New Delhi and New York: The last couple of years have been turbulent for financial services firms - the recession had a disproportionately large impact on investment banks, private equity firms, and hedge funds world over. The Madoff scandal, among other large scandals, added to the troubles, and forced financial services firms to turn their business models around. Today, they want to maintain a lighter footprint and look for cost efficiencies and better technology. In recognition of this, firms like Cians Analytics (http://www.ciansanalytics.com) are looking to take the outsourcing industry to a new revolution. “What we’re seeing now are the forces of creative destruction at work. The financial services industry is re-evaluating its old models and drastically reorganizing, and firms like ours are positioned for the new opportunities and are really taking off,” claims Aman Chowdhury, one of two founders and Co-CEO at Cians.
The offshoring model initially centered on labor cost arbitrage: firms looked to outsource their most basic tasks to lower cost centers in India and the Philippines. Now that model has become significantly more sophisticated:
The old KPO cost-arbitrage model has evolved, adding considerable scope to its core competencies. Today a high-end KPO firm is set up for 24X6, real time operations, and multi-lingual research and analysis in a number of areas. It is staffed by international professionals with significant experience in areas of operation that include legal services, biotechnology, and wealth management among others, who have chosen the field for its potential and dynamism. Jigme Lingtsang, Senior Vice President at Cians says he chose Cians over a plain vanilla private equity group or hedge fund because he believes “The financial world is seeing a structural shift: I wanted to leverage this inflection point at a firm of the future like Cians and bring to bear my experiences at the best run institutions in the world,” says Lingtsang
Meanwhile, private equity firms and angel investors have flocked to the industry. Most recently, PE firm Actis announced an investment of $50 million in an Indian KPO firm. Cians too found that they could afford to be selective about their sources of funding. “We wanted people who shared our vision for this company, and who were willing to lend long-term support,” founder Bhandari, says, “in the end, we feel strongly that our financial backers and Board of Advisors will give us the support and guidance we need to develop deliberately and rapidly.”
