CyberMedia India: BPO bet pays off

When CyberMedia India Chairman Pradeep Gupta decided to diversify into business process outsourcing for editing, graphics and design services in 2006, little did he know that it will contribute 50 per cent to his turnover in three years. In 2008-09, Gupta expects revenue of $15 million (Rs 70 crore) each from the print business as well as the media services business which includes BPO and research services.

According to Gupta, it was in 2005, when CyberMedia, which published magazines like Dataquest, PCQuest and Living Digital, went for a listing on the National Stock Exchange that it thought of broadening its portfolio of services. “Print had started to decline worldwide and new media was growing,” he says.

The decision to tap the BPO business in editorial and design services as well as in customised publishing fructified soon after CyberMedia acquired US-based Publication Services which produces books and documents for McGraw Hill, Harvard University and Oxford University, among others. “Under customised publishing, we do titles such as Dell’s Power Solution, IBM’s Database Management and so on. We also do case studies and white papers,” says Gupta.

In March 2008, CyberMedia acquired Chicago-based TDA Group which offers value-added services to hi-tech clients in content development, consulting and web and graphics design.

Gupta hasn’t lost his appetite for print though. Come July and he will launch the Indian edition of Technology Review, the monthly publication licensed from MIT. “The last two quarters were bad for print, but Technology Review may catch the expected upswing,” he says.