How Business Process Outsourcing Fares In India Today

The act of contracting business process functions to a third party, more commonly known as business process outsourcing or BPO is an increasingly popular trend. Today, many of the world’s biggest companies have outsourced some of their activities, and most of them find their way to the cities of India.

Business Process Outsourcing in India The BPO industry in India continues to grow. Now known as “the back office of the world”, India is home to outsourcing firms of numerous Fortune 500 companies.

In the 1980’s, a number of European airlines had established back offices in India, and this arguably built the roots of what’s now one of the world’s most active business process outsourcing industries.

Other companies soon followed. In the same decade, American Express brought over its Japan-Asia Pacific branch into New Delhi. In the 1990’s, General Electrics also came to set up its back office in India. Other well-known corporations that had outsourced their various business needs to India include Motorola, Standards Chartered Bank, Yahoo, Dell, Cisco, and Delta Air Lines.

Cities with high BPO activity include New Delhi, the country’s capital, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Due to increasing infrastructure costs however, other cities are slowly being developed to match the resources provided by Tier I cities. Tier II cities include Jaipur, Mysore, and Kochi.

Advantages of Business Outsourcing in India There are various benefits that companies can enjoy if they choose to outsource several of their activities to India.

Human Resources Labor is comparatively cheaper in India than in Western regions like the United States and key cities in Europe. The Indian labor force is also well-educated and with varying skills and talents. Neither does it hurt that Indians had long been educated to speak English.

Pioneers in Software Development India is one of the world’s pioneers in software development. Multinational IT firms wouldn’t find it terribly difficult to procure competent resources for their needs in India.

Technology and Infrastructure The country’s government is very much aware of the economic benefits offered by the growing BPO industry. As such, they have been more than willing in recent years to improve infrastructure and technology in order to make their cities well-equipped to handle just about any call center need of multinational companies.

Problems Encountered by the Business Process Outsourcing Industry in India Of course, the BPO industry, just like other industries, isn’t free from problems. One major problem is the high rate of attrition. Many BPO firms are keen on addressing the high rate of attrition in their operations. There are various reasons why many employees are choosing to leave their relatively high-paid jobs.

Many jobs in the BPO sector require employees to work at night and while they are certainly well-compensated for their efforts, this doesn’t negate the fact that they’d have to stay up late for work and suffer possible health problems due to their unusual work schedule.

Stress and pressure during work isn’t something to scoff at either, and this is another reason why people prefer to leave their jobs in the BPO industry.

Business Process Outsourcing in India Today Recent news have predicted India to generate approximately 8 million jobs over the next decade from the BPO industry alone. One-fourth of this figure will be immediately taken up by Tier II and III cities in India.

Today, ninety percent of the BPO industry’s labor force is situated in the country’s top seven BPO and ITO cities. This however has produced problems like oversubscribed universities, rising infrastructure costs, and overburdened roads.

It is the country’s hope that Tier II and III cities will soon be able to provide the requisite resources so as not to put the growth opportunity in BPO to waste.