Chennai may be considered the global hub for publishing BPO services but the efficiencies are still low, says a survey conducted by ValueNotes. Though publishers have been outsourcing for over two decades to Indian companies, they are far from satisfied.

Scientific, technical and medical publishers are the major outsourcers in the segment. Given the long history of outsourcing and off shoring in the industry, the market is mature but satisfaction levels suggest otherwise. Out of the 200 plus global publishers surveyed only nine per cent have indicated high satisfaction levels. Close to 69 per cent say it is medium and the rest are totally unhappy about the results. “This is probably an indication of higher expectation versus unsatisfactory delivery by the industry as a whole. Lower satisfaction levels also stem from publishers employing smaller or fly-by-night vendors,” says Aradhana Kolhatkar, lead analyst, publishing services of ValueNotes.

According to Sriram Subramanya, managing director and chief executive officer of Integra Software Services, total offshoring of publishing services stood at about $780 million for 2008 and the revenue is expected to grow by about 35 per cent till 2012. The industry employs about 35,000 people. India leads among the other favoured service providing nations including Philippines, China, Vietnam and Sri Lanka.

Cost savings continue to be the key driver for outsourcing. Vivek Sheynoy, analyst of publishing services at ValueNotes says, service providers claim outsourcing would save up to 40 per cent of publishers’ costs. The discrepancy occurs because publishers do not account for overheads from their end including project management, transition time and in-house quality checks.

While 75 per cent of the surveyed publishers indicated that quality of outsourced work has to considerably improve, about 64 per cent said they would continue to outsource. Overall, the STM segment is set to increase outsourcing by 15 per cent to 25 per cent, adds the survey.