Picking up where India left off

At this week's NASSCOM outsourcing meeting in India, KPMG's advisory practice released its "Exploring Global Frontiers" report, which listed off the firm's predictions for up-and-coming BPO hubs. With the ongoing credit crisis pushing companies to continue to search for ways to cut costs, combined with the rising cost of services in the traditional outsourcing hotspots (e.g., Bangalore, Chennai, Shanghai), it doesn't take a genius (or a consulting firm, for that matter), to see that new portals will be emerging to fill that role.

KPMG rattled off the name of 31 cities that are rapidly emerging to pick up the overflowing outsourcing work. 31?a nice round number. Seems like a safe bet that at least one of those will prove to be the next Chennai. And then KPMG can proudly say it called it.

The cities range from well-known locales in developed countries to more under-the-radar cities in emerging markets. Having chosen 10 cities in the Americas, 10 in Asia Pacific and 11 in EMEA, some of the predictions include Buenos Aires, Winnipeg, Belfast, Brisbane, Queretaro, Davao City, Cluj-Napoca and Port Louis in Mauritius. The firm notes that each city offers its own competitive advantage; while cities in the Americas have larger labor pools and more mature service offerings, cities in APAC could offer lower costs and more government incentives, and EMEA locations have greater diversity and a solid infrastructure.