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Business Process Outsourcing

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the fastest growing industries in the present scenario. BPO refers to outsourcing in all the major fields of business.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a subset of outsourcing that involves the contracting of the operations and responsibilities of specific business functions (or processes) to a third-party service provider. Originally, this was associated with manufacturing firms, such as Coca Cola that outsourced large segments of its supply chain.[1] In the contemporary context, it is primarily used to refer to the outsourcing of services.

BPO is typically categorized into back office outsourcing - which includes internal business functions such as human resources or finance and accounting, and front office outsourcing - which includes customer-related services such as contact center services.

BPO that is contracted outside a company's country is called offshore outsourcing. BPO that is contracted to a company's neighboring (or nearby) country is called nearshore outsourcing.

Due to the fact that BPOs are paying decent five-figure salaries and incentives, a career in this field has become a hit among the youngsters aged between 18 and 30 years. According to the latest NASSCOM statistics, more than 1.1 million people in India are working in the BPO industry, which is expected to increase to 2.5 to 3 million by the year 2010. Convenient transport facilities, attractive lifestyle, flexibility in work timings and whopping salary package have led to this boom.

As a result, many institutes have started imparting training to develop special skills required for the job, such as proficiency in spoken English, speech, accent and voice modulation, negotiation with clients, marketing skills and communication skills, through short-term diploma or certificate courses.

Qualification for BPO courses:

Generally, BPO companies hire fresher candidates, predominantly graduates. Hence, one can work with BPO with a graduation degree in any stream. While domestic call centers also hire students who have completed 10+2 or undergraduates, international call centers insist on graduation or work experience in the relevant field. Apart from academic qualifications, one has to be proficient in English language and should have good communication skills.

Instituions Offering Courses of BPO:

Some of the major institutes in India that conduct short-term courses for the skills required in BPOs are Aptech (with ACPG courses in all major cities of India), Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Lason India (Chennai) and Brainware (in all major cities in India), Excellionn (New Delhi).

Scope & Propects of Career in BPO

It not only provides monetary benefits, but also gives chance to grow. After completing their graduation, job seekers can join any BPO as specialists in Transactional BPO, Comprehensive BPO, Niche BPO etc. Plenty of jobs opportunities are available in customer support services, telemarketing services, technical support services, employee IT help-desk services, insurance services, data entry services, data conversion services and online marketing, in this field.

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