BPOs: Processes and Challenges

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry has to think differently. It needs to view ‘BPO’ as Businesses, People and Opportunities. It has to think beyond mere ‘cost’ arbitrage to achieve, what has been called ‘intellectual’ arbitrage, which addresses questions like “How do we get a far better business outcome for the same price?” instead of “doing it more cheaply in different parts of the world?” The book leaves a thought with the reader; can we elevate this thinking to achieve ‘knowledge’ arbitrage or ultimately ‘wisdom’ arbitrage in favour of India? This book is largely based on field studies and industry interactions undertaken by the participants of a format-free and multi-disciplinary elective titled ‘BPO Management’, offered in the final year of the MBA program of the Icfai Business School, Hyderabad, India. It summarises the findings under two Sections, namely ‘Emerging Processes’ and ‘Challenges and Opportunities for India’. In the first section, the book highlights through a set of 12 articles different segments/processes for the BPO/KPO industry which hold promise. It includes the views of select industry leaders through an interview. Section 2 brings out the opportunities and challenges faced by the BPO industry. Typically, these challenges can be grouped in the areas of human resource, data security, risk analysis and quality of service. These issues are addressed through a set of 7 articles. This book, it is hoped, will be of use to practicing professionals in the BPO industry, companies wanting to outsource work, venture funding organizations, academia, researchers, sociologists and HR professionals, both in India and overseas.