Call Center Blog

BPO - What is Business Process Outsourcing?

2010-12-13T17:17:00.000+05:30

What is business process outsourcing (BPO)? BPO is the process of hiring another company to handle business activities for you.

BPO is distinct from information technology (IT) outsourcing, which focuses on hiring a third-party company or service provider to do IT-related activities, such as application management and application development, data center operations, or testing and quality assurance.

In the early days, BPO usually consisted of outsourcing processes such as payroll. Then it grew to include employee benefits management. Now it encompasses a number of functions that are considered "non-core" to the primary business strategy.

Now it is common for organizations to outsource financial and administration (F&A) processes, human resources (HR) functions, call center and customer service activities and accounting and payroll.

These outsourcing deals frequently involve multi-year contracts that can run into hundreds of millions of dollars. Often, the people performing the work internally for the client firm are transferred and become employees for the service provider. Dominant outsourcing service providers in the BPO fields (some of which also dominate the IT outsourcing business) include US companies IBM, Accenture, and Hewitt Associates, as well as European and Asian companies Capgemini, Genpact, TCS, Wipro and Infosys.

Many of these BPO efforts involve offshoring -- hiring a company based in another country -- to do the work. India is a popular location for BPO activities.

Frequently, BPO is also referred to as ITES -- information technology-enabled services. Since most business processes include some form of automation, IT "enables" these services to be performed.

An offshoot of BPO is KPO -- knowledge process outsourcing. Considered by some to be a subset of BPO, KPO includes those activities that require greater skill, knowledge, education and expertise to handle. For example, whereas an insurance company might outsource data entry of its claims forms as part of a BPO initiative, it may also choose to use a KPO service provider to evaluate new insurance applications based on a set of criteria or business rules; this work would require the efforts of a more knowledgeable set of workers than the data entry would. The current definition of KPO encompasses R&D, product development and legal e-discovery, as well as a number of other business functions.

Also coming into use is the term BTO -- business transformation outsourcing. This refers to the idea of having service providers contribute to the effort of transforming a business into a leaner, more dynamic, agile and flexible operation.

Call centre benchmark study demonstrates that outstanding service directly impacts sales

2010-12-13T17:14:00.000+05:30

Outstanding customer service has a direct impact upon improved sales and customer retention, as well as brand perceptions and trust. These are the findings of a major new call centre industry benchmarking report, commissioned by the UK’s Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service, to find out how their customers and the general public think call centres are performing.
The study, which ranks call centres according to their customer service performance, found that the top ten ranking call centres achieved more than double the level of customer satisfaction compared to the bottom ten. Half of customers of the top ten call centres were ‘extremely satisfied’ compared to just 20% in the bottom 10, against an overall average of 33% amongst all of the Top 50 call centres.
The study proves conclusively that satisfied customers have a direct impact on the bottom line: customers of the top ten call centres were more than twice as likely to make a repeat purchase than those in the bottom ten; 38% of callers to the top ten call centres were extremely likely to use the organisation again, as compared to just 17% amongst those in the bottom ten.
In addition, 39% of callers to the top ten call centres were ‘extremely likely to recommend’ the organisation, as against 15% for the bottom ten. The top ten performing call centres are also almost twice as likely to enhance perception and trust, with 56% saying the call enhanced their trust of the brand, compared to just 32% for the bottom 10. Furthermore, 66% of callers to the top ten said that brand perceptions were enhanced, compared to 37% amongst the lowest ranked call centres.
In the 2010 Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service Benchmarking study Laithwaites, the largest direct seller of wine in the UK has achieved 4 place with a score of 91.32% against an overall Top 50 average of 86%. Simon McMurtie, CEO of Laithwaites comments “Whenever we survey customers as to why they continue to buy their wine from us, their answer is always the same: ‘because your people are so nice on the phone’. We push them about the wines and about other aspects of our service, all of which they rate relatively highly, but our customer service always ranks highest. ”
McMurtie continues “Half of our revenues in the UK come from customers who have been with us for more than five years. That’s proof that they like our service. Investing in our service to customers gives us a fantastic return on investment. People want to talk to real people: that’s at the heart of our winning formula!”
The study was conducted by independent Market Research Company GfK Mystery Shopping and represents the largest ever mystery shopper exercise in the call centre industry. Over 18,500 mystery shopping enquiries were made to over fifty
call centres participating in the Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service Programme. Calls were scored according to five customer service categories, timeliness, ease of use, reliable, knowledgeable staff and personalized service.
Simon Thorpe, Programme Director at Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service commented:
“These findings show that good service is not good enough to win the hearts and minds of today’s consumers. Those organisations that invest in delivering outstanding performance are going to generate more sales, boast higher levels of customer retention and experience greater brand loyalty than their competitors.
“Typically, an organisation may lose as many as half of their customers over a five year period. Given that it costs at least five times more to attract a new customer than to keep a current one, we now have conclusive evidence that it pays to invest in customer service. Businesses who boost customer retention by as little as 5% can see increases in profits ranging from 5 - 95%”
The study found that while an impressive 97% of callers felt that their enquiry was completely resolved, up from 94% in 2009, this alone is not enough to reap the financial rewards that come with delighted customers. To achieve an outstanding customer service score, customer service representatives need to not only resolve the caller’s enquiry within a reasonable length of time by being efficient, but also be understanding and caring, use appropriate conversation and take ownership of the enquiry.
Thorpe continues “We hope that these results demonstrating the financial benefits that can be reaped as a direct result of great customer service will inspire other call centres to achieve the standards set by the very best of our Top 50 members. As always we are grateful to Genesys, Jabra and Noble Systems for their support of the programme and their invaluable contributions to the industry.”

call management is the process

2010-12-09T16:58:00.000+05:30

In telecommunications, call management is the process of designing and implementing rules and parameters governing the routing of inbound telephone calls through a network. These rules can specify how calls are distributed according to the time and/or date of the call as well as the location of the caller (usually defined by the outbound Caller ID). Call Management also involves the use of Calling Features such as Call Queues, IVR Menus, Hunt Groups and Recorded Announcements to provide a customised experience for the caller and to maximize the efficiency of inbound call handling. Call management is most effective when a call logging software tool is used.

Call Management is performed on varying degrees of scale, from an individual screening unwanted calls from a residential landline to an international call carrier routing calls to different worldwide locations by percentage. Systems for governing Call Management can be in the form of hardware, such as a PBX Telephone System attached to an ISDN30 or a hosted software-based system.
Calling features

Calls are routed according to the setting up of calling features within the given system. Common examples of Calling Features include:

    * Translation – The automatic routing of inbound calls from one telephone number to another.
    * Hunt Group – A directory containing one or many destination numbers which, on receiving an incoming call, is programmed to ring them in a particular order, simultaneously or simply in the order in which they have most recently answered before being sent to a final destination if still unanswered.
    * Call Queue – A directory similar to a Hunt Group that keeps the caller on hold until one of the destination numbers becomes available.
    * Auto Attendant – A large directory of extension numbers which can be chosen by the caller, each with its own specific routing behaviour.
    * Location-Based Routing – Rules programmed in at particular points in a system to route the call on to different destinations depending on the location of the caller.
    * Time and Date-Based Routing – Rules programmed in at particular points in a system to route the call on to different destinations depending the time or date of the call.
    * Call Whisper – A message played to an agent after answering a call that can give them information about the call in advance based on the Caller ID, number dialled or route taken through the system.
    * Interactive voice response – A sound recording device to allow a caller to give information to the system verbally about what services or support they require.
    * Fax to Email – A Device for routing inbound fax calls to one or more email addresses, usually as attachments.

Offshore software R&D

2010-12-09T16:54:00.000+05:30

Offshore Software R&D is provision of software development services by an external supplier positioned in a country that is geographically remote from the client enterprise; a type of offshore outsourcing. In this context, it refers to the offshore development phase of a software. The main reason behind the companies to use offshore software development services is the higher development cost of the local service providers. The global software R&D services market as contrasted to ITO and BPO is rather young and currently is at early stages of its development, but India is leading the world in this field .
Countries involved

While India, Ireland, Canada and Israel were the four leading countries that controlled this business in 2003[1], the percentages shifted by 2009 when the front-runners, India and the Philippines, had a combined share of the world market for business process offshoring of about 50 per cent. The UN Information Economy Report 2010 [2] reads that "the second largest exporter, Canada, continued to shrink to 21 per cent by 2009. Beyond these top three locations, several economies from all continents are making inroads as offshoring destinations. The group of “other destinations” in figure III.5 surged from 4 per cent in 2004 to 16 per cent in 2009. The main such locations in 2009 included China, Thailand and Sri Lanka in Asia;26 and Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica and Mexico in Latin America. On the African continent, Egypt, Mauritius, Morocco and South Africa all have more than 10,000 offshore jobs in the IT and ICT-enabled services sector (Everest Research Institute, 2009). The share of countries in Central and Eastern Europe was unchanged at 6 per cent between 2008 and 2009." According to Gartner Group[3], only these four countries are capable of scaling up enough to meet the demands of large-scale projects. Brazil has been attracting attention due to the closer timezone to the US eastern cost, besides closer cultural affinity[4]. Other offshore software development destinations include Eastern Europe (Slovakia, Armenia, Romania, Ukraine, Belarus, Serbia, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Russia), Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Vietnam, Philippines, Egypt, Morocco, Sri Lanka, Argentina and Bolivia. .

Offshore R&D hubs

According to Gartner group's report, global cities are categorized into Tier I, Tier II and Tier III based on numerous factors such as the quality of infrastructure, global connectivity, and availability of human capital[3], in order to rank the best places to set up an offshore R&D location. The report concludes that cities like Bangalore, Yerevan, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Bucharest, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Indore, NOIDA, Gurgaon, Thiruvananthapuram, Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Montreal, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Dublin, Kiev, Moscow, and St. Petersburg would be the ideal places, and hence 'Tier I' cities to offshore R&D.

Information Technology Outsourcing or ITO

2010-12-09T16:49:00.000+05:30

Information Technology Outsourcing or ITO

Information Technology Outsourcing or ITO is a company's outsourcing of computer or Internet related work, such as programming, to other companies. It is used in reference to Business Process Outsourcing or BPO, which is the outsourcing of the work that does not require much of technical skills.
Outsourcing Information Technology to Asia

A combination of high overhead in the United States and strong cultural ties between the domestic and Asian information technology industries have led many companies to outsource labor-intensive software programming to Asia and Eastern Europe.

India has always been a major player in information technology (IT); they even make their own supercomputers for predicting monsoons. It wasn't until the Y2K bug emerged that the need for legions of cheap programmers really arose, however, and American companies began to see the potential for outsourcing overseas. After Y2K the IT service industry exploded, with American companies outsourcing everything from data entry to customer service to India and other Asian countries.

India was a natural choice for outsourcing. Many American technology companies were either created by or employ non-resident Indians (NRIs) or Indian-Americans who still have strong ties to family and friends in India. This cultural bridge combined with the vast pool of cheap, technically skilled, English-speaking engineering talent produced by India's engineering colleges creates the perfect environment for information technology.

Despite its distinct advantages for companies looking to outsource their IT services, India's volatile political climate and rampant corruption present problems. Some of the 185 Fortune 500 companies that outsource software to Asia are choosing places like Vietnam or China with more predictable politics and less corruption. Other companies that outsource their customer service are finding that their customers prefer the Americanized English of the Philippines to the British English that predominates in India, though all of these countries have their drawbacks, from censored Internet lines in China and Vietnam to Muslim militancy in the Philippines.

Despite the hiccups the IT service industry continues to grow as the software industry becomes more competitive and U.S. companies try to reduce overhead. The Asian IT service market is still in its infancy, but by 2008 industry think tank Nasscom-McKinsey predicts a $17 billion IT service industry in India alone.

BPO INDIA | Business process outsourcing in India

2010-12-09T16:43:00.000+05:30

The business process outsourcing industry in India refers to the business process outsourcing services in the outsourcing industry in India, catering mainly to Western operations of multinational corporations (MNCs).

As of 2008, around 0.7 million people work in outsourcing sector (less than 0.1% of Indians). Annual revenues are around $11 billion,[1] around 1% of GDP. Around 2.5 million people graduate in India every year. Wages are rising by 10-15 percent as a result of skill shortage.
Nearly 75% of US and European multinational companies now use outsourcing or shared services to support their financial functions. 72% of European multinational companies have outsourced financial functions over the past two years.

Additionally, 71% of European companies and 78% US companies plan to use these services in the next 12–24 months. Overall, 29% of US and European companies expect to increase their use of outsourcing of financial functions, with spending expected to be nearly 16% higher than current levels.

Growth in this sector will get a further impetus as Indian BPO companies have robust security practices and emphasis is laid in developing trust with clients on this score. While earlier there were varying quality standards on this aspect, today there is focus on standardization of security, such as data and IP security. Leading BPO-ITes cities in India

Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, NCR, Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad are Tier I cities that are leading IT cities in India.

With rising infrastructure costs in these cities, many BPO's are shifting operations to Tier II cities like Nashik, Sangli, Aurangabad (Maharashtra), Mangalore, Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad, Belgaum, Coimbatore, Madurai, Hosur, Nagpur, Kochi, Trivandrum, Chandigarh, Mohali, Panchkula, Ahmedabad, Bhubaneshwar, Jaipur, Vishakapatnam , Raipur and Lucknow

Tier II cities offer lower business process overhead compared to Tier I cities, but have a less reliable infrastructure system which may hamper dedicated operations. The Government of India in partnership with private infrastructure corporations is working on bringing all around development and providing robust infrastructure all over the nation.

PRC call center in Durant, OK, plans to add 150 new jobs

2010-06-21T15:37:00.001+05:30

DURANT — PRC LLC is recruiting 150 new workers for its Durant call center. About 625 people already work at the center, which opened four years ago and handles inbound customer service calls for clients in the telecommunications, education, entertainment, shipping and financial industries.
The jobs pay between $19,000 and $60,000 a year for positions that include associates, quality assurance representatives and managers.
"PRC's Durant center has continuously been a top performer, exceeding client expectations,” said the center's general manager Matt Hunt.
"Our expansion is a direct result of the success experienced in Durant and the quality work force that is available in this area,” he said.
Tommy Kramer, executive director of the Durant Industrial Authority, said his city has worked hard to develop a pro-business culture to create workforce growth.
PRC also announced this week that local employees pledged to contribute 1,000 hours of community service and to raise $6,000 this year to support nonprofit service organizations in the Durant area.
PRC is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Scope and Future of Knowledge Process Outsourcing

2010-01-30T14:17:00.001+05:30

Scope and Future of Knowledge Process Outsourcing

The future of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) business in India presents an encouraging picture to rejoice for everybody in the country. Not only the scope of business opportunities shall give endless area for businesses to explore but also shall create lacs of jobs for the large amount of the talented and skilled workforce of engineers, MBAs, doctors, lawers and other professionals having skill in the core areas and computer knowledge.

We give below data published and prepared by various organizations which give a broad idea about the amount of the scope of business opportunities and potential likely to be created in the KPO sector in the immediate and long term future.

1. National Association of Software and Services Companies Study Report (NASSCOM):

According to a published report of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the chamber that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2010. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry.In its annual publication Strategic Review 2005, Nasscom has said the high-end activity of the BPO industry—the KPO or knowledge process outsourcing could be worth $15.5 billion by 2010.According to earlier estimates, the BPO industry itself was expected to be about $20bn by 2008, hence a very significant portion of the sector—in excess of 50% is now projected to be knowledge based. This represents significant shift of call center sector business to different model.

2. Evalueserve Study

According to a recent study by “Evalueserve, an outsourcing company having service chart for global world, the global KPO market is expected to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 per cent, from $1.2 billion in 2003 to $17 billion in 2010. Compare this with the prediction for the low-end outsourcing services market. This is expected to have a CAGR of 26 per cent, from $ 7.7 billion to $39.8 billion in the same period.

Evalueserve says India provided $3.5 billion of BPO and KPO (but non-IT) services in 2003 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36 per cent during 2004 to 2010. Hence, it is likely to earn $30 billion in 2010 by providing these services. Says country general manager, Kelly Services, Achal Khanna “India still maintains the competitive advantage for providing, the combination of the most cost-effective and high quality manpower- this is India's strength in the off-shoring business”. The projections are based on a white paper released by Evalueserve. The paper cites reasons for a possible KPO boom. It says higher savings by outsourcing knowledge based activities combined with the scarcity of specialized talent in developed countries could lead to growth in the KPO sector. Billing rates for KPO are higher at $30-45 per hour compared to just $10-14 in the BPO business. However, the paper also warns of several challenges like higher quality standards, greater investments and inadequate talent.The study estimates that while the compounded growth rate of BPO till 2010 would be just 26% KPO is expected to be grow at almost 46%.

3. Rocsearch, a UK-based research services company Study

Another study on Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) sector shows a huge supply gap that threatens to cripple its growth. Rocsearch, a UK-based research services company, has gathered evidence suggesting that the KPO market may just about reach a size of $5 billion by 2010, manned by 100,000 people instead of projections of a $12 billion market supported by 250,000 employees.
This accentuates Nasscom's projections of a shortfall of 500,000 workers in ITES and BPO sectors by 2010. Assuming an average revenue per person of $55,000 over the next four years, 100,000 knowledge workers point to a $5 billion market. This size, though based on a CAGR of 32%, is still 60% less than the $12 billion potential projected by big KPOs, like Evalueserve, last year.Rocsearch COO, Ashish Sinha says the sector is restricted by low employability despite high graduate turnout, and competing demand from other sectors as jobs grow faster than the workforce.
For example, all the 2,000-odd IIM and top 10 B-School graduates are employable, while less than half the 84,000 graduates from Tier-II B-Schools would make the grade.
The study sees only 500,000 of the over 3 million workers added to the labour pool in 2005 as employable in global firms and of these, just 2 in every 100 are likely to opt for work in knowledge space.

In the future, it is envisaged that KPO has a high potential as it is not restricted only to Information Technology (IT) or Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) sectors, and includes other sectors like Intellectual Property related services, Business Research and Analytics, Legal Processes Outsourcing, Web Development Application, CAD/CAM, Finance and Accountants Management and Consultancy, Legal Research, Clinical Research, Publishing, Market Research (Market research KPO), etc.

Outsource2india Findings and Report on KPO

"Over the past year or two, the outsourcing industry has been throwing up jobs for Doctors, Engineers, CAs, Architects," says Jacob William of the Bangalore-based Outsource2India, which employs 500 people and offers services in the big-buzz, big-bucks area of knowledge process outsourcing. "Unlike the first wave which was more about entering data and answering phone calls, these jobs involve skill and expertise."

The high-end KPO opportunities are immense for Indian firms. For instance, look at some of the figures pertaining to intellectual property research.

Drafting and filing of patent applications in the US is quite expensive. A typical application costs about $10,000 to $15,000 to draft and file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Cost savings from offshoring even a portion of the patent drafting process can easily save up to 50 per cent of the cost for the end client, according to Alok Aggarwal, chairman of Evalueserve. According to Pangea3, the cost of 10 patents in USA is approximately $30000 whereas around 50 patents can be got filed by outsourcing the said activity at a cost of less than $10000.Also, of course, the talent is much more affordable. "Law firms in the US charge an average of $400-450 per hour, and we do the same work for $75 to $100 an hour" says Kamlani" who is an outsourcing provider in the same area.

Quite predictably, law business firms such as Patent Metrix, Cantor-Colburn and Schwegman, Lundberg, and Woessner & Kluth, have already established their offices in India.There are a few others who are associating with Indian companies to encash the emerging opportunity.
Offshoring R&D in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology is another area where there is enormous potential for KPO. Aggarwal says destinations such as India offer significant cost advantages (as much as 40 to 60 per cent) in the areas of contract research and clinical trials.

Companies such as AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have recently set up drug discovery centres at low-cost destinations to offshore R&D activities.

Chip design and embedded systems is another critical area. A paper presented by Aggarwal says the reason why all major integrated design manufacturers such as Motorola, Intel, Analog Devices, National Semiconductor, IBM, Cisco, Cypress Semiconductor, Nokia and Philips have set up offshore design centres is simple.

The compensation for a chip design engineer with a master's degree and five years' experience is about $7,000 a month in the US.An engineer with the same qualification and experience in India gets about $1,200 a month.

Naturally, the cost savings in KPO is enormous. For example, data-mining services companies can save as much as 60 to 70 per cent on analytics and inventory management costs by off-shoring them.The cost differential between PhDs/engineers in the US and India is almost $60,000 to $80,000.

Companies like Evalueserve, GE Caps, MarketRx have set up centres at low-cost destinations to provide these services. And more are expected to follow soon.

A major reason why companies in India will have no option but to move up the value chain from BPO to KPO is quite simple. By 2010, India may have become too costly to provide low-end services at competitive costs.For example, Evalueserve says Indian salaries have increased at an average of 14 per cent a year. If this trend continues, they are expected to increase 2.5 times the current salaries (in constant dollars) by FY 2010, thereby reducing the cost-arbitrage benefit from the present 40 to 25 per cent.This, the low-end work may move to relatively cheaper countries like Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Malaysia.

Moreover, commoditisation of BPO services will further boost the transition of present low-end destinations to the higher end of the value chain. The better margins expected at the higher end of the value chain might act as a deterrent for companies in accepting low-end work.

The number of professionals working in the offshore industry is expected to increase as more and more companies decide to become involved in BPO and KPO. This will further drive the trend towards the migration of low-end services to high-end services, especially as offshore service vendors (as well as professionals working in this sector) gain experience and capabilities to provide high-value services.

During 2000 to 2003, the US offshored 2,38,000 IT service jobs. Evalueserve predicts that this is likely to increase to 7,75,000 jobs by FY 2010.

Further, by the end of March 2004, the US had offshored about 1,36,000 BPO (non-IT) jobs, mostly in the call centre segment.
Forrester predicts that it is likely to offshore 1.314 million BPO (non-IT) jobs by FY 2010.

Why India To Be preferred to other countries

2010-01-30T14:16:00.000+05:30

Why India To Be preferred to other countries

Due to a large knowledge pool and a significant cost arbitrage, few countries like India, Philippines and China are front runners in providing outsourced services. After achieving great success in BPO, India is now looking for a big leap in KPO. India automatically becomes a natural choice if we anaylse the comparative costs of various aspects of KPO for different countries.

Basis of the Comparison of following factors in countries: India, Philippines, Russia, China, Canada, Ireland and Mexico

• Labor Pool
• Cost
• Government Polices
• Infrastructure
• Knowledge full / Expertise

Labor Pool

India has many prestigious technical universities and the Indian Institute of Technology stands apart as one of the world's best. India produces over 75,000 IT graduates and 20 lacs English-speaking graduates annually.

The Philippines turns out 380,000 graduates annually, but only 15,000 of have core technology knowledge. The country has cultural affinities with the U.S. and is well-versed in U.S. accounting and customer service standards and has low employee turnover.

Russia can claim the third largest population of engineers and scientists per capita but the bad news is that not many of them speak English.

China's technical schools turn out 50,000 graduates annually, many of whom migrate west. Those who stay generally don't speak English.

U.S. neighbor Canada to the north has solid educational system, with a qualified labor force of more than 16 million.

In Ireland Relatively small; 34,000 graduates annually, 5,000 of them technical.

Mexico provides U.S. companies with millions of Spanish-speaking people to staff call centres.

Labor Costs:

In India Labor costs have crept upward over the years but have been offset by falling telecom rates. Typical salaries range from $5,000 to $12,000 for technical staff, while back-office salaries range from $3,500 to $7,500.

In PHILIPPINES Higher labor costs than India; technical salaries range from $5,000 to $10,000 annually and back office from $3,000 to $8,000.

In Russia IT salaries range from $6,000 to $10,000. The country hasn't yet developed back-office competence. Telecom infrastructure costs are higher than average.

In China IT salaries range from $3,000 to $8,000 annually. No real BPO competency.

In Canada Being a nearshore alternative to the U.S. means IT salaries are much higher than most offshore countries, ranging from $25,000 to $50,000. Being a nearshore alternative to the U.S. means IT salaries are much higher than most offshore countries, ranging from $25,000 to $50,000.

In Mexico Low labor costs; companies can save up to 50% by outsourcing to Mexico. Costs could be offset by unreliable infrastructure.

In Ireland Tech salaries range from $25,000 to $35,000, making Ireland unattractive if primary objective is cost savings.

Government Policies

Outsourcing is so imbibed in the fabric in the country and the Indian government has a national minister specifically for IT. The government favors IT foreign ownership and imposes no export taxes.

In Philippines Government exempts companies from export taxes, fees, dues and licenses if they open in one of the country's IT parks. Government's task force charged with development of IT and knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services.

In Russia Government is erratic and, for now, sticking by old tax laws and structures that don't benefit business. But a treaty with the U.S. could change things down the road.

China's government has hampered growth due to trade policies and over regulation; intellectual property concerns linger. The hope is that these issues will evaporate as China blends into the World Trade Organization.

In Canada Low or no political risk. Government gives tax breaks on IT exports. NAFTA provides free trade market for IT services.

In Mexico NAFTA has opened up free trade markets, but Mexican government does not offer high level of incentives.

In Ireland Favorable tax laws and $330 million technology-education fund provide incentives. Low or no political risk.

Infrastructure:

In India with redundant telecom and utility infrastructure, there is very good reliability within India's special IT parks. Reliability can be spotty outside the parks or in more remote areas.
In Philippines IT parks that have sprung up over the past 13 years fuel the export industry. Abandoned U.S. military bases left behind dependable telecom infrastructure.
In Russia Infrastructure quality and quantity nosedives when outside of Russia's few IT parks.
In China Infrastructure can be spotty outside major cities, but China is building networks, particularly telecommunications, almost as fast as the U.S.
In Canada Solid telecom infrastructure.
In mexico Solid inside the technology parks
In Ireland Solid.

Expertise:

In India Application development, maintenance, financial processing. Experts see India becoming a hotbed for more critical analytical jobs.
In Philippines Accounting, finance, animation, human resources.
In Russia Web design, complex software development, aerospace engineering.
In China Transaction processing, low-end software development and maintenance.
In Canada Software development and maintenance, tech support.
In Mexico Spanish-language call centers, software development, data center outsourcing.
In Ireland European shared-services centers, software development.

Customers:

For India Citigroup, GE Capital and American Express have a very large presence and have set up their own centers here.
For PHILIPPINES Procter & Gamble, American International Group, Citigroup.
For RUSSIA Boeing.
For CHINA HSBC, Microsoft.
For CANADA Allmerica, Agilent.
For MEXICO AOL Time Warner, General Motors, IBM
For IRELAND Intel, Dell, Microsoft

Why is India the preferred KPO destination?

The analysis of above data shall reveal that India becomes automatically a preferred choice of the outsourcing countries. India has a growing population of educated people capable of handling high-end knowledge-based work and research. With a huge talent pool, India could emerge as a global KPO hub as the sector requires specialized knowledge in respective verticals.With the mushrooming of engineering and technical institutes in India, there will no shortage of skilled manpower in India. A Confederation of Indian Industry study states that India's transition from a BPO destination to a KPO destination is imminent.

The cost advantage:

India also gets advantage in terms of cost advantage and more and more companies are turning to India for offshoring KPO work as quality work gets done at cheaper rates. For instance, drafting and filing of patent applications in the US is very expensive. A typical application costs about $10,000 to $15,000 to draft and file with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Companies can save up to 50 per cent of the cost by offshoring the work to India.

More foreign firms head for India

The testimony to the fact that India is being chosen as preferred country becomes evident as many companies such as Patent Metrix, Cantor-Colburn and Schwegman, Lundberg, and Woessner & Kluth have already set up offices in India. Offshoring R&D in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology also has enormous potential for KPO. Pharma majors Astra Zeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have set up drug discovery centres at low-cost destinations to boost their research and development activities. Even for R&D in software and chip design, major telecom and IT companies opt for India. Motorola, Intel, IBM, Cisco, Texas Instruments, Nokia and Philips have set up offshore design centres in India.

Further testimony comes from a report of India Times:

"It’s good news for Indian knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) firms. India is the most attractive destination for KPO activities, says a study by independent research company Asset Management in collaboration with Kelly Services. The study shows India will have a higher growth rate in KPO segment of 45% compared with 25% in the BPO segment. The latter will, however, remain the lead revenue earner and job creator due to the volume nature of this industry."

Why Outsource? Why should you outsource?

2010-01-30T14:14:00.000+05:30

Why Outsource? Why should you outsource?

Outsourcing to India appears to be the biggest trend during the recent past. It has several reasons why more and more companies are looking forward to Outsourcing to India. If we put other reasons apart the strongest reason for Outsourcing to India is the human talent this country has and that too at very low costs. Twelve months ago, anybody suggesting that India's economic growth will exceed 8 per cent in the coming fiscal year (ending March 2006), that its equity market would be up and touch 12000 marks and its foreign exchange reserves will cross US$100 billion, would have met with skepticism, if not utmost disbelief.

Well that is in reality the performance the Indian economy has just turned in. Along the way, it has shattered a many a myths which India-watchers (especially skeptics) have long believed. The first myth while Outsourcing to India is that coalition governments in a noisy democracy like India will fail to deliver high growth. Despite their rivalries and their bickering, all of India's main political parties primarily agree on most structural reforms - the need for a stronger and greater emphasis on growth rather than redistribution; clearer policy frameworks in infrastructural areas like telecom and roads; power, more open policies on external trade and foreign investment; faster fiscal and financial reforms and more aggressive slashing of red tape. Though, in labor reforms and privatization, there are significant differences of view, yet when it comes to Outsourcing to India the companies are getting what they want.

The second myth of outsourcing to India is that high growth is not possible without equal high-quality infrastructure. India's infrastructure remains inadequate (leaving perhaps, the telecom sector), yet, growth has been satisfactory and more and more companies are Outsourcing to India. It is true however, that this is unlikely to be sustained without infrastructure development. But this is now happening in India: the country's construction industry as well as capital goods industries like cement and steel is in overdrive, feeding a frenzy of nationwide road-building program, the building of hundreds of malls, a housing boom, multiplexes, office complexes and industrial parks in cities across the country.

Another myth while Outsourcing to India that the country is strong in services rather than manufacturing. This is not true today than it was a couple of years ago. After having incorporated new technologies, bagging hundreds of OEM contracts and focusing on export markets India's manufacturers have grown up and are now globally competitive in many areas, including autos and auto-parts, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and an array of engineering and capital goods. India's economy is no longer just an IT-services, outsourcing-driven story, back-office, as is widely perceived. The new emerging areas are in the technology related and engineering services area and outsourcing in these areas is projected to grow to $ 40 billion by 2020.

Scope and Future of KPO

2010-01-30T14:12:00.001+05:30

Scope and Future of KPO

According to a report of National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), the Indian chamber of commerce that serves as an interface to the Indian Software industry, Knowledge Process Outsourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12 billion would be outsourced to India. Another report predicts that India will capture more than 70 percent of the KPO sector by 2010. Apart from India, countries such as Russia, China, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and Israel are also expected to join the KPO industry.

According to a recent study by “Evalueserve, a Gurgaon based outsourcing company having service chart for global world”, the global KPO market is expected to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 per cent, from $1.2 billion in 2003 to $17 billion in 2010. Compare this with the prediction for the low-end outsourcing services market. This is expected to have a CAGR of 26 per cent, from $ 7.7 billion to $39.8 billion in the same period.

What is KPO?

2010-01-30T14:11:00.000+05:30

What is KPO?

kpo in india | kpo jobs in india | kpo companies india | services india jobs

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2010-01-30T14:01:00.000+05:30

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work at home call center jobs | JOBS LIST | INFORMATION

2010-01-30T13:58:00.000+05:30

work at home call center jobs | JOBS LIST | INFORMATION

Virtual Call Centre Representative's Job Listing

India's leading home based work at home or from home provider

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call center jobs | India call center jobs | Japan call center jobs | International call center jobs

2010-01-30T13:54:00.000+05:30

call center jobs | India call center jobs | Japan call center jobs | International call center jobs

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BPO NAGPUR :- LIST OF BPOs IN NAGPUR

2009-07-12T12:22:00.000+05:30

BPO NAGPUR :- LIST OF BPOs IN NAGPUR
CLICK HEAR
Outsourcing is the delegation of tasks or jobs from internal production to an external entity (such as a subcontractor). Most recently, it has come to mean the elimination of native staff to staff overseas, where salaries are markedly lower The concept started with Ross Perot when he founded Electronic Data Systems in 1962

Offshore outsourcing more and more takes the shape of Business Process Outsourcing, where whole business processes (such as support and development) are outsourced. The client is usually free to choose who provides the outsourced business processes, while stock markets press the company to do more for less. This requires that managers search out the cheapest sources they can find. In countries like India and China (primarily Bangalore in India), companies like IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, and Novell choose to get BPO business services from sub-contractors in these countries or move many development and support jobs there. Smaller businesses can also take advantage of freelancing on the Internet to get smaller projects done by offshore developers at minimum cost.

In the corporate environment, the term “outsourcing” often refers to a particular type of outsourcing, business process outsourcing (BPO). BPO occurs when an organization turns over the management of a particular business process (such as accounting or payroll) to a third party that specializes in that process. The underlying theory is that the BPO firm can complete the process more efficiently, leaving the original firm free to concentrate on its core competency.

HR Processing Solutions

Finance and Administration Solutions

Procurement Solutions

Customer Services

Telemarketing Services

IT Help Desk Services

Technical Support Services

Knowledge Services

Insurance Processing

Mortgage Processing

Through the right mix of business process improvement, labor arbitrage and technology enhancements, BPO is aimed at reducing cost, increasing service levels and thus improving the enterprise value of the business processes. Blending qualified workforce with and faster adoption of well-defined business processes leads to higher productivity gains without compromising on quality.

Help Desk Outsourcing Trends

2009-07-03T00:09:00.000+05:30

After medical transcription, the second position would probably go to help desk outsourcing, if the task were to make a chronological list of business domains that were added from the time the concept of business process outsourcing was implemented successfully for the first time in India. Help desk services may have been available since the early 1990s, but it was only after the late nineties that growth in this sector really accelerated. It was in the late 1990s that the government of India announced liberal policies and regulations for the then emerging sectors such as IT and Telecommunications. Liberalization paved the way for rapid the advancement of these two sectors, which in turn made it easier for outsourcing companies to render high-quality help desk services.
Even today, the help desk services sector is growing at a fast pace, propelled by the ever-increasing demand for high-quality customer care and support services. Businesses worldwide have realized that maximizing customer satisfaction is the key to long term success and that is the main reason why more and more businesses are choosing help desk outsourcing services. Presently, this sector caters mainly to businesses based in the US and the UK, but it is anticipated that in the near future, demand for help desk services will also come from European countries as well as Australia. Systems and processes will continue to become standardized as a result of increasing Globalization and as a result, hiring help desk outsourcing services will become viable and beneficial for all businesses, irrespective of size or location.

Right Outsourcing Provider---how to choose?

2009-07-03T00:08:00.000+05:30

There is certainly no denying the potential benefits that can be derived through outsourcing, but it would help if the right outsourcing provider is selected. Doing that is not a difficult task, but it's certainly a bit complicated, obviously because the number of providers offering outsourcing services has increased significantly in recent years. Outsourcing mostly involves handling non-core processes, but since it directly affects customer satisfaction levels, the quality of offered services cannot be compromised. Deriving cost savings may be the primary objective, but since improving quality and efficiency are equally important, it's understandable that choosing the right provider will greatly help in these matters.So, how exactly can a business ensure that the selected provider is the right one? Well, the first thing businesses need to do is contact as many providers as humanely possible. They should inform each of these providers about their specific needs and requirements and consequently request service quotes from them. After this, businesses just need to compare the offered quotes and see which provider best fits the bill. Once that is done, they need to analyze the track record of each of the providers, with a poing to make an assessment of their domain experience and expertise.Based on the above described criterion, each of the providers can then be ranked accordingly. The provider who gets the top rank should then obviously be the preferred choice. This process needs to be followed every time, especially if the objective is to select the most appropriate outsourcing provider.

Outsourcing Management

2009-07-03T00:07:00.000+05:30

For example, clients have to regularly track ongoing processes that might have been outsourced. This is necessary because even small mistakes can create Outsourcing management relates to the management of outsourced business processes and focuses on the jobs and responsibilities of both clients and service providers. The basic objective is to ensure that all involved parties contribute equally towards the achievement of shared business goals and objectives. Starting with the service providers first, outsourcing management for them would call for achieving the desired results such as cost savings, efficiency improvements, quality upgrades, value additions and others depending on specific client needs and requirements. However, the buck doesn't stop there because something that is even more important is to ensure that the achieved deliverables are sustained in the future as well. This might be difficult but still has to be done, obviously because outsourcing, to an extent, is all about achieving the impossible.
Clients, it may seem, may not have to do much, but that is not true because they too have to perform some critical tasks. grave issues over time, and adversely affect business interests. By constantly monitoring ongoing outsourced processes, potential problems and issues can be nipped in the bud, thereby paving the way for a super smooth ride.For achieving the best possible results, both clients and services providers should come together, discuss bottlenecks and possibilities and chalk out commonly applicable plans and strategies. Outsourcing management is a complex process and it would certainly help if a combined effort is made to achieve the desired results.

Indian Call Center

2009-07-03T00:06:00.000+05:30

Running or having a domestic or international call center in country India is the norm for several global companies today. So just to meet this fast growing international demand of call center in India is for cost-effective, customer-oriented call centers, many organizations worldwide are outsourcing these services by setting up call center industry in India.
Indian Call Centers is a one stop voice operations call center for b2b or b2c telemarketing that provides a full range of high-volume, Inbound or Outbound Telemarketing, including Lead Generation, Sales Leads Generation, Customer Support, Directory Assistance, BPO, Bpo Outsourcing Services, Appointment Setting, Business Process Outsourcing India, Mortgage Lead Generation, Telemarketing Lead Generation, and Web-Based Services.Indian Call Centers is a leading provider of BPO services with special reference to Offshore Call Centers and Indian Call Centers. Indian Call Centers is a Network of Individual International Call Centers in India with its affiliates throughout Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bombay, Pune, Chandigarh, Gurgaon and Noida. Its Headquarter is in New Delhi, India.We offer Outbound Telemarketing Services to our clients, throughout USA, Europe (UK) and Australia. We specialize in for Pay per performance based Inbound and Outbound Telemarketing Services.

call center is.........

2009-07-02T23:58:00.000+05:30

A call center is a physical place where customer and other telephone calls are handled by an organization, usually with some amount of computer automation. Typically, a call center has the ability to handle a considerable volume of calls at the same time, to screen calls and forward them to someone qualified to handle them, and to log calls. Call centers are used by mail-order catalog organizations, telemarketing companies, computer product help desks, and any large organization that uses the telephone to sell or service products and services. Two related terms are virtual call center and contact center.

customer relationship management and following 12 principles

2009-07-02T23:49:00.000+05:30

It’s important to remember that building profitable customer relationships will never go out of style. From the days of the corner store in centuries past, to the global enterprises of the future, the following 12 principles will remain the backbone of building a successful business. Each is both compelling on its own and intertwined with the others — there is no question, though, that customer relationship management as an integrated whole is greater than the sum of these parts.

1. Continuously Learn About Your Customers. This is the first principle of managing customer relationships because it is the most fundamental. From this everything else follows. When you know your customers, you can make sound business decisions about how to develop your relationships with them. Collect and analyze information about your customers to get to know them well. Maintain your knowledge in customer profiles that are available to all who need them. But don’t stop there. Apply everything you know to building a customer valuation model. Knowing the value of customer relationships is essential for managing them wisely.

2. Handle Different Customers Differently. This idea has been repeated so many times that it’s practically taken for granted now. But the power of this principle lies in the potential for optimizing the value of each customer relationship through differential treatment. Based on customer segmentation, call centers can provide user-appropriate Web and interactive voice response (IVR) interfaces, routing routines, service levels and content. It is important, however, not to differentiate simply because technology exists that can do so. Segment customers sensibly. There are hidden costs to differentiation that must be weighed against the increased value that personalization can be expected to produce. Effective strategy ultimately seeks to optimize the value and "wallet share" of each customer segment.

3. Anticipate Customer Needs. Building strong customer relationships positively alters the selling process in many ways. Knowledge of your customers presents new opportunities for making the right offer to the right person at the right time. Analysis of customer profiles, especially using powerful analytics tools, can provide insight about who buys what from you when. Contact management systems can detect cross-sell and upsell opportunities and act upon them by presenting suggestions to agents during service calls, dynamically responding to customer input or automatically presenting customized offers in Web pages and IVR systems. Even government and nonprofit organizations can use these principles to better fulfill their charters and anticipate the needs of their constituents.

4. Interact With Customers. Desirable relationships are not one-way. Relationships result from interaction. Knowing your customers is just the first step. Use that knowledge to deepen relationships with customers whenever you interact with them. No matter how sophisticated the technology that organizations and customers use to communicate, your customers are people and people appreciate being recognized, listened to and understood. Letting your customers know that you care enough about them to get to know them is an important part of managing the customer relationship.

5. Focus on Revenue and Retention. Unlike many other management initiatives, building strong customer relationships is not first and foremost about cost savings — although that will often be the end result. Instead, the emphasis is to increase the revenue received from current customers and heighten the retention rate of valuable customers. A renewed focus on customer relationships can require so many organizationwide process changes that operational cost savings may well be realized, but in other ways. Talk time on customer calls may increase as agents make the most of each opportunity — it takes time to service customers well, to listen to them, to collect information about them and to upsell and cross-sell to them. But these steps can pay off in multiples. The return on investment for building customer relationships should not be expected from short term operational cost savings.

6. Increase Value for Your Customers and the Organization. The bottom-line reason for building customer relationships is to increase value both for customers and the organization. There are many ways to deliver increased value, including being “easy to do business with,” creating efficiencies for your customers and making timely offers of products or services that perceptively address customer needs. Similarly, there are many ways to increase the value of your customer relationships, and the most fundamental of these appear in this list of key principles. When executed properly, building customer relationships is a “win-win” for all parties.

7. Present a Single Face Across Channels. One of the ways to create value for your customers is to simplify the ways that they deal with your organization. Take a holistic view of your customers and consolidate information from across the organization, regardless of geography, department, function or product line. When you have a complete picture of each customer’s relationship, you can design customer interaction processes from the customer’s perspective, thus increasing value and letting customers know that you know them.

8. Enable Information Sharing and Interaction Across the Organization. Building customer relationships requires all parts of an organization, not just the call center. It is both a requirement and a benefit that organizations improve their internal communication processes. The only way to develop a comprehensive view of each customer’s relationship with the organization is with the full participation of every part of the organization. This requires strong support from top management and across the board. As the central point of contact with customers, the call center has a vested interest in driving the development of organizationwide interaction processes.

9. Create Business Rules to Drive Decisions. Business rules codify and automate processes, specifying what should happen in specific situations, thus enabling both differentiated customer treatment and automation. Developing organizationwide business rules is a monumental task, and how well it is done directly affects your success in building customer relationships. Business rules define the ways that the strategy is executed.

10. Empower Employees with Information and Training. Capable desktop tools may be the most visible technological feature of customer relationship applications. Just as the cockpit of an airplane displays all the information a pilot needs to fly in any condition, the contact management screen should pull together cleanly and clearly all that the organization knows about its relationship with that customer. Furthermore, business rules should dynamically change that screen to support and guide the agent in optimizing the customer relationship. Empowerment is a key principle, however, because no set of business rules can or should fully anticipate every conceivable situation: Agents need training, information and support offered by business rules so that they can make good decisions that are consistent with the organization’s strategy.

11. Retain the Right Customers. One of the truisms associated with customer relationship management is that it is cheaper to retain a customer than to acquire a new one, but that idea can be taken a step further. In order to maximize value, organizations should focus on retaining valuable customers, not necessarily all customers. Be warned, however, that misapplication of this principle can be dangerous. Mistreating “low value” customers, even if you are losing money on them, is hard to justify in the court of public opinion (which is where your future high-value customers are sitting).

12. Remember That Cultivating Customer Relationships is a Way of Doing Business. These efforts go beyond tools, techniques or programs. Building customer relationships is about the way you do business. It requires participation and hard work by people throughout the organization, and if done right, the work never ends. Results from these efforts should be fed back into the process to continuously refine business rules, marketing efforts and information systems. True optimization has no finish line — it’s an ongoing mission.

why Call Centers in India?

2009-07-02T23:46:00.000+05:30

Call Centers in India are at its peak today. Customized solution through customer interactive programs in the success mantra of numerous corporate firms nowadays. For the strategic business development – that requires acquired skills for customer queries, solutions etc., Indian Call-Centers are at par with the current marketing demands.

Call Centers not only accumulated the task of interacting with customers but also provides a wider base for official tasks of inventories, bill handling, web-solutions and various other business requirement proceedings. Customers can call (normally through toll-free numbers) the offices of these companies in shape of Call-Centers and ask for their requirements, queries and solutions.

At the same time customers – today – expects higher level of services from the manufactures and it has become a dire need to sustain ones customer for longer duration. Call Centers in this context – becomes very useful. India is producing technically sound work force with high standard of English. It only takes a thought for marketing giants to tap this potential and induce their customer-loyal Call-Centers.

Norms in India to initiate Call Center are very easy. The Government has introduced easy procedures to lease telephone lines with advance features for the successful operations in the area. Employees are well acquainted with technology. And finally, the costs incurred in this context are far lower than their European or American counterparts.

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