BPO Services/Call Centre Services: A Profitable Business Model

BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) refers to the handing over of work to another company. A major part of the country outsources their non-strategic, labour-intensive tasks to various other companies around the world.

BPO can be broadly categorized as:

•   Back Office – internal business affairs, such as billing/purchasing.
•   Front Office – customer-related services, such as marketing/tech-support.

Using a BPO as compared to an ASP (Application Service Provider) involves a certain amount of risk to the company that is operating the processes on behalf of the outsourcer. However, BPO only grants access to a company’s functionality and features that are ‘served up’ via software, mostly through a web browser, to a customer.

Types of BPO Companies

BPO Companies are mainly of the following types:

•      Offshore Companies

These companies are located overseas and have offices mostly in India, China, Philippines, Pakistan, etc. They comprise of the largest share of BPO companies and provide call centre services related to data entry, mail answering and telemarketing as well.

•      Onshore Companies

These companies are based in the same country. An example would include a US-based company outsourcing tech-support to a US-based call centre.

•      Near Shore Companies

 Such companies are based in close proximity to the nation. An example of such a company would be a China-based firm extending services to a company based in the US. Other examples of Near Shore call centre companies include those in the Dominion Republic, Costa Rico, Mexico, etc. 

Benefits of Outsourcing

Apart from the risks, there are various benefits that come with outsourcing a company. These include:

•           Reduction in Costs

Offshore outsourcing companies function at minimal costs. Average call centre services in the US charges about $15-$20 an hour for tech and customer support, whereas a call centre based in India would charge $8-$12 an hour.

•       Round the Clock Operations

BPO companies, especially onshore companies, operate 24/7 and all year round.

•       Quality of Service

BPO companies are efficiency-oriented. Parameters such as quality and data security (ISO, BS 7799, 6 Sigma, COPC) are learned and implemented to ensure productivity and sustainability.

BPO companies are among the largest growing and grossing companies in today’s market. In India, major competitors such as GE, American Express, IBM, Convergys, Aegis, Amicorp-BPO, Wipro and E4E operate round the clock and have more than 10,000 employees providing various services to the industry.

Thus, investing in the BPO sector would not be such a bad idea, especially after all the success it has seen. Experts predict a further boom in BPO companies, and they strongly claim that this is the future.

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