Hiring Financial Process Outsourcing Services – Some Useful Tips

Having understood the benefits of financial process outsourcing, you may have made up your mind for hiring financial process outsourcing services. However, since there are quite a few variables that can prevent you from realizing potential benefits, we recommend you follow prescribed guidelines and avoid taking unnecessary risks. To help you, we have provided some useful tips that you can use while you are in the process of hiring financial process outsourcing services.

The first thing we would recommend is that you take your time while choosing a financial process outsourcing services partner. Don't make a hasty decision even if someone offers you the lowest service rates because finance is a critical organizational function and you just cannot afford to make mistakes. Looking for a financial process outsourcing services provider that offers the perfect combination of cost savings and quality and efficiency improvements should be a priority.

Once you are sure about the expertise of your financial process outsourcing services partner, you need to communicate your goals and objectives in very clear terms. Being ambiguous will never help since your outsourcing partner will find it quite difficult to achieve targets in the absence of predetermined goals and objectives.

Last but not the least, you should constantly monitor progress and performance so that you can take appropriate action before things go terribly wrong. Sincerely follow these recommendations and soon you will be able to unlock the full potential of financial process outsourcing services.

How Market Research Services Outsourcing Can Help Grab A Larger Marketshare

Ours can be described as the age of specialization since almost everything today requires us to have a certain specialization or get help from others who might have that required specialization. Businesses are not all that different since very often they too feel the need for hiring specialized skill sets and talents. Presently, one such specialization that most businesses are looking for is market research services outsourcing.

Once an insignificant back office process, market research has now acquired immense importance and businesses today just can't hope to do without it. It's because market research services outsourcing projects are managed by highly qualified and trained professionals who know quite well how to collect the most valuable information about potential markets and customers. This in turn helps businesses to design and develop new products and services in line with customers needs and expectations.

When customer needs and expectations are accounted for while designing and developing new products and services, it automatically increases the probability of success of the new product launch in the targeted market. The more the number of customers, the easier it will become for businesses to grab a larger marketshare. That's one of the most important objectives achieved by market research services outsourcing firms on behalf of their clients. It is no wonder then that more and more businesses are now choosing market research services outsourcing for achieving their desired goals and objectives.

Offshore BPO Services – Current Trends

Due to their inherent ability to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve the overall quality of products and services, offshore BPO services have become one of the most sought after, the world over. The increasing demand for these services has also led to the mushrooming of service providers that now come from BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and other relatively smaller countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Sri Lanka etc. Just like in any other industry, each of these providers are trying to outsmart each other by providing higher quality services and more affordable rates. Rising oil prices and the aftereffects of the subprime crisis may be making things a bit difficult for outsourcing firms, but the morale is still high and no one is in a mood to call it quits. Despite the ever-rising competitive pressures, the offshore BPO services industry is still growing at a rapid pace, something that is enough to prove the same.

To tackle unpredictable and uncontrollable factors such as oil price hikes and credit crunch situations, most of the offshore BPO service providers are upgrading their infrastructure and implementing plans for meeting unforeseen contingencies. Quality, efficiency and cost-effectiveness have always been the mainstays of the outsourcing BPO services industry and these are the main factors that are helping the industry to successfully tackle new demands and challenges.

Offshore BPO Services – Providing Multinationals The Competitive Edge

There was a time when our multinationals were just competing with each other, since there were very few outside challengers. However, things have changed dramatically over the years and our multinationals are now facing competitive pressures from virtually all directions, continents and countries. However, they were quick to discover something very unique that is presently helping multinationals to sustain their success. Offshore BPO services is the name of that discovery and till date, almost all multinationals have benefited from it in some way or another. Realizing the benefits, even the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) have recently started hiring offshore BPO services.

Offshore outsourcing helps because it reduces operational costs, allowing businesses to offer affordable products and services to customers. Since quality is not compromised during cost reduction exercises, it provides that much needed competitive edge to businesses, which ultimately allows them to stay ahead in the competitive race. It is not surprising then to learn that more and more multinationals are now hiring offshore BPO services with renewed vigor to ensure both their success and survival.

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Offshore Outsourcing – What's In Store?

Well, it's a bit difficult to answer that, obviously due to the dynamic nature of the offshore outsourcing services industry. However, some basic assumptions can still be made, based on emerging trends and past records. As far as the outsourcing industry in India is concerned, it is currently doing quite well and is expected to deliver proportionately the same level of performance in the future as well. However, with news reports indicating that countries such as China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil and others are also taking to outsourcing in a big way, it looks as if the outsourcing industry in India might have to work harder, especially if competencies are to be achieved and sustained.
The offshore outsourcing industry in India is however not getting overtly concerned because it understands quite well that world-class skills, systems, processes and infrastructure that took years to develop cannot just be copied overnight. For developing similar competencies, any other country will require the same amount of time, a gap that will be enough for the outsourcing industry in India to achieve newer milestones, leaving competitors way behind. This is why instead of getting hyper over sensational news reports, the offshore outsourcing industry in India continues to do what it does best, i.e. deliver cost savings, efficiency improvements, and desired levels of customer satisfaction and quality

How KPOs can sustain their competitive advantage

The KPO industry is certainly creating a rage in the worldwide business market and India too is waking up to the benefits that KPOs have to offer. Lets admit it that KPOs are much bigger and definitely better than our traditional BPOs and this becomes more than evident from the fact that many Indian BPO companies are singing to the KPO tune with the intention of earning a better revenue and that too with immediate results. It is quite a surprising fact that the KPO industry, although just an emerging one, is already displaying the behaviour of a full-fledged client based and a profit making industry.

One major move that the KPO industry is taking with respect to gaining an advantage over other industries is that KPO companies hire the best that the IITs and the IIMs have to offer. This strategy ensures that they get the best knowledgeable minds that the country has to offer. Asking questions like what can your KPO company do in order to set it apart from other competition should be the first step towards preparing and planning towards sustaining and ultimately gaining a competitive advantage.

Bridgestone Europe rolls to Indian firm for SAP provision

The European unit of Bridgestone Corp. plans to outsource support and maintenance of its SAP ERP system to an offshore firm in India.
Bridgestone Europe will turn over management of its SAP AG applications to Satyam Computer Services Ltd. in Hyderabad, India.

Joe O'Neill, IT director at the Brussels-based unit said, “The three year agreement will free up resources to focus on new requests and new demands.” On asking him about the Bridgestone Europe business operations, he added, “Whether SAP problems are handled in Brussels or offshore doesn't really matter to the business user, provided he gets a resolution.”
Bridgestone didn't disclose an estimated cost savings from the offshore deal, nor would O'Neill discuss the new projects that internal SAP support staffers will work on. But he said that some of the expected benefits would arise from the company's ability to direct more of its internal resources toward other IT needs.
Bridgestone has six manufacturing plants, a technical center and numerous sales and distribution facilities throughout Europe; its European ERP system supports about 2,000 end users.

Prasad Unawane

Offshore BPO Services: Accenture to speed up internal functions in India

Offshore BPO Services in India are only getting bigger. One such leading example of services is Accenture – a consultancy and Offshoring Company that announced on Wednesday, that India is most active developing market, playing a key role in its global delivery model and network.

The expansion had been so rapid that the software company doubled the size of their workforce to 11,000 in the past year said Mr. Joe W Forehand, chairman of Accenture, who is on a visit to India.
The company’s Indian employees today constitute 10% of the 1,06,000 workforce worldwide and “we might move in internal functions to India, like HR, knowledge management capabilities and financials. We continue to see demand and will leverage the talented people here to expand our operations,” he added.

Apart from India, which is the most aggressively growing, centers in the Philippines and China are growing rapidly. Accenture has most of its Offshore services in various countries. “Though the growth there is not as aggressive as India,” said Mr. Forehand.
He also said, “The areas where we enter for making deals we get only 2% competition and we bag around 87% of them. These deals are SAP and Oracle-based solutions and are between $1million and $25 million in size.”

Last year, Accenture earned revenues of $13.7 billion out of which 35% was contributed by off shoring and the rest by consultancy.

According to Mr. Stephen Rohlder, COO of Accenture, “The growth in Apac region was 11%, whereas in the US it was 23% in the first quarter this year, but the main growth came from Japan and Australia.”

Priyanka. S

Offshore BPO Services – India has great advantage in IT off shoring: Premji

Despite challenges from China, the Philippines and Eastern Europe, India still has an overwhelming advantage in IT off shoring, according to Wipro chairman Azim Premji.
"Areas such as China, Eastern Europe and the Philippines are becoming major players in IT off shoring but India still has an overwhelming advantage because of the support of the Government and the country's huge talent pool," Premji said in an recent interview.

Wipro benefits from being able to recruit from the top 50,000 engineering graduates turned out from Indian universities and colleges each year, he said.
"In a land of so much poverty, IT jobs are very sought after. Software has so much credibility and visibility that the first choice of a village parent is for their child to be an engineer. We get the choice of the best of the best."

"The Western world is looking for the developing world to liberalize all the time, to stop restrictive practices and then it wants to put its own restrictions on business coming out of the developing world. If the West wants emerging markets to open up, they have to be open," he said.

Wipro is in the business of installing, running and sorting out organizations' IT systems. Some of their major clients include Prudential, Friends Provident, National Grid Transco, Nokia, Microsoft and the Scottish Parliament.

Priyanka. S

Offshore BPO Services – Spotlight on ‘Knowledge based Outsourcing’

The Indian BPO sector plans to strike it rich in a new breed of high-end knowledge-based outsourcing as global corporations move process like data and intellectual property researches to Offshore locations.

Scope e-Knowledge Center is one such company, which said it would expand its global footprint and increase its Offshore BPO workforce.
"Knowledge Process Outsourcing is the next big opportunity. More and more global corporations will be outsourcing processes like data and intellectual property research works. In view of this emerging opportunity, we have decided to enhance our global presence and also the manpower," its director and CEO R Sivadas said.

"We will double our manpower in London and Brussels, which is acting as a hub for the European market," he added.
Scope is also in discussion with a few publishing firms in Germany and hopes to strike a deal in the next couple of months. It is already doing an Offshore project for a US company in Germany.

This new breed of knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) comprises companies based services providing higher-end Offshore BPO services in the areas of research and analytical to overseas clients.
These include basic data research, integration and management, market research, equity research, engineering design, animation and simulation, medical content and services, remote education and publishing.

According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom), the total market size of KPO business in India may rise to a staggering $15.5 billion, up from $1.2 billion now.
"Although very few Indian companies are working in this space now, KPO will be one of the major segments of the outsourcing business in terms of creation of new jobs and generation of billions of dollars in business."

The Chennai-headquartered Scope e-Knowledge is a leading Indian KPO firm that has expertise in creating valuable intellectual property for clients across the industry verticals like healthcare, pharmaceuticals and life sciences.

The company, with Offshore offices in New York, Orlando, Chicago, London and Brussels, has over a dozen clients in the US and European markets. The US market accounts for 60 percent of its annual revenue.

Priyanka.S

CBC Technologies to promote Offshore biz

The Commonwealth Business Council has launched a new service - CBC Technologies – to promote Offshoreservices related to technology.

"The UK is seen as a gateway to Europe for many businesses. Over 400 Indian firms have set up operations in the UK in recent years and the Commonwealth comprises 54 nations, some with excellent capabilities to provide remote services to UK customers," Director General of the Commonwealth Business Council, Dr Mohan Kaul, said.

"CBC Technologies service is an important step in the development of CBC and it will allow the CBC to offer a world-class service in the field of offshore outsourcing advice and facilitation," he said.

"CBC has a completely different value proposition to the myriad of consultants offering outsourcing advice. We are entirely independent," said Managing Director of CBC Technologies, Anoop Singh.

"We have an excellent relationship with the 54 governments of the Commonwealth and most leading global corporations through our membership and we will also focus attention on the large Small and Medium Entrepreneur sector. They are the companies who need most help at present and we intend to offer a world-class service to the smaller players," Singh said.
The launch coincided with the one-day seminar jointly hosted by India Business Forum and Commonwealth Business Council here yesterday.

"India is leading the world in remote BPO services. This debate has moved far beyond the tired argument about call centers and jobs vanishing to India," said Chairman of the India Business Forum, Mahesh Ramachandran.

Priyanka.S

Offshore BPO Services : Focus on Offshore financial services !!

Now when you think of BPOs think commodities, India is ready to emerge as an Offshore BPO service provider for commodity financial services, in the form of back-office processes to foreign banks. It is now flooded with calls to manage offshore demat commodity accounts and warehouse receipts sitting right here.

Overseas banks from countries like Ivory Coast, Zambia, Nigeria, South Africa, Russia and Bulgaria are queuing up for Offshore BPO services that include efficient management of accounts and commodity balances. This makes for an excellent business opportunity for apex service providers like National Securities Depository and Central Depository Services of India.

“Discussions are now on with several interested parties. The potential of BPO in commodity financial services is simply huge,” said PH Ravikumar of NCDEX.
NCDEX has already worked successfully to network 50 accredited warehouses and enabled holding of commodity balances in electronic form and dematerialized the warehouse receipt in partnership with NSDL.

Priyanka.S

Offshore BPO Services : Local BPOs ready to hit offshore markets

Indian BPO companies have been known to be getting business by offering Offshore BPO services. Local BPO companies that had been waiting in thw wings are now,ready to hit the markets with their Offshore BPO Services.

In the recent months, at least four to five Indian BPO companies have acquired majority stakes in Offshore BPOs and the trend is likely to continue as the Indian units anticipate more business from the "onshore outsourcing" model, industry officials said.

Some of the recent deals include the takeover of Offshore BPO Empact EBS, a New Jersey-based benefits processing firm by Secova eServices, Indian HR BPO ICICI One Source’s 51 per cent acquisition of Papal Research (an Illinois- based Outsourcing firm) and OfficeTiger's (which has a big presence in India) acquisition of a London-based recruiting and outsourcing concern Devonshire Group.

"The acquisition of EmpactEBS will help us to enhance our overall value to the customer by being competitive and equipped to offer best-in-class onshore and offshore service," said Venkat Tadanti, co-founder and CEO of Secova eServices.

Until recently, India was considered a low-cost yet high-quality destination for many MNC(s) that had been interested in Offshore BPO services. One of the major reasons for the recent acquisitions is the widepsread accessibility of the BPOs in India across the spectrum of industries in India. However, with the onset of the Offshore BPO Services India can surely look forward to some bright prospects.

Priyanka. S

India rides up the ladder of Offshore BPO Services : IDC

Continuing its successful ride up the success ladder, Global investments in Offshore BPO services are all set to grow from $7 billion in 2003 to $17 billion by 2008. Reportedly, India is among the select group of countries that are poised to gain from this spurt in Offshore BPO services, a new research has calculated.

According to a study by analyst firm IDC, spending by US customers on Offshore BPO Services will continue to concentrate heavily on applications, with most activity in the areas of custom application development, application management and systems integration.

"Customers' continued need to look to Offshore BPO Services as a resource from which to procure IT services as, part of their overall sourcing requirements is not only growing as a share of the total IT services market, but is also expanding from traditional IT services, such as application development and maintenance, to areas traditionally limited to being delivered locally," David Tapper, director of outsourcing, utility and Offshore BPO services research at IDC, said. "These Offshore BPO services range from application and infrastructure management to IT consulting," he added.

"Due to the persistent need for customers to reduce costs, coupled with the proven capabilities of Offshore BPO players, IDC sees considerable market opportunities for these players in the onshore markets, as well as local players looking to leverage offshore as part of their service delivery capabilities," Barry Mason, senior analyst for IDC's application Offshore services research, informed.

Priyanka. S

Offshore BPO services – Cognizant tops the list

NASDAQ-listed IT services major Cognizant has been reportedly accredited as the Best Offshore BPO in the segment of Offshore BPO services by the META group's META Spectrum report for offshore service providers.

Cognizant was positioned in the 'leader' segment of the META spectrum analysis for its strength in Offshore BPO services, which were rated excellent by the report, a company statement said here.
The Offshore BPO services included application development and maintenance, portfolio assessment services, vertical depth and industry focus, marketing, messaging and positioning, customer referent ability and process maturity, it added.
He informed that Cognizant, one of the fastest growing Offshore BPO service providers had invested in a high tech relationship model that resulted in a fewer number of tightly integrated customer relationships.
"The rating also considers that we are now delivering more complex solutions. Our objective will be that nobody should beat Cognizant when it comes to customer relationship, customer focus and customer satisfaction,” President and CEO of Cognizant, Lakshmi Narayanan said in the statement.
META group is a leading provider of IT research, advisory services and strategic consulting, it said. The Vice-President and director of META Group, Dean Davison, said that META Spectrum has been developed to enable IT professionals quickly evaluate vendors, based on their ability to deliver on the presence and performance criteria.

Priyanka. S

Offshore BPO Services take to Consolidated Multi-Lingual Support Operations

Offshore BPO services have been often described as the pilfering of U.S. jobs, but ignoring Offshore BPO services would only prove to be disadvantageous for global companies. To some, Offshore BPO services is seen as something that must be utilized for the sake of economics While, for others, it is simply a part of being smart in business. Regardless, it is a very sensitive issue that will continue to flow for the foreseeable future.

Offshore BPO services have been in the business for long wherein, companies would consider offering Offshore BPO services to a company that offered the right combination of scale, services and savings. Each company differs on how it defines its needs for Offshore BPO services, but with the tight economy of the past few years, it should come as no surprise that cost has been close to or at the top of any list.
So, It’s a point worth pondering over-- Should Offshore BPO companies pay more for after-hours support when dynamic call routing can access agents within first-shift time zones? Also, should Offshore BPO companies continue to pay a significant premium for foreign-language support ? Perhaps, the biggest change is the increasingly global nature of the requests for Offshore BPO services. Many companies with headquarters in the U.S. have operations in multiple countries, each with its own IT support teams and processes.

The solution to this impending issue is consolidated help desks that offer support in multiple languages. And that's where blended Offshore BPO services come into picture. These multi-lingual support desks would be beneficial for the buyers as well as the representatives. The communication gap would decrease and there would be increased productivity. Global business has driven the demand for consolidated support operations, that would save money, deliver tremendous efficiency, provide consistent levels of service and present data analytics that can help improve the Offshore BPO services segment.

Priyanka.S.

Indian Offshore BPO Services Face Dearth of Qualified Professionals
The latest scenario in the Indian Offshore BPO Services industry is that it is facing a dearth of qualified professionals, which is in fact the need of the industry. India therefore has to urgently address the situation by focusing more attention on the education system of the country.

The IT training institutes are tuning themselves to the emerging scenario in the Indian Offshore BPO Services industry, which is supposed to grow by at least 54 percent, by introducing new programmes co-designed with the industry to meet their demands.

While NIIT and the IT wing of Zee Group have announced new programmes in ITeS-BPO training, the state governments of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerela are devising new plans to train youth in the Offshore BPO Services sector.

The training scenario is dramatically changing these days, as the Offshore BPO Services industry is more involved in developing the curriculum. As the trend is emerging, the institutes are redefining their relationship with industries. Economically, for the company, this means cost effectiveness. Companies from now on need not worry about training a fresher to suit the company. But if India is going to lag behind in creating professionals, industry sources feel that the country will suffer, as it is a dependable source of forex.

Jesmine

Chucking the Outsourcing Myths


For people who have been under the impression that there’s a stigma attached to offshore BPO services, there seems to be some news in store for them. The appropriate time has come to chuck out all unnecessary myths about outsourcing hi-tech IT jobs to cheaper destinations.

According to a recent study conducted by McKinsey Global Institute, every dollar spent on offshoring BPO services, the U.S economy gains at least $1.12. Moreover, the largest chunk 58-cents goes back to the original employer. And the U.S. companies perform 30% of Indian offshoring, so money returns home as earnings. The U.S., which had lost about 2 million jobs due to global trade over the past 20 years, has added 35 million new jobs in the past 10 years.

The aforesaid statement proves one essential point, that an offshore BPO service is not costing good technical U.S. jobs. Many services that aren’t materializing are lost not through outsourcing, but through improved efficiencies and business automation. Most of the outsourced jobs are supporting operations that aren’t part of the core competency of the U.S. firms, such as phone technical support, human resources administration and software coding. So, it would not be fair on the part of the U.S. to find faults with offshore BPO services.

Jesmine

Rubber Industry-the new entry in the offshore BPO services arena

First it was the information technology sector, followed by the pharmaceutical sector, and now it appears that the Indian rubber industry is on its way to join the offshore BPO services bandwagon. With India being the third largest grower of natural rubber products, rubber majors in the U.S., Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and other countries are now eyeing India as a potential destination for offshore BPO services.

In the light of this, the domestic rubber industry is eagerly awaiting the Indian Rubber Expo, the world’s second largest trade show and Asia’s largest, which is slated in Mumbai from February 23rd next year. The focus of outsourcing from the U.S. also extends to rubber products as U.S. based companies are increasingly resorting to cost cutting measures to remain competitive. Thus moving production to India is on the top of the agenda of the U.S. companies.

Jesmine