Outsourcing in Publishing to touch USD 1.2 in 2012

[sajiv]

Outsourcing in Publishing to touch USD 1.2 in 2012

Mumbai, Consultancy firm ValueNotes has estimated that the Indian publishing outsourcing industry was expected to touch USD 1.2 billion by 2012 from USD 660 million in 2008.

In a report released here today it said the growth was expected to come from rise in the number of publishing companies that will outsource, including traditional segments such as STM/Academic, Educational and Legal Publishing, as well as new segments such as Magazines, Corporate and B2B publishing.

India continues to remain the favoured publishing BPO hub with 35,550 people in direct employment and revenues worth USD 660 million as of end-2008.

While revenues are expected to cross USD 1.2 billion by 2012, the total employee strength is estimated to cross 55,000 by 2012.

Publishing outsourcing includes a wide range of services. The four broad heads include content, design, technology and 'other' services.

Content continues to drive the industry and contributes to 72 per cent of the total industry revenues. Over the last couple of years, services offshored have undergone a transition - from low value services such as tagging, editing existing designs, copy editing to high value services such as original designs, testing and assessment and e-learning tools.

According to Arun Jethmalani, CEO, ValueNotes, "Most providers have access to similar technology, however the differentiator has really been the capabilities developed around workflow and innovation. Today's technology will become tomorrow's standard and constant innovation will differentiate the winners." Based on exhaustive primary research and analysis of this sector, ValueNotes has identified and established that there are over 140 vendors in the publishing offshoring industry with frontrunners like SPi, Aptara, Integra and Laserwords.