BPO Industry
The business process outsourcing industry in India refers to the Services Outsourcing Industry in India, catering mainly to Western operations of MNCs (Multinational Corporations).

The sector witnessed considerable activity during 2004–05, including a ramping up of operations by major multinational corporations players and Indian organizations stepped up hiring. The domestic BPO market, catalyzed by demand from the telecommunications and BFSI segments, matched the growth of BPO exports. The market experienced maturity and consolidation, a result of numerous mergers and acquisitions taking place within the sector. There were over 400 companies operating within the Indian BPO space, including captive units (of both MNCs and Indian companies) and third-party services providers. The key enabler for this has been cheaper bandwidth leading to low telecom costs for leased lines and availability of educated English speaking workforce in India.

The Indian BPO industry remains on a growth path, emerging as one of the key investment markets in the country.

It is also referred to as Information Technology Enabled Services or ITES, and high end work with specialisation is referred to as Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO. There are other variants in use such as Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO).

NASSCOM is a chamber of commerce that represents this body and lobbies for it, as well as creates a platform for members to take up common issues. NASSCOM services both the Indian Software and the Indian BPO industry.

History
Airlines
 In the early 1980s several European airlines started using Delhi as a base for back office operations, British Airways being one among them. The BA captive was finally spun off as a separate organisation called WNS in the current millennium.

Amex
In the second half of the 1980s, American Express consolidated its JAPAC (Japan and Asia Pacific) back office operations into New Delhi. This center was headed by Raman Roy, and has been a source of several leading names in the Indian BPO Industry.

General Electric
In the 1990s Jack Welch was influenced by K.P. Singh, (A Delhi based realtor) to look at Gurgaon in the NCR region as a base for back office operations. Pramod Bhasin, the India head of G.E. hired Raman Roy and several of his management from American Express to start this enterprise called GECIS (GE Capital International Services). Raman for the first time tried out voice operations out of India, the India operations also was the Beta site for GE Six sigma enterprise. The results made GE ramp up their Indian presence and look at other locations. In 2004 GECIS was spun off as a separate legal entity by GE, called Genpact. GE has retained a 40% stake and sold a 60% stake for $500 million to two equity companies, Oak Hill Capital Partners and General Atlantic Partners.

Third Party BPO's
Till G.E most of the work was being done by "captives"- a term used for in house work being done for the parent organisation. In 2000 Raman Roy and some team members from GECIS quit , and with VC funding from Chrysalis Capital started Spectramind. At the same time an organisation called EXL started in Noida and Efunds started in Mumbai and Gurgaon, and Daksh in Gurgaon. However, recently most of the Indian BPO's even smaller and mid-sized ones are actually setting-up their onshore presence. Most of the serious players are actually improving the outsourced business processes by leveraging on years of experience and now some of them are directly competing with their own older clientbase by marking this transition to KPO 's.

Entry of IT Majors
In 2002 Spectramind was bought by software major Wipro, and BPO by then had become mainstream like the IT Industry in India. By 2002 all major Indian software organizations were into BPO, including Infosys (Progeon), HCL, Satyam( Nipuna)and Patni. By 2003 Daksh was bought out by IBM and later in 2006 MphasiS by EDS. Even international 3rd party BPO players like Convergys and Sitel had set up shop in India, swelling the BPO movement to India. Then service arms of organizations like Accenture, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Dell too set up captives in India.

Motivation Factors of  BPO
  • Factor Cost Advantage
  • Economy of Scale
  • Business Risk Mitigation
  • Superior Competency
  • Utilization Improvement
Generally outsourcing can be defined as - An organization entering into a contract with another organization to operate and manage one or more of its business processes.

Companies Outsourcing to India
This is a list of companies sending work to 3rd parties in India, or having partners to run their centers.
  • Aetna
  • Alcoa
  • Aviva
  • Barclays
  • BBC (in planning stages)
  • Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association
  • BT Group
  • Capital One
  • Cisco
  • Delta Air Lines
  • Helion-prime
  • Hewitt Associates
  • Mercer
  • Norwich Union
  • Verizon
Back Office Outsourcing
  • Data Processing and Digitization
  • Finance and Accounting
  • Healthcare
  • Insurance
  • Legal
  • Pre-publishing
  • Credit Card Processing
  • Internet surfing and searching
Different Types of Services Being Offered By BPO's
Customer Support Services
Our customer service offerings create a virtual customer service center to manage customer concerns and queries through multiple channels including voice, e-mail and chat on a 24/7 and 365 days basis.

Service Example: Customers calling to check on their order status, customers calling to check for information on products and services, customers calling to verify their account status, customers calling to check their reservation status etc.

Technical Support Services
Our technical support offerings include round-the-clock technical support and problem resolution for OEM customers and computer hardware, software, peripherals and Internet infrastructure manufacturing companies. These include installation and product support, up & running support, troubleshooting and Usage support.

Service Example:Customers calling to resolve a problem with their home PC, customers calling to understand how to dial up to their ISP, customers calling with a problem with their software or hardware.

Telemarketing Services
Our telesales and telemarketing outsourcing services target interaction with potential customers for 'prospecting' like either for generating interest in products and services, or to up-sell / promte and cross sell to an existing customer base or to complete the sales process online.

Service Example:Outbound calling to sell wireless services for a telecom provider, outbound calling to retail households to sell leisure holidays, outbound calling to existing customers to sell a new rate card for a mobile service provider or outbound calling to sell credit or debit cards etc.

Employee IT Help-desk Services
Our employee IT help-desk services provide technical problem resolution and support for corporate employees.

Service Example:of this service include level 1 and 2 multi-channel support across a wide range of shrink wrapped and LOB applications, system problem resolutions related to desktop, notebooks, OS, connectivity etc., office productivity tools support including browsers and mail, new service requests, IT operational issues, product usage queries, routing specific requests to designated contacts and remote diagnostics etc.

Insurance Processing
Our insurance processing services provide specialized solutions to the insurance sector and support critical business processes applicable to the industry right from new business acquisition to policy maintenance to claims processing.
Service Example:
  • New Business / Promotion:
  • Policy Maintenance / Management:
  • Record Changes like Name, Beneficiary, Nominee, Address; Collateral verification, Surrender Audits Accounts Receivable, Accounting, Claim Overpayment, Customer care service via voice/email etc.
Data Entry Services / Data Processing Services
Service Example:
  • Data entry from Paper/Books with highest accuracy and fast turn around time (TAT)
  • Data entry from Image file in any format
  • Business Transaction Data entry like sales / purchase / payroll.
  • Data entry of E-Books / Electronic Books
  • Data Entry : Yellow Pages / White Pages Keying
  • Data Entry and compilation from Web site
  • Data Capture / Collection
  • Business Card Data Entry into any Format
  • Data Entry from hardcopy/Printed Material into text or required format
  • Data Entry into Software Program and application
  • Receipt and Bill Data Entry
  • Catalog Data Entry.
  • Data Entry for Mailing List/Mailing Label. Manuscripting typing in to word
  • Taped Transcription in to word.
  • Copy, Paste, Editing, Sorting, Indexing Data into required format etc.
Data Conversion Services
Service Example:
Conversion of data across various databases on different platforms
  • Data Conversion via Input / Output for various media.
  • Data Conversion for databases, word processors, spreadsheets, and many other standard and custom-made software packages as per requirement.
  • Conversion from Page maker to PDF format.
  • Conversion from Ms-Word to HTML format
  • Conversion from Text to Word Perfect.
  • Conversion from Text to Word to HTML and Acrobat
  • Convert Raw Data into required MS Office formats.
  • Text to PDF and PDF to Word / Text / Doc
  • Data Compilation in PDF from Several Sources.
  • E-Book Conversion etc.
Scanning, OCR with Editing & Indexing Services
Service Example:
  • High speed Image-Scanning and Data capture services
  • High speed large volume scanning
  • OCR Data From Scanned page / image
  • Scan & OCR paper Book in to CD.
  • ADOBE PDF Conversion Services.
  • Conversion from paper or e-file to various formats
Book Keeping and Accounting Services
 Service Example:
  • General Ledger
  • Accounts Receivables and Accounts Payable
  • Financial Statements
  • Bank Reconciliation
  • Assets / Equipment Ledgers etc.
Form Processing Services
Service Example:
  • Insurance claim form
  • Medical Form / Medical billing
  • Online Form Processing
  • Payrol Processing etc.
Internet / Online / Web Research
Service Example:
  • Internet Search, Product Research, Market Research, Survey, Analysis.
  • Web and Mailing list research etc.
Challenges for a HR Professional in BPO
  • Brand Equity: People still consider BPO to be "low brow", thus making it difficult to attract the best talent.
  • Standard pre-job training: Again, due to the wide variety of the jobs, lack of general clarity on skill sets, etc, there is no standard curriculum, which could be designed and followed.
  • Benchmarks: There are hardly any benchmarks for compensation and benefits, performance or HR policies. Everyone is charting their own course.
  • Lack of focused training and certifications:Given this background, the recruiting and compensation challenges of HR departments are only understandable.
  • Customer-companies tend to demand better results from outsourcing partners than what they could actually expect from their own departments. "When the job is being done 10,000 miles away, demands on parameters such as quality, turn around timeliness, information security, business continuity and disaster recovery, etc, are far higher than at home. So, how to be more efficient than the original?
Key To Success
The key to success in ramping up talent in a BPO environment is a rapid training module. The training component has to be seen as an important sub-process, requiring constant re-engineering.

Employee Benefits Provided By Majority Of the BPO Companies
  • Provident Fund: As per the statutory guidelines, the employee is required to contribute a percentage of his basic salary and DA to a common fund. The employer for this fund contributes as well. The employee can use the amount deposited in this fund for various personal purposes such as purchase of a new house, marriage etc.
  • Gratuity:Gratuity is one of the retrial benefits given to the employee in which the employer every year contributes a particular amount. The fund created can be used by the employee for the purpose of long-term investment in various things such as a house etc.
  • Group Mediclaim Insurance Scheme:This insurance scheme is to provide adequate insurance coverage of employees for expenses related to hospitalization due to illness, disease or injury or pregnancy in case of female employees or spouse of male employees. All employees and their dependent family members are eligible. Dependent family members include spouse, non-earning parents and children above three months
  • Personal Accident Insurance Scheme:This scheme is to provide adequate insurance coverage for Hospitalization expenses arising out of injuries sustained in an accident. It is applicable to all the employees of JFWTC and covers total / partial disablement / death due to accident and due to accidents.
  • Subsidized Food and Transportation: The organizations provides transportation facility to all the employees from home till office at subsidized rates. The lunch provided is also subsidized.
  • Company Leased Accommodation: Some of the companies provides shared accommodation for all the out station employees, in fact some of the BPO companies also undertakes to pay electricity/water bills as well as the Society charges for the shared accommodation. The purpose is to provide to the employees to lead a more comfortable work life balance.
  • Recreation, Cafeteria, ATM and Concierge facilities:The recreation facilities include pool tables, chess tables and coffee bars. Companies also have well equipped gyms, personal trainers and showers at facilities.
  • Corporate Credit Card:The main purpose of the corporate credit card is enable the timely and efficient payment of official expenses which the employees undertake for purposes such as travel related expenses like Hotel bills, Air tickets etc
  • Cellular Phone / Laptop:Cellular phone and / or Laptop is provided to the employees on the basis of business need. The employee is responsible for the maintenance and safeguarding of the asset.
  • Personal Health Care (Regular medical check-ups):Some of the BPO'S provides the facility for extensive health check-up. For employees with above 40 years of age, the medical check-up can be done once a year.
  • Loans: Many BPO companies provides loan facility on three different occasions: Employees are provided with financial assistance in case of a medical emergency. Employees are also provided with financial assistance at the time of their wedding. And, The new recruits are provided with interest free loans to assist them in their initial settlement at the work location.
  • Educational Benefits:Many BPO companies have this policy to develop the personality and knowledge level of their employees and hence reimburses the expenses incurred towards tuition fees, examination fees, and purchase of books subject, for pursuing MBA, and/or other management qualification at India's top most Business Schools.
  • Performance based incentives: In many BPO companies they have plans for , performance based incentive scheme. The parameters for calculation are process performance i.e. speed, accuracy and productivity of each process. The Pay for Performance can be as much as 22% of the salary.
  • Flexi-time: The main objective of the flextime policy is to provide opportunity to employees to work with flexible work schedules and set out conditions for availing this provision. Flexible work schedules are initiated by employees and approved by management to meet business commitments while supporting employee personal life needs .The factors on which Flexi time is allowed to an employee include: Child or Parent care, Health situation, Maternity, Formal education program
  • Flexible Salary Benefits: Its main objective is to provide flexibility to the employees to plan a tax-effective compensation structure by balancing the monthly net income, yearly benefits and income tax payable. It is applicable of all the employees of the organization. The Salary consists of Basic, DA and Conveyance Allowance. The Flexible Benefit Plan consists of: House Rent Allowance, Leave Travel Assistance, Medical Reimbursement, Special Allowance
  • Regular Get together and other cultural programs: The companies organizes cultural program as and when possible but most of the times, once in a quarter, in which all the employees are given an opportunity to display their talents in dramatics, singing, acting, dancing etc. Apart from that the organizations also conduct various sports programs such as Cricket, football, etc and regularly play matches with the teams of other organizations and colleges.
  • Wedding Day Gift: Employee is given a gift voucher of Rs. 2000/- to Rs. 7000/- based on their level in the organization.
  • Employee Referral Scheme: In several companies employee referral scheme is implemented to encourage employees to refer friends and relatives for employment in the organization.
  • Paid Days Off
  • Maternity Leave
  • Employee Stock Option Plan
Inspite of all these benefits, the attrition rate in BPO industry is very high, why?. What is the reason for an employee to leave? These and many more are the questions that need immediate attention from the industrial gurus.

Reasons to Join BPO
In general a person with any graduation can join any of the BPO. Some BPO's like to take people with MBA but then again the specialization are of an individual hardly makes any difference. Again, this is the industry, where there is no reference checks and very often people don't even specify there exact age.Some of the reasons as why people prefer to join a BPO:
  • Did not get a better job.
  • Find nothing better to do.
  • Education level doesn't matter
  • Good work environment
  • Good Benefits
  • Flexibility of time
  • Attractive life style
  • Transport facility
Reasons to Leave BPO
When there are so many benefits associated with BPO industry.when there are so many privileges for the BPO employees than what makes them to change the company/industry?Is it only MONEY that matters or anything else as well?Some of the reasons for a BPO professional to change his/her job.
  • No growth opportunity/lack of promotion
  • For higher Salary
  • For Higher education
  • Misguidance by the company
  • Policies and procedures are not conducive
  • No personal life
  • Physical strains
  • Uneasy relationship with peers or managers