 Yes, if Venkat Srinivasan, serial entrepreneur and CEO of Rage Frameworks, is to be believed. Co-founder of the Massachusetts based startup, he claims to have developed a technology that will radically change the way companies will look to manage their business processes. He says companies nee to move from their current level and embrace automation in a way that allows them to work at hyper speed and efficiency. He talks about Business Process Automation (BPA) being the new paradigm, where the system takes away the focus from low-cost arbitrage to work on improving process efficiency. According to him, BPO is a one-time savings, as the largest benefit is obtained when the process is shifted overseas. After time, as costs in the outsourced country rise, primarily the manpower costs, the benefits are relatively less and tend to get marginalized after a five year period or so. This was where Business Process Management (BPM) came in, to evolve better processes and streamline the existing ones. Since processes are always evolving, by the time a “best practice” is put in place, a new one is already out in the market. So the benefits again are marginal at best. Instead, BPA works in a way that instead of a forward-engineering oriented lifecycle (as seen in the Software Development Life Cycle or SDLC), an abstract engine derives the path for software development over the long run. This is done through a high-level understanding of processes and what the customer wishes to achieve, rather than focusing on the processes alone. The structure created is then flexible enough to change over time without having to undergo earth-shaking changes at each step of evolution. This could mean a fundamental shift in orientation for BPO providers. The system as it works currently allows little in terms of flexibility. However, if BPO vendors could marry it into their current operating structures, the service provider would benefit by being able to mould the process to the customer’s needs as and when required. The BPO industry today in India is still recording double digit growth. However, the change is imminent, with voice-based processes moving to more US culture-centric places like the Philippines. Even South America is making a mark in this area, so BPO vendors in India have no choice but to evolve. The next logical step is to technology or domain specific areas such as KPO wherein specific domain knowledge in areas such as law, medicine and technology would help. India also has a fairly strong educated population to manage these tasks, but how long before others catch up? BPA seems to offer a solution to this problem and could possibly change the face of the industry, paving the way for long term relationships based on customer knowledge and partnership rather than simply cost arbitrage. | 
