What is BPO?

BPO is defined as the act of outsourcing to a third party, the responsibility of running a business process that would otherwise be conducted internally (source, The Nasscom McKinsey Study, 2005).

Outsourcing is the delegation of work from an organization / company to a service provider company, where the service provider company typically carries out the same work cheaper and more effectively than the company which is outsourcing. Companies outsource work primarily to gain cost advantages, efficiencies and expertise. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the act of transferring some of an organization's repeated business processes to an outside service provider to achieve cost reductions while improving service quality. The outsourced business process can be a core or a non core function to the company.

There are typically two types of BPO Models:

Captive BPO’s:  The parent company that is outsourcing the business process owns the company that is set up to receive the outsourced work and the receiving company services only the parent company

Non Captive BPO’s: An independent party that operates a BPO and undertakes outsourced work from either/all segments - offshore, on shore & captive

With the advancement of information communication technology, outsourcing has become a global mega trend. The BPO industry potential is estimated to be a staggering 150 billion US dollars, which only a fraction of this is actually being outsourced. Countries like India and Philippines have created millions of jobs in BPO sector.
Typical BPO Services Outsourced (Enhancing Value Chain)

Over the years the BPO Industry has evolved from low complex to highly complex areas of task and skill requirements. Below in an illustrative drawn from KPMG HR Report 2004 outlining this:

Today while almost anything can be outsourced, several key industries are leading the outsourcing wave, and in response to this, BPO companies in Sri Lanka have begun to specialize in these areas. The following are some of the key areas:

Finance & Accounting, Financial Analysis, Investment Research, Legal Services,  Customer Service, Travel, Insurance, Banking, Logistics, Manufacturing, Retail, Healthcare, Engineering Medical Transcriptions

As you can see from the above list, there is a wide spectrum of work areas that a BPO company could be engaged in. Typically, a BPO company will focus on few business process areas to build competencies. Depending on the focus area of the company, the work in a BPO can vary from providing customer support (e.g. answering customer calls), processing transactions (e.g. processing insurance claims), to high end research (e.g. investment research).

What are the requirements (education qualification & skills) required for getting in to a BPO?

A career in the BPO Industry would require a combination of education as well as certain basic skill requirements. This would largely be determined on the area/domain specialization of the BPO Industry. The education qualifications to get in to a BPO can vary from being a school leaver (OL/ALs) to Degree /Diploma Holders and include even Professional Qualifications such as Masters Degrees, CIMA, ACCA, ICA, LLB, Attorney at Law, MBA’s even up till the level of PhDs. The education requirement varies significantly from company to company based on what business process they provide for the clients.  Besides the education requirements BPO’s also look at basic skills that may be required to carry out the service delivery of these offshored processes. Below is an illustration of the necessary and desired skills required depending on the nature of outsourcing, drawn from KPMG HR Report, 2004:

It is almost better to find out a company that matches your skills than getting trained in to get in to a BPO. The good news is that, many BPO companies have broken down the business processes in a way that even people with little or no skills can get quickly trained to work in these companies. Generally, it helps to have some level of computer skills (the ability to operate a computer), communication skills, especially in English and skills to work in a team environment. As such, with basic level of skills many people can get a good job in a BPO company.

The higher end BPOs, also called FAO, LPO’s KPOs (Finance & Accounting, Legal Process, Knowledge Services Outsourcing) generally requires a specialized skills. For example, accounting and finance, investment research and engineering related BPOs typically require high-end skills such as a degree is specific area or a trade certification. These BPOs attract people who are typically already working in a related field in other companies or people who study for specialized degrees.

Many companies also make a significant investment in training employees on an off the job to help people get in to their companies and to advance in their careers.

How to get a job in BPO Company in Sri Lanka?

BPO is a fast growing vibrant sector of employment in Sri Lanka. Many global and local BPO companies captive and non captive  have operations in Sri Lanka. Among the captive BPO’s we have  WNS Global Services, iSmartTimeX, OT (an RR Donnelly Company), Amba Research, Medigain, Quantum, Auxicogent and among captive  BPO’s HSBC Data Processing Limited, Aviva Global Services are few of the leading companies.  The Industry is still in its nascent stage of evolutions but there are close to 36 companies of which 30 are non captive and 6 are captive BPO’s &  number of employees are close to 4500  (source ICTA, Sri Lanka Country Profile: Nasccom BPO Summit Report, 2007). Industry sources indicate an estimated potential of 1000 plus jobs for the year 07 -08.

Additionally majority of the BPO organizations are members of iTESA (IT Enabled Services Association of Sri Lanka). This is the apex body for ITES / BPO industry in Sri Lanka that was formed in October 2004 as an initiative by ICTA. Majority of the BPO companies are members. All member companies are exporters of services

All most, all the BPO companies hire people though out the year and the best way is to approach the company direct. Most of the companies have information and instructions on how to apply on their web sites (www.ITpro.lk Company Directory will soon carry a list of companies to help you directly apply for a job).

Increasingly, BPO companies are also focusing on career fairs and special hiring events to recruit people. The National IT –BPO Career Guidance Fair ‘ 07 is the first full scale BPO Career Guidance fair that aims to attract not just potential employees but also existing professionals and key stakeholders such as parents, teacher, career counselors to augment awarness about the burgeoning BPO Industry. (See www.ITpro.lk Events section for such events). Some companies will do walk-in interviews at these events and it pays for you to come prepared with a CV. You may even walk out with a job!

Career Prospects in BPO

The BPO industry is relatively new, therefore growth prospects are remarkable. Opportunities to enhance and develop skills are tremendous, with Training programs specially designed and delivered to cater to the BPO business.

The BPO Industry attracts the young and provides for quick career growth opportunities as well as the opportunity for both horizontal and vertical career paths. Below is a generic illustration of the two career paths : one that is operations and two that is in enabling streams. The general practice is to provide for horizontal and vertical career paths. Again the BPO Career path would vary for organization to organization and the career path would be dependent on factors such as are of offshoring/domain area, nature of processes, client base, size of organization, education/skill profile of teams etc.

For information on BPO careers and for specific advice from others about your career concerns, visit www.ITpro.lk.

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