Understanding BPO/Call Center Industry and HR Issues

Introduction

The BPO industry in India is gaining momentum and promises to add 3.3 Million jobs in India a
country where productive employment is scare. BPO promises to transform India economically
much in the way as oil transformed the economies of West Asian countries. To understand
whether that is actually so the following projections merit a consideration:

a) Forrester research predicts 3.3Million US jobs to move Offshore by 2015

b) BPO revenue has grown by 60% in the year 2002-2003 to touch USD 2.3 billion. This is slated
by grow by another 60% in the year 2003-2004 as per Nasscom
c) As per Nasscom-Mckinsey report the total opportunity is at USD 148 Billion and if India
captures 1/6th of that then it will translate to about 540,000 jobs by 2010 with a revenue of USD
24.67 Billion.

Assuming these projections were correct then in year 2010 BPO industry will directly support the
livelihood of about 1.0-1.5% of India's population. Another 0.5% of the population will be
supported by the ancillary effect of BPO. Thus at best 2% of India's population will be impacted
by BPO. In sheer GDP terms assuming India's GDP to be about USD 600 Billion by 2010, 4% of
the GDP will be contributed by BPO. Though significant these numbers do not bear comparison
with the oil prosperity of West Asia. However these numbers are sufficient to spark the 'prosperity
chain' wherein the capital generated through this industry is invested back in other industries not
only domestically but globally to generate a virtuous cycle of investments and profits.

But, there are many doubts in the minds of people about the ITES-BPO Industry; doubts in the
mind of people who are not a part of this industry; doubts in the mind of people, who want to be
part of this industry and also doubts in the minds of people who are already a part of this industry.
This write-up is an attempt to answer most the questions that can crop-up in anybody's mind
about the industry; how it works and growth opportunity in this industry. You can also go through
[Link] to know more about the industry.

Offshore BPO and Outsourcing

1) Who are some well-known offshore vendors?

There are many choices when it comes to offshore vendors. Typically companies interested in
offshoring select the best operational model for them before deciding what type of vendor they
are looking for. Many firms often seek out vendors that specialize in the type of process they have
decided to outsource. Some companies, however, go a different route and select the country first
and then evaluate the top vendors in that location. There are so many vendor options that careful
planning is one of the key factors in making your offshoring project a success.

Some of the top offshore BPO service providers follow:

In India, Nipuna, a subsidiary of Satyam Computers; Progeon, a subsidiary of Infosys;

Spectramind, a subsidiary of Wipro, and WNS, owned by Warburg Pincus and British Airways,
lead the way.

In the Philippines, eTelecare and Ambergris Solutions compete for BPO business.

In Russia, LUXOFT has surfaced as a leader.

2) How do you develop an offshore sourcing strategy?

After you pick the type of process you plan to outsource and decide what the best operational
model is for you, the next step is selecting an offshore vendor. The well-established process for
sourcing is:

Select the country first. Understand the capabilities, risks, and benefits of the country including:
political stability; availability of skilled resources and infrastructure; size and quality of the labor
pool; language and cultural issues; data security; IP protection and software piracy; and
government support.

Scan the vendor landscape in the country. Shortlist the vendors based on specific screening
criteria, for example, experience, domain expertise, cost, quality, and financial stability.

Determine the best-fit delivery model for your business: pure offshore, onsite/offshore, or
onsite/onshore/offshore.

Narrow down the vendors according to years in business, scale of operation, range of services,
geographic span, delivery model options, industry focus, and cultural fit. For those vendors on the
short list, we highly recommend that you visit each vendor to personally assess each key
performance criterion that is important to your company.

Negotiate and attempt to build a relationship with the vendor. Remember that this is a strategic
relationship that might be difficult to exit later, so taking the time to find the right vendor is very
important.

3) What types of operational models exist?

Three main types of operational models exist:

 Captive processing centers,
 Third-party providers, and
 Joint ventures (build, operate, and transfer)

Captive centers undertake business processing only for their own multinational businesses.
Some examples include HSBC (Hyderabad), American Express (Delhi), British Airways (Mumbai),
Citibank (Chennai), and Dell (Bangalore).

The second operation model is called a third-party provider. Third-party providers supply
outsourcing services to other companies. They resemble Internet software service firms that
complete IT systems setup projects for various companies. Some examples of these companies
include Nipuna (a subsidiary of Satyam), MsourcE, 24/7, Spectramind, and Daksh.

The third operational model often used in offshoring is the joint venture (JV) model. In a JV, often
called a build, operate, and transfer model, two entities own the operation. For instance, in
December 1998, Satyam Computers entered into a joint venture with an affiliate of GE Industrial
Systems. The joint venture company provided the GE affiliate with engineering design services,
software development, and system maintenance services. In early 2003, Satyam sold its interest
in this joint venture after an affiliate of GE exercised its option to purchase Satyam's interest for
$4 million.

4) What are the risks to consider when picking an offshore location?

Offshore location risk factors include:
 Infrastructure instability
 Management of offshore resources
 Confidentiality of information
 Time zone differences
 Cultural differences
 Language barriers
 Unknown suppliers
 Uncertain legal rights
 Geopolitical instability

5) What criteria do companies use when they select a business process to offshore?

In general, business processes should be selected for offshoring based on potential savings,
labor attributes, interdependencies, and regulatory constraints. Usually the following criteria are
used when evaluating business processes:
 Size of cost base.
 Labor necessary to complete the task, i.e., is it labor intensive?
 Presence of interlinkages that would be violated by relocation.
 Availability of full-time offshore employees skilled in the particular business process.
 Difference in onshore and offshore wage levels.

After the evaluation, most companies assign processes to one of three categories: probable,
possible, and unlikely for offshoring. The most experienced companies tend to implement a
phased approach:
 First, they start small with well-documented processes that require little day-to-day
interaction such as data entry or legacy application maintenance.
 Gradually they move to more value-added processes such as customer support,
accounts payable, or software development.
 Eventually they try new operational models such as a dedicated center, joint venture (JV),
or build-operate-transfer (BOT) model.

For HR Professionals…employee related queries

Strategies For Combating Staff Turnover

Across the call center industry, there have been 12 typical causes of call center turnover,
including (in no specific order):
 Pace of effort required
 Sense of powerlessness or lack of control
 Frustration of not being allowed to do a good job
 Repetition
 Daily physical confinement (tied to their desk)
 Over-regimentation
 The feeling of being spied on
 The feeling of not being appreciated by others in the organization
 Handling complaints and problems all day
 Odd work hours
 Pay
 Better opportunities elsewhere

Of course, not all will apply in each case, but one or two are likely to be the biggest culprits. In
this case, I'd start by asking what changed in the internal and external environments from the
period of no turnover to the current situation of 30-percent turnover? Which of these 12 factors
stand out?

Pay could be a problem if you're not keeping pace with the market. As the call center environment
becomes more complex, I think a lot of organizations are going to have to do some soul-
searching on the importance and commensurate remuneration associated with these jobs. Many
managers are quick to point out that pay is just one factor, and often not the most important; true,
but there's a point at which this argument gets carried too far. Reality is, there are lots of
opportunity out there for competent, personable people who have both technical and
communication skills.

That said, if you truly are paying market rates, there should be relatively small, incremental
differences between what you and others are offering. The following have been proven time and
again to have a direct, positive bearing on turnover and morale:
 Broaden and extend the training your agents receive and the responsibilities they have
(which is fundamental to addressing your second question; hierarchy must not by
synonymous with career path).
 Involve them in managing the call center -- quality improvement, forecasting, and
collaboration with other teams and departments, establishing schedules, etc.
 Ensure they have an understanding of (and involvement in) the direction and values of
the organization.
 Ensure that your call center is accessible (maintain good service levels) so that you're not
burying agents in customers frustrated from the start.

Creating Career Paths

You may need to get creative with job titles and compensation practices within the call center. If
you only have 10 agents in the call center and little or no room for advancement out of the call
center within your company, develop different "micro" job tiers for which agents can strive. Use
such titles as "contact specialist," "advanced contact specialist," "expert contact specialist," and
"lead contact specialist/supervisor. But don't insult agents' intelligence by creating only new job
titles - be sure to tie in formal skill sets and knowledge requirements needed to achieve each
"contact specialist" level, and, most importantly, implement a skills-based pay program that
rewards agents financially for continual development. To help fend-off/reduce agent burnout in a
small environment, tap the talent and creativity of each agent when working on off-phone
projects. Empowering agents and creating job diversity is essential to retaining staff in a small call
center for as long as possible.
Personality Traits Often Found In Good Customer Service Representatives
Here are the primary attributes of successful agents listed by call center professionals who
participated in the study:
 Customer service skills and experience, including an ability to work well with the public
and an ability to adopt a customer perspective
 Technical skills, including proficiency with computers, support systems and keyboarding
skills
 Strong verbal communication skills, including good voice quality, diction, and articulation.

Additional hiring criteria identified include:

 Applicant is positive, enthusiastic, non-confrontational and professional
 Demonstrates willingness to learn
 Has ability to work under pressure and handle multiple tasks.

Improving the accuracy of Workforce forecast

Matching up call center resources with the demands of the workload is a critical part of call center
planning. This responsibility goes to the heart of Incoming Calls Management Institute's definition
of call center management: Incoming call center management is the art of having the right
number of people and supporting resources in place at the right times to handle an accurately
forecasted workload at service level, and with quality.

Accurately predicting the workload presents one of the most important, and often most
challenging steps in this effort. Without a good workload forecast, the rest of call center planning
is an "uphill battle" at best. And, when predictions are off the mark, there is a tendency to look to
those who do the forecasts for explanations. However, the person (or group) who does the
forecasting may be highly trained, equipped with the latest in forecasting software, and armed
with every conceivable ACD and database report and still be unable to produce good forecasts if
they aren't made aware of what marketing is up to or if reps are handling calls inconsistently.

Twelve ways to improve the predictability of the workload are summarized below. Each is outside
the realm of what is usually thought to be the forecasting process. Yet, each is essential to an
accurate forecast.

1. Use ACD modes consistently. Each rep has an impact on the components of handling
time (talk time and after call work) and, therefore, on the data that will be used in
forecasting and planning for future call loads. When the queue is building, it can be
tempting to postpone some after call work (wrap-up) that should be done at the time of
the call. This skews reports, causes planning problems and may lead to increased errors.
An important and ongoing training issue is to define ahead of time which types of work
should follow calls and which types of work can wait.

2. Emphasize quality. Supervisors and reps can feel that the pressure of a backed-up
queue forces them to make tough tradeoffs between seemingly competing objectives,
such as service level and quality. However, although service level and quality seem to be
at odds in the short term, poor quality will negatively impact service level over time by
contributing to repeat calls and other forms of waste and rework. This will contribute to
workload volatility and inconsistencies. The emphasis should be on handling each call
correctly, regardless of how backed up the queue is.
3. Avoid callbacks. Many call centers have discovered the hard way that giving callers the
option to leave a message when the queue gets backed up often backfires. For example,
you may call back only to get perpetual busies, ring-no-answers, voice mail or somebody
else in the person's work area ("sorry, she stepped away for a moment"). And in the
meantime, the caller may call the call center again.
 A minority of call centers do have success with a callback strategy, particularly when reps
have to do some amount of preparation in order to handle the calls, or when the center is
flooded with calls because of a once-in-awhile occurrence. Still, most call centers find
that, in the end, it makes more sense to handle the inbound calls when they arrive.
4. Anticipate and manage growth. Do an analysis of the likely impact of growth on your
call center. This often takes the form of a chart or document that illustrates the projected
costs and time-frames of growing the call center in increments, such as ten percent
growth in call load, twenty percent growth, thirty percent growth, and so on. The
document should illustrate required lead-times and key decision points associated with
things like additional workstations, new or upgraded equipment, or a new facility (see
Notes, January 1996).
5. Develop better ties with other departments. This should be an ongoing effort in any
call center. Most of what happens in a call center is caused by something going on
outside the center. The forecast is doomed if strong ties with other departments don't
exist. There's no substitute for knowing well in advance when marketing is running the
next campaign, when manufacturing is releasing the new products and when finance is
redesigning the terms and conditions.
6. Make forecasting a collaborative process. Involve supervisors and lead reps in the
forecasting process, on a rotating basis. This yield two positive results: 1) they will better
understand the pulse of the call-load and what's behind the schedules (and will often
adhere to them better as a result), and 2) because they are continually dealing with
callers, they have their "ear to the ground" and can help anticipate caller reactions to
changes and developments in the marketplace and the organization's services.
7. Track absenteeism. If you are part of a network of call centers or if you have overflow
routines established between call center groups, absenteeism in one area has a direct
impact on the workload in another. It is important to anticipate absenteeism in advance
and, contrary to conventional wisdom, it is reasonably predictable. For example, in work
groups with typical Monday through Friday schedules, unscheduled absenteeism tends to
be higher on Monday and Friday than the other days of the week. Have someone track
absenteeism, and look for patterns.
8. Anticipate the factors affecting caller tolerance. The seven factors of caller tolerance
include motivation, availability of substitutes, competition's service level, level of
expectations, time available, who's paying for the call and human behavior. Putting some
thought into these factors goes a long ways towards anticipating caller behavior.
9. Track and manage non-phone activities. Forecasting non-phone activities such as
research and correspondence is a challenge. Many call center managers, used to having
detailed information on the call-load, long for similar reports on non-phone activities.
Fortunately, as with inbound calls, these activities often occur in predictable patterns, and
usually have a strong correlation to other forecasts, such as the inbound call-load, units
of sales or number of customers (and they are usually a lot less time-sensitive than
incoming calls). Investigate the tracking capabilities in your ACD, forecasting/staffing
software and computer database. As a last resort, track these activities manually, as they
occur.
10. Better educate callers. The inbound call-load tends to be less erratic when callers are
aware of other service alternatives (e.g. services via fax back, voice response units or the
World Wide Web). Billing inserts, focused advertisements, newsletter articles, and
customer support sections in user manuals are all examples of ways to better educate
callers on the service alternatives available.
11. Minimize transferred and escalated calls. An excessive number of transferred and
escalated calls will wreck havoc on the workload forecast. Utilize quality improvement
tools, such as flow charts and cause and effect diagrams (see Service Level Newsletter,
Notes column, May 1995) to address root causes. Common problems include insufficient
training, insufficient authority, incomplete or missing database information and poor call
routing design (e.g. calls often end up in the wrong place to begin with).
 12. Accomplish as much as possible during talk time. When tasks related to inbound
calls can be completed with the caller still on the line, errors are usually reduced. Further,
the time reps would otherwise spend in more discretionary (and less predictable) work
modes, such as after call work or auxiliary modes, is minimized.

The key performance measurements for individuals

Want to start a lively discussion among call center managers? Float the issue of performance
measurements for reps. Since performance measurements are usually tied to expectations and
standards, that will raise issues about fairness, what reps can and can't control, why people have
different capabilities and drives, and the processes they are working within. Few subjects elicit
such strong and varied opinion.

Consequently, there are about as many different sets of performance measurements and
standards as there are call centers. Here, we will look three types of performance measurements
-- calls per hour, adherence and qualitative measurements -- commonly used in assessing
individual performance. We'll also discuss why calls per hour are fading, while the other two types
of measurements continue to gain acceptance.

Calls Per Hour Is Fading

Traditionally, calls per hour have been an almost universal productivity measurement. In fact,
many call center managers have viewed calls per hour as virtually synonymous with
"productivity." Sure, there have always been concerns about sacrificing quality for quantity. But, in
practice, calls per hour has been the preferred benchmark for establishing productivity standards,
comparing performance among reps and groups, and assessing the impact of changes and
improvements to the call center.

However, as a measure of performance, calls per hour is (and always has been) problematic.
Many of the variables that impact calls per hour are out of the rep's control: call arrival rate, type
of calls, knowledge of callers, communication ability of callers, accuracy of the forecast and
schedule, adherence to schedule (of others in the group) and absenteeism, to name a few.

There are also mathematical realities at work that are not within the control of an individual. For
example, smaller groups are less efficient (have lower occupancy) than larger groups, at a given
service level. Since the number of calls is changing throughout the day, so does average calls per
hour for a group or an individual in the group.

And, as is often pointed out, if calls per hour are over-emphasized, quality can suffer. Reps may
even "trick" the system to increase their call count and achieve a standard. (Many call center
managers get a sheepish smile when this point comes up in discussion. One could surmise that
more than a few, once upon a time, have "accidentally" clicked off or erroneously transferred a
call or two).

Some call center managers convert raw calls per hour into an adjusted measurement that is more
fair and meaningful. For example, occupancy, which is not within the control of an individual, can
be "neutralized" by dividing call handled by percent occupancy. Others go a step further, and
develop statistical control charts to determine whether the process is in control, what it's
producing, and which reps, if any, are outside of "statistical control."

But even with further analysis, calls per hour begins to lose meaning as technologies such as
CTI, skills based routing, and web integration, which enable increasingly sophisticated and varied
call handling routines, proliferate. For many who have depended on calls per hour, this has left a
vacuum: How can we measure productivity in an increasingly varied and complex environment?
Enter adherence and qualitative measurements, which continue to gain acceptance.
Adherence Measurements

Adherence factor, or signed-on time, is a measurement of how much time an individual is

available to handle calls versus the time he or she was scheduled to handle calls. If adherence
factor is 85%, a rep would be expected to be in adherence .85 x 60 minutes, or 51 minutes on
average per hour. Adherence consists of all plugged-in time, including talk time, after call work
(wrap-up) time, waiting for the next call, and necessary outgoing calls. Lunch, breaks, training,
etc., are not counted as time assigned to handle calls. Adherence factor should be established at
a level that is reasonable and that reflects the many things that legitimately keep reps from the
phones. It should also flexible (adjustable downward) when call volumes are low.

Some have developed adherence factor into a more refined measurement that also incorporates
timing -- when was a person available to take calls, in addition to how much time they were
available. The idea is to ensure that people are plugged in mid-morning when calls are barreling
in, and saving special projects for Thursday and Friday afternoon when calls slow down. ACD and
forecasting/staffing software has improved adherence reporting significantly in recent years.

The advantage of adherence factor is that it is reasonably objective. Reps cannot control
variables such as the number of staff scheduled to answer calls, the number of calls coming in,
the distribution of long and short calls or the distribution of easy and difficult calls. But they can
generally control how available they are to take calls.

Qualitative Measurements

In most call centers, qualitative criteria, which focus on knowledge of products and services,
customer service and call handling skills, and the policies of the organization, continue to become
more refined and specific. Most use some form of monitoring (silent, with a beep tone, side by
side, or record and review) to evaluate individual performance and identify training and coaching
needs.

An important and developing aspect of quality is that reps take the necessary time to do the job
right -- no more, no less. This means not rushing calls, but also not spending excess time on calls
over and above what is necessary to satisfy callers and handle them completely and correctly. If
qualitative measurements are refined enough to insure that reps are spending the appropriate
amount of time handling calls, then adherence and qualitative measurements make a powerful
pair. In fact, measuring calls per hour is unnecessary.

This is easier said than done in environments where qualitative measurements are vague and
indeterminate. And, many managers still believe that tracking production outputs, such as calls
per hour or average handling time, is necessary. But the trend is clear: well-defined qualitative
measurements are beginning to erode reliance on measurements that are after-the-fact outputs.

The factors that affect caller tolerance

There are seven factors that affect caller tolerance. They influence everything from how long
callers will wait in queue to how many will abandon, how many will retry when they get busy
signals, and how they will react to automation, such as a VRU. They also affect how callers
perceive the service the call center is providing. They are as follows:
 Degrees of motivation - How motivated are your callers? Callers experiencing a power
outage will usually wait longer to reach their utility than those with billing questions.
 Availability of substitutes - Are there substitutes the caller can use if they can't get
through to the initial number they are trying? If they are highly motivated and have no
substitutes, they will retry many times if they get busies and will generally wait a long time
in queue if necessary. But if they know of an alternative number to try, or if there are other
selections in your automated attendant, they may try those alternatives. Or they may try
fax, Web or VRU-based services.
  Competition's service level - If it's easier for callers to use competitive services or if they
have a tough time reaching you, they may go elsewhere.
 Level of expectations - An organization or industry's reputation for service - or the level of
service being promoted - has a bearing on caller tolerance.
 Time available - For example, a caller's occupation can affect caller tolerance. Doctors
who call insurance providers are infamous for being intolerant of even modest queues.
Retirees, on the other hand, may have more time to wait.
 Who's paying for the call? - In general, callers are more tolerant of a queue when toll-free
service is available. They are intolerant of even short waits when they are paying for
premium priced numbers (e.g., 900 service).
 Human behavior - The weather, the caller's mood and the time of day all have a bearing
on caller tolerance.

We attempt here to share some knowledge which could be useful to the BPO community. We will
list questions even if we don't have answers for them. Hopefully, one of you will respond to those
queries. Please do feel free to correct/improve the knowledgeBase.
1. What are the pros & cons of outsourcing?

Third Party Service Providers (TPSPs) Captive centres

o Usually TPSP already has o Build expertise from
expertise and experience with other scratch by redeploying resources.
clients in similar business lines. Latter option more expensive.
o Very competitive pricing / o Unit costs higher.
flexibility to assess various TPSPs o High capital investment.
o No infrastructural / capital o Payback usually between
investment. 3 and 5 years.
o Payback period very less o Committed to bringing in
(usually between 6 months to a economies of scale, hence the
year). need to establish a sufficiently
o Flexibility to source multiple large centre.
TPSPs. o Committed resources
o Flexibility to scale up and reduces such flexibility, else
down business relationship. training costs could shoot through
o Can exit from one the roof.
relationship and move to another . o No exit possible without
o Retains decision-making, incurring high costs.
therefore relationship with TPSP is o May or may not retain
clear (fee-based, quality-based); no decision-making. Possibility of
staff backlash. backlash from senior
o As TPSP works towards a management personnel.
profit there is more business o Captive units are usually
commitment. cost centres.
o Long-term strategy looks
o Customised solutions for establishing centres to first
ensure data security and safety. move work as-is, and save costs
first.

Source: neoIT
2.

3. What are the pros & cons of outsourcing to third party vendors?
 Advantages Disadvantages
o Focus on core business o Burden of excess capacity
issues. or challenge of insufficient capacity
o Benefit from best-of- is done away with.
breed solutions. o High unit personnel cost.
o Better quality at lower o Tight business margins.
costs. o Not enough financial muscle
o Better process maturity, to sustain very tight payback
resource flexibility and economies periods.
of scale.
o Flexibility in deploying Source: neoIT
new technology.

o Quick wins with

outsourcing.
4.

5. What are the pros & cons of outsourcing to a captive centre?

Advantages Disadvantages
o Securing data is less o Expensive specialist skill in host
complicated. countries.
o Capture margins that o Compliance and legal
would otherwise go a TPSP. restrictions.
o Decision making o Unavailability of skilled
authority contained within the manpower due to market stagnation.
organisation. o Requires considerable effort in
terms of management's time and
o Tighter management attention to establish
control.
Source: neoIT
6.

7. Which are the important IT/ITeS cities in India?

IT Landscape of key Indian cities
City Focus Prominent firms Employees
Delhi Call centres, GE, American Express, 73,000
(includes transaction processing, STMicroelectronics, Wipro
Gurgaon and chip design, software Spectramind, Convergys, Daksh,
Noida) ExL
Mumbai Financial research, TCS, MphasiS, i-flex, Morgan 62,050
back office, software Stanley, Citigroup
Bangalore Chip design, software, Infosys, Wipro, Intel, IBM, SAP, 109,500
boi-informatics, call SAS, Dell, Tisco, TI, Motorola, HP,
centres, IT consulting, Oracle, Yaho, AOL, E & Y,
tax processing Accenture
Hyderabad Software, back office, HSBC, Satyam, Microsoft 36,500
product design
Chennai Software, transaction Cognizant, World Bank, Standard 51,100
processing, animation Chartered, Polaris, EDS,
 Pentamedia
Kolkata Consulting, software PwC, IBM, ITC Infotech, TCS 7,300
Pune Call centres, chip MsourcE, C-DAC, Persistent 7,300
design, embedded Systems, Zensar
software
8.

9. How many jobs from US are moving offshore?

[Link] Number of U.S. Jobs Moving Offshore
Job Category 2000 2005 2010 2015
1 Management 0 37,477 117,835 88,281
2 Business 10,787 61,252 161,722 48,028
3 Computer 27,171 108,991 276,954 72,632
4 Architecture 3,498 32,302 83,237 84,347
5 Life Sciences 0 3,677 14,478 36,770
6 Legal 1,793 14,220 34,673 74,642
7 Art, Design 818 5,576 13,846 29,639
8 Sales 4,619 29,064 97,321 26,564
9 Office 53,987 295,034 791,034 1,659,310
Total 102,674 587,592 1,591,101 3,320,213
Source: U.S Department of Labour and Forrester Research, Inc.
10.

11. Hot Cities / States that are likely to create new Jobs in 2005

Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Madurai in the South Delhi NCR and
smaller towns like Indore, Jaipur in the North Pune, Mumbai.

12. Segment wise break-up of the new Jobs in 2005

o IT & IT Services - An estimated 70,000 new Jobs expected in 2005. Plus there
will be additional hiring to replace industry attrition that is around 25%
o BPO and Outsourcing services - Around 1,25,000 new Jobs expected in 2005.
o Retailing and Lifestyle - It will create close to 25,000 Jobs directly and more than
twice the number indirectly.
o Biotechnology - It is expected to create around 5,000 - 7,000 highly skilled jobs.

13. Can you recommend any good books related to BPO?

See our comprehensive book list.

14. Do you know of any events that are being held related to BPO?

See our events page.

15. In a accounting/book keeping type of BPO work, what is the best way of receiving
data for processing?

Majority of clients use QuickBooks. Few clients prefer to host the database server within
their premises. In such cases both the client and the BPO provider need to have good
amount bandwidth [Client: 512K, vendor: dedicated 64k]

16. What is the average age of debtors outstanding?

90 days

17. What would the cost savings for US companies typically be, if they operated in
India?

Datamonitor, a leading UK-based business information company, research indicates that

67-72% of costs to call centers operating in the US/UK is directly linked to man power
costs. India, on the other hand spends only 33-40% of costs on man power. This includes
training, benefits and other incentives for labor.

18. What are the current salaries in the BPO world in India?
o Customer Care Representatives [CSRs]: Rs 8,000 - Rs 15,000 per month
o Team Leaders: Rs 17,000 - Rs 26,000 per month
o Managers: Rs 3 lacs - Rs 5.5 lacs per annum
o Training Heads: Rs 8 lacs - Rs 12 lacs per annum
o Training Managers: Rs 5 lacs - Rs 8 lacs per annum
o Trainers: Rs 2 lacs - Rs 5 lacs per annum

Specialized ITeS professionals who posses MBA, BE, [Link], C.A. [CPA] and other
expert qualifications or experience may be paid higher salaries depending upon the
expertise required for the desired work profile and their level of experience. Frankly, this
doesn't apply to just BPO field but to all fields.

Besides the salary employees are paid incentives depending upon attendance regualrity,
achievement of targets. Don't be surprised if the incentive exceeds the salary!

Note: Rs 1 lac = Rs 100,000

This was last modified on June 21, 2004. We observed that only the CSR and Team
Leader salaries are changing.

19. What is the cost of accent training?

The training costs for an employee in a call centre are quite prohibitive, ranging from Rs
25,000 to Rs 50,000 for 2-5 months session. For large size call centres that have high
attrition it makes sense to have an inhouse trainer [but what if the trainer itself
leaves ;-) ?]. We strongly feel neutral accent will become more popular than
American/British accent. However, the need for American/British culture training will
always be there.

20. How many BPO firms in India have reported a security breach?

83 per cent of Indian businesses had reported a security breach (against the global 64
per cent) and 42 per cent of these had three or more breaches. (as of Sept 2004)
21. What is the job growth in the BPO sector when compared to other sectors?
Industry New Employees Period

Telecom 10,000 January-December 2002

IT Enabled Services 50,000 April 2002 - March 2003

Software Services 30,000 April 2002 - March 2003

Retailing/Franchising 35,000 April 2002 - March 2003

22. What skills are required to work in each of the verticals?

SEGMENTS SKILLS

Good communication and language skills, accent

Call center
understanding team leadership, basic computing skills

Remote customer
Language and accent understanding
interaction

Date search, Integration Computing, language and analytical skills

Human Resource Services Country specific HR policies, rules and regulations

Remote education Subject knowledge, computing and language skills

Engineering and design Technical and engineering design and computing skills

Translation, medical Language understanding, basic computing (word

transcription and processing knowledge) and understanding of various
Localisation medical terminologies

Animation Drawing and creative skills, computer graphic skills

Finance and accounting International/ country specific accounting rules

Market Research Understanding statistical sales and marketing concepts

Network Consultancy and Understanding different network configurations and support

management equipment, technical/ computing skills

23. Please list all those fancy numbers, including projections!

 McKinsey & Co. predicts global market for IT-enabled services to be over $140
billion by 2008.

These $142 Billion can be broken up and shown as below:

Customer Interaction Services 33.0

Finance & Accounting Services 15.0

Translation, Transcription & Localization 2.0

Engineering & Design 1.2

HR Services 5.0

Data Search, Integration & Management 44.0

Remote Education 18.0

Networking Consulting & Management 15.0

Website Services 5.0

Market Research 3.0

Total 141.2

Source: NASSCOM McKinsey Study - India IT Strategies

In that the opportunity for India will be $ 17 Billion.

Indian ITeS industry employed more than 100,000 people in 2001-2002. This industry
clocked approximately 70% growth last year is expected to grow similarly in 2002-2003.

Global Market size estimates of BPO

o $712 billion in 2001

o Gartner/Dataquest: $ 544 billion in 2004
o Gartner: $173 billion in 2007, of which $24.23 billion would be outsourced to
offshore contractors
o IDC: $300 billion in 2004
o IDC: $1.2 trillion in 2006

24. Does outsourcing really help a company?

A Bloomberg report noted how Atlanta-based Delta Airlines created 1,000 call-center jobs
in India in 2003. he Indian operations saved Delta $25m in 2003, enabling the U.S. air
carrier to add 1,200 positions for reservations and sales agents at home. But no Delta
employees lost their job as a result of outsourcing.

In August 2003, McKinsey & Company estimated that every dollar of U.S. labor costs
assigned overseas will generate $1.12-$1.14 in additional value for the American
economy by making goods and services cheaper and companies more competitive.
25. Well, just give me the Indian Market size estimates

Indian Market size estimates of BPO

o Nasscom has estimated that the Indian ITES industry will gross over $5.7 billion
by 2005 (based on a conservative year-on-year growth of 65 percent by
Nasscom).
o Nasscom-McKinsey: In 1999 they estimated by 2008 it will be $17 billion but it
has been revised to $21-24 billion by 2008. Indian can capture 25% of global
BPO offshore market and 12% of the market for other services such as
animation, content development and design services.
o Gartner: $1 billion (2002), $1.2 billion (2003). $13.8 billion by 2007.
Gartner does not incorporate animation, medical or other (legal)
transcription services, GIS, market research, data search, research and
development, network consultancy and other non-business processes in its
estimates on the ITES market size and potential.

Revenue \ Year 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 CAGR

Offshore BPO
1,322 1,825 3,017 6,439 12,563 24,230 78.91
Revenue

Indian BPO
912 1,205 1,961 3,928 7,412 13,811 69.35
Revenue

Total BPO Market 110,167 121,687 131,171 143,090 157,033 173,070 9.45

Source: Gartner Dataquest (May

CAGR in % 2002-07 Figures in $ million
2003)

26. With the growing demand in the ITes-BPO sector, what is the future of the market
going to be?

The U.S is expected to be the largest source market for the ITes accounting for nearly
60% of the market. The share of the offshore component is expected to increase to 23%
of the total spending by 2007. Europe is expected to be the second largest market for the
ITes sector, accounting for 22% of total spending which is expected to reach Euro 129
billion by 2008. U.K and Ireland being the main markets for BPO in Europe are likely to
account for about 45% of the European market followed by countries like Germany,
Switzerland and Austria with a 20% share. The fastest growth expected within the
European market is in the U.K and Ireland with a CAGR of 14%. However the maximum
growth is expected n the Asia-Pacific region, with ITes-BPO spending to grow at 14.7%
for the next two years.

27. Which are the main revenue areas for Indian BPO companies?

India's BPO Market in 2008

Service Line First Estimate (1999) Second Estimate (2001)

 HR 5.4 3.5-4.0

Customer Care 4.1 8.0-8.5

Payment Services 2.9 3.0-3.5

Content Development 2.6 2.5-3.0

Administration 1.3 1.5-2.0

Finance 0.7 2.5-3.0

Figures in $ billion

28. Do you have the HR BPO projections for 2004?

HR BPO Projection 2004

HR outsourcing forecasts by process in Asia Pacific (In $ million)

Payroll services 761.20

Benefits administration 535.65

Education and training 555.99

Recruiting and staffing 347.98

Personnel administration 167.16

Other HR functions 191.97

Total 2,560.00

Source: Gartner
29. Fantastic, does it mean I should dump all IT stocks and buy ITES stocks?

Hmm...not exactly. IT Services will still be the largest contributor to the exports
pie.

Year ITES IT Services

1999-2000 14% 86%

2000-2001 14.5% 85.5%

2001-2002 19% 81%

2002-2003 24% 76%

Source: Nasscom

30. Few companies are into both IT and BPO. What percentage of the revenue is
contributed by BPO?
Company June 2002 Sept 2002 Dec 2002 March 2003 June 2003

Mphasis 16.48% 21.71% 22.61% 25.24% 28.9%

Wipro 4.85% 5.78% 6.81% 7.785% 8.61%

Infosy 0.027% 0.23% 0.85% 1.01% 1.175%

Digital Globalsoft N.A. N.A. 1.454% 3.53% 5.9%

HCL Tech 5% 5% 6% 9% N.A.

31. How did the BPO sector perform in 2002-2003?

As on March 31, 2003, the sector employed 171,000 professionals. It has $1 billion
invetsed in it, creating about 100,000 smart cubicles in 7.5 million saq ft of space. It
generated revenues of $2.3 billion in 2002-03.

32. How big is publishing outsourcing market in India?

As of Jan 2006, the outsourced publishing business in India is estimated at Rs 1,500

crore.

33. How big is the IT infrastructure outsourcing market?

IT infrastructure is critical for firms globally. Organisations invest huge amount of money
to build IT infrastructure that support their business goals and objectives, but many fail to
set up even the most basic tools to effectively manage their IT resources.

Help desk management, configuration management, and application packaging and

migration services are some of the infrastructure-based activities that are currently being
delivered from an offshore location and they may serve as platforms into broader
outsourcing deals.
 According to a Nasscom report, an estimated that 40-60 per cent of the overall
Infrastructure Management Service pie may be efficiently delivered through a global
delivery model. This translates to a market potential (for offshore infrastructure
management) of approximately $ 55 billion.

Forrester Research, the global business intelligence major, which has estimated the
infrastructure outsourcing opportunity at $ 111 billion, has indicated that it can bring
almost $1 billion earnings for India, provided Indian outsourcers strengthen their cost,
quality and security strengths.

According to Gartner, by 2006, Infrastructure services delivered in a Global Delivery

Model from India to US companies will surpass $1 billion (with 80% probability).

34. Any latest rankings of Indian BPO vendors?

See BPO Rankings.

35. Please list the top 10 companies for 2006-07

BPO Exports during 2006-07

Sl No Company

1 Genpact Rs. 2,220 crore

2 Transworks Rs. 1,510 crore

3 IBM Daksh Rs. 1,260 crore

4 TCS BPO Rs. 1,107 crore

5 Cambridge Solutions Rs. 1,000 crore

6 WNS Global Services Rs. 990 crore

7 Wipro BPO Rs. 935 crore

8 Convergys India Rs. 890 crore

9 Firstsource Rs. 809 crore

10 HCL BPO Rs. 746 crore

Last Modified: August 21, 2007

36. Do you have any statistics of the number of employees in Indian call centres?
Company Number of Employees

EXL 4,500

Spectramind 2,600

Daksh 2,000

WNS 1,600
 vCustomer 1,500

Tracmail 1,365

HCL e-serve 870

Epicentre 700

ICICI OneSource 650

GTL 650

Source: Nasscom ITES directory September 2002

37.

Captive Centres Number of Employees

GE Capital 12,000

e-serve International 3,149

eFunds 1,646

HSBC 1,128

Healthscribe India 1,126

American Express 979

Sitel India 584

Global e:Business Operations (HP) 475

Axa Global 350

Source: Nasscom ITES directory September 2002

38. Do you have any statistics regarding number of employees Vs revenues sector
wise in India?
Growth trend of the outsourcing industry

Service Area 2002-03

Employment Revenue (in $m)

Customer care 65,000 810

Finance 24,000 510

HR 2,100 45

Payment service 11,000 210

Administration 25,000 310

Content development 44,000 465

Total 1,71,100 2,350

 Source: Nasscom
39. Do you have the number of call center seats in other countries?
Number of Seats In Call Centers

Country 2003 2004

Australia 1,35,000 1,46,000

India 96,000 1,58,000

China 38,000 54,000

Philippiness 20,000 40,000

New Zealand 12,000 13,500

Thailand 11,000 13,000

Singapore 10,000 10,100

Hong Kong 10,000 10,700

Total 3,32,000 4,45,300

40. Do you have any statistics/projections of employment vs revenues?

Click here to see the statistics

41. How have the Southern states performed in 2002-03?

State Revenues Comments

Andhra Rs 1,411 Andhra Pradesh already gets a hefty 40% of its IT revenues
Pradesh crore from ITES.

The number of approved ITES companies increased from 28

Rs 988 to 41 in fiscal 2002-03. Revenues earned by them also grew
Karnataka
crore to Rs 988 crore, which is 8% of the overall exports of Rs
12,350 crore earned by the state.

Rs 523 ITES earnings have jumped 8.3% to Rs 523 crore last fiscal
Tamil Nadu
crore from Rs 340 crore the year 2001-02.

The number of ITES companies in Kerala which is pushing

Not
Kerala very hard to be among the preferred ITES destinations is
available
said to be below 10.

42. Do you have any comparison of India Vs US BPO operating costs?

US$ Cost per FTE
(Full Time Employee) United States India India as % of US costs

Personnel 42,927 6,179 14%

G&A Expense 8,571 1,000 12%

 Telecom 1,500 2,328 155%

Property Rentals 2,600 847 33%

Depreciation 3,000 1,500 50%

TOTAL EXPENSES 58,598 11,854 20%

Source: Industry Sources, Merill Lynch 2003 (From the Nasscom Strategic Review
2003)
43.
44. Do you have any SWOT analysis on Indian ITES sector?

Strengths
o Highly skilled, English-speaking workforce.
o Abundant manpower
o Cheaper workforce than their Western counterparts. According to Nasscom, The
wage difference is as high as 70-80 percent when compared to their Western
counterparts.
o Lower attrition rates than in the West.
o Dedicated workforce aiming at making a long-term career in the field.
o Round-the-clock advantage for Western companies due to the huge time
difference.
o Lower response time with efficient and effective service.
o Operational excellence
o Conducive business environment

Weaknesses

o Recent months have seen a rise in the level of attrition rates among ITES
workers who are quitting their jobs to pursue higher studies. Of late workers have
shown a tendency not to pursue ITES as a full-time career.
o The cost of telecom and network infrastructure is much higher in India than in the
US.
o Manpower shortage
o Local infrastructure
o Political opposition from developed countries

Opportunities

o To work closely with associations like Nasscom to portray India as the most
favoured ITES destination in the world.
o Indian ITES companies should work closely with Western governments and
assuage their concerns and issues.
o India can be branded as a quality ITES destination rather than a low-cost
destination.
o $69 billion ITES business by 2010
o $97.5 billion IT (consulting, software solutions) market by 2010

Threats
 o The anti-outsourcing legislation in the US state of New Jersey. Three more states
in the United States are planning legislation against outsourcing Connecticut,
Missouri and Wisconsin.
o Workers in British Telecom have protested against outsourcing of work to Indian
BPO companies.
o Other ITES destinations such as China, Philippines and South Africa could have
an edge on the cost factor.
o Slowdown of demand
45. What is the sex ratio in the ITeS sector?

As of March 2003, the male:female ratio is 35:65.

46. What is the attrition rate in the ITeS sector?

BPOs in India are expected to employ around one million people by 2008, but the
challenger is to find quality human resources given the current attrition rate of around 35-
40%. Currently it is about 35% in non-voice and 45% in voice call centers. However what
the number don't show is that more than 60% of those who leave a particular BPO do not
leave for a competitor, but leave the industry as a whole. Here lies the danger for this
sector and the challenge for HR consultants.

Agents want to become team leaders. Team leaders want to become supervisors.
Supervisors wants the job of the CEO.

At an attrition rate of 40%, the cost of attrition in the industry is 1.5 times the annual
salary.

Some of the reasons could be

o Many see this space to be an Internet sweatshop where all that the employees
are required to do is just mechanically input numbers into excel sheets or, worse
still, answer phone calls inthe same tone and repeat the same lines at least 100
times a day/night.
o People who join a BPO usually do so to make a 'quick' buck. They are bound to
quit because sooner or later they will find something more attractive in terms of
the job profile and/or pay.
o The industry has concentrated on hiring young, dynamic and these are looking
for more than just a job.
o Talent in this space is generally overlooked, which leaves the deserving few
disgruntled with top management and hence fosters attrition.

To fix this problem BPO firms are trying to solve this big problem

o By hiring mature talent [i.e. people over 35 years in age].

o HR must realise that fatter pay cheques can never be a sure-shot way to retain
employees. More important aspects like a secure career, benefits, perks and
communication cannot be overlooked at any level.
o Employee rentention must be the focus, which means that talent must be
recognized and suitably rewarded.
o Hire outstation candidates (from small towns) and provided them with shared
accomodation.
o Offer management diplomas and MBA courses.
 o Only 5 out of 150 employees become team leaders in a year, hence cash
incentives is one way to keep the employees happy. Daksh shells out about Rs
4,000 bonus per onth to almost 85% of its workforce.
o Use psychometric tests to get people who can work at night and handle the
monotony.
o BPO must concentrate on becoming an 'employer of choice'. A comprehensive
process framework and access to proper infrastructure in the work place goes a
long way in retaining employees, as a congenial work environment is critical.
47. Do you have any Voice Vs Non-Voice statistics?
Voice Vs Non-Voice

Revenues
Company Employees Voice: Non-Voice
($ Million)

Wipro Spectramind 41 5,000 80:20

Daksh eServices 35 4,000 70:30

OfficeTiger 25 1,000 0:100

HCL Technologies BPO ? 2,346 90:10

ICICI OneSource ? 2,175 70:30

World Network Services 35 2,500 65:35

exl [Link] 28 2,300 75:25

MsourcE 20 3,162 93:7

Hinduja TMT 24 1,400 66:34

Tracmail 11 1,000 50:50

Progeon 4.4 685 30:70

Source: Business World (4 August 2003)

48. How do the salaries of voice vs non-voice employees compare?

Typically an employee in a voice call center costs about 15% more than in a non-voice
center.

49. What is the approximate cost of maintaining a dialer?

The dialer costs $0.5-1.0 million and the maintenance costs approx. $100,000 a year.
This translates to about $1.5 per person per hour.

50. How is the revenue pie being sliced?

Labor costs account for about 30-35% of the revenues. Customer acquistion accounts for
10-15%. Employee training costs Rs 40-50,000 per employee. The weakening dollar is
not helping the cause.

51. Where can I get few sample agreements?

See guide section of our vendors page.

52. How good is the quality of English in India?

According to McKinsey, apart from Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, the quality of graduates
applying for jobs in the ITeS industry needs to improve. India produces over 100,000
graduates every year but the quality of English is not very good in small towns.

Our view: Needless to say this report is worrysome. We sincerely hope the fanatics in
the political circles stop hindering English education in India. This kind of policy will only
encourage clients to move to Philippines, Ireland and Singapore.

53. What is the cost of living ranking in India?

Cost of Living Rankings

Rank

City 2004 2003 2002

Mumbai 1 1 1

Delhi 2 2 2

Ahmedabad 3 7 6

Kolkata 4 5 7

Pune 5 4 4

Chennai 6 3 5

Bangalore 7 6 3

Lucknow 8 - -

Kochi 9 - -

Patna 10 - -

Jaipur 11 - -

Hyderabad 12 8 8
54. What are the rates charged by Indian BPOs for Telemarketing (outbound) to US?

Anywhere from $9-12/hour. The login hours is anywhere between 6.5 to 7.5 hrs excluding
lunch & tea breaks. In more than 95% of the projects the billing is by login hours and not
man month basis.

Billing is based on a base rate plus incentive for achieving the target which will give you
anywhere between $9 to $12 per hr. $12 is probably the best case scenario.

55. How big is the Indian KPO market?

According to industry estimates, by 2010, the size of the KPO industry would be worth
$17 billion globally, out of which India would hog almost $12bn. Nasscom and
Evalueserve estimate that by 2010, 300,000 jobs would be created in the KPO space and
70% of these jobs are expected to come to India. But the picture is not as rosy as it looks.
 The KPO industry will have to wade through many challenges to keep up the
expectations and predictions for its bright future.

One of the major problems faced by the KPO industry is the dearth of skilled manpower
with domain expertise. The client's expectations and quality requirements are very high.
Also in the KPO space, client conversion and development takes longer compared to
other processes. If India wants to get 70% of KPO jobs by 2010, then serious intervention
at the educational level and investment in training are imperative.

56. Are Indian BPOs purchasing liability insurance?

IT and BPO companies were exposed to an intensely litigious international environment.

This was one of the major factors that was driving their purchase of such policies. The
insurance placements were entirely made with insurers that had international ratings
above `BBB' assigned by globally recognised ratings agencies.

More mid-size companies were also taking cover, as they were driven by the outsourcing
revenue models of foreign companies. Among the major risks Indian companies face
from these entities are glitches in software products, including deviations from product
specifications and issues relating to breach of contractual deadlines. The cover against
such risks all constituted liability cover.

57. What is the cost of education in India?

Cost of Education in Cities

School Fees Private Tution Fees Conveyance Total

Delhi 1,599 1,197 644 3,440

Kolkata 1,017 1,141 345 2,502

Mumbai 1,688 1,682 914 4,284

Chennai 772 371 322 1,465

Lucknow 1,839 622 510 2,972

Patna 1,288 953 531 2,772

Ahmedabad 1,015 489 457 1,961

Hyderabad 355 129 250 734

Jaipur 846 600 293 1,758

Bangalore 819 585 357 1.726

Pune 586 771 229 1,585

Kochi 1,068 402 356 1,827

June 2004 (Rupees per month)

58. Which other country(ies) is a serious competitor of India?

Philippines boasts of strong skills in finance and accounting. The other countries
India is competing with are Mexico, Canada and Ireland. In terms of cost,
 Philippines and Malayasia are competitive with India. However, India's main
competitors in the BPO space produce a fraction of the graduates that India does.

Cost of Education in Cities

Country USP Limitation

Understands the US market; voice More expensive than India;

Philippines
work; low attrition small talent pool

Canada, Ireland, Understands the US market; high-end

High costs
Australia skils

Time zone similar to Europe; 25% cost

South Africa Skill shortage
saving, good for niche work

China Low costs Quality of English not good

Poor infrastructure;
Russia Technology skills
corruption; language

Czech Republic,
European language skills Small talent pool; high costs
Hungary

Immediate neighbor of US, 30%

Mexico Good only for low-end jobs
cheaper than US; Spanish skills
59. How does Business Intelligence (BI) help in BPO?

Business Intelligence (BI) is a proven approach for achieving sustainable business

process improvement.

You can supply significant business value to your clients by deploying BI in your BPO.
Business intelligence is the proven technique for achieving a significant business impact
-- from enhancing the top line to discovering new ways to reduce the bottom line; from
trend analysis to customer retention; from revenue to expenses; from analytics on
recruitment to retention; and constant benefit analysis.

Key benefits of integrating Business Intelligence in BPO:

o Discover profits: The profits from savings in operational costs after implementing
BI can generally exceed BI investment itself in a relatively short period.
o Beyond Reporting: BI lets you watch in near real-time the performance across
multiple campaigns across multiple regions through a single dashboard. Receive
automated alerts as soon as a variance is generated in a process. Get accurate
updates and information by integrating mobility kit with BI.
o Track where your data is going. Get alerted in near real-time as soon as security
is breached.
o You can prove that you are delivering and possibly exceeding the mutually
agreed upon business value by continuously monitoring different SLAs (Service
Level Agreements)
o Accurately forecast business conditions to take proactive decisions using
powerful predictive analysis tools
o A BI solution can even analyze the recorded voice data and automatically
generate reports on performance measures.
 o Reduce executive workload. Increase overall organizational output and employee
efficiency
o Reduce the risks of the BPO function
o Reduce risks for all parties by enabling continuous monitoring of the outsourced
business process
o Automatically deliver the right information to the right people at the right time
o Know precisely. The powerful and intuitive analytics and reporting tools of BI can
automatically alert you of the discrepancies even in the ability and efficiency of a
particular staff member.
o Powerful trend analysis of customer behavior and stock movement. This lets you
deliver right products to the right regions and avoid dead stocks.
o Optimize the Why, Where, When and How of every process.
o Achieve sustainable business process improvement.
o Establish confidence in your clients that process effectiveness and control will not
be lost.
o Client company can reduce the costs of related retained business processes.
o Give more productivity to the outsourcing companys retained staff.
o You do not have to customize every proposal as a BPO supplier. At a minimum,
you could simply integrate the existing business intelligence packages into a
basic data-warehousing environment.

A BPO with business intelligence deployment is looked upon much favorably by key
executives of outsourcing companies, as they now prefer outsourcing entire business
functions than just the IT part. This is why business intelligence is a critical component for
all BPO proposals.

Enterprise Performance Management becomes much simpler to implement with a

business intelligence solution. As soon as the BPO function discovers a variance in
expected business performance, a well-developed business intelligence environment
would be able to send an e-mail to the appropriate leaders within all companies, so they
can focus on improving overall service-level performance.

Courtesy: Business Objects

60. What is the reason for offshore business process outsourcing?

o Controlling costs: 35%
o Improving operational efficiency and productivity: 20%
o Accessing top-level skills: 10%
o Freeing up internal resources: 7.5%

Source: FSOutsourcing (June 2007)

61. Where are your BPO Providers today?

 India ranked first in our survey on where financial services companies' BPO providers are
located with 21% of the votes. Russia came in next with 10% followed by the Philippines
(9%) and Eastern Europe (8%). The United States, Mexico, and Israel tied at 7%. (source
[Link])

62. Are there any metrics related to communication skills in India?

Following is the performance of graduates in the MeritTrac Spoken English Test

National Index Of Communication Skills

Region Voice Clarity Accent Neutrality Fluency Grammar National Index

East 84.80% 33.60% 29.20% 23.00% 85

North 52.79% 35.28% 32.36% 33.69% 60

South 94.27% 13.29% 22.71% 13.78% 38

West 71.73% 23.86% 23.71% 21.43% 44

All India 90.91% 15.71% 23.43% 15.41% 41

Tier I Cities 86.71% 21.66% 27.74% 20.40% 48

Tier II Cities 94.86% 10.12% 19.39% 10.73% 25

Overall throughput for graudates: 10 per Source:

cent MeritTrac
63. Do you have any statistics that compare Attrition Rates across industries?
% change Expected
Sr. 0-3 4-7 8-12 13+
Sector from 2006 increase in
No years years years years
to 2007 2008

Pharma &
1 25.00% 10.00% 5.00% 2.00% -5.00% 6.00%
Chemicals

2 Manufacturing 8.58% 2.46% 2.46% 3.00% 5.00% -3.50%

3 Financial 20.00% 20.00% 20.00% 20.00%

 Services

4 Hospitality 35.00% 25.00% 20.00% 7.50% 13.00% 20.00%

5 Ad & Media 40.00% 35.00% 20.00% 15.00% 17.00% 22.00%

6 BPO 40.00% 30.00% 20.00% 10.00%

7 Automobile 7.00% 3.00% 2.00% 2.00% No visible 14.00%

Auto
8 12.00% 15.00% 20.00% 12.00% 5.00% 6.00%
Component

9 Banking 10.00% 5.00% 2.50% 2.50% 2.00% 2.00%

10 Infrastructure 16.00% 11.00% 7.00% 11.00% 9.00% 20.00%

11 IT & Telecom 32.00% 25.00% 10.00% 5.00% 5.00% 9.00%

Source: Emmay HR / BusinessWorld, 4 Feb 2008

65. How much does BPO revenues add upto in India?

According to Nasscom, total IT-BPO clocked (or will clock),

o 2007-08: $52 billion (growth of 28%). $40.4 b from exports, $11.6 domestic. Of
the exports, IT grew by 28% to 23.1 b and BPO exports went up by 30% to $10.9
b
o 2008-09*: $62-64 billion
o 2010*: 2010 billion

1. What does BPO stand for? What does it mean?

BPO stands for Business Process Outsourcing. Major corporations in the US and Europe
are outsourcing their back office operations to India to save costs. E.g. employee payroll
is maintained in India for their employees worldwide. Although these jobs usually are not
directly IT-related, their data-based orientation often means that they require IT
departmental support to be successfully outsourced.

2. What does ITES stand for? What does it mean?

ITES stands for IT-enabled services. IT-enabled outsourcing can be defined as,

o Those outsourcing services that use information technology in the processing

and delivery of the service.
o Services are typically delivered through a telecommunications or data network, or
other electronic media
3. What is nearshoring?

The practice of sending outsourced functions of any sort, whether IT-based or business
process positions, to a nearby country rather than choosing markets such as India or
 Malaysia that are thousands of miles away. For e.g. US nearshores the work to Canada
and Mexico. The physical proximity of these "nearshore" countries is a big threat to India.

4. What are the reasons for outsourcing?

Reason Savings

Cost reduction 43%

Focus 35%

Access to special enterprise 32%

Resource related reasons{relieve resource constraints,

51%
reduce IT staff and augment IT staff}
5. What exactly does the BPO market comprise of?

There is a disagreement as to what exactly constitutes BPO. With the rapid expansion of
the BPO industry and the extent of its reach, it is becoming increasingly difficult to define
what a BPO exactly means. It encompasses a wide variety of activities such as human
resource, accounting, financial research, marketing, sales, legal work, logistics and so
on. Software services are also regarded as a part of the BPO market by many firms.

6. What is BPM?

BPM stands for Business Process Management, basically this is about outsourcing the
business processes.

7. Now what is BTO!! ?

o BTO stands for Business Transformation Outsourcing. Accenture defines BTO as
a strategic partnership between the customer and the outsourcer with the
advantage of sophisticated financing mechanisms. It would involve the firm
acquiring strategic stakes in the BPO operations that companies have
outsourced. BTO involves sharing risks and gains with an outsource business
partner, measuring the performance improvement in dramatic gains in the share
price, market position and return on capital.

A BTO provides a comprehensive set of services across the entire organisation

resulting in a pre-decided output, whereas a BPO is just a contract for
outsourcing services/ functions to be done in a specified way. BTOs are more
profitable and higher up in the value chain.

o BTO also stands for Business Technology Transformation. It is a fast growing

nice in BPO and is expected to become a $7 billion industry by 2007 from the
current $2.5 million [2004]. BTO can reduce the overhead cost of enterprises by
20%. BTO is about governing the priorities, people and processes of
organizations. It aligns IT and business strategy of a company while optimising
quality, performance and business availability. According to Yankee Group, BTO
enables companies measure and maximise business value across its IT
investments.
8. What is BPO2?
 BPO2 stands for Business Process Optimization and Outsourcing.

9. What is KPO?

KPO stands for Knowledge Process Outsourcing. KPO involves offshoring of knowledge
intensive business processes that require specialised domain expertise, thus delivering
high value to organisations by providing business expertise rather than just process
expertise.

10. What is MBPO?

MBPO stands for Medical Business Process Outsourcing. Apollo Hospitals is the first
major hospital to be getting into this.

11. Can medical transcriptions be considered as BPO?

Yes.

12. What is HRO?

HRO stands for Human Resource Outsourcing. HR is getting outsourced to third party
providers who can bring in the benefits of knowing the domain.

HR as an activity, it comprises of a group of activities, which include payroll management,

training, staffing, benefits administration, travel and expenses management, retirement
and benefits planning, risk management, compensation consulting, etc. These activities
are outsourced by which the client can concentrate on their core competency.

In the US context, HR outsourcing is a huge area. For instance, nearly about 29-30 per
cent of the outsourcing space is HR.

13. What is RPO?

RPO stands for Research Process Outsourcing. This is popular in the biotech industry.
Clients outsource their R&D work. This was termed reportedly by India's biotech queen
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

RPO also stands for Recruitment Process Outsourcing. RPO is a key component of
Human Resource Outsourcing (HRO). The RPO team basically handles all the
recruitment work for their clients.

14. What is EPO?

EPO stands for Engineering Process Outsourcing. India's engineering process

outsourcing (EPO) business would grow 10-fold by 2014 to touch USD 30 billion and
make the country a major hub in this area. The global EPO market, on the other hand,
will grow to around USD 110-USD 140 billion by 2015, taking India's share to 20-27
percent, said the study conducted by the state-run Engineering Export Promotion
Council.
15. What is ESO?

ESO stands for Engineering Services Outsourcing.

Engineering Services Outsourcing (ESO) includes product design, research and

development and other technical services across sectors like automotive, aerospace, hi-
tech/telecom, utilities and construction/industrial machinery.

Spending on engineering services was $750 billion in 2004 and is projected to grow to
$1.1 trillion globally by 2020, according to a recent Nasscom and Booz Allen Hamilton
study - Globalisation Of Engineering Services - the next frontier for India.

ESO also stands for Educational Services Outsourcing. Education is a growing sector
and the demand for Indian educators is on the rise. ESO market is estimated to be USD
eight billion dollars and Indian teachers are currently offering services to countries like
US, UK , Canada , and the Middle East. Though the main demand is from USA, newer
markets of Netherlands and Europe too are fast opening up for Indian teachers.

16. What is defect density?

It is defined as the number of errors per 1000 lines of code. Accroding to Meta Group it
has grown from 0.53 (2002) to 0.6 (2003) and is expected to further rise to 0.87 (2005).

17. What are the 4Es?

Engagement, education, enactment and enforcement framework is expected to ease the

concerns of security and data privacy issue.

18. What is Procurement BPO?

Procurement BPO is transfer of management and execution of one of more procurement

activities, transfer of the entire procurement sub-segments or transfer of the entire
procurement business functions to an external provider. It offers increased productivity,
cost reduction and business transformation to the client. It has a market potential of $10
billion by 2006.

19. What does BOT mean?

BOT stands for build, operate and transfer. BOT is not applicable only to BPO. Generally
clients who wish to have their captive centre partner with a local company which builds
and operates the centre for 2-3 years and then transfers it completely to the client.

20. What is HIPAA?

HIPAA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. The US healthcare
industry has been interested in simplifying administrative processes and improving
efficiency for several decades. The industry leaders concluded that greater
standardization of data and transactions was necessary to improve efficiencies. This
conclusion was subsequently memorialized by specific administrative simplification
language included in the healthcare legislation called the HIPAA.

See the official site for more details.

21. What is DNC [Do Not Call] list?

US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Telemarketing Sales Rule bars companies from
calling individuals who have registered themselves on DNC list. This hurts call centres
that make outbound calls [cold calling]. This rule comes into effect from October 1, 2003.
As of Sept 1, 2003 about 48 million individuals have registered on the DNC registry. If a
company calls an individual on the DNC list, the fine can be approximately $11,000. Call
centres have bought insurance to protect themselves from being fined.

Visit National Do Not Call Registry for first hand information. Call centres can download
the DNC list from this site.

22. What is Call Blasting?

Call center's sell by first playing a recorded message in American English. Then the real
CSR speaks in neutral/American accent.

23. What does BFSI stand for?

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance.

24. Is there any restriction about women working in call centers at night?

In Karnataka, the Legislative Assembly passed a bill in August 2002 which provides for
the use of services of women employees during night. Section 25 of the Act was modified
to accommodate this change. It is likely that all other states have a similar law.

Also see Factories Act now allows women to work night shifts

25. What is BOSS?

BOSS stands for Burn-Out Stress Syndrome. BOSS syndrome is seen very commonly
among young people working in call centres. The symptoms of this syndrome include
chronic fatigue, insomnia and complete alteration of 24-hour biological rhythm of the
body. Gastrointestinal problems are inevitable for those working at nights as the body is
put under chronic stress. A potentially fatal increase in heart rhythm can result in severe
chronic gynaecological problems in women and sleep disorders in both men and women.
Guidance about physical and mental coordination to meet the demands of a call centre
job is necessary.

26. Is it true that one needs very low skilled labor for a BPO operation?

Not true. It really depends upon what is the kind of job you are doing for your client. There
are companies in India who are doing the R&D work for their clients. Is that low skilled
labor?

27. What does captive operation mean?

The multinational company sets up its own BPO operation instead of outsourcing to a
third party. E.g. GE Capital has its operations in Hyderabad and Gurgaon, Dell has an
operation in Bangalore.
28. What is OTTS?

OTTS stands for Outsourcing Through Six Sigma

29. Are there any certifications for contact centers like ISO?

See all about quality for BPOs.

30. I am interested in getting a COPC certification in India. Whom do I contact?

See our vendors list.

31. Are there any capability models for the ITeS industry?

Information Technology Services Qualification Center (ITsqc) in Carnegie Mellon

University has developed the eSourcing Capability Model (eSCMSM) for Service
Providers to enable IT-enabled sourcing service providers to appraise and improve their
capability to provide consistently high quality sourcing services. The eSCM framework
also will enable service providers to establish and manage continually improving
relationships with clients.

32. What do I need to enter the BPO arena?

The following list is no different than for any other business.

oDomain or process knowledge - basically you need to know the customer's

business. Yup, this is in short supply.
o Customer access
o Market reputation
o Capital base
33. Do any associations cater to the BPO segment?
o NASSCOM is the best organization that caters to the BPO segment. They have
done a wonderful job in addressing the issues with the government. They have a
special group called SIGITES - Special Interest Group for IT Enabled
Services..

Also see Business Process Industry Association of India(BPIAI).

o ASSOCHAM too has an initiatve for the BPO sector.

o Business Process Industry Association of India (BPIAI) provides a network for
members to jointly address challenges facing the call centre industry. The
association was established in the year 2000.

Be it Telecom Infrastructure, Cost of leased circuits, Labour laws, Training or

Retention - all these issues can be addressed better in one voice.

o On Aug 6, 2004 Medical Transcription firms in the country joined together to form
the Indian Medical Transcription Industry Association (IMTIA) aiming to set best
practices and propel growth of the $ 100 million sector.
o The American Teleservices Association(ATA) represents the call centers, trainers,
consultants, and equipment suppliers that initiate, facilitate, and generate
telephone, Internet, and email sales, service, and support.
 o The Centre for BPO Professionals, a non-profit organisation, will facilitate a
platform for BPO and call centre professionals to discuss their issues and find out
solutions and help them maintain their employability and adaptability in the
volatile market requirements. As of March, 2005 CBPOP has its offices in
Bangalore and Hyderabad.
o Association of Outsourcing Partners - will foster public-private partnership in
education, training & governance, share best practices from China & the US, and
promote India as the Knowledge Capital of the World. If you believe in the AOP
objectives please join us as soon as you can.
34. What does "follow the sun" model mean?

India is situated 5 hours ahead of UK, 10 hours ahead of New York and 13 hours ahead
of Los Angeles. US and UK companies can claim overnight response capability because
during their night time, it is day time in India and agents in India can respond to emails
during Indian business hours. This is known as follow the sun model.

35. Are there any setup guidelines from the govt of India?

See guidelines. This is basically to get the DoT [Department of Telecom] clearance to
operate a call centre. There is no prescribed application form, but you need to submit a
set of documents. From what we have heard this office is very helpful and they don't
harass you.

36. Can ITES companies share bandwidth?

As of Oct 22, 2002 the Govt of India has decided that ITES can use the bandwidth on a
time-sharing mode. It would not be treated as resale of bandwidth, which was banned in
India. The move will allow firms to use the same facility and bandwidth to service Indian
and international clients, which is not permitted under the present norms. [Link]
would like to thank Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which mooted the idea.

37. Why is it important to have the call centre in multi-locations?

o BPO clients would not like their work to be disrupted. To ensure continuity it is
essential to be multi-locational, at times this could mean in different countries
also.
o BPO companies need to constantly evaluate where they can get the best value
for their money. Low-skill jobs like data entry could be outsourced to countries
where labor is cheaper than in India.
o Few countries have data access legislation that prevents databases and
information from crossing geographical boundaries. The best way to solve this
problem is to have a BPO centre in that country itself. At times BPO client can
take permission from the appropriate authorities and move the database outside
the country. For e.g. in the case of EDS [Enhanced Directory Service] the
operator needs to access a database which has the information of the
residents/businesses of the client country. Usually you are not allowed to ship
this database outside that country, however clients have taken special permission
to ship this database to countries like Philippines.
38. What is IVR?

IVR stands for Integrated Voice Response. IVR systems are automated systems installed
in customer contact/service centers that help automate routine tasks such as account
information, product information, schedule etc. IVR systems help automate many
transactions that free employees tedious repetitive tasks. Customers can input their
query using touch tone phones and these days advanced IVRs support speech
 recognition.

39. What is the bandwidth advantage talk about at Kochi (Kerala)?

Kochi has some of the cheapest available bandwidth in the country. It has the advantage
of being located at the landing points of both satellite and submarine cable links. Both
Sea-Me-We 3 and SAFE international submarine cables land at Kochi. Not only is
bandwidth abundant, it is cheaper than at other locations. VSNL offers a 2 Mbps Internet
leased line for Rs 12.5 lakh at Kochi. A 2 Mbps IPLC link costs Rs 40 lakh here. Nasscom
has rated Kochi as one of the top two destinations in India for bandwidth intensive IT-
enabled services. VSNL's International Gateway Exchange with 15 Gbps capacity is
located next to the Cochin Special Economic Zone. Recently VSNL unveiled the SAT-
3/WASC/SAFE submarine cable station in Kochi. With this, Kochi is one of the 16 landing
points across the world for the submarine cable. The cable system has an ultimate
capacity of 120 Gbps that enables it to convey a total of 5.8 million simultaneous
telephone channels. VSNL operates a facility in the zone under the co-location scheme,
offering global connectivity support to zone units at low-entry costs. (Source: Express
Computer)

40. What is the talk about BPO companies being taxed?

The Indian government wants to examine whether a non-resident company, which has
outsourcing deals with a BPO outfit in India, is subject to tax in India. Tax implications for
the BPO sector (source Express Computer)

o Taxing BPO clients will increase the cost of transacting in India. This will make
India less cost-effective.
o Companies will be discouraged from outsourcing their processes to India, this will
slow down the growth rate of the Indian BPO sector.
o Indian BPO sector will lose out vis-`-vis its competitors like Philippines, China,
Ireland, Hong Kong, etc, if government adopts tough tax regimes.
o The employment generated by the BPO sector might take a beating and the
country will lose out significantly on the income tax charged on individual
employees.
o Overseas clients might perceive India as a country where taxation policies are
not stable. India needs to project itself as a stable destination.
41. Where can I buy market research reports related to BPO?

See our Research Reports section.

42. What is repetitive voice injury (call centre-itis)?

Call centre workers are suffering from a new industrial disease: repetitive voice injury,
also dubbed as call centre-itis. Long hours and little opportunity for even a drink of water
are behind the 'disease'.

43. What is glocalization?

Glocalization is basically globalization plus localization, your ability to take the best from
the world's systems, best practices, best ideas, best brands, and meld them with your
own culture in a balanced way so that you don't feel overwhelmed by them.
 44. What are key performance measurements (KPIs) in a call center?

A significant amount of information is required to effectively manage a call center. We

need, for example, data on caller needs and expectations, the queue and caller
tolerance, the load on the system, agent activities and performance, call patterns, cost
components, the activities of other parts of the organization and conditions in the external
environment. But we must also be able climb above the detail and assess overall
performance, without the need to review dozens of reports. The question is, what
measures can adequately summarize the numerous activities of a call center? While any
measure by itself has the potential to mislead, the ten reports summarized below
generally give a good synopsis of the call center's performance when they are interpreted
together.

A. Average Call Value (Sales and Reservations Only)

This measure is generally calculated by dividing total revenue generated by number of calls. This
has historically been, and continues to be, a top priority in sales and reservations environments.

B. Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is, without doubt, a top priority. Most call centers conduct
surveys via either outbound calls or mail to randomly selected callers. Some call
centers contract with outside firms to conduct surveys and prepare the results,
while others do the surveys themselves. And a growing number of call centers
are automating some surveys; callers are transferred into a VRU that guides
them through a series of questions and allows them to respond via touch-tone.
C. Service Level

Service level takes the form of X percent answer in Y seconds (such as 80

percent of calls answered in 20 seconds), and is a high level measure of how fast
callers get through to reps. The best managed call centers take service level
seriously, and strive to meet it as consistently as possible. An appropriately
selected service level objective should mean that answering calls less quickly (or
a lot more quickly) would actually cost money, not save it.
D. Percent Abandoned

Abandonment is an ongoing concern in incoming call centers. If callers hang up

before we get a chance to talk to them, we are missing the opportunity to make
them happy, sell to them and solve their customer service problems. However,
abandonment is difficult to accurately forecast (and, therefore, staff around) and
is often a misleading indication of the queue callers experienced. In the final
analysis, we can control how accessible we are -- how many trunks we have,
how many skilled reps are plugged in. But we can't control how callers will react
or the myriad of circumstances that influence their behavior. Accordingly, be sure
to view abandonment in light of the other measures, and in consideration of the
callers' circumstances.
E. Cost Per Call

There are various ways to calculate cost per call (i.e. what factors to include in
staff costs, how to allocate equipment, how to value the building) but the basic
formula is to divide total costs by total calls received for a given period of time
(usually a month). The potential in following cost per call is to identify the
variables that are driving it upwards or downwards, and the impact they have.

A climbing cost per call can be a good sign, depending on the variables driving it
 up. For example, process improvements may result in fewer calls than would
otherwise be necessary (e.g. eliminating the need for customer callbacks,
improving the VRU and coordinating with other departments to eliminate
problems that generate calls). As a result, the fixed costs (in the numerator) get
spread over fewer calls (in the denominator), driving cost per call up. But, of
course, total costs will go down over time, because the elimination of waste and
rework will drive down variable costs. (Similarly, cost per call usually goes down
during the busy times of the year, and up during the slower times of year).
F. Errors and Rework

A major theme of the quality movement is that good service pays for itself
because of the elimination of things that come with a lack of quality: doing work
over, correcting mistakes, handling complaints, increased public relations costs,
canceled orders or subscriptions, costs of closing accounts, costs of inspection,
and others. Errors and rework are often part of a cycle. For example, errors and
rework consume valuable staff time, which can lead to insufficient staffing to
handle the incoming workload; insufficient staffing tends to lead to high
occupancy, unhappy callers and increased stress on the staff -- which contributes
to errors and rework. So, reducing errors and rework has a positive impact on
service level, morale, customer satisfaction and costs. A variation on errors and
rework is a measure of the percent of calls completed on the first attempt, which
has become an increasingly important measure in many call centers.

Errors and rework can be measured in a number of ways. For example, the
database may allow you to track repeat calls, unresolved issues and errors in
data entry. Monitoring or side-by-side coaching should detect and track specific
problems that are occurring during call handling. Call coding in the ACD (where
reps use codes to track specific types of calls and issues) can trace problems.
And transferred calls, escalated calls, customer complaints and correspondence
(both to and from customers) can be additional sources of information.
G. Forecast Call-load to Actual

Underestimating calling demand will mask and defeat all other efforts to provide
good service, and overestimating demand results in waste. Good forecasting
comes from constantly tracking results and making improvements to the
forecasting process. Common practice is to blend quantitative "time series"
forecasting (projecting out existing call patterns) with judgmental forecasting (for
example, what is marketing about to do? new terms and procedures? process
changes? interest rates? the weather?). If the forecast is off by much, we need to
identify which variables caused the problems, and factor them in (or out) in the
future.
H. Scheduled Staff to Actual

This measure is independent of whether we actually have the staff necessary to

acheive a targeted service level. How well do the staffs we have adhered to
schedule?
I. Adherence To Schedule

Adherence factor is a measure of how much time an individual is on the phone,

available to take calls, and generally consists of all plugged-in time, including talk
time, wrap-up time, waiting to receive calls, and necessary outgoing calls.
Generally, when adherence factor improves (goes up), service level goes up and
occupancy goes down. Adherence factor is not just an issue of how much, but
also an issue of when -- when during the course of the day, are reps is plugged in
and available to take calls?
 J. Average Handling Time

Average handling time brings together two components: talk time and after call
work (wrap up). Talk time is everything between "hello" and "good-bye." After call
work is that work that must immediately follow the inbound call. The ratio of talk
time to after call work varies significantly from one call center to another.

An erratic average handling time often points to the need for more training,
especially on how to use the after call work mode. To be true after call work,
three criteria must be met- 1) The work is related to an inbound call, 2) It follows
the call, 3) Immediately or shortly thereafter. In other words, the work is an
important component of the randomly arriving call load.
2. What could be Service level objective being?

The Quick Version of Choosing a Service Level Objective

Sometimes we hear, "Okay, the analysis is fine, but let's get to the point. What should our
service level objective be?"

Fair enough. If you are in a competitive industry (e.g. shipping, catalog and mutual funds)
and want to be on the high-end scale, 90/20 is fairly common. Others go for 85/15 or
90/15. Engineer for no more than one percent blockage on the trunks. If you hit these
targets reasonably well, your abandonment rate will probably be around one or two
percent.

Going for the middle of the road? 80/20 is common. That's what a lot of banks, insurance
companies and travel reservation centers shoot for. 80/30 and 90/60 are other popular
mid-range service levels. Don't allow more than one to five percent blockage on the
trunks. Hit these objectives and you'll probably see abandonment at three or four percent.

Want a service level that is more modest? 80/60, or 90/120, or even 80/300, with five to
15 percent blockages, is a target common with software support centers and some
government organizations. Abandonment can range up to 10 percent, 15 percent or
higher. Hold your judgment - some of these organizations do a darn good job of hitting
these objectives consistently, a lesson many with more lofty goals could use.

Of course, just throwing out numbers like this can be dangerous. There are exceptions to
the norm in any industry. Also, interpret these numbers with common sense. If you are an
emergency services center, you will target 100/0. On the other end of the scale, there are
centers for which 80/300 is a dream.

Remember, it's not just how high your objectives are, but how consistently you hit them.

3. What is PTP?

PTP stands for Per-transaction price. A norm in the US and the concept is fast gaining
popularity among top Indian BPOs, the chances of PTP becoming a norm in industry are
very dim. PTP for the uninitiated is a form of pricing where a BPO company is paid only
on the basis of completed transactions.

The client pays a portion of the value that he gains from outsourcing rather than a fixed
cost based on the number of seats or hours of effort that a service provider uses to
deliver the solution. This ensures that the client pays only for the benefits that he derives
and not for inefficiencies of the service provider. Transaction-based pricing requires high
degree of domain specialisation especially for high end BPO work - a BPO credibility and
 proven track record that today is not widespread.

4. What is TCV?

TCV stands for total contract value.

5. We want to get more information about Indian visa rules. Is there a site I could refer
to?

See Bureau of Immigration, India site. You will find a lot of useful information on OneIndia
too.