“To exist is to change, to
change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.” – Henry
Bergson
They say ‘change is inevitable’.
But some changes are long awaited and once they finally begin to happen, they
are ought to be revolutionary.
Having spent over two decades
towards my passion, I moved ahead in my career as a start-up specialist and
co-founded SPARSH BPO Services Ltd. & SPANCO BPO Services Ltd. During my
years with them, I always stuck to the belief that the outsourcing industry had
more to it. It had the potential to grow bigger and better.
And continuing with my commitment
towards delivering revolutionary and innovative services to the marketplace, it
became easy for me to recognize the change taking over the BPO sector in India,
when I came to Hero BPO.
Given the market dynamics, the
outsourcing industry today stands at a juncture where it is not only trying to
shed its 'call centre' image, but also spearheading towards becoming a larger
entity - Business Process Management, as opposed to just outsourcing or off-shoring.
I feel re-branding the term BPO
to BPM is more appropriate to the industry considering the maturity level it has
attained now. From just being a mere third party service provider to becoming a
business partner who will manage the entire business process of their clients, this
key transformation will help the stakeholders (both inside and outside the
country) understand the value of outsourcing industry in India.
In India, BPO operations kick
started with call center business where agents answered calls from overseas,
spoke in the regional accent and tried selling products to people back in the
home country. Earlier outsourcing was nothing more than a cost saving
proposition for companies. However, I believe as the market and vendors got
evolved, companies’ expectations grew and there was a demand for specific
business outcomes. Over the years, Indian service providers managed to deliver
flexibility in operations, innovation in products and services as well as
skills and expertise in core processes which their clients lacked in-house and re-positioned
themselves as partners to their clients.
BPO companies’ rapid
transformation from business process outsourcer to business process manager is
one of the vital factors which have helped India maintain its leadership
position in the global outsourcing market.
Therefore, this re-engineering
strategy has lead many BPO, now called BPM companies, to deliver high end
services that has had direct impact on the business outcomes of their clients.