Knowledge @ Wharton devoted their entire latest issue to examining the trend of Indian companies moving up the value chain. Since the other media coverage of outsourcing in India that we covered in the Strategy Consulting, My Ass seemed to provoke some people, let’s take a look at what Wharton/BCG say is happening there.

- They characterize the type of work Indian BPO firms as evolving towards as “KPO” — knowledge process outsourcing.

- Indian firms have begun to hire local executives to gain access to CEO-level people.

- This is not just call center stuff. “Instead of routine data work, you move towards more of information extraction, which involves a certain amount of judgment, interpretation, discretion and inference … You are seeing more of that happen. Instead of medical transcription, data entry and minimal inbound call support, people are now offering high-end research services,” says Ravi Aron, senior fellow at Wharton’s Mack Center for Technological Innovation.

- Case in point: Pipal Research, which according to its website targets consulting firms, law firms, banks and corporate management as its clients. Wharton reports that the bulk of Pipal’s work was “equity research, fixed-income asset research and asset pricing-related,” and is now offering similar high-end work with its custom-research PipalAnswers service. Types of services offered? “M&A Diligence,” “Financial Research and Modeling” and “Strategic Planning.”

and in the “Testimonials” section of PipalAnswers is this:

“PipalAnswers is like a trusted advisor who is at your disposal almost 24×7 to research, analyze and deliver true insights on a given issue”
–MD, Bluechip Investment Bank