nice article

Is BPO good option for a life long career

which is the fastest growing sector in BPO?

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. Call Centers is just one of the many functions, which comes under the ambit of B.P.O. 
 
OVERVIEW OF BPO OPTIONS 
 
Ø Voice and Non Voice Process 
Ø Medical Transcription 
Ø Business Transcription 
Ø Legal Transcription 
Ø Data Conversion 
Ø Data Entry 
Ø E-Mail Support 
Ø Knowledge Process Outsourcing 
Ø Recruitment Process Outsourcing 
Ø Education Process Outsourcing 
Ø Technical Writing 
Ø Animation 
 
 
About NASSCOM 
 
NASSCOM stands for National Association of Software and Servicing Companies. It regulates the functioning of the IT and ITES industry. 
 
 
WEBSITE: www.nasscom.org 
 
 
ABOUT CALL CENTERS 
 
A call center is a set up in India, wherein calls 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. There are two basic functions that any call center performs: 
 
 
INBOUND (Taking incoming calls) 
 
Incoming calls mainly focus on customer service. Just to give an example, a person banking with say CITI BANK in the U.S. would call to know the balance in his account. 
OUTGOING (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 we end up trying to sell them a product or service. 
 
 
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 for Indian companies. We find domestic call centers mainly in the banking and services sector. 
 
 
SOME DOMESTIC CALL CENTERS IN INDIA 
 
v Reliance Mobile 
v Airtel  
v Idea 
v Hutch 
v ABN-ABRO Bank 
v ICICI Bank. 
 
 
INTERNATIONAL CALL CENTERS 
 
International call centers handle sales and customer service for foreign clients. International call centers can be classified into two major categories: CAPTIVE B.P.O. and THIRD PARTY B.P.O. 
 
 
 
CAPTIVE BPO 
 
Under this category, predominantly you have banks and mobile service providers setting up a dedicated call centre for the sole purpose of serving their clientele. Their main focus is to ensure that the customer is given 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. 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 B.P.O are rated each year by NASSCOM on the basis of their performance. The process of rating a third party B.P.O. by NASSCOM is very stringent and all quality parameters need to be met without exception. 
 
 
 
FEW EXAMPLES OF THIRD PARTY B.P.O. 
 
v Transworks (Aditya Birla Group) 
v Sitel  
v WNS Global Services 
v Tracmail 
v Intellinet  
v Genpact  
v E-funds 
v Accenture 
v HCL B.P.O.  
 
 
ADVANTAGES OF CALL CENTERS 
 
 
Provide employment opportunities to large number of people. 
 
Good salary levels ensure better standard of living. 
 
You develop your skills to be an excellent communicator. 
 
Ongoing training programs help employees to add on to their skill set and thereby become better professionals. 
 
 
 
Majority of all the call centers sponsor employees for an MBA program. This not only helps employees to acquire a professional qualification but also opens up new career options within the B.P.O. sector. 
 
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. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
PRESENT SCENARIO 
 
There is no doubt that call centers have 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, coupled with the savings that foreign clients make with respect to salaries and infrastructure. Of late there have been concerns about frauds that have been taking place in the B.P.O. industry. To tackle this 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. An All India ranking system has already been introduced by NASSCOM, which makes it mandatory for candidates to clear all modules with a good score to be part of the call center industry, thereby ensuring quality manpower. This will considerably reduce the burden on the H.R. personnel by considerably reducing their recruitment time and thereby help them focus on other critical issues. 
Though countries like China and Philippines are gearing up to get a chunk of the business, there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that India will continue to be a major player in this industry. 
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, Technical Writing and so on, which requires personnel with professional qualifications and specialized skill, professionals from other industries have started looking at the B.P.O. industry as a long term career option.