New media outsourcing to India picks up

Foreign companies have begun outsourcing new media work such as online reputation management, data mining, influencer identification and crisis management directly to small and mid-sized Indian social networking agencies. This is even as big agencies continue to sub-contract work to smaller agencies in India

Outsourcing Education

Does It Matter If Someone in India Corrected Your College Paper?

Plenty of American businesses have outsourced jobs across the globe, and now colleges are jumping on the bandwagon. Colleges are hiring online "tutors" to check student work for grammar and other English mistakes and provide the kind of feedback students used to get from professors or teaching assistants before budget cuts resulted in staff layoffs and unmanageably large class sizes.

'IT-BPO sector contributing to India's growth'

MUMBAI: Turning the spotlight on India's IT-BPO (business process outsourcing) sector, the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) began its 19th edition annual India Leadership Forum 2011.

"The Indian IT-BPO industry has had a phenomenal run over the last decade, contributing immensely to India's growth," Nasscom chairman Harsh Manglik said.

" It is imperative for industry stakeholders to break out of the traditional mould that resulted in past successes and step up to the aspirations of 2020. I hope this event will provide the platform for the industry to discuss, debate and strategise the growth path ahead," he added.

IANS,Feb 7, 2011, 04.59pm IST

BPO calls reach B-School campus

Managerial and consulting roles in call centres attract IIM graduates.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) firms that so far hired from tier three B-schools will now flaunt IIM graduates. Take the case of Delhi-based BPO firm EXL Services which has managed to hire over 10 management graduates from India’s premier Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad. The highest ever for any BPO company so far, EXL Services has hired the IIM-A graduates for general managerial and consulting roles.

“This year we have been aggressive in hiring from B-schools as we want to grow our foot-print in these management schools. We have been hiring from B-schools since 2003-04, but that has always been limited to one or two students. This year we have managed to give offer letters to 10 students from IIM-A itself. Last year we hired around seven management graduates from top B-schools,” said Sanjay Gupta, Global HR Head, EXL Services. The company is visiting five to six more B-school campuses this year to meet its target of hiring 15-18 management graduates. The company is of the view that the focus on management talent is due to the shift that the industry is witnessing as well as the work that is coming to the Indian players.

BPO and IT services firms have traditionally hired large number of students from engineering colleges and graduation colleges. But hiring from top B-schools has always been a tad difficult as students prefer to work with sectors like banking, consultancy, and FMCG.

The trend to hire more management graduates is however, not limited to EXL services alone or to the third party BPO sector. Captive BPOs of IT companies are also joining the bandwagon. IT major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) plans to hire over 1,200 management students for FY11 from B-schools across the nation. Of these the company has already extended offer letters to 557 students. TCS BPO has also made 129 offers so far. READ MORE

Emergence of Rural BPOs in India

Booming India Inc has led to skyrocketing real estate and infrastructure costs in Tier-1 cities. BPO industry has thrived all these years because of its ability to deliver services at a low cost. Increasing infrastructure costs, real estate costs, and salaries have raised BPO costs significantly and as a result Indian BPOs in Tier-1 cities are looking at Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities for operation.

Few entrepreneurs who had a vision of bringing the rural India into the mainstream of knowledge economy have found an opportunity here - setting Rural BPOs. The transformation of rural India started with the emergence of these Rural BPOs. The major hurdles that these BPOs faced is quality man power. As a result these rural BPOs have remained targeting low end jobs like data entry

Utilising high BPO prospects

BUSINESS process outsourcing (BPO) is a form of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of a specific business function (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with large manufacturing firms particularly some multinationals that outsourced sizeable segments of their supply chain. In the contemporary context, it is primarily used to refer to the outsourcing of services that can be done through the use of Information technology (IT). That's why some people call it as ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services).

International investment consultancy firm Mckinsey forecasted that, by 2010, the global BPO business will amount US$180 billion. India will be in prime position. China, the Philippines, and Malaysia will follow India. If Bangladesh fixes up a target of grabbing 1.0% of the total market share, then it can experience a large boost to its foreign exchange earnings. This sector is very much lucrative compared to other sectors as all the earnings from this service will be retained within the country. more

Indian Domestic IT BPO Market Growing

March 21, 2010 (FinancialWire) The hardware and the IT services markets have traditionally grown faster in India. Economic growth and globalization have made Indian companies adopt best practices and improve capabilities with their products and services to compete in a global market place. BPO, on the other hand, in the domestic market is still nascent but propensity towards adoption is higher. Corporate houses in India have been quick in adopting IT as a first step in standing up to a globalized competitive landscape. Not just the private sector but the government sector also opened up to IT adoption. E-governance initiatives, which actually started about 30 years ago in India, have now reached local government organizations. The use of Information and Communication technologies can now be seen across various government departments.

BPO employees may soon work from home too

Raman Roy’s Quatrro becomes first company to get DoT permission; starts pilot projects.

A year after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) conditionally relaxed rules on IT-BPO employees working from home, Raman Roy, chairman & managing director of Quatrro BPO Solutions, has started pilot projects in Mumbai and Delhi to explore the possibility of scaling up the model.
Quatrro is the first BPO to have secured permission for this model from DoT. “This is a provisional permission. Once the company is able to meet all our security concerns, we will grant them a licence,” confirmed a senior DoT official on condition of anonymity.
The licence is a prerequisite for service providers to provide infrastructure and last-mile connectivity.
The $11-billion BPO sector employs over 750,000 people, and "working from home" could add significantly to the employment numbers, said Roy. He added that he has been “toying with the idea for nearly two years before I got help from software body Nasscom and the required permission from the DoT”.
Roy plans to launch another pilot in Chennai soon. He has also appointed a dedicated team of six senior employees — including a lawyer and a technician — to make these pilots successful.

Is the BPO industry on the wane?

Is the BPO industry on the wane? Even though many may consider this sort of apprehension too unlikely, some reports do depict that the industry is not in the right track or failing to gratify the aspiration.
A new report conducted under the auspices of analyst firm Gartner is of the view that almost one quarter of the acclaimed Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) operatives will cease to exist in the form of separate entities by 2012. In accordance with its views, owing to continual rise of new vendors, acquisitions may have a decisive effect on market and this stunning reality will change the BPO provider landscape in the coming years. What should be the necessary task then? Gartner thinks that the enterprises have to search for warning signs while appraising BPO vendors to lessen risks. read more

Advantage of SEO Outsourcing

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The main purpose of Outsourcing SEO tasks is for the fact that an SEO in a company is considered to be a perfect loner.

With the obligation of high trafficking, an SEO is always recognized to be overfull with tasks and thus is speculated to be bringing lower production.

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Banking Outsourcing and India

Understanding the demanding requirements of Banking Customers in various locations helps the banks to swell new marketing products and strategies. This further leads them to stay ahead in the highly competitive global market. It is predictable that with a growth rate of approximately 37%, Indian revenues from banking and financial departmental services would reach to a height of $6.5 billion by the fiscal year of 2011.

Globally the banks have by and large realized the fact that Banking Outsourcing is a tactic which; cut down cost, expanding their scopes and optimizing their revenues. The gradual move towards International Banking Outsourcing magnifies the requirements to recognize and pick vendors according to their potential and abilities to provide the Outsourced Banking Services at specified locations.

Banking Outsourcing and India

With real time round the clock service providers in India, who process online 24x7, with reliability and precision, banking outsourcing solutions is increasing its reaction in the country as well as its employee, thereby enabling the bank to be more flexible and alert.

What is BPO Consulting?

BPO Consulting provides business process outsourcing, consulting and accounting system implementation to small, emerging growth and concept-stage businesses. Employees of BPO Consulting include experienced CPAs, MBAs, accountants, and bookkeepers.

Outsourcing BPO to India - The Long Term Benefits

Amidst the mounting furor against outsourcing one has to examine things more objectively. In the short term, cost benefits and value addition may not be apparent because of the initial investment involved in training and infrastructure. Also outcries against migration of jobs seem to cement the argument. However, as the NASSCOM report shows, the long term benefits are very powerful. Not only does outsourcing BPO to India allow global companies to avail of some of the best talent and expertise at competitive rates, but it also allows the company to actually save several jobs, which it might have had to lay off otherwise.

U.S. BPO services in healthcare to reach $5.3 billion in 2012

As per its January 2009 estimates, technology research firm IDC expects U.S. BPO services in healthcare to reach $5.3 billion in 2012, at a compound annual growth rate of 14.6 percent from 2007 levels.

Healthcare spending in the United States is expected to touch $2.5 trillion, or about 17.6 percent of the country's economy, in 2009. This roughly equals the total gross domestic product of France.

Is there a career path in the BPO industry?

Popular belief is that there are numerous job opportunities but fewer career opportunities in the BPO sector, but I feel that the Indian BPO industry currently has boundless career opportunities. This is evident from the fact that over the years the scope of services has grown from providing just voice-based marketing and customer relationship management services to transaction processing in finance and accounting, human resources, learning and procurement, legal transcription, animation and multimedia, content creation, as well as industry-specific services focusing on the insurance, healthcare, pharmaceutical and utility industries.

For example, companies in the life science industry are quite familiar to outsourcing; they outsource some of their critical processes like drug discovery, clinical trials, product manufacture, and data management. Thus the mainstream outsourcing service providers require specialist knowledge and skill sets to perform traditional life science functions such as clinical data management and pharmacovigilance (the monitoring of drug safety). India is a popular offshore location for outsourcing these sensitive functions, due largely to cost benefits and the availability of an appropriately skilled talent pool.

Sourced from The Hindu

How are parents viewing their wards’ choice of BPO jobs?

With youngsters wishing to join a BPO because they genuinely see it as a long-term career option, parents are also becoming more supportive towards this avenue. There is an increasing realisation that BPOs are just not about call centres, but about providing the right opportunities and building skills and global exposure. In a nutshell, employees in the BPO industry now get a challenging career with tremendous growth opportunities, hands-on experience of understanding different geographies, customs and cultures early in life. This experience of understanding and appreciating diversity is very valuable for their professional growth.

Outsourcing's Next Hot Spots, Who's next after India?

Companies will soon see outsourcing as a game of dice – hedging their bets and spreading outsourcing deals across the world, a report by the London School of Economics (LSE) has predicted.

Report co-author professor Leslie Willcocks said today the global growth in IT and business process outsourcing (BPO) in various new countries across the globe will allow businesses to gamble on many different offshoring deals.

"At one level it is a craps game, you spread your bets and you take your chances," he said.

"One country may be highly risky but you are willing to go ahead with the deal because you know that you can transfer it out if something goes wrong.

"Offshoring today is a transitionary phase in a much larger movement towards a global division of labour."

The LSE's Beyond Bric report looked at 14 countries outside the traditional IT and BPO hubs of Brazil, Russia, India and China (Bric). Bric countries currently dominate the outsourcing market – accounting for $45bn of its $55bn annual global value.

The report examined fledgling IT and BPO outsourcing industries in Central and Eastern Europe; the Middle East and Africa; Asia and the Americas.

Willcocks said India's struggles with high levels of staff turnover, rising costs and overburdened infrastructure is making emerging competitors more attractive.

"India will continue to dominate for the next 20 years but it has run into some challenges.

"Meanwhile, China is seen as having difficulty in languages and problems with intellectual property and Russia can't seem to get its act together.

"If the non-Bric countries can take advantage of these countries' challenges then they will be able to work that to their advantage. They should look to learn from India's mistakes of not developing infrastructure and skills base fast enough to keep up with that growth."

The predicted growth in the global ITO and BPO markets – which Willcocks described as "recession proof" – with outsourcing revenue set to grow between six and nine per cent each year.

The need for more offshore deals will be compounded by a desire for nearshoring along with widespread skills shortages among Western countries. The UK is predicted to have a shortfall of more than 14,000 IT specialists by 2010 and the US a shortage of 15 million by 2025, Willcocks said.

Topping the report's list of the outsourcing hotspots in many areas was Egypt. The country is a good fit for offshore IT outsourcing, BPO and call centre deals because of its low costs, its ability to scale up its offerings and the 31,000 science, tech and engineering and 20,000 English speaking graduates it produces each year.

The report, which was commissioned by the Egypt's Information Technology Industry Development Agency, says that Egypt needs to work on improving its management skills and transportation systems, changing perceptions of risk in the US and on attracting more high value work from Western clients.

Provided by silicon.com—Driving Business Through Technology - source via : businessweek

Genpact named ‘Best Performing BPO Provider’ & ‘Best Performing Finance & Accounting Outsourcing Firm’ in the 2009 Global Services 100 Survey

NEW YORK — Genpact (NYSE:G), a leader in the globalization of services and technology and a pioneer in managing business processes for companies around the world, today announced that it has been ranked as the Best Performing BPO Provider & Best Performing FAO Provider in the 2009 Global Services 100 listing. The awards were presented at the 2009 Global Services Conference on February 26, 2009 in New York City.

Genpact has been a consistent performer in the Global Services 100 Survey, having been named the winner of the Best Performing BPO category for the last three years – 2007, 2008, and 2009. For the first time this year, Genpact has also been named number one in the Finance & Accounting Outsourcing (FAO) category. Genpact is the only company to have won in two categories this year.

“We are proud to have retained our position as the Best Performing BPO Provider, and are delighted to have also been named the ‘Best Performing FAO’ firm this year. Our process expertise in delivering end-to-end services across a breadth of industries and operational excellence driven by our Six Sigma, Lean and Re-engineering capabilities have allowed us to stand out in this tough environment”, said Mr. Pramod Bhasin, President & CEO of Genpact. “We thank Global Services, neoIT, our customers and employees for this important recognition”, added Mr. Bhasin.

Obama Shocks India: No Tax Break For Firms Offshoring Jobs

US President Barack Obama, in his first address to a joint session of US Congress, has said that his Government will not give tax breaks to US companies that ship jobs overseas.

Thursday, February 26, 2009: ASSOCHAM president Sajjan Jindal has expressed serious concern over the Obama administration decision to deny tax benefits to US companies that outsource their jobs, adding that it will prevent free flow of goods and services under WTO regime. In a statement, Jindal said that the beneficiary of outsourcing jobs has not only been the receiving country but more so the country which has outsource their jobs in the past and the trend will remain so even in future. Estimates reveal that a US$ job outsourced fetched the outsource country more than 10 times of economic benefits and therefore discourage outsourcing by denying tax benefits can prove disastrous, Jindal added.

Outsourcing your Logo Design

Why not outsource to a company that specializes in logo design? There are many companies that now focus their efforts solely on logo design. There are a variety of benefits to choosing this path:

• Cost Savings: Outsourcing your design will cost you a fraction of what it would hiring an independent designer or using in-house staff.
• Faster Turnaround Time: Logo design companies will make your project a priority and have a thorough understanding of the design process.
• Fresh Perspectives: Having someone look at your ideas and concepts from a fresh point of view is always a good idea in logo design.

CustomLogosDesign.com brings you into the logo design process. With Custom Logos Design your logo is created just for you with your input. It allows you to get the best logo for your business. With Custom Logos Design you get the benefit of voicing your opinion and then having the logo created by an experience logo design professional made to your specifications. It is definitely what you want when designing a logo, so that you are sure to get a logo design that best represents your company. more

CustomLogosDesign.com offers Affordable Logo design Services in India, Australia, United States / USA, UK, Canada etc.

BPO - Process Risks

Process risks are, by far, the most comprehensive set that needs to be managed properly for ensuring minimal operational problems. Each business process has its own set of metrics that are important to the buyer as well as the vendor of these services. The perspectives of the clients and vendors of BPO services regarding risks are interesting. To the BPO services buyer, overall high customer satisfaction is the goal of customer-facing processes. Other risks may be important, but are subservient to the customer satisfaction goals.

The BPO services vendor is interested in making sure that process risks covered by contractual obligations are addressed first and foremost. Since many contracts include provisions for incentives and penalties for meeting and not meeting certain metrics, they end up high on the agenda. However, many vendors go above and beyond these and keep track of other metrics that help them with internal agent performance evaluations. Other metrics that will help them make sure that the business process is executed properly could also be monitored, whether they need to disclose these to the customers or not. They know that if these metrics aren't met consistently, the entire contract may be in jeopardy sooner or later.

A broad classification of process risks is one of qualitative risks and quantitative risks. Qualitative risks may deal with customer satisfaction issues and are measured usually by the BPO client using customer satisfaction surveys, in case the processes are customer facing. In non-customer facing processes such as financial accounts finalization, qualitative risks may be linked to an assessment of how well the services were provided.

Quantitative risks broadly deal with efficiency and effectiveness risks. They can be dealt with appropriately through prudent and appropriate choice of metrics. Efficiency metrics usually deal with time-related aspects of a business process. Average handle time and average hold time are good examples of efficiency metrics that deal with telephone support. Efficiency metrics may also include such items as number of loan cases handled per hour or number of claims handled per hour.

BPO: To be strategic, consider these questions

Can we reasonably find areas that are acceptable for outsourcing? What areas of the business are good candidates for outsourcing? Can we get buy-in from the C-level executives? Can we get buy-in from the mid-level managers involved, including those in IT? Answers to those often-tough questions come from meetings and discussions that include all the business units involved.

Economic recession & BPO industry

Economic recession has hit the world with vengeance. But the industry which has thrived this adversity is the BPO industry. When costs of doing work in-house has increased in the companies abroad, they have started to outsource their business requirements, which in turn has become a blessing in disguise to us.

The global economic scenario goes haywire now-a-days. People frantically talk about economic recession with a ‘what-will-be-my-future’ sort of look in their anxiety-filled eyes.

Even Nasscom, the industry association, points out that the current fiscal crisis in the United States will adversely affect the Indian BPO/IT sectors as the clients from USA would be very vigilant in their unrestricted spending on outsourcing their projects.

The revenue generated by the BPO & KPO industry in India is estimated to Rs.1,160 crores and provides employment to almost 7-8 lakh people in the year 2007-08. The largest contributor to the Indian BPO-KPO export market in 2007 is USA with a lion’s share of around 61%.

Why An All-in-one Accounting Services Outsourcing Is Preferred

Not placing all your of eggs in the same basket may be a wise decision, but what is also true is that it does not apply to accounting services outsourcing. It is simply because unlike eggs, most of the accounting functions are interlinked and it would really create a confusing situation if different service providers are hired for each specific accounting process. Starting from basic bookkeeping and continuing to final accounts preparation, financial analysis and tax preparation, most of these accounting sub-processes fall in a linear functional path and it would be better if all of these are managed by a single accounting services outsourcing provider.

The list of all-in-one accounting services outsourcing providers may contain only a few names, but since such services are still readily available, businesses need not worry too much. In a way, it can actually work to their advantage because the less the number of providers, the less will be the effort businesses will have to make in order to select the right accounting services outsourcing provider. Finding the right accounting services outsourcing provider will further eliminate any worries that businesses might be having about placing all of their eggs in the same basket. Achieving desired results such as cost savings and efficiency and accuracy improvements will also become a lot easier then.

Scandal / Scam by India's Satyam founder Ramlinga Raju

Satyam founder Ramlinga Raju has been booked for:

* Criminal conspiracy, after he confessed to perpetrating a 7,000-crore financial fraud
* He also faces charges of cheating for presenting a false picture
* Forgery for doctoring accounts and showing inflated revenues
* Raju and his brother have been booked for criminal breach of trust, now that the future of nearly half-a-lakh employees are at stake
* He’s also been booked for misappropriation of funds - several financial documents and bank statements are missing
* All charges are non-bailable

read all about scandal / scam here