The Technical Help Desk market is proving to be a significant area of opportunity emerging within the ITES segment for Indian companies. A recent study by business intelligence firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) has shown that this market is expected to grow to around US$28.4 billion by 2006. Estimates for India indicate that the market currently stands at around US300 million per year and will grow rapidly.

India's strong base of engineering and technical manpower is a major incentive for global companies to outsource their Technical Help Desk services to the country. Besides, Technical Help Desk services are not new to India. A number of leading Indian ICT players have been delivering Tier 2 and Tier 3 tech support services as part of their solutions for clients, well before ITES/BPO arrived on the scene. Today, the high volume, Tier 1 support is also part of the portfolio of offerings of Indian companies.

Some of the key global trends characterizing the Technical Help Desk industry are as follows:

North America and Western Europe account for around 83 percent of the worldwide market for technical help desk services

Companies are moving away from pure voice-based tech support and asking for a hybrid mixed media mode of service delivery from their outsourcing partners

Popular outsourced services today include hardware/software support, ISP support, Web site support, e-mail/chat based support, trouble ticket generation and remote monitoring.

Customers are demanding value based services such as creating and managing a knowledge base on a product or technology.

While Tier 2 and Tier 3 support depends predominantly on hardware and or/software prowess, Tier 1 support is centered around customer centricity, operating efficiencies and cost effectiveness

The India advantage

India's strong cost-quality value proposition is placing the country on strong turf in this market. This is the edge Indian ITES companies offer customers today:

Over 40 percent savings for customers over best staffed technical support centers elsewhere

India's unrivaled, large English speaking skill set with technical know how and domain expertise in technology support

Improving telecommunications infrastructure

Snapshot of Indian ITES companies*

BNKe Solutions Pvt Ltd: Customer helpdesk, customer request fulfillment, software support, etc. on a 24x7 basis

Computer Generated Solutions, Inc.:Help desk, e-learning.

Daksh eServices Pvt Ltd: Email, chat and related support channels; technical support for consumer products and services.

Genisys Integrating Systems (India) Pvt Ltd:Genisys Integrating Systems (India) Pvt Ltd

Grape City India Pvt Ltd: Quality support to customers either by telephone, e-mail and chat

GTL Ltd:Chat/web/e-mail based customer management services, technical back office processing services

HCL E Serve Technologies Ltd :Technical Help Desk

HCL Infinet Ltd:  Technical Help Desk

iBackOffice.com Pvt Ltd: E-mail assistance, live collaborative online chat, automated virtual representatives - or "vReps" and remote assistance.

IDS Infotech Ltd: Web Help Desk

Infowayz: Web Help Desk

Intellicon Contact Centers: Help desk and technical support to receivables management.

Majoris Systems (P) Ltd :Web-based customer contact centre, help desk, technical support centre

Motif India Infotech Pvt Ltd: Online Help Desk

Minerva Telelink Limited :Customised front end CRM solutions, technical help desk management

MsourcE Corporation :e-mail/chat, Help Desk and technical help desk

Patni Computer Systems Limited :Technical Helpdesks

RT Outsourcing Services Limited :Web based help Desk, technical support Help Desk, eCRM services, ecommerce support

Syntel: Technical Help Desk, and knowledge management services.

Talisma Corporation Pvt Ltd: Engineering support, platform support, developer support, enterprise product support, technical support, help desk support, and customer services support.

Wipro Spectramind :Technical Help Desk

Snapshot of MNC's Captive Units*

GE Capital International Services - IT Managed Services: Remote IT Help Desks

Computer Associates: Engineering Support, Technical Help Desk Services

American Online: Technical Help Desk, Chat/email based Services

Microsoft: Chat/Email based Technical Help Desk Services

Oracle: Engineering Support, Technical Help Desk Services

Hewlett Packard: Remote IT Help Desks, Technical System Management Services