Strengths

- Highly skilled, English-speaking workforce.
- Abundant manpower
- Cheaper workforce than their Western counterparts. According to Nasscom, The wage difference is as high as 70-80 percent when compared totheir Western counterparts.
- Lower attrition rates than in the West.
- Dedicated workforce aiming at making a long-term career in the field.
- Round-the-clock advantage for Western companies due to the huge time difference.
- Lower response time with efficient and effective service.
- Operational excellence
- Conducive business environment

Weaknesses

- Recent months have seen a rise in the level of attrition rates among ITES workers who are quitting their jobs to pursue higher studies. Of late workers have shown a tendency not to pursue ITES as a full-time career.
- The cost of telecom and network infrastructure is much higher in India than in the US.
- Manpower shortage
- Local infrastructure
- Political opposition from developed countries

Opportunities

- To work closely with associations like Nasscom to portray India as the most favoured ITES destination in the world.
- Indian ITES companies should work closely with Western governments and assuage their concerns and issues.
- India can be branded as a quality ITES destination rather than a low-cost destination.
- $69 billion ITES business by 2010
- $97.5 billion IT (consulting, software solutions) market by 2010

Threats

- The anti-outsourcing legislation in the US state of New Jersey. Three more states in the United States are planning legislation against outsourcing Connecticut, Missouri and Wisconsin.
- Workers in British Telecom have protested against outsourcing of work to Indian BPO companies.
- Other ITES destinations such as China, Philippines and South Africa could have an edge on the cost factor.
- Slowdown of demand