Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts

Outsourcing: The Norsemen Are Coming

Saturday, October 3, 2009
With high cost structures during a recession, many Nordic countries are looking towards India to help them cut those costs by almost 30-40%. Some of the biggest banks in the Nordic region, NORDEA AB, Svenska Handelsbanken and SEB are looking at outsourcing technology to India.
According to a senior official of an offshore advisory firm, QuantumStep, Nordic companies studied many successful offshoring case studies like Ericsson and Ikea before considering India. Nordic countries prefer to start off with small contracts in the region of $10-20 million, but are expected to sign larger ones only after looking at the benefits of the earlier contracts. Belgium, another potentially huge market for service providers, is also signing contracts to the tune of almost $30-40 million and more, said the official from QuantumStep.

EquaTerra, an outsourcing advisory firm, in a study involving 370 contracts, signed by over 200 Nordic customers and worth around $4.3 billion, found that Indian service providers were better than their European counterparts such as TietoEnator and Capgemini when it came to quality of services offered. EquaTerra said in a recent report that there’s no doubt that India leads the pack when it comes to providing services for the Nordic firms with at least 61% of firms using India for all or at least some of their outsourcing needs.

Unlike other European markets, such as Germany, where labor laws make it difficult for service providers, Nordic countries are more flexible and this is what makes it more viable for India. Major Indian IT companies are looking at outsourcing contracts to the tune of $100 million each, in the coming years.

When Handelsbanken was looking at offshoring, it shortlisted many firms, including European and Indian ones, before finally deciding on Indian firms. Handelsbanken had tentatively been exploring offshoring for almost a year; the recession forced them into considering it as a definite possibility. Handelsbanken are looking for suppliers to maintain their legacy mainframe systems in addition to making them work with newer business software applications.
Though one top Indian IT firm confirmed that Nordic countries are indeed looking at outsourcing to India, others declined comment.

The head of the European division of an Indian IT firm says that the overall Nordic market will not grow much this year but the demand for outsourcing is seeing a steady growth. According to him, about 100 deals which have been signed over the past six to eight months are collectively in the vicinity of € 500,000 to € 150 million with the most significant one in size and in terms of frequency being in the vicinity of € 8-20 million.
Norway is expected to show a high IT market growth in Europe this year, around 1-2% every year, while most other markets have not grown or have declined.

BPO Industry As A Career Option

Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Taking a look at the current financial crisis, one may not feel too optimistic about business process outsourcing( BPO) industry in India. However Mr. P. G. Raghuraman, Lead Delivery Centers for BPO in India, Accenture, sees the positive aspects in the growth of BPO service providers and also potential for the industry to attract young professionals as their chosen career.

According to Nasscom study, the current size of BPO industry is $11 billion and it is expected to grow by five-fold in size to $50 billion by the year 2012. This growth in Indian BPO will add nearly 2.5 percent to the India's GDP from the export earnings and employment to nearly 2 million people.
There is popular belief that,there are numerous job opportunities but fewer career opportunities in BPO sector. This is not true,the Indian BPO industry has boundless career opportunities. This is evident from the fact that, over the years the BPO services have grown from just voice to other customer relationship management services like human resources,finance and accounting, learning and procurement, animation and multimedia, legal transcription, content development, as well as industry-specific services focusing on the health care,insurance, pharmaceutical and utility industries.

The companies in the life science industry are quite familiar to the process of outsourcing. They outsource some of their critical process like drug discovery, product manufacture,clinical trials and data management. Thus the mainstream BPO service providers requires special knowledge and skill set to perform the traditional life science functions such as clinical data management and monitoring of drug safety.

India happens to be one of the most attractive destination for such specialized functions due to low cost benefits and availability of high skilled work force.
Today, the Indian BPO companies are creating comprehensive roles for employees by expanding globally and providing them the opportunity to work on multiple verticals. It is indeed a fast growing industry as it provides ample opportunity for growth and entrepreneurship.

This change in the role of BPO sector from transaction-processing to high end specialized services has led to the growing demand of skilled workforce. Today the industry needs capability development. Even the professionals with degrees like M.tech,MBBS,MBA, CA, ICWA are taking up work in domain specific back office processes in advisory,analytical and consulting arena. This requires a clear relationship between IT/BPO industry and the academic world which train the workforce with industry specific jobs.
Nowadays even parents are becoming more supportive to the youngsters who want to join the BPO industry because they genuinely see it as a long term career. There is a realization that, BPO are not only about call centers but providing the right opportunities, skills and global exposure. In a nutshell the employees in the BPO industry are now getting challenging careers with tremendous job opportunities,hands-on experience,information about the culture and customs of various countries across the globe. This experience in understanding and appreciation of diversity is valuable for their personal as well professional growth.

Of late, BPO industry does get support from reputed academia. There are companies who provide training programmes specifically designed for the BPO sector in collaboration with some of the renowned institutions of India. More courses of this nature are being designed by other companies to provide outsourcing services. This one step forward towards making BPO as a long term career opportunity.
outsourcing.

Know The Basics Of Starting A Call Center

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

What is a call center?

A call center is centralized office where large volumes of requests are received and transmitted by telephone. A call center is a place set by a company to administer incoming product support or to answer the queries of the customers. It is a physical place where customers and telephone calls are handled by a BPO service provider usually with the help of computer automation. Typically, a call center has the capability of handling considerable volumes of calls, screen calls, forward them to qualified agent who can handle calls and log them.

Types of call center:

Call center are of two types, these are outbound call center and inbound call center

The other types of call center are web enabled call center, CRM (customer relationship management) call center, telemarketing call center and phone call center

What are the key responsibilities of outbound call center personnel?

  • Make outgoing calls to prospective customers to promote product and services
  • Update relevant information in the database as and when required
  • The agent is expected to stick to the highest standard of quality and compliance.
  • Be friendly and courteous to the customers.
  • Make sales to the required target.

What are the key responsibilities of inbound call center personnel?

  • Handle inbound calls relating to customer queries on a product or service.
  • To offer customized services that are designed to meet the requirements of the business.
  • To integrate customer care services.
  • To understand the business, product and services
  • Help in maximizing the efforts of direct marketing.

How does a call center function?

A typical call center functions in the following way, a caller dials a toll free number that is connected to a customer support center. When the call reaches a call center, a trained call center agent answers the call and has access to wide database of information. The dedicated telecommunication links connects the remote call center to the parent organization through voice links and online database access. Therefore even if the caller may be calling a local US number but the calls will be diverted to an offshore BPO service provider.

What are the application areas of call center?

  • Sales support
  • Technical queries
  • Database development
  • Complaint handling
  • Relationship and accounts management
  • Lead generation and follow up
  • Telemarketing
  • Credit and billing
  • Market research

How to start a call center?

Starting a call center is a complex, time consuming and expensive business. The steps to start a call center may vary depending on whether you want to start an in-house or outsourcing call center. Similarly the equipment and manpower requirement is also different for an inbound and outbound call center. Both large and medium sized companies are realizing the benefits of call center. Starting a call center of your can be a lucrative business. Here are some points to consider while starting a call center.

  • Study the call center industry and select a location.
  • Examine the four basic types of call center.
  • Determine the process, permit and licenses required in order to comply with the rules and regulation of your area.
  • Compare the prices of equipment such as Internet and telephone.
  • Define the company’s strategy and methods that you will apply to measure the productivity, quality, customers and employee satisfaction.
  • Create a business plan and outline the business goals, financial needs, staffing plan and logistics
  • Choose a business mentor. There are experts who offer business advice to entrepreneurs, their advice can be beneficial.

Most of the in-house call center function as part of the business and provides services for that business. While an outsourcing call center is the one that provides BPO services to other companies. By knowing the basics of call center industry one can successfully venture into call center business. The next important goal is to follow the plan, improve it, expand it and fine-tune it.

The Career Goal in Finance

Thursday, August 20, 2009

What’s the end game after a number of years of going to school? Maybe to have a stable career and life but this does not occur overnite. It takes blood, work, sweat and tears which is also the career goal in finance. How will we do that? Well, folks always say a good education opens doors.

A finance career works the same way given that there are numerous corporations that you can work in after graduation explaining why you must do a little research first to discover what facets of the industry interests you the most. When you’re able to perform some research in each of them, it will be easy for you to develop the talents wanted to excel in this in the future.

A career in finance can occur if you graduate with a degree in mathematics, economics or stats. But since the market is really competitive, you’ve got to make yourself shine by earning an MBA degree years on. You do not have to get one after 2 years of work as there are some people who are studying in their forty’s.

Aside from that, it’s best to read up books and participate in meetings and become an affiliate of a pro organization. You have got to be informed of the most recent trends and build up your network because that somebody you know may get you that job you’re looking for. 2 examples of these organizations include the Yank Financiers organisation and the Association for Fiscal Pros . They have events prepared all year long that will enable you meet new folk with similar career goals.

For those that do not have an idea what facet of financing yet to chase, this is the time to ask help from one of your professors. Certainly , this person can tell you what sort of job is firmly related to what was taught in class. With that in your head, it’s time to go looking for firms that engage in precisely that.

While you’re still at school, another thing that might help will be to apply as an intern in one of these firms. Some corporations will give an income while other won’t . If you do well here, they will potentially give you an offer even before you graduate or inspire you to work for them full time.

If the company you’re looking for does not have any vacancies now, leave your resume or application anyhow so that if an opening comes up, somebody will give you a call so all you have got to do is give it your best in the interview. At the same time, be active in your faculty organization because an alumni member may looking out for new abilities that will be of benefit for the company. We need to target something so a concept can be turned into a plan and then executed. A career goal in finance is only 1 example because folk with other interests can do the same and achieve success in whatever enterprise they opt to pursue.
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