AN OVERVIEW OF THE BPO INDUSTRY – 1

BUSINESS PROCESS OUTSOURCING

ABOUT BPO

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. There is a common misconception that B.P.O. and call centers, mean one and the same.

A call centre is a remote location in India wherein calls made by customers abroad are routed to India by means of telecommunication equipments. This call is answered by call centre agents who are trained to speak in an accent which the customer can understand. This accent is commonly referred to as Neutral Accent

Coming to the term Business Process Outsourcing, let us understand the term in a simple way by breaking it up. There is a business. Each business has got a process. A process means a specific way or method of doing a job. Those jobs which are routine in nature, are given to countries outside India, to save money by way of salaries.

OVERVIEW OF VARIOUS CAREER OPPORTUNITIES IN THE BPO INDUSTRY

• Voice Process (Inbound and Outbound)
• Semi Voice Process or Back Office Support
• Medical Transcription
• Medical Billing
• Data Entry
• E-Mail Support
• Knowledge Process Outsourcing
• Recruitment Process Outsourcing
• Education Process Outsourcing
• Legal Process Outsourcing
• Technical Writing
• Content Writing
• Web Designing

ABOUT NASSCOM

NASSCOM stands for National Association of Software and Servicing Companies

It regulates the functioning of the IT and ITES industry

IT means Information Technology which includes software programming and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

ITES stands for Information Technology Enabled Services, which includes, BPO, KPO, RPO, EPO and LPO

WEBSITE: http://www.nasscom.org/

ABOUT CALL CENTERS

A call center is a set up in India, wherein calls which are routine in nature made by foreign customers are routed to India and answered by agents who are trained to speak in an accent, which a person from the other country can understand. The basic reason for outsourcing these routine jobs was to save money on salaries and infrastructure. There are two basic functions which any call center performs:

INBOUND (Taking incoming calls)

Incoming calls means calls made by the customer to the call centre agent which is customer service. Just to give an example, a person banking with CITI BANK in the U.S. would call to know the balance in his account or a customer may call up the customer service to know whether his bank charges have been reversed.

OUTBOUND (Making outgoing calls)

Out going calls focus on selling a product or service. In this type of calling, the dialer will automatically dial numbers of customers at random from the database and the call centre executive will sell a product or service to the customer. If a bank has come out with new products, the call centre agent can call up the existing customers of the bank and try to promote the new service. This process is called as cross selling.

TYPES OF CALL CENTERS

Call Centers can be classified in two major categories:

DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL

DOMESTIC CALL CENTERS

Domestic call centers handle sales and customer service only for Indian companies.

DOMESTIC CALL CENTERS IN INDIA

• Reliance Mobile
• Airtel
• Idea
• Vodafone
• ABN-ABRO Bank
• ICICI Bank

INTERNATIONAL CALL CENTERS

International call centers handle sales and customer service for foreign clients.

Both Domestic and International call centers can be classified into two major categories:

CAPTIVE B.P.O AND THIRD PARTY B.P.O

CAPTIVE BPO

In the case of a Captive BPO, the parent company will set up a dedicated call centre for servicing its own clients. The objective of setting up a captive B.P.O is to ensure that customers get excellent and quality service within the least possible time.

EXAMPLES OF CAPTIVE B.P.O IN INDIA

• H.S.B.C (Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation)
• CITIBANK
• PRUDENTIAL (Leading player in the insurance segment in U.K.)

THIRD PARTY BPO

Under this, you have one B.P.O. or one company handling many accounts or processes. To take an example, one B.P.O. say HCL, could handle 6 processes, of which 3 processes could be from U.K., 2 processes from U.S. and one process from Australia. These processes can again be either inbound or outbound or a combination of both.

All third party BPO’s are rated each year by NASSCOM on the basis of set parameters.

EXAMPLES OF THIRD PARTY B.P.O

• WNS Global Services
• Genpact
• Allsec Technologies
• Accenture
• HCL B.P.O. (HCL Chennai)

HIERARCHY IN A CALL CENTER

VERTICAL GROWTH

1. SERVICE DELIVERY MANAGER ( Responsible for all the processes )

1. OPERATIONS MANAGER ( Fully responsible for one process )

1. TEAM LEADER ( Responsible for his team performance which normally consists of 15 call centre agents and 2 team coaches )

1. SENIOR CALL CNTR EXECUTIVE \ TEAM COACH ( Takes calls and also helps new recruits in handling calls )

1. CALL CENTER EXECUTIVE ( Makes or receives calls )

HORIZONTAL GROWTH

We had a look at the vertical growth pattern. Now let us have a look at the horizontal growth opportunities that a call centre agent can choose from depending on his skills and performance.

RECRUITMENT: Short listing resumes by identifying the right profile and conducting the selection rounds

TRAINING: Product Training, Process Training, Soft Skills and Voice and Accent

HUMAN POTENTIAL MANAGEMENT: Planning career growth of employees. All BPO’s have a high attrition rate. This function has to ensure that it provides growth opportunities and various career options. They come out with various policies which are normally referred to as HR interventions to keep the employee happy.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT: To prevent exploitation of an employee

SALES: Generating new business for the company

HOUSE KEEPING: Maintenance & upkeep of the company premise

FINANCE: Managing the funds of the company and also looking at various options to raise money for the company wherein the cost of funds is low

ACCOUNTS: Maintaining day to day cash transactions, preparing bank reconciliation statements and preparing the yearly balance sheet and file income tax returns. Preparing monthly salary statements and ensuring that all statutory payments are made and records are in order

ADVANTAGES OF THE BPO INDUSTRY

Provides employment opportunities to large number of people

Good salary levels ensure better standard of living

Employees hone their skills to be an excellent oral communicator and a powerful listener

Ongoing training programs help employees to add on to their skill set and thereby become better professionals

All the BPO in the top rung, sponsor employees for professional programs. This not only helps employees to acquire a professional qualification, but also opens up new career options within the B.P.O. industry

Call center provide employees with a world class working environment, coupled with fantastic perks and incentives which motivate employees to give their best

The call center industry gives the employee, a chance to work across multiple functions. For example, an employee who performs well as an agent gets a chance to grow horizontally or vertically

Employees also get a chance to gain international work experience

Employees have to make internal adjustments since they have to work in teams. Moreover in the B.P.O industry the whole team has to work hand in glove with each other. Any misunderstanding will severely affect the whole team and they also stand the danger of losing their job. Over a period of time, all employees become excellent team players.

PRESENT SCENARIO OF THE BPO INDUSTRY

There is no doubt that the outsourcing business has come to stay in India. The advantage that India provides the foreign clients is the availability of a good English speaking population, who are well educated and ambitious, coupled with the savings that foreign clients make with respect to salaries and infrastructure.

Another unmatched advantage is the average age of the work force in India, which is just 30 years, as compared with any other country in the world, where the average age varies between 45 and 50 years. Since the B.P.O industry requires a very young crowd this huge advantage cannot be matched by any country in the world.

Earlier only routine jobs were outsourced to India. This scenario has totally changed. Apart from routine jobs, high end jobs are also outsourced, which has paved the way for functions like KPO, RPO, Technical writing and so on.

Over the last few years there have been a few stray cases of frauds taking place within the BPO industry. This is not a serious problem as portrayed by the fourth estate. Such frauds are very common in countries like US and UK, where BPO employ lakhs of people. But in India, the kind of hype the media generates, show these happenings to have damaging consequences on the BPO industry.

To tackle the problem of frauds, NASSCOM has taken the initiative to come up with a cyber law which punishes any employee who resorts to unethical practices. As part of the ongoing process, NASSCOM is taking it on priority to make the security systems as fool proof as possible.

Another initiative is the appointment of verification agencies to ensure that the information given by the candidate in his resume is authentic.

An All India Ranking System known as NAC (Nasscom Assessment of Competence) is on the cards for all candidates who want to be a part of this industry, thereby ensuring quality manpower and reducing the recruitment time of HR personnel and thereby help them focus on critical issues. The NAC test is online and tests the candidate on all skills required for a call centre executive, which is an entry level position. The NAC test will be mandatory for all BPO aspirants in the near future.

Though countries like China, Vietnam and Philippines are gearing up to get a chunk of the business, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever, that India will continue to be the most preferred destination. Even though the wages in countries like China and Philippines are low as compared with India, still the availability of a young work force makes India the preferred choice.

Initially the B.P.O. industry was looked down upon by people from other industries. But gradually with the passage of time and the emergence of new areas like K.P.O , R.P.O, E.P.O, Content Writing, Technical Writing and so on, which requires highly qualified and experienced personnel with professional qualifications and specialized skill, professionals have started looking at the B.P.O. industry seriously, as a long term career option.

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