases require high end and accurate results at very low costs due to the very nature of the cases. The resultant factor has been such that not only overseas attorneys but also their clients derived benefits as a result of outsourcing these types of assignments. The legal research performed on these bankruptcy cases were the additional benefits derived by the overseas attorney.
With about 140 LPOs and a versatile workforce of approximately 12000 and still growing, the overseas attorney has the opportunity to acquire any kind of legal work at any given point in time through an Indian LPO.

Sudarshan Iyengar,
Unicita Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

Posted in Legal Outsourcing Services | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Legal Outsourcing to India – The Cost & Accountability factor

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

The legal outsourcing market is becoming more and more competitive. This has in turn increased the number of international law firms and solo attorneys seeking state of the art legal process outsourcing services to meet the rising demands of quality and cost effectiveness. Law firms and solo attorneys today are under enormous pressure to increase their billable hours while at the same time reduce their legal fees and litigation costs.
LPO service providers are not employees of the overseas law firms or the attorneys. Instead, they act as independent contractors or employees serving numerous clients at one go. Attorneys utilizing the services of Indian LPOs are at an advantage as they derive value added benefits by avoiding hiring of in-house employees to execute the legal work.
An overseas attorney while paying his expensive in-house staff for about 8 hours of work each day is well aware that about two hours of this work time goes unproductive each day.

It has been well documented that LPO service providers set up their work processes and tasks on an hourly basis or depending upon the case, per project basis. Under these circumstances, the overseas attorney has the privilege to account for both time and money. He will be in a position to distinguish between productive and unproductive time and make payments accordingly. These LPO service providers have seasoned lawyers who have been trained to meet the challenges of the legal outsourcing game. They offer to work at rates equal to or less than what a overseas law firm or attorney might pay to hire and train a fresher.

As a result, a greater number of law firms and solo attorneys based in the UK and the USA are approaching LPO service providers based in India in order to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve the quality of their work product with enhanced outputs in order to derive optimum benefits.

Nandini Ananth
Legal Associate
Unicita Consulting Pvt. Ltd

Posted in Legal Outsourcing Services | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Latest Developments in Legal Process Outsourcing

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

The new developments that are happening in the LPO sector are bright and encouraging. Many IT and BPO giants in India are in a fast pace to set up a legal outsourcing unit. IT bigwigs like Wipro and Infosys have already delivered full fledge legal support to their US clients. It is learnt that Microsoft has teamed up with Wipro in legal outsourcing. This development is not just a mere grapevine, but is being executed in full swing. According to a report made out by Forrester Research, indications are that by the year of 2015, the Legal Outsourcing market to India will be worth as high as US $4 billion approximately.

This kind of trend is only going to draw a good number of large Indian firms to invest in the legal process outsourcing industry which augurs well for the LPO industry. Having a foot hold in the Indian industry, these corporate giants are well versed with the process of running an outsourcing industry. They have the knowhow in regards to acquiring the talent in the legal field and the early birds to this industry have shown as to how lucrative this industry is. It goes without saying that the LPO industry is not only here to stay but is also an attractive business option.
Evalueserve, a global research and analytics firm, recently conducted a study of the LPO industry. Key findings of the study include:
1. The LPO industry is the fastest growing sub-sector in the Knowledge Process Outsourcing domain.
2. Almost all of the offshore outsourcing work is being sent from corporate counsels and law firms.
3. Knowledge management will be a growth area for the LPO industry.
At this stage of development, it is understood that this particular vertical in the knowledge process outsourcing sector is demandingly growing strong and is definitely here to stay for years to come.

Nandini Ananth
Legal Associate
Unicita Consulting Pvt Ltd.

Posted in Legal Process Outsourcing | Tagged , , , , , | 13 Comments

“GO GREEN” LPO

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

Environmental sensitiveness and the call for protection globally have made the Businesses and companies to think of environmental protection, some do it voluntarily and some due to regulatory compulsion. Therefore, environmentalism has become the buzz word off late in many of the contracts entered into. A good number of outsourcing firms are getting conscious and gearing up to be a part of this “Green” Outsourcing concept. Topics such as generating a paperless office, effective waste management system with regard to office material, conscious usage of office infrastructure are some of the measures that most outsourcing companies have adopted of late.

Recession or no recession, the Legal outsourcing sector has always had a ‘Green’ signal with regard to business trends and growth potential, and now with the focus on environmental issues, it is now going to be “Green Outsourcing.”

Raman KSV
Legal Associate,
Unicita Consulting, Bangalore.

Posted in Legal Process Outsourcing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

CLOUD COMPUTING, THE LATEST TREND AND ITS IMPACT ON THE OUTSOURCING INDUSTRY:

Posted on April 29, 2011 by admin

Cloud computing is the latest trend and buzz worldwide. Though many internet users may not be aware of it, they are in effect utilizing this concept to a fairly large extent. The question is whether it will alter the present scenario of conventional outsourcing?
The phrase “cloud computing” originated from the cloud symbol that is usually used by flow charts and diagrams to symbolize the internet. The principle behind the cloud is that any computer connected to the internet is connected to the same pool of computing power, applications, and files.
Many questions arise with the introduction of this concept such as – Whether it will change the manner in which the financial companies’ can access IT services.
Can cloud computing position itself in strategic technological areas to counter the conventional ones?
How the Indian outsourcers are going to check this? Is it by entering the area of cloud computing services?
However, the cloud computing service providers have to create trust in their services to grow further. That is in terms of data security, integration of systems and the like.
Is it capable of altering the present conventional outsourcing process or not?
Right from the inception of the computer age, mankind has witnessed a great deal of changes in it way of functioning more so in the developed and developing world. Needless to say, computing to cloud computing is bound to take this human civilization to another level human interactivity more so, our legal outsourcing industry. It is early days yet for this concept to gain ground and in order to obtain answer to these aforementioned questions, one will have to wait and see or as the saying goes “Wait for the cloud burst.”

Raman KSV
Legal Associate,
Unicita Consulting, Bangalore.

Posted in Legal Outsourcing Services | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

PATENT SERVICES, ANOTHER FEATHER IN THE CAP OF LPO’s !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted on April 19, 2011 by admin

The Patent services in India has emerged as a new offshoring platform and an opportunity with the starting disclosures made by the research firm Value Notes.
The estimated revenues from the Indian patent offshoring service industry is expected to touch $ 206 m by the end of 2012 and the current addressable value comes to $ 2.2 b. Nearly about 50 vendors are offering patent services from India as of 2007 and the total number of people by this industry would touch approx. 6,950 by the end of 2012.

Nearly 60% of the offshored work comes from US and forms the largest client segment for the Indian vendors. The value chain is adding with other multi service players, adds Value Notes.
Well, critics may take note of this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Raman KSV
Legal Associate,
Unicita Consulting, Bangalore.
www.my-paralegal.com
www.unicitaconsulting.com

Posted in Legal Outsourcing Services | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Limelight projected on the LPO service providers! Will this last?

Posted on April 19, 2011 by admin

Concept of outsourcing started way back in the early 90’s where medical transcriptions were being outsourced to India. However outsourcing captured the limelight in the early 2000 wherein IT, customer service, health care and legal achieved a big break into the Asian markets and India being the most preferred.

India has achieved the status of serving as global lawyers. This has happened because India is known for the availability of lawyers who are familiar with both US and UK accent and who are qualified to work at a less expensive rate. Besides all this the legal system in India is very much similar to the legal system of her counterparts in the west.

Ever since legal outsourcing gained its place in the Indian markets, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Mumbai and Pune are the most preferred legal outsourcing locations. LPO service providers from these locations have been able to solve high end US litigation matters. As of now the current trend for the western law firms are to outsource legal and paralegal matters to India. The market predicts a boom for such work in the near future to come.

Maybe now it is a great deal for the US law firms to outsource legal work to the Asian countries but none knows what is in store for the LPO market in the coming future.
Till then it is a guessing game!

Nandini Ananth
Legal Associate
Unicita Consulting Pvt Ltd.
www.my-paralegal.com
www.unicitaconsulting.com

Posted in LPO Challenge | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment