PR Process Outsourcing starts in India
By Editor on Oct 30, 2007 in industry, industry news
Welcome to PRPO – which stands for PR Process Outsourcing.
And this is how PR outsourcing is starting out – Text 100 has started a Global Resource Optimization Centre at Mumbai to cater to activities that can be conducted at any part of the world. These activities include online campaign management, analysis, report generation, information management, content drafting for case studies, opinion articles, spokesperson bios, general editing, proofing and formatting, secondary research, reviews, pitches, messaging workshops, etc. Right now, the work outsourced is among Text 100 offices.
This is something that is likely to go viral. So two predictions:
1.We will see many global agencies doing the same in their India branches. We have Corporate Voice Weber Shandwick, Genesis BM, Edelman, etc.
2.Big Indian PR companies like Adfactors, Vaishnavi, Perfect Relations, Hanmer & Partners, etc. will open specialised cells to cater to outsourced work from their global affiliates.
3.There might be a third category of specialised PRPO firms coming up to cater to global PR firms.
Then we will need a NASSCOM.
Popularity: 5% [?]
On Nov 1, 2007, Madhuri said:
From the horse’s mouth (Text 100) -we are actually creating virtual teams. Doesn’t actually follow the outsourcing/ offshoring philosophy. We are using our uniquely integrated global network to ensure that clients have 24/7 service, improved quality and more flexibility than that which just a local team can provide. Text 100 is one of few global firms to have expanded worldwide organically consciously creating a common company culture, methodologies and approach to communication strategy WITH an integrated communication backbone connecting teams – over the last decade and more. This level of integration and work/ cultural “homogeneity” is difficult to emulate for firms with either just affiliates worldwide or not equally “strong” existing teams across the world. The centre in India is just a start – look out for more in other parts of the world. India was chosen as the first location being one of the oldest offices, with one of the largest, mature teams, with experience working with some of the best global and local brands AND with a (at least short term) lower cost of operations advantage. Virtual teams would be part of a larger team anywhere in the world, much like a local team member would be.
We are just making sure we get the best of our teams wherever they may be in the world. So no PRPO for us.
We aim to definitely improve the cost: benefit ratio to clients – but that’s more by improved efficiency and resourcing in the long term rather than just a labor/ real estate cost arbitrage. Makes sense? Welcome any questions, bouquets (or brickbats
).
On Nov 1, 2007, hh said:
Thanks Madhuri and congratulations. Yes I think many in the industry would love to know how the financials work out. For instance do you charge extra to the clients for this service? And if a Text 100 office say in the US is giving some assignments to this Mumbai center, is there a charge or there is none at all? Also I suppose you might be looking for new people for this center.
PR outsourcing has been discussed many times over the blogopshere without much headway as PR is supposedly a region centric activity. The kind of activities you are going to do seem right for venturing into such a practice. Let’s see how the industry reacts.
All the best to you.
On Nov 5, 2007, Madhuri said:
Thanks, HH. While some of the financial modeling is proprietory information that I can’t share widely – I can certainly address the specific question you included. Client would be charged as we do for any other engagement – usually from their existing budget. If their existing budget already includes those activities they would not be charged extra. Rather they may be able to redeploy any benefit to either using the local team resources more effectively/ improve quality or speed/ cover another location that they may not have been able to “afford” before/ see a direct cost benefit – depending on what they would like. If the activities executed by the GRO team in India is beyond the exsisting brief/ budget there would a commensurate charge at our regular India hourly rates (usually a fixed fee per month/ project based on approximated time and material). For work sent across by other Text office or when its “shared execution” – we have always apportioned revenues to the relevant offices if one office executes on the brief “localised” in another office anywhere worldwide (even within the same country/ region – eg. Mumbai/ Delhi/ Bangalore or SF/ NY/ Boston). This has been our practice much before we started this initiative or even thought of it. The same practice would continue. For services rendered to other offices outside India, we need to follow transfer pricing regulations for “arms length pricing”. Which has again been standard practice in our company and we continue to follow that. Does this adequately answer your questions?
On Apr 12, 2008, Outsourcing Delegation Guru said:
I didn’t know even PR is being outsourced to India. I suppose in due time everything can be outsourced, if the work quality is acceptable…
http://www.outsourcingdelegation.com
On May 12, 2008, Sunit said:
Well this concept really seems quite interesting. As the clients become more and more demanding, the need of the hour is to develop innovative tools in PR as well. We cater to so many technology clients and help them communicate abou thier innovatiions through strategic communications ofcourse for which we claim to be an expert, however we ourselves tend to ignore that, innovations are required in our industry as well to sustain in the industry. Such kind of tools would not only benefit the client, but would also streamline our communication efforts in a more focussed manner