Archive for April, 2007

Which business processes can be outsourced without excessive risk?

Tuesday, April 17th, 2007

In simple terms, outsourcing can be expressed as a transparent method of saving money, enhancing quality and simply freeing company resources for other activities. Outsourcing is a process of sharing. It is the concept of paying an outside firm to handle internal company functions.

The big question that naturally comes up is, why outsourcing? Outsourcing can operate pretty well, especially when there is a market slowdown and companies would prefer to outsource their routine functions. Every outsourcing plan requires a proper analysis of current processes.

This type of analysis requires a good R&D department and is a real learning experience. Companies that are keen on making a profit need to have an open mind towards outsourcing. Outsourcing makes perfect sense for any enterprise looking at relieving some of the internal resources for more important and sensitive efforts.

The main topic of discussion is, which least-risk business processes can be outsourced? It is notable to see that companies outsource those business processes that include the employment of a vast and sometimes surplus work force. Generally, business processes that are outsourced are related to information technology, human resources, facilities, real estate management, and accounting.

It is ironical to observe that any business process includes a lot of financial dealings and a certain amount of classified customer information, which a company would not be comfortable releasing in the consumer market. In order to comprehend the presence of a risk factor, a basic idea of an outsourcing model is necessary. An outsourcing model involves four steps, namely establishing contact, requirement gathering, development and maintenance.

Surreptitious information exists in facilities like bank services and real estate management. Outsourced-projects like the US Payroll, where the Social Security Number of a US employee is discussed has never received any negative feedback for the outsourcing company hired. However, you can never question the morality of the workforce seeking recruitment in BPOs. A recruiting company is limited to a person’s qualification for a final judgement.

The companies make an effort to ensure that the project remains secure and confidential. Companies such as IBM, WIPRO, Infosys and Telegenisys make it mandatory to sign a ‘Non Disclosure Agreement’. In simple words, the companies ensure that project details are available only to team members involved in that specific project. These employees are required to sign confidentiality agreements with the company’s cyber security system.

All business processes are liable to risks. Popular companies such as IBM, WIPRO, HSBC and Telegenisys are known to render and deliver quality service, with security.

Outsourcing to India - Special Considerations

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

As opposed to common belief and cynical theories, business process outsourcing continues to live on in India. Over the years, this industry has flourished and evolved in India. Being a storehouse of resources, India exports software to roughly 95 countries all over the globe, a fine example of its business process outsourcing expertise in global operations worldwide.

Outsourcing of business processes to India is done for a number of reasons, of which quality, cost control, technological agility, flexibility, competitive market and time-to-market are just a few. India has now started to enjoy the confidence of what it feels like to mingle with global corporations. According to surveys, almost 82% of all the US companies have voted India as their preferred choice for business process outsourcing. What exactly makes India the current favorite?

India is now one of the biggest outsourcing destinations because of the manpower and resources available. Indian-Americans are running over 750 companies in the American Silicon Valley and Bill Clinton rightly said, “You liberated your markets and now you have one of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world”. Being an IT superpower, India offers several advantages to the outsourcing industry.

Most of the leading corporations worldwide know that to stay ahead of the competition, they need to provide the best possible quality, reduce costs, be innovative and reliable and they need to use the latest high-tech skills. Since India provides all these features, what better place to outsource your business to?

Most companies prefer to outsource their business processes to a mature industry that contains world-class systems and quality. Of the 23 different software companies in the world that have been given the prestigious SEI-CMM Level 5, 15 of the companies are Indian. According to Nasscom, India will soon flaunt the most number of ISO-9000 software companies.
Since India has state-of-the-art technology, most companies outsource their turnkey projects here for total solutions.

Being an excellent investment prospect, India was ranked third in all of Asia, after Japan and China, in terms of the investment potential for the next 10 years.

The IT Parks in India provide world-class, state-of-the-art infrastructure and various concessions and incentives to promote foreign investment and encourage software development. The stable government has made India one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Since call centers are viewed as the most common outsourced work for all major companies, they are now a booming industry in India. There are major call centers like IBM Daksh, Infosys Progeon and Convergys and upcoming BPO’s like Wipro, Telegenisys and Aegis BPO Services in India, making it the leading player in the BPO industry.

The ones who benefit the most from this growing outsourcing industry are the youth. In comparison to the regular nine to five jobs, the youth are given the opportunity to earn fat pay packets. This works as motivation to work harder and for longer periods, which reflects in the quality of work. Apart from that, training the youth to become more adaptable for the various outsourcing positions generates more returns than training people who are already experienced and less flexible.

There is absolutely no doubt that business-process outsourcing has contributed a great deal to India, both in terms of economy as well as culture. It is no small wonder why so many countries are craving for this kind of success. India has become one of the greatest avenues for recruitment over the past few years and that too, with a minimal fixed capital investment. And, this success has definitely not gone unnoticed, especially with countries that also consider their people to be their most valuable asset.

Over 50 countries are now presently interested in this outsourcing trend and have begun conducting research to try and uncover the strategy or the secret behind India’s booming success.

Outsourcing Marketing Requires Planning

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Outsourcing is becoming popular even in small and midsize companies. Nowadays, a small business may not have staff members such as a Human Resources recruiter or a 401(k) specialist in house. As the Internet transforms the way businesses communicate with their clients, vendors and employees, many of these functions are being handled by outsourcers. Here are some tips to help executives plan what functions to outsource and how best to use an outsourcer.

No matter what some people say, telemarketing is one of the best methods in which a company can market its products. Telemarketing provides that personal touch with your customers, which the biggest media campaign cannot provide. Even if a prospective customer do not buy on the phone, a good telemarketer can get that customer thinking about the product (in a positive way), and the chances of that customer buying your product through other channels is very high. This is the kind of impact a telemarketing call has on your customer’s psyche. You may ask here, if telemarketing is such an important function of my business, then why should I outsource it? If you calculate all the money issues and consider all the people and productivity issues, there is a strong argument for outsourcing.

It is accepted that an agency’s hourly fees are more than what you would pay your employee. However, when calculating payroll expense, you must include all the payroll taxes, benefits, vacation, possible additional medical coverage costs, etc. The extra cost over the dollar-per-hour rate you pay employees can range from 10 to 50 percent. Supervision of employees is also an additional expense, absence of which can drastically reduce the productivity. Add to this the cost of advertising, interviewing and training every time someone has to be hired. This process is expensive, repetitive, boring, unproductive, and needs to be done quite often. Then there are other issues like phone line charges, line availability, office space, technical infrastructure etc. In a country like India, which is the leading outsourcing destination accounting for about 40% of outsourced work, there is an advantage of high quality lines running on one of the best networks with a high redundancy, the best contact center infrastructure available at very cost-effective rates.

You may have hired someone on a full time basis but he/she might not be working on your program all the time. And if you want to terminate an employee, it will turn out to be very difficult, as you will have spent considerable amount of time and energy recruiting and training that employee. You can always ask your agency to take a particular person off your campaign in such cases. The outsourcing agency has skills and expertise to look into these matters and give you some of the best telemarketing results, so that you can focus on your core functions. Due to these reasons, telemarketing is one of the most important processes that are being outsourced increasingly, by the smallest, to some of the biggest organizations in the world.

Telegenisys is a contact center located in Pune, Maharashtra, which specializes in providing telemarketing services. Its ability and expertise in this area can give you best results according to your business needs. For more information, visit www.telegenisys.com

Telegenisys

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

Telegenisys is a global IT Business Process Outsourcing and Call Center solutions company. For the past decade, we have been consistently delivering the highest level of customer satisfaction to our clients.