Showing posts with label outsourcing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label outsourcing. Show all posts
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Data Entry Outsourcing
Companies from many industries like IT, consumer, pharmacy etc . are generating huge data every day. It requires lots of time and money to keep the records up to date. Considering the lower labor cost of well-educated and efficient labor in the developing countries like India, it is now imperative to outsource data entry jobs to cut labor-intensive costs immediately.
Data entry outsourcing will help companies to concentrate on core competencies by assigning data entry tasks to reliable outsourcing provider. Data entry jobs can be outsourced in the following categories.
Online Data Entry outsourcing
Offline Data Entry outsourcing
Document Entry outsourcing
Image Entry outsourcing
Catalogue Entry outsourcing
Legal document outsourcing
Medical transcription
Insurance Data Entry outsourcing
Companies and institutions who usually need the services of data entry outsourcing are marketing, advertising & publishing, financial, hospitals, colleges & universities, lawyers, oil companies and any such large organizations. Nature of data entry outsourcing could be sometimes constant and sometimes need to be updated on daily basis. Some companies may require data entry updating occasionally.
In past, data entry was simply means data entering into computer. However, digital revolution has changed the definition of data entry. In the present business scenario, the scope and range of data entry processing has grown exponentially according to their importance and time sensitivity. Where most of the small and medium companies require data management services periodically, multinational companies need their data to be updated regularly.
While outsourcing data entry jobs, care should be taken to check credibility of your outsource provider. They should be able to offer various data outsourcing services like data entry, data processing, data extraction, data maintenance and so on. In addition, outsourcing providers should be having good track record of good quality service and having well-educated staff.
Kindly do visit at http://www.kpoasia.com to know more about outsourcing.
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Customer Satisfaction
Call center outsourcing is one of the most high-rising industry in our world today. But what really happens in a call center outsourcing center? Primarily, call center outsourcing or contact centers is a service that conduct both inbound and outbound services. They are a function outside of the main company that focus on the services for customers. They can do inbound technical support or customer help or outbound telemarketing services. Some call centers handle several other services. Some do chat services, e-mails, operator services, directory assistance, and many more. So basically when we say “call center” it’s almost the same thing as customer assistance. It is all about the CUSTOMERS!
It is a must for call center companies to keep their customers satisfied. When we say customer satisfaction what comes into mind? Usually it is said that it is making sure that the customer is happy. That is so true! Customer satisfaction is Keeping the customer happy and making them enjoy your full services, when I say enjoy I mean that after serving the customer they will want nothing but to come back and avail of your services again. So, what about customer satisfaction when it comes to call centers? Customer satisfaction works hand in hand with quality in service.
To reach the optimum quality in service by a call center a lot of factors are needed to be considered and managed. The process as a whole should be perfectly planned before trying to implement in a call center. The structure of the whole company or project must be considered, meaning that the plan, the structure of personnel, and possible call flow must be thoroughly studied. Another is the technology that is to be used. Much has to be considered as to what softwares and hardwares are needed for the project to run smoothly. Softwares as to the databases for the campaigns is needed and the tools that are needed or will be needed. Things like several programs, specifically softwares that is made especially for the campaign, for some the dialers that is needed, even the operating system to be used must be thought of. For the hardware, internet connection is to be availed and see if it is able to give the quality that you need especially check if it ca carry out voice transfer and if it is clear. Another is the phones to be used in making calls. Voip or voice over internet protocol is the commonly used nowadays. Lastly the computers that is to be used. Its specifications must be able to carry out the needs of the softwares.
Lastly the trainings of the agents that is going to engage in the calls. They should be really trained with regards to the soft-skills and product. Soft-skills means the agents should be well-trained with regards to the proper use of the language that they are to use, the accent of the said language, call handling and lastly, what data is needed to be gathered at the end of the call. On product, they should be properly trained with regards in using the softwares for the project, information regarding the project and the products, if there are, of the project and some basic things in handling some of the common inquiries about the project.
This factors, if completed, will lead to a high rate of customer satisfaction. If all these things are met by the company then you are assured of, not only satisfied, but happy customers. Still customer satisfaction is not perfect, as the saying goes “you can’t please everybody”. So that basically means that there can never be 100% customer satisfaction. Maybe you can settle with 90% on that!
It is a must for call center companies to keep their customers satisfied. When we say customer satisfaction what comes into mind? Usually it is said that it is making sure that the customer is happy. That is so true! Customer satisfaction is Keeping the customer happy and making them enjoy your full services, when I say enjoy I mean that after serving the customer they will want nothing but to come back and avail of your services again. So, what about customer satisfaction when it comes to call centers? Customer satisfaction works hand in hand with quality in service.
To reach the optimum quality in service by a call center a lot of factors are needed to be considered and managed. The process as a whole should be perfectly planned before trying to implement in a call center. The structure of the whole company or project must be considered, meaning that the plan, the structure of personnel, and possible call flow must be thoroughly studied. Another is the technology that is to be used. Much has to be considered as to what softwares and hardwares are needed for the project to run smoothly. Softwares as to the databases for the campaigns is needed and the tools that are needed or will be needed. Things like several programs, specifically softwares that is made especially for the campaign, for some the dialers that is needed, even the operating system to be used must be thought of. For the hardware, internet connection is to be availed and see if it is able to give the quality that you need especially check if it ca carry out voice transfer and if it is clear. Another is the phones to be used in making calls. Voip or voice over internet protocol is the commonly used nowadays. Lastly the computers that is to be used. Its specifications must be able to carry out the needs of the softwares.
Lastly the trainings of the agents that is going to engage in the calls. They should be really trained with regards to the soft-skills and product. Soft-skills means the agents should be well-trained with regards to the proper use of the language that they are to use, the accent of the said language, call handling and lastly, what data is needed to be gathered at the end of the call. On product, they should be properly trained with regards in using the softwares for the project, information regarding the project and the products, if there are, of the project and some basic things in handling some of the common inquiries about the project.
This factors, if completed, will lead to a high rate of customer satisfaction. If all these things are met by the company then you are assured of, not only satisfied, but happy customers. Still customer satisfaction is not perfect, as the saying goes “you can’t please everybody”. So that basically means that there can never be 100% customer satisfaction. Maybe you can settle with 90% on that!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Can Slow Growth Boost Outsourcing?
It is no secret that more and more companies are moving their projects outside of the company walls by using outsourcing and freelance services to complete the projects. This move has made it possible for companies the world over to remain profitable in the face of economic downturns. This speaks directly to the benefits to be had when outsourcing projects to freelance professionals from all over the world. So many people are skilled in certain areas that they hardly ever use, mostly because they took a job in the world that was outside of their qualifications in order to survive in the failing economy that is plaguing the world. This is not uncommon. Those with degrees in electronics and their inner-workings are especially prone to this because of the cut throat market that reigns. Upon graduating, these people will most often take a job that has little to do with the education they have received. This is a huge waste of resources as many companies will not hire such persons because they have little or no skills in the real world.
Barring a complete and total makeover of the way that companies hire professionals, the only chance these people have is to take on freelance jobs that have been outsourced by a company in need of such services. This is becoming common place in this world as freelancing takes a hold and makes it mark on the professional world. Outsourcing is rapidly becoming the best way for companies to save money in light of the downturn that the economy has taken. Little can be gained by these companies when they attempt to keep the projects in house. Moreover, they stand to lose substantial amounts of money by attempting to hire and train someone for the project when you take into consideration all the benefits and salary that must be paid to persons that work inside the company. Outsourcing does away with the need for such benefits by hiring professionals from outside the company walls to make certain that the project is completed in a timely and efficient manner without the large costs involved in training someone for the project.
The beauty of outsourcing lies in the simplicity of it all. The freelance professionals that are available for outsourcing the projects are already trained in the inner-workings of the project. This saves the company not only time but money in the long run. The fact remains that hiring a professional for full time work is not productive in most cases when the project is a one time thing that may lead to the possibility of more work but does not guarantee as such. This means that a company may only benefit from a person’s knowledge once and never again. Then if they have already hired such a person then they are required to put into place a full time salary and benefits package that will cost them more than the project is worth in the end. So in essence the company has wasted the valuable resources they have when it comes to a one shot project that is not guaranteed to bring in any long term profits for the company. That is where the outsourcing of projects comes into play. Instead of hiring a full time employee with long term pay and benefits, the company takes part in outsourcing by opening the bidding floor to qualified freelance professionals who will bid for a one time flat fee for the project.
Under the outsourcing system, freelance professionals bid and are awarded the project based on their individual merits and the price that they have bid for the project. If they have the skills required then they simply complete the project in exchange for the pay that is agreed upon. That is the only connection that the freelance professional that is hired for outsourcing has to the company and can make no claims to the company for more than the agreed upon pay. This is all done in the comfort of outside locations. This means that the person does not have an office inside the company and is not subject to any benefits that the other employees of the company enjoy. This in itself has saved the company a lot of money.
When you take all the factors into consideration you see that outsourcing is the way to go for a lot of things. Many companies are finding that they can run with a surprisingly low number of employees on their payroll as compared to previous years when they use outsourcing as their main method of completing projects especially when it comes to those things that require special training and knowledge that is not taught in the base education of the employees that they regularly hire. There is the possibility that many companies will find improved profit margins in relation to the former bottom lines that they once thought to be too low. In the essence of good business decisions, more and more companies are outsourcing their projects in an effort to streamline their business with an eye to the future.
There is much to be gained by outsourcing the projects that a company needs completed. All over the globe there are people who are highly skilled but not using those skills in their normal jobs. This is a tragedy to many who know that these professionals can be tapped to provide valuable services to the companies all over the world that are spending millions of dollars more than they should be to get the work done that is so vital to the company.
Most of the knowledge that can be found in the freelance professionals of the world that take part in outsourcing is mandatory for the companies of today. So much is relied upon by these companies and it is of the utmost importance that they work to maintain a higher profit margin in an effort to boost the world out of the recession that it currently is in to provide the best work possible for their customers. In the end if there are no customers than there is no business and they need to find cheaper ways in which to maintain an airtight business without harming that which is important to them.
Outsourcing is the only solution to the problem as more and more companies are struggling and laying off workers in an effort to remain profitable. They will notice a 50% decrease in costs when outsourcing takes place on the projects that can be completed by freelance professionals. If the economy continues on the downward spiral than a great loss of jobs is not far off in the horizon. This speaks directly to the need for outsourcing of the projects that companies need to the freelance professionals of the world who can get the job done at a fraction of the cost and normally within a shorter amount of time than originally conceived. To maintain this type of business most companies will benefit in a short period of time when they outsource the projects to those who do not operate in house.
Furthering the cause of outsourcing is of vital importance to all those who need the work completed in a timely manner and with the professional quality that so many can bring to the table.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) = Global Fusion
‘Globalism’ Sweeps The World
Increasingly the world of business is coming together to tackles people/business & political issues. This increased focus on collaborative synergies is reshaping corporate strategies and even transforming competition…as even competitors at times come together to collectively grow the markets/lobby for concessions from governments or form business interest groups. All this is the new face of globalisation – called ‘globalism’.
Just like fusion releases limitless energy, business fusion through the spread of globalism is releasing unlimited opportunities for growth today and tomorrow. Outsourcing is one of the trends of this globalism as business come together on a shared expertise basis for jointly adding lasting value to their mutual bottom-lines. Outsourcing has also given rise to many new ways of collaborating - like the rise of collaborative marketplaces/portals on the web where outsourcing people eonverge/meet viz. service providers, service seekers, corporate, thought leaders, CEOs, CFOs, Project Managers, Transition Experts, freelancers, consultants, service seekers, BPO analysts/experts/advisors.
BPO & Global Fusion
Today’s consultative BPOs are a unique example of ‘global fusion’ where different cultures and processes ‘fuse’ to release an enormous energy viz. worker enthusiasm and significantly higher revenues too. Many BPO employ expatriate multicultural staff from different countries to deliver integrated BPO i.e. both the contact center as well the IT needs of its global clients. This leads to immense gains to both service providers as well their workforce as people from different cultures enjoy working together towards the same business goal and there are immense cross learnings for everyone in terms of process innovations and cultural bonding.
The other fusion is at the outsourced business process level as it seamlessly integrates with client process & global operations. This is a process of continuous improvement as the outsourcing vendor is continuously re-inventing its operational procedures by introducing innovative processes that significantly enhance revenues of its clients while saving millions too. Being domain focused enables outsourcing project managers to offer consulting to its clients (as it is able to view the clients’ customer needs more objectively/closely) that help them align their competitive strategies more effectively.
BPO vendors are then able to charge their its clients on the value they delivers rather than the usual model of effort based costing. This way the clients do not have to pay for any service/personnel in-efficiencies (as is the case with the usual effort based pricing practiced by other BPOs, where the costing depends on the number of seats/people allocated to a process).Thus client engagements at BPOs consistently grow up the value chain and this business fusion is a great win for clients, great for employees, great for outsourcing service providers and even greater for India as a trailblazing destination for BPO innovations!
Global Transformations
Companies who outsource are those who experience higher pressure to provide global integration. According to a recent report, rising majority of companies currently use outsourcing as a transformational vehicle. A key feature of adopting business process transformation through a BPO model is that the process improvement stages can often be funded by the savings released in the initial outsource , particularly if this involves labour cost savings via a low-cost off shoring location.
The outsourcing initiative is now seen to be more strategic. The business reasons for outsourcing appear persuasive, and the experience to date revolutionary to say the least. Apart from technology optimization, the other outsourcing -improvement levers are: outsourcing economies of scale, labour arbitrage, people-skills optimization and continuous process improvement.
BPO providers with core skills in technology and systems integration take the risk out of implementing automation, and their investment in IT infrastructure is an inherent benefit of BPO. Both CEOs and CFOs are looking for ways to drive benefits beyond cost issues to transform overall corporate performance, competitiveness and shareholder value. For them, BPO is a fact of good business life. It continues to grow and make its mark as a prime mover in cutting costs and generating efficiency.
Increasingly the world of business is coming together to tackles people/business & political issues. This increased focus on collaborative synergies is reshaping corporate strategies and even transforming competition…as even competitors at times come together to collectively grow the markets/lobby for concessions from governments or form business interest groups. All this is the new face of globalisation – called ‘globalism’.
Just like fusion releases limitless energy, business fusion through the spread of globalism is releasing unlimited opportunities for growth today and tomorrow. Outsourcing is one of the trends of this globalism as business come together on a shared expertise basis for jointly adding lasting value to their mutual bottom-lines. Outsourcing has also given rise to many new ways of collaborating - like the rise of collaborative marketplaces/portals on the web where outsourcing people eonverge/meet viz. service providers, service seekers, corporate, thought leaders, CEOs, CFOs, Project Managers, Transition Experts, freelancers, consultants, service seekers, BPO analysts/experts/advisors.
BPO & Global Fusion
Today’s consultative BPOs are a unique example of ‘global fusion’ where different cultures and processes ‘fuse’ to release an enormous energy viz. worker enthusiasm and significantly higher revenues too. Many BPO employ expatriate multicultural staff from different countries to deliver integrated BPO i.e. both the contact center as well the IT needs of its global clients. This leads to immense gains to both service providers as well their workforce as people from different cultures enjoy working together towards the same business goal and there are immense cross learnings for everyone in terms of process innovations and cultural bonding.
The other fusion is at the outsourced business process level as it seamlessly integrates with client process & global operations. This is a process of continuous improvement as the outsourcing vendor is continuously re-inventing its operational procedures by introducing innovative processes that significantly enhance revenues of its clients while saving millions too. Being domain focused enables outsourcing project managers to offer consulting to its clients (as it is able to view the clients’ customer needs more objectively/closely) that help them align their competitive strategies more effectively.
BPO vendors are then able to charge their its clients on the value they delivers rather than the usual model of effort based costing. This way the clients do not have to pay for any service/personnel in-efficiencies (as is the case with the usual effort based pricing practiced by other BPOs, where the costing depends on the number of seats/people allocated to a process).Thus client engagements at BPOs consistently grow up the value chain and this business fusion is a great win for clients, great for employees, great for outsourcing service providers and even greater for India as a trailblazing destination for BPO innovations!
Global Transformations
Companies who outsource are those who experience higher pressure to provide global integration. According to a recent report, rising majority of companies currently use outsourcing as a transformational vehicle. A key feature of adopting business process transformation through a BPO model is that the process improvement stages can often be funded by the savings released in the initial outsource , particularly if this involves labour cost savings via a low-cost off shoring location.
The outsourcing initiative is now seen to be more strategic. The business reasons for outsourcing appear persuasive, and the experience to date revolutionary to say the least. Apart from technology optimization, the other outsourcing -improvement levers are: outsourcing economies of scale, labour arbitrage, people-skills optimization and continuous process improvement.
BPO providers with core skills in technology and systems integration take the risk out of implementing automation, and their investment in IT infrastructure is an inherent benefit of BPO. Both CEOs and CFOs are looking for ways to drive benefits beyond cost issues to transform overall corporate performance, competitiveness and shareholder value. For them, BPO is a fact of good business life. It continues to grow and make its mark as a prime mover in cutting costs and generating efficiency.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Consultative Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
Outsourcing = Global Momentum
The global business landscape has changed dramatically in the last couple of years thanks to growth of outsourcing. Outsourcing has gained strength as a management strategy for sustaining global growth as well competitive advantage to overcome the challenges of ever growing business complexities. So whether it’s a Fortune 100 transnationals or even a small enterprise, everyone is looking at outsourcing as a key growth engine thanks to the increased levels of process specialization and sophistication. Domain specialization and not just economies of scale are key to the success of any outsourcing relationship. Outsourcing has been recognized to save companies and not just costs.
Evolving Outsourcing Relationships
Organisations now regard outsourcing as a key initiative for overall growth and not just as mere cost saving exercise. Hence organizations are increasingly seeking best-in-class outsourcing specialists and not just large best of breed outsourcing service providers. This is especially true in the IT & engineering verticals as organizations even outsource new product development tasks to specialized offshore vendors. Research intensive, customer focused outsourcing relationships now have to include the following to remain competitive:
• Innovation Update. Quarterly, bi-annual, or annual innovation reviews (also known as innovation boards) focus typically on state of the market, industry trends and relevant information, technology updates, solution demonstrations, site visits, etc. Leverage other industry peer groups to understand what is happening in your industry, the outsourcing industry, and other sectors.
• Benchmarking. Clients should always activate their benchmarking clauses and focus on best practice as comparators of innovation—not just cost comparisons. Benchmark both functional excellence and outsourced environments.
• Stakeholder Satisfaction Surveys. Perform monthly, quarterly, and annual customer satisfaction surveys. They should be “360 degrees”—covering multiple dimensions and all internal and external stakeholders.
• Deliver on Partnering Promise. Hold regular collaborative planning sessions. Where people are briefed on the strategic and business objectives. Service providers need to come up with implantable strategies on how best they can meet their clients’ business challenges. This makes the outsourcing vendors to think and act above simple tactical delivery.
• Value sharing framework. A transparent value-from-outsourcing sharing mechanism on a case-by-case basis should be harnessed to pay for business services delivered. Inclusion of regular mutual rewards for both your organization and that of the service provider boosts people motivation at all levels.
• Service Excellence. All SLAs must be tied to process excellence or customer delight will not happen. Project milestones, “go-live” events, and pilots are tangible means of tracking process maturity & excellence. Other measures include customer satisfaction, productivity, Six Sigma (defects), work elimination, etc.
• Outsourcing Management. The internal governance team should have a transformation or innovation owner, sufficient staff & budget to help drive innovation and must hold the provider accountable for innovation. Reassure and demonstrate to the provider that the relationship is long-term; otherwise they will be inclined to disinvest in innovation and the relationship. Your organization must retain process management expertise at a level at which you can clearly articulate future state requirements, evaluate proposals brought forward by the service provider, and work with your organization to get the business case for change.
• Executive Visibility / Support. Senior executives from the service provider side must have high visibility and access. This includes steering committees, reciprocal headquarter visits, joint speaking engagements, regularly scheduled calls, quarterly and annual briefings.
• Behaviour/Communication/Culture. Be prepared to invest in and encourage business process transformations that are aligned to business goals - rather early in any outsourcing relationship. Transformation requires a partnership mindset, not a transactional orientation. Innovation is often not brought to bear because clients do not ask for it, define what they mean by it, and motivate the provider to deliver it, or put restrictions around it. Clients rarely help the provider to understand what is important to them.
Consultative BPO
Outsourcing has now scaled the maturity milestone globally and hence is increasingly consultative in nature rather than being mere business vendors. Outsourcing relationships now proactively meet business challenges as specialist BPO vendors invest to stay ahead of the learning curve.
Outsourcing is often regarded as a change catalyst and hence clients are increasing using outsourcing initiatives in their growth strategies/ employee career planning initiatives. Joint client-service provider partnering is key to this new consultative approach where both invest in transformations and not just fund reactive process management.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
A Critical Tip To Make An Outsourcing Project Successful
Understanding what you want to accomplish is critical to a successful outsourcing venture. Although there are many who claim to offer offshoring procurement services, the fact remains that only the business contemplating outsourcing can determine the what, who and when of any offshore service project.
To this end, a business needs to understand the WHAT of any outsourcing project. The what of course, is what will be outsourced. It's not enough to simply state we're gong to outsource IT technology services, or Human Resources, or any other facet of the business. To determine the WHAT means an intimate understanding of how your business is currently handling that work.
So the first order of business when considering outsourcing is:
Define the current Process. This should be done with an understanding of requirements. Requirements should be clearly defined in such a way as to eliminate ambiguity and offer a measurement method. Fast service is NOT a metric. Answering and resolving a specific type of customer inquiry within x number of minutes IS a requirement.
The exercise of defining the current process allows you to understand the details of what actually needs done. This information will be needed when/if transferring that process over to your new outsource partner.
Now would also be a good time to do a cost benefit analysis on the proposed process. This allows the business to have a solid estimate of the current operating costs of the process under consideration for outsourcing. When doing this analysis, be certain to honestly consider all the costs involved.
I was involved with a major technology company who insisted that any cost that couldn't readily be quantified, be marginalized or simply ignored. They based the decision to outsource their internal help desk for thousands of people based on a simple statement; "Support call costs will go from 25 dollars to 6 dollars." Problem was that they didn't cover all the costs. Although they required calls to be answered within a certain period of time, they didn't set a resolution time. When support was in house, an engineer could call for support and get a resolution in hours. After the transfer however, that same call took a minimum of 3 days and sometimes over a week for resolution. The cost in lost productivity to the company because the engineer didn't have access to his files and email were never considered in the simple statement above. If the total costs were considered, the savings would have been much less significant.
So the key tip is to know your process and costs prior to considering offshoring any project. By being armed with solid information, it's then possible to select the right outsource partner and make a good decision for the business.
To this end, a business needs to understand the WHAT of any outsourcing project. The what of course, is what will be outsourced. It's not enough to simply state we're gong to outsource IT technology services, or Human Resources, or any other facet of the business. To determine the WHAT means an intimate understanding of how your business is currently handling that work.
So the first order of business when considering outsourcing is:
Define the current Process. This should be done with an understanding of requirements. Requirements should be clearly defined in such a way as to eliminate ambiguity and offer a measurement method. Fast service is NOT a metric. Answering and resolving a specific type of customer inquiry within x number of minutes IS a requirement.
The exercise of defining the current process allows you to understand the details of what actually needs done. This information will be needed when/if transferring that process over to your new outsource partner.
Now would also be a good time to do a cost benefit analysis on the proposed process. This allows the business to have a solid estimate of the current operating costs of the process under consideration for outsourcing. When doing this analysis, be certain to honestly consider all the costs involved.
I was involved with a major technology company who insisted that any cost that couldn't readily be quantified, be marginalized or simply ignored. They based the decision to outsource their internal help desk for thousands of people based on a simple statement; "Support call costs will go from 25 dollars to 6 dollars." Problem was that they didn't cover all the costs. Although they required calls to be answered within a certain period of time, they didn't set a resolution time. When support was in house, an engineer could call for support and get a resolution in hours. After the transfer however, that same call took a minimum of 3 days and sometimes over a week for resolution. The cost in lost productivity to the company because the engineer didn't have access to his files and email were never considered in the simple statement above. If the total costs were considered, the savings would have been much less significant.
So the key tip is to know your process and costs prior to considering offshoring any project. By being armed with solid information, it's then possible to select the right outsource partner and make a good decision for the business.
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