Outsource your Business without Losing Control

One of the greatest fears of call centres in India is to lose control and the worst part is losing control when you are half way through the project. It could get a lot frustrating on the CIOs as well as the gents because the duties delegated to the agents may just be meaningless and this has happened to quite a few BPO companies for that matter. However, there are some ways, or lets call them strategies, by which the phrase “losing control in outsourcing” will become just another urban myth.

First and foremost, it is important that you define your company objectives well and in advance. That’s because, by defining your objectives, you will be assured that the project will be a success thereby taking your company closer towards its goals. In addition, it is always advised to start small and expand later. This could help cut those unnecessary costs that are usually encountered when companies dream of starting it off with a bang and usually a “bang” is all that you here from these companies when their business erupts into failure. Constant communication with the employees is the key to success because their inputs could save you a lot in future.

Trying and testing could come a long way when it comes to saving your business from losses. Remember that outsourcing to India is one industry that is supposed to generate revenues for any business and not constant nightmares to its owners or even its clients for that matter.

Outsourcing to India – The Inside Story

Looks a lot like a controversial title, although it is not meant to be. Like other countries, India too, is going through a phase, however, unlike the phases in most countries, the Indian BPO industry is on a boom. Outsourcing companies in India help the Chief Information Officers (CIOs) to cut unnecessary costs and deal with the software demands of the company in the most effective way possible. If the outsourcing strategies that are developed by large organizations are up to the mark, the company can focus more on other productive areas.

The very fact that almost two thirds of all the Fortune 500 companies are outsourcing to India simply points out to the future demands of US companies. For instance, Forrester Research predicts that the amount of work in US is to become twice of what there is presently. In addition, if the companies fail to outsource when it comes to outsourcing to countries like India, especially to cities like Chennai and Mumbai, the CFOs and the CIOs will be wondering why cutting costs is one aspect that they are not able to overcome.

The fluency of the English language in India and the improvement in the telecommunication sector only add to the factors why companies in the US as well as the UK are expanding their activities through call centres in India.

In outsourcing - It's India vs. the rest of the world

As compared to China, Philippines, other Asian countries, and Eastern Europe, India has always been way ahead in the outsourcing business. Indian companies are also modifying their strategies in order to stay one step ahead. Several factors are taken into consideration when it comes to choosing an outsourcing destination. Apart from the obvious reason i.e. cost factors, others include the availability of skilled manpower, government regulations and support, and the competitive nature of outsourcing service providers. The current system of education, infrastructure, and intellectual property protection are major considerations that also determine whether the country is geared towards providing outsourcing services.

Being an early entrant into the outsourcing business, India has scored high on many of these factors. The availability of skilled labor in the IT industry backed by a strong educational system has further strengthened its dominance. An ever-growing English speaking population coupled with huge government sops in support of outsourcing and telecom costs has also contributed towards its success. This is evident from the thousands of service providers that have entered the outsourcing sector, lending solid support to the Indian economy. Moreover, GDP growth rates are high and a soaring capital market has further attracted foreign investments in the country.

Although infrastructure is a major drawback, the participation of foreign investors in infrastructure development has brought in a huge foreign direct investment inflow to the outsourcing sector. In the face of strong competition among emerging Asian, East European, and Latin American markets, India will have to remain dedicated to the development of all these factors that influence the outsourcing business.

CRM Working Wonders For Small Businesses:

CRM or customer relationship management is a wide term that covers all aspects relating to how companies ought to manage their relationships with their customers. This also includes other customer related concepts like collecting, storing, and analyzing customer information. Considering the fact that the success of small businesses relies so much on customer satisfaction CRM has become one of the most essential tools for small organizations. CRM has helped a lot of small level organizations implement such processes that have facilitated profit maximization. The process of profit maximization has been achieved through handling the customers efficiently by stream lining customer centric services.

Benefits of CRM:
The main advantages of CRM application for the small business units are:

• CRM focuses more on customer centric services rather than product-centric services.


• According to CRM strategy individual customer information are collected and stored in a single server and the authorized employees have a free access to the data anywhere and at anytime.


• It is one of the best, modern one-to-one interactive and streamlined approaches, which helps enhance sales turnover and profit ratio.


• CRM is a cost effective and dynamic tool that provides real time inventory and unique prices ready for the customers whenever they want.


• The business units can manage their business virtually from anywhere round the clock.


• CRM with its effective tools and techniques provides the users with more efficient and accurate demand and sales forecasts.


• CRM also encompasses an automatic tracking facility that monitors and records all your customer’s transactions dome anywhere and at anytime.

Selecting the right CRM application:
Now that we know that small business units can benefit in so many ways by implementing CRM in their business strategy, the bigger question is how does one select a CRM application that will perfectly match the unique special requirements of the organization?

Given below are few points that you need to be aware of when you go looking for the ideal CRM application:

• Make sure that the CRM application does the customization of all your business specifications.


• Also ensure that the CRM application provides a 360-degree view of the entire customer related transactions from anywhere and from a single database.


• It should provide a flexible web base plus facilitate collaboration between the customers, management, and the vendors.


• An added benefit would be if the application includes a compelling feature rich ‘click away’ technique.


• A CRM application should also help in facilitating an easy customization of the organizational set-up.


• And of course the application should provide complete satisfaction along with seamless customer services but within a limited budget.


• The CRM application should be highly interactive with a zero risk solution.


• The application should be extremely user-friendly so that time is not spend on acquiring knowledge for adapting it into the organization’s work culture.


• A good CRM application should have a low maintenance.

CRM applications are known to provide world-class technical expertise. An expertise that helps an organization effectively combine consults and analyzes all its critical business problems. CRM application gives small businesses a much-needed competitive edge with its cost-effective and consumer-centric services that ensures not only to boost their image, but also increase their credibility in the market.

Data Entry

Any company, whether big or small, handles different amount of data that is crucial to its business. In today’s volatile world economy, it is very important to have timely access to relevant and correct data. Whether it is a small company that generates a limited amount of data, or a large global empire, correct data is vital to its success. However, not all companies are well equipped to carry out data entry work in-house according to their requirements.

Outsourcing data entry work is the best option for such companies that are unable to cope with the data that they generate. This can result in saving a huge amount of money as well as management headaches, thus enabling the company to focus on its core activities. Your company might require regular data entry work, or might need it from time to time on a need-basis. Setting up a separate division for data entry will make you incur huge costs in terms of employing suitable people, training them according to your needs, plus the cost of managing these resources. Getting your present employees to engage in sporadic data entry jobs that come along can leave them physically and emotionally stressed due to working long hours, and may distract them from their core jobs.

When you outsource data entry jobs, professionals that are experienced in handling various data entry tasks are entrusted with your job. This ensures timely delivery of the work, as well as high quality accurate data that you can directly use. Not to mention, outsourcing data entry will prove to be a very cost effective as compared to if you were to do the task by yourself. This will leave your organization and your employees with more time to concentrate on your core business, resulting in higher profits.

Outsourcing to India has long been very practical, not only due to cost-effective services, but also due to high quality standards that you could be sure of when outsourcing data entry to India. This is possible due to the availability of a large pool of educated, and highly qualified people with a very high skill level in English language that work on your project. There are host of services that are offered in India ranging from data entry, conversion services, data capture, data processing, document-imaging services etc. All this is done with the latest technology, so that your data entry work is carried out in the best possible manner. Nowhere else will you be able to find so many advantages together.

Telegenisys enters medical insurance services

Telegenisys, the world-class international call center has always been committed towards providing the best support services to businesses and organizations worldwide. We have a proven track record in providing highly professional call center services; easily evident from the growing list of satisfied clients to whom we currently provide our services. Recently, we entered the high-end call center services segment that includes proprietary and classified support services such as medical insurance back office services.

Entering the high-end medical insurance call center services was no doubt difficult but we stood up to the challenge and did not get bogged down with the usual initial hiccups. To ensure professionalism in our international medical insurance call center services, we hired only the most talented and skilled support representatives, most having prior experience in medical insurance call centers. We also upgraded our existing infrastructure as required for providing highly efficient medical health insurance call center services. Theoretical training sessions as well as preliminary on the job training sessions also helped a lot in our efforts to achieve the desired level of professionalism and offer world class medical insurance plan call center services to our client.

So, if you have similar outsourcing needs, just contact us.

Animation Outsourcing on a Rise

When the outsourcing wave first hit India, it was primarily in the form on call center services. Now, a decade down the line, most call centers have evolved out of their shell of providing mere call-based services and developed into BPOs performing a variety of operations. Now the latest trend is animation outsourcing by several major Hollywood studios.

The full potential of the Indian talent pool has been realized only recently. Nowadays, India is much more than a source of a fluent English-speaking workforce. Companies in the US have began tapping the software and animation talent in the country and hence given rise to animation outsourcing.

India not only possesses some great untapped talent when it comes to the animation industry, but the Indian labor force is up to five to six times cheaper than their counterpart in the US. Right now, the major outsourcing comes from the US, Canada and Europe.

However, experts have predicted that the Indian animation outsourcing industry might soon face stiff competition from other Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. But for now, animators in India can safely bank on the growing outsourcing within the industry.

JP Morgan Plans on Massive Outsourcing

As the BPO boom in India continues, there is further reason to rejoice. Global banking firm JP Morgan Chase is planning to hire around 4,500 graduates in India over next two years. The banking firm plans on outsourcing 30 per cent of its back office and support staff at the investment bank division to India by 2007.

This outsourcing move will prove highly beneficial not only to young graduates but also to several BPO firms. JP Morgan Chase has chosen India as its outsourcing destination owing to the low cost of highly educated and English speaking staff.

The company's main base will be in Mumbai and Bangalore. The Bank is currently hiring between 300 to 400 graduates a month. A part of the staff will be working for the investment bank while the others will be supporting the company's retail and commercial banking operations, which will include call center workers.

Indian Outsourcing Industry Faces High Attrition Rate

One of the major hurdles that the outsourcing industry in India is facing is the high attrition rate among employees.
Despite high pay packages, the outsourcing industry is facing attrition rates of 15 to 30 percent as compared to less than 15 percent in other major outsourcing destinations such as south east Asia, China and the Eastern European countries.

The high labor turnover rate is considered today as a major hindrance in the growth of the BPO industry. With the demand for skilled English speaking labor exceeding the supply, companies are trying hard to hold on to the existing workforce.

Although the high attrition rate is a problem in several major Indian industries, nowhere is it as pronounced as in the outsourcing stream. Studies show that high labor turnover, rising wages and shortage of suitable talent is fast becoming a major bottleneck in the development of the industry. The problem of turnover is faced by all outsourcing companies, but it is most distinct in the ones that offer low-skilled back office work like call centers. The general trend among the employees is to gain training and experience in one call center and then job-hop from one firm to another, in search of better pay packages.

However, to counter this growing trend, several major Indian outsourcing companies have adopted various unique methods to minimize the attrition rate. For the ideal worker, companies are taking every step to make sure that employee satisfaction is at its best. Offering bonuses, flexibility in work arrangements, changing jobs across departments, counseling sessions and training programs are just some of the measures that are being taken to ensure that the turnover rate stays at the bare minimum. Some companies have gone to the extent of hiring special personnel in-charge of company parties and ideas to brighten up the work environment.

In an effort to stay ahead of the growing competition from other outsourcing destinations such as China and the Philippines, the Indian BPO sector has to deal with the high attrition rate issue at the earliest.

BPO Industry Compared to Slave Ship

A recent study by the W Giri National Institute of Labor has compared the Indian BPO industry to a slave ship. The report has created quite an outrage in the industry for brining to light the appalling working conditions in the BPO sector.

The study states that the employees are constantly under surveillance, giving the workplace an appearance of a 19th century prison. Closed circuit cameras and special softwares constantly monitor the work of the employees.

In the call centers, time taken to attend each call is scrutinized and the employees are expected to take a certain number of calls on an hourly basis. Employee performance is based on these conditions.

Several states in India have exempted call centers from labor laws, including the Industrial Dispute Act. The report states that this hampers the fundamental rights of the workers.

However, several top BPO organizations such as Nasscom have strongly refuted these claims. The BPOs say that they were not approached for any feedback for the report. According to several industry sources, although the institute that compiled the report is credible, there are several factors that negate the findings made by the report.

The Indian BPO industry leads the world when it comes to outsourcing. The firms provide their employees with several top-of-the-line amenities and comforts such as free transport services, recreational facilities, free meals and work-based incentives among other privileges. Indian outsourcing firms are also said to have the highest employee satisfaction rate in India when compared to the other industries.

Regardless of the new report, the fact remains that the BPO industry is steadily growing with each passing day. The BPO boom is here to stay, whether the critics like it or not.

Scotland to Outsource More Jobs


It is quite obvious now that more and more countries would outsource their business processes to India. Despite all the hue and cry over loss of jobs, the West is outsourcing more and more of their business processes to India. Scotland has emerged as yet another country looking to cash in on India’s low priced IT talent. A study says that half the companies of Scotland are planning to outsource more and more of their business processes to India within the next two years.

Initially, jobs from financial services companies are going to be outsourced to India. Meanwhile, even the U.K. state departments are planning to outsource its business processes to India in order to reduce costs. Chancellor Gordon Brown said at the time of the budget, that he would be seeking to cut around 40,000 civil service posts. Out of these 40,000 posts, 30,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions and more than 10,00 from the merger of Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise.

Jesmine

Will Outsourcing Lead To a Litigation Boom?

Off shoring has expanded the legal issues associated with outsourcing business processes. There are some key issues to be concerned about in all outsourcing business processes arrangements, but they become all the more critical when the outsourcing is overseas. The question, which arises at this juncture, is, will outsourcing lead to a litigation boom? Experts doubt it, saying outsource vendors are more careful about entering engagements.

Experts further opine that, in outsourcing business processes, it used to be that a customer would hire a vendor and think that vendor will take care of everything. But things are more collaborative and the vendors are more adept at identifying customers that create win-win solutions.

Business process outsourcing related litigation is widespread and is just not being publicized. Though lawyers in the U.S. are not doing outsource related work, they are curious about it. Even the lawyers involved in such work are uncertain about its future.

Jesmine

Outsourcing your business process: A critical business decision

Outsourcing one’s business processes is a decision, which should be made only after weighing all the pros and the cons. A move to Outsource could either make or break any business and hence business houses approach the issue with a little trepidation. Before Outsourcing of Business Process, four critical factors should be considered and those are as the following:

1.Benefits:
List down the general benefits that you get out of the Outsourcing arrangement are things like direct cost savings, faster cycle times, higher system availability, etc. One major benefit of Outsourcing of business process could include your ability to charge more for a particular product because of your enhanced competitive position. You may face a little difficulty in quantifying such benefits, but the exercise would be fruitful.

2.Cost:
Here there are two kinds of expenses to be considered. First one has to list all the expenses if the business process were to be handled in-house and secondly the costs, which, would be incurred if you decide to Outsource your business process. Here calculate all the costs relating to the Outsourcing project such as hardware, software, personnel, consulting etc.

3.Flexibility:
In this section one should list down all the indirect benefits, one gets from Outsourcing of business process. One example could be that Outsourcing of Business Process could give you the option to redeploy internal staff to other projects. It’s all about listing the options one gets out of Outsourcing.

4.Risk:
One should identify the key risk factors due to Outsourcing of the business process, quantify their impact on the cost/benefit estimates, and then generate risk- adjusted costs and benefits. Key risk factors include what would happen if the Outsourcer were to go out of business, although a very implausible thought, these kinds of risks are to be considered before getting into a Business Process Outsourcing arrangement.

Outsourcing Business Process is the call of the day

Outsource your Business Process if you want to save costs. More firms are going for Outsourcing their Business Processes because they want to concentrate on their core strengths. Firms are also doing this to not have many people on their payrolls.

Firms Outsource their Business Processes like finance, bookkeeping, web designing, and other Back-Office Operations. Almost 50% of multinationals have come to counties like India, and China etc to Outsource their Business Processes, to minimize their costs and become more competitive.

Countries like India etc are favorite destinations for Outsourcing of Business Processes for multinationals because here, they get cheap, educated staff, who are quick learners are adapt at performing multi-tasks

Hughes ready to Outsource Business Process to third parties

Its just been a year since Hughes Software Systems launched its Business Process Outsourcing Services for group companies abroad, it is now open to offering its services to third parties also. Hughes is looking for Business Process Outsourcing opportunities in UK and US. It was only during the last financial year, that it set up its Business Process Outsourcing Services division, in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of Delhi.

At the moment the Business Process Outsourcing Services division of Hughes employs 300 people, but it could go up very quickly, as it is expecting to get some new business. Business Process Outsourcing Services division of Hughes provides online customer care support-using voice, chat and e-mail across multiple industry segments including IT and networking, telecom, automotive, insurance, banking and financial services.

The benefits of Business Process Outsourcing are many, but one of the main benefits is cost-benefits. It actually helps companies channelize the amounts saved into other important activities.

Quite a few supporters for India in the Outsourcing Business Process arena

India has gathered quite a few supporters in the global market who swear that India is the best for Outsourcing Business Process. Like UK-based LogicaCMG, which says that, “India is the best among the so-called low-cost destinations for Outsourcing Business Process. Moreover, it is the fastest growing Outsourcing centers for Business Process”. The vociferous support for India as the preferred Outsourcing destination comes in the wake of a backlash from Indiana State against the American subsidiary of TCS in the US.

In the wake of so much political ill will against the very idea of Outsourcing Business Process, how does LogicaCMG manage to be so forthright about their ever-increasing Outsource activities in India? "It is a fine balancing act. They have done a smart thing, which ought to be appreciated. They actually haven’t really moved jobs to India, but created new jobs in India.

Outsourcing Business Process has contributed 19% of the company’s turnover now and they plan to increase this 30% by 2005. LogicaCMG has around 11 clients in the country, one most recent client being the RBI.

Hopes pinned on Outsourcing Business Processes sector

If the year 2003 was the year of protests, strikes, bickering, and backlash against Business Process Outsourcing, Indian firms have reason to feel confident to ride through the year 2004. It is for sure that 2004, being the election year, there will a lot of noises raised against the Business Process Outsourcing, but analysts believe that business will not be affected.

The great news for Indian firms though is that 60% of the top 1000 firms in US have started their groundwork regarding the cost advantages of doing Outsourcing Business Processes from India. Although recently there have been lots of talks about China and Malaysia coming up the ranks as an Outsourcing destination, India is the reigning champion in being an Outsourcing Business Processes destination. Data entry and voice customer service may be the cash ringers presently, but the growth will come when we will move up the value chain.

Outsourcing Business Processes is still at the nascent stage and there is lots of market to be tapped. So it is believed that 2004, will be equally good, if not better than 2003.

Outsourcing Busines Processes: The latest trend.

Outsourcing business processes is the latest fad to hit the multinationals. Almost 35% of the 500 fortune companies Outsource Business Processes from low cost countries like India, China etc.

Outsourcing Business Processes saves a lot of costs for the big firms and apart from that it helps them focus on their core processes. Firms open up their Call Centers through which they serve clients worldwide. Callers abroad dial a toll free number, and they get connected to a Call Center in India. Businesses Processes that are Outsourced include financial services, debt Collections and a host of other processes can be Outsourced

Outsourcing, not only for the big players anymore

Till now there was a visible trend that only the larger and financially strong companies were Outsourcing business processes to countries like India etc. But now even the small and mid-sized firms are gearing up for Outsourcing.

In 2004, India can look forward to get more Outsourcing deals, as the number of firms looking to Outsource will increase tremendously. There is going to be a drastic change, which will see even the smaller players taking a plunge into the ocean of Outsourcing. They are going to change the general outlook that, Outsourcing is only for the Big shots.

While three quarters of small and medium-sized firms do not currently Outsource any functions, less than half do not expect to do any in the future. Nearly a third expect to be doing more Outsourcing in 12 months than they are now, according to a study by research group KPMG. The top locations that companies are considering to Outsource from are Eastern Europe (19 per cent), China (18 per cent) and India (17 per cent).

While Outsourcing is still going to be the most attractive option for the bigger players running major Call Centers and administrative functions, small players though are not going to be left behind.

The backlash against Outsourcing could cost U.S a bomb

The backlash in the U.S. against Outsourcing to India could backfire. If US didn’t ease up immigration rules, and modify the visa rules and resort to steps like Outsourcing, US economy could lose up to $2 trillion worth of growth opportunities due to a massive labor shortage by 2010. These are very serious problems, which US needs to address immediately; otherwise it could find itself in a soup.

US is about to face a serious labor shortage of 5.6 million in the US by 2010, mainly In the areas of technical expertise. Both these problems could be solved through immigration of around 3.5 million workers and Outsourcing to the tune of 1.3 million jobs. Out of 1.3 million Outsourced jobs, almost 50% of these opportunities will come India’s way. These Outsourcing opportunities are sure to come to India, because of India’s advantage in certain areas, low labor costs, low operational costs, advantageous time zone, 24/7 service, vast pool of English speaking workforce, computer savvy, highly qualified staff, on-time delivery and high quality work.

Rationally speaking, Outsourcing keeps the U.S. companies competitive and let’s them concentrate on their core processes. According to a recent report $100 of Call-Center work Outsourced by US firms, $143 is invested back into the US economy in the form of repatriated profits, increased sales of telecom equipment and cost-savings.

US have to Outsource to fill this gap, cause they have no other option. It will be a grave mistake by US, to let the backlash to flourish. They have to stem it before it grows too much and ruins the US economy.