Business Process Outsourcing

The marketing function is usually considered a core business process, but even then some of its sub-processes are already being managed by third-party providers, mostly through marketing outsourcing services. These include wide ranging services such as B2C & B2B telemarketing, market research services, infomercial sales services, etc. They help achieve business success because they allow businesses to reduce their overall marketing & advertising costs by a significant percentage. Outsourced marketing functions are usually managed by service providers located in developing countries such as India that have natural cost advantages. Human resource hiring costs and infrastructure development costs are a lot more affordable in countries such as India, something that automatically results in significant cost savings.

Apart from cost savings, the ability of India’s outsourcing firms to achieve and deliver the desired marketing objectives also makes them the preferred choice the world over. India is naturally gifted with a vast talent pool of educated, industry-ready professionals, proficient in both spoken and written English. Combined with world-class managerial talent, which too is available locally, these professionals ensure that the desired results are achieved and delivered.

By delivering cost savings and also allowing clients to achieve critical marketing goals and objectives, India’s outsourcing companies have managed to win over the trust and confidence of many businesses, both large and small. This has increased the demand for the world-class services offered by India’s outsourcing companies and businesses worldwide are queuing up to benefit from them. That certainly bodes well for the future of India’s marketing outsourcing industry.

With a share of around 18% in the global outsourcing market, India is no doubt the market leader. India’s main strengths are it’s IT (Information Technology) and BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) industries, which together have allowed India to achieve and sustain the leadership position for many years now. There are many reasons as to why India has managed to achieve such an eminent position, but if we were to identify the most prominent of those reasons, it would certainly include the cost competitiveness of India’s IT and BPO companies. Implementing cost-cutting measures and world-class management skills may be valid reasons for the low-cost operations of India’s IT and BPO companies, but it also cannot be denied that the country has some natural advantages that automatically reduce operational costs.

What’s conspicuous is the fact that being a developing country, India offers the most competitive rates for all related activities such as hiring human resources, creating infrastructure, and installing systems and equipment. This naturally reduces the operational costs of India’s IT and BPO companies, something that helps in achieving and delivering the desired cost benefits to clients. Apart from cost savings, India’s outsourcing companies are also known for their quality and efficiency. This is made possible by implementing time-tested management concepts and methodologies such as TQM, Kaizan, Six Sigma and others.

Clients prefer cost savings, but when quality and efficiency are also made available along with it, the scales dip dramatically in favor of outsourcing companies who are able to do so. India’s IT and BPO companies have been doing just that ever since outsourcing came to India and that explains India’s current #1 position in the global outsourcing market.

Just around a decade back, when the first of outsourcing companies in India started offering BPO services, it mainly involved medical transcription. With liberalization being introduced in the telecommunications sector in the late 1990s, call center services were also added to the list, but even then, the BPO industry was considered a marginal player. If we look at past records, we can easily see that growth has accelerated only in the last few years and that it was mainly due to the addition of many new outsourcing domains such as customer care & support, B2C & B2B telemarketing, data entry & data conversion, web promotion, content development, accounting and financial services, tax consultancy, medical records retrieval, market research, database creations, document scanning & sorting, infomercial sales services, and insurance claims.

Over the years, all these domains have added to the dynamism of the BPO industry and have enabled the industry to achieve respectable levels in terms of size and volumes. Today the outsourcing industry is no longer considered a marginal player, because it generates huge business volumes, estimated to be around $10 Billion for the year 2008. By creating more job opportunities for the largely unemployed population, the BPO industry along with the IT industry is playing an important role in the economical and social growth and development of India.

Successive government administrations have not been oblivious to these facts and this is why they have introduced many industry-friendly policies over the years, thereby facilitating the desired growth and development of the BPO industry and adding to its growing dynamism.

As compared to medical transcription and call center services, accounting outsourcing services may be a relatively new addition in the worldwide outsourcing market, but even then it’s importance cannot be underestimated. In just a few years, accounting outsourcing has become hugely popular amongst businesses worldwide, mainly because of its ability to achieve and deliver multi-pronged benefits.

The most prominent of those benefits is the significant cost savings that it allows businesses to achieve. Some of the best outsourcing hubs are located in developing countries such as India where both human and infrastructural resources are much more affordable. This automatically reduces the operational costs of outsourcing firms located in India, which consequently lowers costs for clients.

The second most prominent benefit is the dramatic increase in quality, accuracy and efficiency levels that is enabled by accounting outsourcing services. In outsourcing firms, outsourced projects are managed by trained, skilled, knowledgeable, and experienced professionals, something that automatically increases quality, accuracy and efficiency levels. Professionals working for outsourcing firms have their targets set out for them from the very beginning, allowing them to concentrate all of their efforts on achieving the desired objectives.

The third prominent benefit is actually an indirect benefit, but still it’s quite significant. It is the significant time and resource savings, achieved and delivered by outsourcing firms, which allow businesses to concentrate more on their core processes such as production, sales, advertising & marketing, business expansion etc. By concentrating more on core processes, businesses can better promote their interests, something that has become a necessity for staying ahead of the competition. Small wonder then, that the demand for accounting outsourcing services is continuously increasing.

Call Centers are cropping up everywhere and they cater to each sector that businesses have to offer, whether it be transport, insurance, banking, retail, etc. But all is not as well as one might have expected it to be. Let’s admit it, the odd working hours, deadlines, schedules to keep up with, faking a foreign accent, coming up with aliases, oh yeah, that’s what a call center life is all about. Sounds depressing? No, it’s not. Considering the pay package and the experience that this sector has to offer, it has become an attractive career option for many young professionals.

The Indian Call center Industry has surely started witnessing sort of a revolution with respect to providing services to companies who need them the most. The employees of these call centers often feel that this sector provides them a good start with their career with respect to a management point of view. So there are some pros as well as some cons in regard to working at call centers in India. But you should understand that the call center scare is nothing but a myth.

There are many lucrative career opportunities that call centers in India have to offer to the youth today. This simply points out the fact that due to business process outsourcing, the employment rate in India is at an all-time high. Engineers, computer programmers, IT staff, recent graduates, call centers have them all under one roof. So there you have it, outsourcing services in India is as good as it gets and large corporations from all over the globe are also eager to join in the game.