ITES is a catchall term used for the myriad processes that any bureaucratic entity undertakes in servicing its employees, vendors, and customers. These include human resources, accounting, auditing, customer care, telemarketing, tax preparation, claims processing, document management, and a wide variety of other activities.

National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) said that India's booming information technology enables services and business process outsourcing industry would continue to perform robustly and expressed confidence that it will turn in an annual growth of around 50 per cent for the next four to five years.

Indian vendors have so far been able to garner a market share of two per cent in the ITES-BPO segment and will need to tap new service lines such as engineering, research and development, logistics and sales to capture a share of 4.8 per cent by 2008

Describing India's 26.3 per cent growth in IT exports in 2002-03 as "phenomenal" given the world economic situation. India's ITES’s& BPO clocked a growth of 59 per cent in 2002-03.

The IT-enabled services (ITES) /Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) space is getting crowded and therefore India has to consolidate its core competencies and focus on value-added non-voice business.

India's English educated workforce has a "large lead time" over China in the ITES-BPO segment.

Further, to have proper risk-mitigation requirements, ITES/BPO players have to improve capital efficiencies and utilisation and also expand operations outside India.

A majority of SMEs engaged in ITES/BPO activities need to reduce marketing and selling expenditure and expand the business with existing customers by offering non-voice services such as back office facilities in order to stay in the business.

Though there is vast potential in this sector, service providers must first have a proven record and then gain the confidence of the clients. This is the basis for getting business.

The ITES business in India is expected to grow to $65 billion, inclusive of both voice and non-voice business.

In a bid to cash in on the growing ITES sector and fight any threats from Chinese competitors. We need to maintain a continuous and cordial relationship with some of the company’s clients in North America, who prefer to have services in Spanish.

Looking at developing expertise in non-voice, which contributes to only 20 percent of the company’s revenues.

Leading analyst said that Indian ITES/BPO companies should concentrate on their competencies and outsource their networking needs to an external vendor. Investments in well-integrated, seamless global communication networks will give India the competitive edge, he added.

The global BPO market is estimated to touch $543 billion in 2004 at a compounded annual growth rate of 21 percent.

India's English educated workforce has a "large lead time" over China in the ITES-BPO segment.