How the global Business Process Automation market can feed into India’s dream of Atmanirbharta

As tech budgets in Indian companies jump up, Business Process Automation (BPA) is coming into its own.

The global BPA market size is expected to reach US$ 19.6 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 12.2% according to reports. This is owing to the fact that 80% of enterprise business processes rely on unstructured content and workflows.

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Is the industry ready to adapt to automated solutions and are they beginning to take notice? A few business sectors will see stupendous growth in the next few years owing to these automations.

Typically, enterprises in India spend about 2.2% of their revenue on IT, which is lower than companies in North America (about 3.3%) but a significant investment. According to recent research, Indian CIOs / tech executives expect an average tech budget increase of 3.8%, which is higher than the global average of 3.6%.

Does this mean the global BPA market can feed into the dream of India’s atmanirbharta? If so, how?

The Tech Panda spoke to Srividya Kannan, Director and Founder of Avaali Solutions, a specialist provider of digital solutions to enterprises to increase process agility and reduce costs.

Automation is the new revelation to accelerate the growth for many, and with initiatives like Digital India for ‘Atmanirbharta’, enterprises are relying on emerging technologies, thereby contributing to India’s developing economic landscape

“The overall IT spending in India is expected to touch about US$ 105 billion in 2022. Digital business and cloud spending is growing massively while spending on legacy infra and data center technologies is contracting. There is a substantial focus on cost optimization, cost benchmarking, and automation initiatives to deliver business results,” she explains.

She further explains that since the onset of the pandemic, enterprises have significantly increased their investments in digitalization to prepare for a possible permanent hybrid work in the future.

“Automation is the new revelation to accelerate the growth for many, and with initiatives like Digital India for ‘Atmanirbharta’, enterprises are relying on emerging technologies, thereby contributing to India’s developing economic landscape,” she says.

India has a significant role in creating and delivering business models such as the Global Business Services (GBS) and Shared Services (SSC)/Global Inhouse Centre (GIC) with our tremendous functional talent and growing digital technology capabilities. Because of which, she adds, Indian enterprises have a significant opportunity ahead to build scale and deliver these business models for companies worldwide.

“Whether it is accounting experience, experience in a BPO environment, analytical thinking, automation implementation capabilities, knowledge of GAAP, experience with business analytics or experience with ERP systems – the opportunities available to us to own and deliver these business models for large enterprises headquartered in India or even anywhere worldwide is massive,” she reveals.

“With the launch of various programs for the growth of the MSME sector, India has found a new need to connect all SME owners and assist them in their digital transformation for the smooth running and to enhance the growth of this sector,” she adds.

Does the Indian industry have the requisite skill sets for automated processes?

Organizations today require an adaptable workforce in terms of skills and competencies that can mould themselves and meet the growing demands of businesses. There has been significant growth in the market need for digital skills.

Kannan reveals that the reality is that there is a considerable gap in digital skills versus demand, and companies are struggling to find employees who have a solid understanding of technical capabilities and are industry-ready.

Enterprises must tap into a non-traditional talent pool from rural locations where the tech labour market is less competitive while also building a talent pool from non-technical lateral hires and upskilling them

“The availability of qualified talent is a limiting factor for digital business initiatives. This is both a challenge and an opportunity for the talent pool,” she says.

Also, adopting digital technologies requires user teams to be trained in adoption.

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“Enterprises need extensive engagement to ensure that their user teams understand and use these technologies best to derive returns from their digital investments,” she explains.

“To address this, enterprises must tap into a non-traditional talent pool from rural locations where the tech labour market is less competitive while also building a talent pool from non-technical lateral hires and upskilling them. Additionally, enterprises could potentially evaluate crowdsourcing services to source parcels of work (even from nearshore locations),” she advises.