Chapter 1: Rationale for the study Chapter 1: Rationale for the study

The needs to identify, understand, assess as well as evaluate BPO industries mainly towards

recognizing of such training and development. The one objective is to integrate cases and

literature studies that adhere to training development of BPO industry as the research is vital in

order for Oman's BPO presence is of effective stature in terms of training and development.

Other initial objectives will deal to BPO as noted and discussed by various researches in form of

secondary resources that leads to main research methodology and that is, case study utilization

approach of certain BPO industries being known about for Oman industries to follow and have it

as an ideal reference. In global workplace, there was tremendous growth in business processing

outsourcing (BPO). Many industries are establishing effective centers, back offices and other

offshore enterprises in developing countries in an attempt to reduce costs. The research focuses

on training development area of BPO industry, business establishments' training domains. The

outlining of training development faced in offshore outsources destinations, investigate some of

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the reasons for breakdowns in communication. The identification of managerial challenges and

opportunities faced by business process outsourcing (BPO) firms in Oman by means of

interviewing 25 executives in lower, middle as well as upper management in a total of at least 3

BPO industry. Content analysis of the responses will be revealed upon human resource training

and development related challenges as a critical issue to tackle into. The application of SWOT

analysis will be covered for future training opportunities linking to knowledge process

outsourcing. Another secondary data presenting in global research agencies and Oman's national

trade association, will be supporting outcomes. BPO changes to address challenges as well as to

exploit training development opportunities will be explored in research.The purpose of research

is to examine the factors that drive firm's decision to invest in training in Oman's business

process outsourcing (BPO) sector, research aims to consider much-neglected area and often cite

the need to consider external factors, especially needs of the organization's clients in firm's

decision to train.

The research will employ case study research strategy using semi structured interviews,

organization based documents and some non participant observation. Employee turnover,

competitive strategy, client specifications and quality management systems were important

factors in shaping the nature and extent of training development. The temporal dimension of

process was significant in influencing volume of training. The study will be finding out if

learning and development were inextricably intertwined with its operations management, as

against BPO's HR infrastructure. HRD research adopt inward looking approach, the study offers

fresh insights by adopting an outward-looking approach and considers the impact of an

organization's clients on provision of training. The study's distinctive contributions are in

identifying the influence that client specification, employee turnover, temporal and geographical

dimension of processes have on provision of training and, in analyzing the critical and

unexplored link between firm's market orientation, learning orientation, and quality management

systems, in shaping the nature and extent of training provision. Research extends the current

theory building debates and provides insights for practitioners and education policy makers about

training decision making in BPO firms.Some service provider firm in an outsourcing relationship

is distinct from typical firm because it is not stand alone organization and fits somewhere in

between the value chain of its client's business. Thus, conventional factors like wages, capital,

rent, energy consumption cannot appropriately determine a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)

firm's productivity. Aside, academic research is silent on the factors that influence the 2

performance of BPO firm even though the issue is pertinent from the perspective of the host

country, the sourcing firm, the global outsourcing industry and of course the service provider

firm. In this research, there will be embarking on in order to explore the latter factors.Research

will be situated in human resources development literature and consider area and often cited need

to consider external factors, especially the needs of an organization's customers/clients in firm's

decision to train (Bing et al., 2003; Short, 2006) Through case study methodology, there examine

factors that drive firm's decision to invest in training in Oman's information technology enabled

services sector as well as BPO. Thus, Smith (2000) has "argued that phenomenon of enterprise

training is too complex to be explicated by survey methodologies". Aside, research on enterprise

training needs alternative research strategies such as case study research to uncover the complex

interactions in training decision-making, especially when the phenomenon and the context

cannot be separated.

Qualitative case study methodology is one such strategy that can yield valuable insights about

the phenomenon by allowing it to be studied in its natural settings (Yin, 2003) External factors,

such as clients' needs, are particularly important given the distinct features of business process

outsourcing (BPO) industry, such as the high level of interdependence between a service

provider and the client firm, and the dynamic nature of its business environment (Banerjee,

2004). In addition to the factors identified in the extant literature that explain a firm's decision to

invest in training (Smith et al., 2004), the distinctive contribution is in identifying the influence

of a firm's market orientation, learning orientation and quality management systems on the nature

and extent of training in firms in BPO sector. There provides novel insights into reasons for

variation in training by considering a temporal dimension of an organization's process or project

life cycle, its competitive strategy and the interactions between various organizational

capabilities. The rest of research is organized as follows first, brief discussion of structure of

Oman's BPO sector. Second, reviewing the literature relating to drivers of training in industries

as there primarily informs objectives of research. Third, presenting methodology employing

rationale of research study. Fourth, presenting ample analysis and findings concluding research

implications.

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Chapter 2. Objective of the Study

In a development that promised to change the face of the Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, global giant IBM announced in April 2004, its plan to acquire Daksh e-Services, one of India's largest BPO companies. Within a week of this announcement, Citigroup also announced its plans to increase its stake in its Indian BPO subsidiary to 100%. While some saw these developments as vindication of India's emerging status as a services superpower, others believed that these acquisitions could be reflective of a lacuna in the management of these BPO companies.  Government and Business Environment Case Study,Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, Business process outsourcing, Daksh e-Services, Comparative cost advantage theory, Information technology enabled services (ITES), e-Serve International, Customer Relationship Management, Unemployment, Mergers and acquisitions, Productivity,Business Environment Case Study, Low cost destination, NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies), International trade, free trade,

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Citigroup, Off-shoring hotspot A comprehensive report on India’s BPO industry maps out Indian BPO industry’s next wave of growth and paints a vision for the future. The study has been done from the point of buyers, third-party vendors, captives and policy makers. It is attempted to serve as a comprehensive and authoritative reference point for all stakeholders.

The study deep-dives into the true differentiating factors and also what needs to be done to sustain long-term value proposition of the Indian BPO industry. Over 60% of the Indian BPO industry has been physically interviewed during the course of this study, in addition to over 30 buyers who were interviewed to shape this mammoth study – making it the biggest survey of the Indian BPO industry to date. Insightful analysis is backed by several supporting graphs and figures to derive knowledge-based, meaningful conclusions and reveal newly-emerging trends. Real issues, challenges as well as opportunities have been mapped and deliberated upon from multiple perspectives. Besides administering prescriptions for providers and buyers, the study also proposes recommendations for institutionalizing state-led/supported initiatives to propel growth.The study provides in-depth details on the Indian BPO industry from a wide-range of perspectives. Business Process Outsourcing [BPO] is defined as the delegation of one or more business processes to an external service provider who in turn owns, manages and administers the selected processes, based on defined and measurable performance metrics.

BPO services in India are spread around cities where basic IT and communications infrastructure exists and is being developed. Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Mumbai, NCR (Delhi Noida, and Gurgaon) and Pune are the nine cities where 90% of ITES- BPO situated. It is also spreading to new cities like Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar, Lucknow etc. where ITC infrastructure is developing and also the man power cost is lower.At present majority of BPO service are centered around medical transcription, call centre, back off office operation etc. however, more high end jobs are coming to India as the confidence level posed by international companies on Indian market is increasing. It is expected that the BPO services in other field will also pickup substantially and India would continue as a major destination in BPO.

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Chapter 2.1 Title of the Project

The BPO industry is having a huge potential for job opportunities. It is providing mostly white collared jobs yet it is having great potential of absorbing persons with disabilities with adequate qualifications and training in most of its operations. Dealing in a global scenario most of the BPOs are maintaining good infrastructure and having accessible premises where PWDs would not find it difficult to access the workplace or the facilities. The pick and drop facility being provided by most of the BPOs makes it easy to reach the workplace for persons with disability. Also since most of tasks are extremely specialized and the employees generally do not need to be involved in many functions, it makes it easy for PWDs to work as they can be placed on the task most suitable to them and with the proper training they can perform well.

The training organizations and NGOs working with PWDs need to work on the providing the appropriate training for jobs in BPO sector and need to maintain the quality of the training, so that the PWD trainees can perform well. Communication and computer knowledge are the fields in which training needs to be provided.Many companies are taking proactive steps in promoting employability of persons with disability; such companies can be approached for the technical

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help in upgrading the programme.The information about units in a BPO and its functions can be taken as a reference to understand the required skills for the job in BPO and training centres can groom the PWDs with adequate training for meeting those demands.

Good communication skill and good computer knowledge are the key skills required for most of the jobs in this sector and any Persons with disability with these skills can be absorbed in the companies in this sector. Quality is the most important aspect of service delivery and hence training organizations need to be very cautious about the quality of training being provided.Some companies are also having non voice operations, which require the person to work on computer, but do not require them to make or receive calls. Such jobs can be explored for persons with hearing impairment however having a good written communication skill.There is a need of collaborative effort involving companies and training institutions and NGOs working with persons with disabilities to join hands and work together to provide quality training to persons with disabilities which can be transformed into gainful employment.information technology (IT), India has built up valuable brand equity in the global markets. In IT-enabled services (ITES), India has emerged as the most preferred destination for business process outsourcing (BPO), a key driver of growth for the software industry and the services sector.

According to Goldman Sachs, the global BPO market will be $585B in 2005, and India will own 5% .India has rapidly achieved the status of being the most preferred destination for BPO for companies located in the US and Europe. The availability of low cost skilled manpower, a huge English speaking population, and appropriate infrastructure have been the main reasons for these companies outsourcing their operations to India. With the Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) industry flourishing in India, more and more companies began establishing operations in the metropolitan cities to capitalize on available human resource talent and physical infrastructure.

However, the prodigious expansion of BPO companies in select metropolitan cities caused intense competition for available talent and this led to frequent poaching of staff. Also, many employees considered a BPO job as a short-term one and opted for higher education or business management studies once they had earned enough money to support their higher education plans. These factors resulted in high employee turnover and in turn increased recruitment and training costs for many BPO companies.

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Chapter 2.2: Objectives of the Study

The uncertain economic condition has rocked all kinds of businesses, across sectors and regardless of size or specialization. With a global recession underway, the BPO industry cannot remain unaffected. Already the crisis in the financial markets has dampened deal flow in the BPO sector. The number of BPO deals (tracked by ValueNotes) dropped from 430 in the year 2007 to 302 in 2008. Amid all this turmoil and pessimism, BPO companies are putting up a brave front, and gearing up to face the year with innovative strategies to fight margin pressures instead of worrying over ‘who moved their heese’.

While the first quarter of 2009 will be slow for the BPO industry, we expect increasing activity in the later part of the year. Cost rationalization will become a compelling reason for corporates to consider outsourcing/offshoring in their strategy.We have identified some key trends that will impact..

Recruitment too is expected to significantly slow down in the next year, as service providers

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push up utilization rates aggressively. Aggressive hiring over the last three to four years, has added to the baggage of unproductive manpower. Given the current scenario, companies will look at this as a good opportunity to trim the flab. While recruitment will pick up again in the latter half of the year as the slack gets wrung out, employers will be much more selective and

Companies will also look to optimize various administrative or marketing costs. Until recently, margins were never seriously threatened for Indian IT and BPO service providers leading to considerable slack in areas like transport costs, procurement, travel, telecom, etc. In the past, management attention was focused only on growth, but now, the quality of growth will matter more.

Currently, BPOs earn a large chunk of their revenues from the US market. However, BPOs are now paying more attention to geographies like Europe, Australia and Asia Pacific. We expect this trend to intensify in 2009 as service providers make aggressive efforts to de-risk their business and diversify their client base. Alternately, the growing maturity of buyers in Europe, Middle East and Asia is opening up these lesser explored markets. With (relatively) rapid economic growth, proliferation of technology in various sectors and an increasing number of companies going global, Asia is witnessing a marked rise in IT spend. Although Asia-Pacific constituted only a 6% share of the total global IT services market in 2006, IT spend in the region is growing at a much faster rate compared to the mature markets. IT spending is a precursor to outsourcing (of both IT and BPO) and Asia-Pac (especially India and China) will attract increased competition. India market will shine brighter.Even as the offshore (international) BPO market faces severe pressures, the domestic BPO market is getting ready to take off. According to Nasscom, the domestic BPO revenues are estimated to be $1.6 b (Rs. 69 b) for FY08. ValueNotes’ report on “Opportunities in the Domestic BPO Market”, estimated the total market being catered to by third-party players at Rs. 18 b for FY08, and is expected to reach Rs. 77 b by FY12.

Unlike the overseas business, labor or cost arbitrage does not drive the domestic BPO market. Strategic factors such as the need to scale rapidly, focus on core competencies, enhanced productivity and reduced time to market are driving domestic demand. Going forward, we believe that there will be increased buyer awareness and adoption of outsourcing across industry verticals, which will drive the future growth. Significant scale exists amongst banks, telecom operators and government departments, and these are the most attractive segments in the near term.

While the larger companies are relatively mature in terms of outsourcing and offshoring, the mid-market segment and the SMEs have not completely explored the offshore option. Further, the SMEs have been traditionally underserved for a variety of reasons, including lack of knowledge of offshoring, unattractive deal sizes for the premium service providers, etc. However, rising offshoring maturity of early buyers amongst mid-market companies will drive .

At the same time, intensifying global competition will encourage the larger service providers to look beyond Fortune lists. While the larger service providers will build solutions for the mid-market, SMEs may be more comfortable working with mid-sized service providers.We believe that in 2009, large service providers will create differentiated offerings for the mid-market segment, and target this opportunity aggressively.Shift in focus from cost arbitrage to value

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addition

The integration of software and BPO, to what is often called platform based BPO, as well as the emergence of “business process restructuring” into the lexicon of service providers has been underway for a while now. Several service providers are now adding the knowledge component (analytics/legal services/consulting) into the mix, in an attempt to deliver greater value.

This is an attractive opportunity for large service providers (especially IT service providers), some of whom have already integrated their BPO and IT arms. For large end-to-end contracts, knowledge services (typically analytics or consulting capabilities) will become an integral part of the selection process. The knowledge component will enable a more value-added role, in which the service provider partners, or provides services designed to directly impact the buyer's business

With greater buyer awareness about offshoring knowledge services and increasing service provider capabilities, the share of knowledge services in the overall market will continue to grow. At the same time, the nature of “knowledge” services is quite distinct from traditional IT and BPO, and viewing these merely as additional services may not work. However, that is a discussion for another forum.

Despite the current turmoil, offshoring of services to India and other low-cost destinations will continue to grow, both horizontally and vertically. While the economic downturn has reduced demand in certain segments or services, we believe it will also throw up newer and multiple opportunities across segments. So while certain specific areas will see a cutback, certain other services will witness a noticeable spike in demand. For instance litigation support, document review work within legal outsourcing and collections business within mortgages are among those where we see increasing demand.

Chapter 2.3 Scope of the Study

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BPO as expanded sounds as Business Process Outsourcing and can be aptly defined as the act of utilizing the services of a third party by a company in order to perform its back office operations that might be payroll administration, customer help desks/ call centers, tele- marketing, accounting, billing; the list is endless.Business Process Outsourcing includes the following areas and a lot more:

Back office operations Customer Relationship Management

Call Centers and telemarketing

Tele-servicing and product support

Payroll maintenance

Finance / Accounting/billing

Human Resources

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Logistics Management

Supply Chain Management

Medical transcription

Back Office Operations

Types of BPO Industry:BPO services are generally categorized into horizontal and vertical services. These have been explained below:

Horizontal BPO: Horizontal BPO involves function centric outsourcing. The vendor specializes in carrying out particular functions across different industry domains. Examples of horizontal BPO are outsourcing in procurement, payroll processing, HR, facilities management and similar functions. Automatic Data Processing (ADP) is an example of a horizontal BPO vendor. ADP focuses on providing services in horizontal functions such as payroll, HR, benefit administration, tax solutions, etc. However, according to Gartner, companies should focus on providing vertical services as the market matures.

Vertical BPO: A vertical BPO focuses on proving various functional services in a limited number of industry domains. Healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and retail are examples of vertical BPO domains. EXL Service Holdings is a vertical BPO having focus on industry domains such as healthcare, business services, utilities and energy and manufacturing.

Evaluation OF BPO Industry

Evolution of BPO

Years Process

1960s Time sharing

1970s Data processing

1980s Entire IT operations

1990s Shared business services

2000s B2B partnerships via Internet

2000s Process outsourcing via Internet

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2000s IT-enabled offshore services

Chapter 3: Profile of the Company

Company Analysis:

“ Spanco BPO Ventures Ltd.”

Spanco BPO offers world-class end-to-end business process outsourcing services that can help companies achieve improved business performance. We bring together state-of-the art infrastructure, advanced technology, best people, and process excellence, to deliver services that create a real value impact on our clients business.

Our service portfolio includes inbound and outbound call management and back office operations support. By customizing our services to best suit our clients’ business requirements; we help our clients achieve maximized process productivity and profitability.

Spanco BPO is committed towards maximizing the value creation for its clients. To achieve this, we are constantly identifying solutions and strategies that can help us extemporize on our service deliverance towards our clients.Headquartered in Mumbai, India, Spanco BPO is the domestic BPO business of Spanco BPO Ventures Ltd.

Group Overview

Spanco BPO Services Ltd. is the domestic BPO arm of Spanco BPO Ventures Ltd., the holding company for worldwide Contact Centre/BPO related activities of Spanco Group of Companies. Spanco Telesystems and Solutions Ltd. (STSL) is the flagship company in the Group.

Spanco Telesystems and Solutions Ltd. is one of the leading Telecom Systems Integration and IT

services company, headquartered in Mumbai, India. From providing telecom integration

services, Spanco has extended its expertise into the dynamic space of Business Process

Outsourcing and RFID. ( For more details, please visit - www.spancotele.com).

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Spanco BPO Ventures Ltd.

Business Portfolio:Spanco BPO Ventures Ltd. (SBVL), which is a 100% subsidiary of STSL, has

the following BPO operations in various parts of the world:

Spanco BPO Services Ltd.

Spanco BPO provides world-class end-to-end business outsourcing services to the Indian market.

With headquarters in Mumbai, it provides consummate BPO services across diverse industry

verticals. The company provides BPO services for inbound, outbound, and back office

operations.

Spanco Respondez BPO Pvt Ltd.

Spanco Respondez BPO Pvt Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of SBVL, is the global contact

centre and international business process outsourcing company. With global delivery capabilities

in United States of America, United Kingdom, and India, Respondez delivers world-class BPO

services primarily in the Mortgage/Debt Collections space.

For more details, please visit – www.respondez.com

Bharat BPO Services Ltd.

Bharat BPO provides services to Indian Railways by Integrated Train Enquiry System (ITES)

consisting of Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS), Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR)

and Zonal/Regional Call Centers (RCC). Bharat BPO has four zonal and four regional call

centres across India to provide all the information related to passenger travel on exclusive basis

under stringent quality parameters. Indian Railways, being the backbone of Indian economy, is

the largest rail network in Asia and the world’s second largest under a one management. It runs

more than 11000 trains every day carrying more than 17 millions passengers daily and 7 million

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of these are long distance passengers Railways intend to provide all information pertaining to

Train Arrival Departure, PNR Status, services relating to Ticket, Hotel & Taxi Booking, Holiday

Package sales etc. through this Call Center.

Spanco Golden Key Solutions LLC

Spanco GKS, a 51:49 Joint Venture between Spanco and Golden Key Solutions in Oman

provides contact center & BPO services, telecom system integration and IT services in the

Middle East and Africa. Spanco GKS LLC operates through its associate company Spanco

Golden Key Solutions WLL in Qatar. It is one of the largest BPO companies in Qatar.

Vision & Values

Vision:To attain a position of leadership in providing innovative business solutions, leading to enhanced business competence for clients, through a team of highly proficient and motivated professionals for overall profitability of the company and the satisfaction of our shareholders.

Values:

HonestyWith our partners, customers and employees

Integrity:Following the highest ethical standardsFollowing all legal compliances

Excellence:

Doing each job right and continuously improving the way we workDeveloping the right skillsPursuing and leveraging new technologies

3.1 MANAGEMENT INFORMATIOM

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Mr.Pravin KumarChief Executive Officer

An MBA with specialization in Finance, Advertising & Sales Promotion from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in the year 1974. Started career with an Industrial Group focused in the Engineering Industry as a Management Trainee in July 1974, worked for 12 years and left as Corporate Vice President.

He has also worked with Dalmia Group of Industries in 1986 as a CEO and worked there for 19 years in various capacities. Responsible for setting up/acquiring various projects and managing them in the fields of Telecom Equipment, Cement, Textiles, Oil & Oleo Chemicals, Radio Paging Services & BPO Operations in India and Overseas.

Mr. Manish JhunjhunwalaChief Financial Officer

FCA with over 14 years of post qualification experience having completed his graduation in 1993 from St xaveirs College , Kolkata ( Rank Holder in CU ).

He has worked with Usha Martin , Pepsi Foods and Wipro BPO among others and has held senior management positions in these organizations .

Manish has 14 years of rich corporate experience of handling Strategic Planning, Fiscal Control, Accounts, Costing, Fund Management, Treasury, Taxation including Sales Tax , Excise Duty and Customs , Auditing, Budgeting, MIS, Commercial Operations and Legal Affairs for some of blue-chip companies in BPO and FMCG domain.

Prior to joining Spanco BPO Services, he was working in WNS, Mumbai as VP Finance.  He has also held senior positions with several large organisations including Wipro Limited (BPO Division) and Pepsi Foods to name a few.

Manish is a FCA from ICAI and has completed his graduation from St Xaviers College , Kolkata. He is currently pursuing Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) from ICFAI University.   He also holds a Diploma in computer programming and application from APTECH.Manish is married to Meenakshi and is blessed with a daughter Khushi and son Vaibhava.

Mr. Amit BhargavaSr. Vice President – Operations

With over 20 years of rich & blended experience, Amit has a vast experience in Operations, Transition, Migrations and managing Sites as independent Profit Centers. A Bachelor in Science from Agra University and Engineering in Electronics & Communications from Allahabad, Amit’s major stint has been with DSS Mobile and Omnia BPO Services. His strength lies in “impossible turn to possible” and has successfully migrated huge ramp-ups in only few days for processes like Reliance, Indian Airlines, Dish TV and e-Governance Bhopal project.

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Mr. Sunil KumarSr. Vice President – HR

Holds 14 years rich corporate experience of handling HR Systems Design, Organization Development, Performance Management Systems, Talent Acquisition and Employee Relations, including more than 7 years in the BPO Industry. Prior to joining Spanco, he has worked with reputed companies like Impact Retail, Fiserv India, Vertex India, Global Vantedge, eFunds & Oberoi Hotels. He is a Post Graduate in Personnel Management from Symbiosis, Pune.

Mr. Ambikesh Pratap SinghVice President – Quality

With over 17 years of association with Service and Manufacturing Industry, he has specialization in Project Management, Process Management, Quality & Performance Management, Strategizing, developing & deploying new Initiatives, and System Audits. Prior to joining us, he has worked with separate companies within Bharti Enterprises including Bharti Cellular, Teletech & Bharti Telesoft, Hero ITES and Jindal Strips Limited. He is a Bachelor in Industrial & Production Engineering and is a Black Belt from ASSOCHAM & Motorola University and Qualified trainer for TPM.

3.2 Manpower

Incorporating world-class HR practices enables us to attract, train, and retain among the best

talent in the industry. The unparalleled knowledge and expertise of our highly skilled and trained

workforce is the bedrock for delivering superior service quality to our clients.

At Spanco BPO, we believe our people drive our success. We recruit from a diverse talent pool

and facilitate enhanced knowledge sharing and skills development for our employees. We attract

and retain the best talent in the industry by our innovative recruitment techniques, best-in-class

training and development support, dynamic work culture and immense career growth

opportunities.

Our domain experts ensure efficient diffusion of functional expertise and competency

enhancements across all levels in our organization. This enables us to deliver highly effective

domain specific solutions that best meet our clients’ business goals.

Our unrivalled training and development support provides our workforce with the resources to

excel professionally and personally. By incorporating clients’ process requirements as standards

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for our training processes; we deliver optimal services to our clients. In addition, our domain

experts constantly monitor the quality and effectiveness of our training and certification

programmes, thereby ensuring ongoing improvements.

Our dynamic and talented workforce complemented by a client-centric work culture is a key

factor that enables us to deliver seamless service quality to our clients. To be able to achieve

constant world-class service delivery for our clients, we will continue to improve on our HR

practices. This will help us achieve ongoing advancement of our workforce efficiency and

productivity, thereby optimizing our service capabilities.

3.3 Quality Process

The Spanco BPO Quality program is a disciplined methodology for defining, measuring, analysing, improving, and controlling the quality of our processes and services. The team focuses on enhancing SLA metrics, productivity, and quality through call monitoring and data analysis. The ultimate goal of the Process Excellence Department is to meet the specific requirements while virtually eliminating defects..   The Spanco BPO Process Excellence Department ensures that:

Key customer SLA’s are met – It maintains the quality management systems Continuous improvement of the processes – Tools and Systems

Variations are tracked and controlled on a regular basis – Appropriate checks and follow ups are done to ensure efficiency

Spanco BPO focus on quality results in: Excellent and Reliable Service Delivery Streamlined Operations that Ensure Customer Satisfaction

Efficient Business Processes

Training and Development of the Team

The Quality life Cycle includes broadly: Call Evaluations –Live calls and screen barge-ins Digital recording and monitoring of the calls – Record reference and training purposes.

Feedback sessions- Coaching and mentoring

Periodic Audits

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We believe in delivering numbers with Quality and focus to enhance Customer services to our customers. We continuously work to enhance current quality practices and share the learning with our customers to create new benchmarks.

3.4 Technology

Spanco BPO is equipped with state-of-the art technology to deliver seamless services to its clients. We can customize our services to meet the specific business requirements of each client, while carefully protecting all the confidential and private information.

To achieve our goals, we use the following concepts as our core practices - Incident Management, Service & Help Desk, Service Request Management, Change Management, Problem Management, and Release Management.

While pursuing the requirements of clients for Service Delivery, a 4-Tier approach is put into place, which is:    

Service Level Management Capacity Management IT Service Continuity Management Availability Management

3.5 Information Security

All Spanco BPO centers comply with BS7799 / ISO 27001 standards. Spanco BPO is working

towards being an ISO 27001-certified company through its robust ISMS (Information Security

Management System). Our ISMS team manages sensitive and vital corporate, customer

information reporting to board ensuring confidentiality, integrity and

availability. Our adoption of ISMS reflects our strong commitment securing our Infrastructures

& customer information through repeated training for people, continuous process improvements

and regular technology improvements & audits. We assess our inventory of information assets,

test their vulnerability, follow best practices & establish controls to ensure our clients'

confidential and sensitive data is protected in line with BS7799 standards. In addition, we build

specific security controls based on client expectations to follow client security requirements &

best practices,policies & procedures. Business Continuity Planning: Our business continuity

planning strategy includes Ready availability of resources and

services essential for maintaining business continuity for client operations complying

with ISO 27001 frameworks ensures our commitment to quality in service delivery. Our19

BCP process defines recovery for loss of essential/support services, equipment/link

failure and manpower unavailability.

Spanco BPO has a flexible three-tier Business Continuity Planning (BCP) architecture

which provides the ability to scale and customize plans as required. All delivery centers

can have BCPs tailored to their individual risk assessments.

Center BCP helps mitigate the risks related to power failure, HVAC, private circuits,

servers, internet links, hosts, cabling and network devices. The center BCP can handle all

risks except those that may lead to major link failures.

Enterprise BCP is meant for effectively handling major failure situations. This plan

provides for sufficient bandwidth on all links to route traffic automatically to other

locations in case of a multiple link failure.

Client BCP is a plan customized to individual client requirements. Spanco BPO develops

and provides clients with a disaster recovery planner that presents options best suited to

their needs. The client BCP plan also allows for simultaneous operations out of multiple

centers during a major failure.

Spanco BPO has a dedicated Information security team that regularly test BCP plans,

conduct training and organize review meetings.

3.6 Customers

Spanco BPO is committed to adding value to its clients business by offering them world-class

BPO services that are consistent with their business goals. Working in collaboration with our

clients, we offer customized services that best meet their business interests.

Today, we are helping leading organizations optimize their business performance. By leveraging

on our technological excellence, process excellence, best in class talent and extensive industry

know-how, we help our clients compete more efficiently and effectively.

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Our Clients are spread across diverse industry verticals such as Banking, Finance, Insurance, and

Retail to name a few.

News Date

Telcos Renew Rs 500-crore BPO Contracts 5/14/2009

Spanco may buy out Spice in Bharat BPO 5/14/2009

Spanco BPO to double seats on tele wave 5/14/2009

Spanco shortlisted for BSNL's Rs.30,000 Crore Contact 5/30/2009

Motivating with IPL in BPO Style 8/20/2009

Hello, how can I help you. nani? 8/20/2009

Constables get trained to be soft on senior citizens 8/20/2009

Spanco to set up BPOs in tier III cities 8/24/2009

BPO execs go green for a day 8/24/2009

Chapter 4: Review of the Literature

3.7 Spanco BPO in News

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The concept of business process orientation (BPO) is based upon the work of Deming (Walton, 1996), Porter (1985), Davenport and Short (1990), Hammer (1993, 1996 and 1999), Grover et al. (1995), and Coombs and Hull (1996). This body of work suggests that firms could enhance their overall performance by adopting a “process view” of the organization. Although many firms have adopted the BPO concept, little to no empirical data existed substantiating its effectiveness in facilitating improved business performance. McCormack (2000) conducted an empirical study to explore the relationship between BPO and enhanced business performance. The research results showed that BPO is critical in reducing conflict and encouraging greater connectedness within an organization, while improving business performance. Moreover, companies with strong measures of BPO showed better overall business performance. The research also showed that high BPO levels within organizations led to a more positive corporate climate, illustrated through better organizational connectedness and less internal conflict.

For a central concept, one that has become something of a Holy Grail for 1990s managers, BPO has remained remarkably hard to pin down. Its champions argue that it is a new approach to management that replaces the rigid hierarchies of the past ("I report to my boss") with structures that are much flatter, more cooperative, more process-oriented ("I report to my customer."). Many of us have had experience with both types of organization and we know intuitively what BPO feels like. Yet, if you're like me, you want a more solid foundation on which to make decisions and recommendations.

Most of the literature on business process orientation has been in the popular press and lacks a research or empirical focus. Although empirical evidence is lacking, several models have emerged during the last few years that have been presented as the high performance, process oriented organization needed in today and tomorrow’s world. Deming, Porter, Davenport, Short, Hammer, Byrne, Imai, Drucker, Rummler-Brache and Melan have all defined what they view as

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the new model of the organization. According to each model’s proponent, the “building” of this model requires a new approach and a new way of thinking about the organization which will result in dramatic business performance improvements. This “new way of thinking” or “viewing” your organization has been generally described as business process orientation.

Process centering or building an organization with a business process orientation has led to many reported successes. Texas Instruments, Progressive Insurance and American Standard have all been reported, albeit anecdotally, as receiving improved business performance from building a process orientation within an organization (Hammer 1996).

Process orientation, and its relationship to improved cross-functional interaction, was introduced almost fifteen years ago by Michael Porter. He introduced the concept of interoperability across the value chain as a major issue within firms (Porter 1985). W. Edwards Deming also contributed with the “Deming Flow Diagram” depicting the connections across the firm from the customer to the supplier as a process that could be measured and improved like any other process (Walton 1986). Thomas Davenport and James Short (1990) described a process orientation within an organization as a key component in the “New Industrial Engineering: Information Technology and Business Process Redesign.”

Michael Hammer also presented the business process orientation concept as an essential ingredient of a successful “reengineering” effort. Hammer coined this term to describe the development of a customer focused, strategic business process based organization enabled by rethinking the assumptions in a process oriented way and utilizing information technology as a key enabler (Hammer, 1993). Hammer offers reengineering as a strategy to overcome the problematic cross-functional activities that are presenting major performance issues to firms and cites many examples of successes and failures in his series of books and articles. Hallmark and Wal-Mart are often put forward as success stories and IBM and GM as the failures.

Culture is a major theme in the examples cited. A “business process culture” is a culture that is cross-functional, customer oriented along with process and system thinking. This can be expanded by Davenport’s definition of process orientation as consisting of elements of structure, focus, measurement, ownership and customers (Davenport 1993). Davenport also stressed commitment to process improvement that directly benefits the customer and business process information oriented systems as a major component of this culture

Finally, Hammer (Hammer 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999) described “process thinking” as cross-functional and outcome oriented. He also used four categories to describe the components of an organization. These are:

1. Business Processes2. Jobs and Structures

3. Management and Measurement Systems

4. Values and Beliefs

Chapter 5: Research Methodology

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Methodology:

Defining the universe and Sample taken:

The study is about job opportunities in IT enabled services sector; hence companies operating in this sector have been taken as the universe for this study. There are several kind of BPOs including the common Call centres who manage the inbound and outbound calls with the customers for their client companies, the KPO or knowledge processing Outsourcing involved in various kind of research, data analysis and other such highly intellect work and the LPOs or Legal process outsourcing, which takes care of legal matters for their client companies. The companies in KPO and LPO sectors are highly specialized ones where employees are specialists of their concerned fields. Hence it was not feasible to get the data as task available in one company may not be applicable for the other. On the other hand the call centres provide more of generic work which with some changes can be applicable to other companies operating in the same sector. The expected outcome of this study was to get information about task available in

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the sector and the basic skill set requirement for the recruitment. Hence it was decided to contact people in Delhi associated to recruitment for the call centres, people associated with training being given for call centre jobs and people working in call centres.

Secondary data collection:

A lot of information about the industry is available over internet from different sources; hence a desk research was done to collect information already available on the internet. We received the information about industry trend, growth rate, future growth potential etc. from various websites.

Primary data collection:

For getting the information we interviewed many people associated wih the BPO industry. To get data in a structured form we developed a format in which people we interviewed were asked to give the information. This format has several headings, eg. Unit name, task available, skill required, training requirement, on the job training and disability to be accommodated.Mostly people associated to recruitment and training were interviewed, to give information about the jobs available in the BPO industry and qualification and skill set requirement on those tasks.The information was then compiled and analyzed to prepare the report.

Now-a-days the global economic scenario has gone haywire. Most of the youngsters are worried about job cuts and economic recession. Even Nasscom, the industry association points out that the current fiscal year will adversely affect the Indian BPO/ ITes sector.

Due to the present economic recession the clients from developed economy will be vigilant in their unrestricted spending on outsourcing a project. Most of the Indian call centres have inculcated the true spirit of Indianism. They know to covert negative things into positive. We are as quick as squirrel to turn this crisis into an advantageous situation.

Two years before the growth of BPO was parallel to the growth of employment opportunities amongst the youth who may not be professionally skillful. But the existing demand of BPO jobs requires well educated youth who are proficient enough to handle calls. call centre business has a great scope in India.

Some five years back call centers in India were mere means of cost cutting for giant companies. Only few jobs were outsourced but now BPO’s are emerging as an effective tool. Presently the focus is shifting from non-core aspect of the business to areas of specialization. This is giving rise to KPO’s and LPO’s. In near future BPO’s may give rise to some other sectors as well.

The growth of BPO in India is evaluated mainly due to strong basic principles of the companies worldwide. Companies around the globe have realized that even miniscule operations like book-keeping, inventories and other miscellaneous functions need to be strong for the smooth functioning of the firm. Due to this outsourcing has become of utter importance.

As outsourcing became important, it needed to be done in lowest minimum cost. India is one of

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the most preferred destinations by international business in the West. Despite the present attrition that BPO sector is facing the growth in BPO seating facility is poised at 60 percent within the next few years. This is by no means can be seen as the corrosion in the industry.The growth of BPO industry is the direct result of growth in retail marketing and the operation lying within it. The continuous growth of BPO sector in India is the new call for young generation who are the verge of making their careers. The BPO industry boom in India is bringing along numerous job opportunities for youngsters with different background.

The business process outsourcing in India gives tremendous opportunities for professionals with different background. The BPO services in India are of various natures. One can get opportunity in operations, client servicing, quality maintenance and control.

People with good communication skills and clear voice modulation can go for call centre jobs in India. Most of the major product and servicing company want to enhance their customer service. For this they require professionals who handle customers over the phone.

The other specific areas concerned with BPO industry are project management, HR, accounting, business development and technology. The yardstick to measure the presence of global BPO services can be seen through global preferences. Studies have shown that 64% of those executed outsourcing services preferred India for their back-up functions.

Most of the major firms like in US like DEL, LG, Ford, GE and many others have outsourced their non core business to India. Even Philips NV of Netherlands is looking at India for locating its global business outsourcing process centre. This will definitely boost the Indian BPO sector as the global economic market stabilizes.

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Chapter 5.1: Research Design

Having made an indelible mark in the global BPO business, Indian IT and ITeS sector is now thriving in Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO). RNCOS, in its market research report “KPO - The New Outsourcing Avenue for Indian BPO Market” estimates that the world BPO market is worth US $234 billion with the contribution from India, worth $5.7 billion. The Indian BPO industry includes basic data and market research, equity research, management, engineering design, animation and simulation, medical content & services and education and publishing. India as a major KPO player in the world has inherent advantages because of its intellectual and Internet resource. The resulting economic success of the BPO industry has taken many firms to their advanced knowledge work to off shore destinations.

The Indian KPO sector has immense opportunities for the SMEs. The SMEs can change their costs as per the short-term demands, which can create new business models. RNCOS’ market research report presents the evolution of KPO market in India, tuned for the growing offshore business. The report analyzes the demand and supply, new opportunities and challenges faced by the KPO industry. The report accounts for the role of SMEs in BPO and KPO businesses. It also makes an assessment of expenditure, income and revenue growth for FY 2004-05 to show its impact on trade, facility management and GDP.

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS 27

Overview of the BPO and KPO industry and its key economic indicators. Study of the present global scenario, Indian BPO and KPO scenario, and a clear roadmap

ahead for the new entrants and present operators. Presentation of a vertical industry perspective and forecasts by corporate functions.

Discussions on laws, regulations and state BPO policies that serve in proliferating business growth.

Highlights of the NASSCOM initiatives and strategies.

BPO market size and growth by sectors, BPO companies’ shares, employment opportunities and attrition rate.

Comparison of Indian BPO sector with other leading BPO countries like China, Russia, Philippines, Ireland, Canada and more.

SWOT analysis of the Indian BPO sector.

Challenges and threats faced by the Indian BPO industry in current economic standards.

Market analysis and discussion of key buyer and vendor trends, drivers and inhibitors and, corporate sourcing strategies.

Market analysis of Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) till 2010.

Recent developments and current issues in the industry.

Profiles of key players in the Industry.

Design research investigates the process of designing in all its many fields. It is thus related to Design methods in general or for particular disciplines. A primary interpretation of design research is that it is concerned with undertaking research into the design process. Secondary interpretations would refer to undertaking research within the process of design. The overall intention is to better understand and to improve the design process.

Design Research emerged as a recognisable field of study in the 1960s, initially marked by a conference on Design methods at Imperial College London, in 1962. It led to the founding of the Design Research Society (DRS) in 1966. John Christopher Jones (who initiated the 1962 conference) founded a postgraduate Design Research Laboratory at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, and L. Bruce Archer founded the postgraduate Department of Design Research at the Royal College of Art, London, becoming the first Professor of Design Research.

The Design Research Society has always stated its aim as: ‘to promote the study of and research into the process of designing in all its many fields’. Its purpose therefore is to act as a form of learned society, taking a scholarly and domain independent view of the process of designing.

Some of the origins of design methods and design research lay in the emergence after the 2nd World War of operational research methods and management decision-making techniques, the

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development of creativity techniques in the 1950s, and the beginnings of computer programs for problem solving in the 1960s. A statement by Bruce Archer [1] encapsulated what was going on: ‘The most fundamental challenge to conventional ideas on design has been the growing advocacy of systematic methods of problem solving, borrowed from computer techniques and management theory, for the assessment of design problems and the development of design solutions.’ Herbert Simon [2] established the foundations for ‘a science of design’, which would be ‘a body of intellectually tough, analytic, partly formalizable, partly empirical, teachable doctrine about the design process.’

PO Maestro is a full-service research firm, with experience and skills encompassing a wide range of research activities on bpo research. At BPO Maestro, we have built strong capabilities in the collection, interpretation and analysis of data - both qualitative and quantitative for e-business and market research. We understand how to design studies and questionnaires, how best to get answers and how to correlate seemingly unrelated pieces of information. BPO Maestro has developed considerable domain knowledge in a variety of sectors and industries. Within these our stated areas of focus are outsourcing (BPO and IT), technology and software, insurance and financial services, telecommunications, media and the Internet.

Our bpo company have some expertise in offshoring and outsourcing research processes and tasks, including secondary research, complete report writing, analytics, offshore outsourcing, business intelligence and newsletters. Outsourcing process can helps you to focus on your core business - useing high quality, cost-effective outsourced research and content solutions.

BPO Maestro has put together a range of research outsourcing offshoring and analysis services targeted at knowledge intensive industries of bpo india. We have partnered with research firms to help them derive efficiencies by outsourcing solutions. A clear understanding of the client's business, a structured approach, resources with good analytical capabilities / research experience, extensive use of technology and excellent infrastructure combine to make us the company of choice for research. We built one of the best, and reasonably large, Data Processing teams in India for one of our clients in a very short duration of time.

A subset of the services we offer in Research are:

Customized research: Helps understand market dynamics, provide consumer insights and develop strategies that generate increased sales and profits.

Market Research: This is gathering and analyzing periodic information from a panel of respondents (consumers, industry experts, and so on) to provide exclusive information for marketing, communications, sales, etc. This also involves maintaining the list of respondents, fielding out questionnaire, and tallying results. Marketing research services help develop winning marketing strategies, build stronger brands, improve products, enhance customer loyalty, upgrade advertising, and accelerate new product development.

Equity research/ company reports: The purpose of equity research is to identify money-making opportunities for the clients without exposing them to undue risk. Research extends into every corner of the clients business, supplying invaluable analysis, information, and advice for the clients.

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Secondary research/ Internet search: Secondary Research occurs when a project requires a summary or collection of existing data. These secondary sources could include previous research reports, newspaper, magazine and journal content, and government and NGO statistics. Sometimes secondary research is required in the preliminary stages of research to determine what is known already and what new data is required, or to inform research design. At other times, it may make be the only research technique used. A key performance area in secondary research is the full citation of original sources, usually in the form of a complete listing or annotated listing.

Data analysis (charts, number crunching, trend analysis, etc.): The process of systematically applying statistical and logical techniques to describe, summarize, and compare data collected. Data analysis, also called business intelligence, is using software for ad hoc query, reporting and analysis, and supporting strategic decision-making processes with a data warehouse or data mart. Basically it means slicing and dicing your data to figure out how to keep customers and find new ones. It is the processing of marketing research findings to summarize a situation, discover relationships between elements of the information, or to draw conclusions from them.

It is a common observation that 90% of any solution is structuring the organization, scale and scope of the problem. Organizing disparate and chaotic information about emerging technology, markets and customers into meaningful patterns is the essence of our research practice

BPO Maestro research services offers clients one of the broadest and deepest analytical research in the business, covering the full spectrum of emerging technologies and business models. Our clients include CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, CFOs, marketing, and IT professionals. These clients come to us because our business-oriented analysis helps companies better invest and execute.

BPO Maestro research services focus on the following areas:

Our thought-leading research is refined through state-of-the-art techniques, insights gained on the consulting front lines, and partnerships with leading academic institutions. The research is disseminated through stand-alone best practice reports, industry reports, and books.

Business and Enterprise Applications

The bpo and outsourcing market covered in this practice include enterprise resource planning (ERP), adaptive manufacturing, supply chain management (SCM), business intelligence, product life cycle management (PLM), supplier relationship management (SRM), corporate performance management (CPM), human capital management (HCM) and financials solutions. The research also covers strategies of vendors like SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Peoplesoft, Invensys, and Siebel Systems.

Each of these areas are continue with consolidation, new vendors, and the development of new technologies and architectures. Some markets are more mature than others, and each reacts

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differently to evolving customer requirements and emerging technologies to provide business value to end users. Monitoring and understanding change is central to this practice.

Self-Service and Portals

The service markets covered in this practice including the digital product supply chains, e-commerce portals, self-service solutions for employees and customers, B2B portals and service oriented architecture for business such as SAP Netweaver, Microsoft .NET, IBM WebSphere, and Sun Microsystems Java Enterprise System. Each of these areas are continue with consolidation, new vendors, and the development of new technologies and architectures. For each reacts differently to evolving customer requirements and emerging technologies to provide the business value to end users. Monitoring and understanding change is central to this practice.

Business Process Outsourcing

The bpo services covered the market in this practice include the application development and maintenance for outsourcing services, product engineering outsourcing, CRM outsourcing, HR outsourcing, Finance and Accounting (F&A) outsourcing and logistics outsourcing.

Each of these areas are continue with consolidation, new vendors, and the development of new technologies and architectures. Some markets are more mature than others, and each reacts differently to evolving customer requirements and emerging technologies to provide business value to end users. Monitoring and understanding change is central to this practice.

Offshore Outsourcing

The markets covered in this practice include the business models behind the process of offshore outsourcing (Dual Shore, BOT, ODC, GDM), sourcing strategies (vendor selection and country selection), quality methods (CMM, COPC, ISO 9000), value analysis (ROI models), program and project management strategies. The research also covers offshore market trends in India.

Each of these areas are continue with consolidation, new vendors, and the development of new technologies and architectures. Some markets are more mature than others, and each reacts differently to evolving customer requirements and emerging technologies to provide business value to end users. Monitoring and understanding change is central to this practice.

IT Infrastructure and Integration

The IT outsourcing market covered in this practice include on demand computing, scanning, server consolidation, datacenter migration strategies, utility computing, grid computing, blades, Linux, and Open Source strategies.

Each of these areas are continue with consolidation, new vendors, and the development of new technologies and architectures. Some markets are more mature than others, and each reacts differently to evolving customer requirements and emerging technologies to provide business value to end users. Monitoring and understanding change is central to this practice.

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Chapter 5.2: Data Collection Methods

Data collection is a term used to describe a process of preparing and collecting data - for example as part of a process improvement or similar project. The purpose of data collection is to obtain information to keep on record, to make decisions about important issues, to pass information on to others. Primarily, data is collected to provide information regarding a specific topic [1].

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Data collection usually takes place early on in an improvement project, and is often formalised through a data collection Plan [2] which often contains the following activity.

1. Pre collection activity – Agree goals, target data, definitions, methods2. Collection – data collection

3. Present Findings – usually involves some form of sorting [3] analysis and/or presentation.

Prior to any data collection, pre-collection activity is one of the most crucial steps in the process. It is often discovered too late that the value of their interview information is discounted as a consequence of poor sampling of both questions and informants and poor elicitation techniques [4]. After pre-collection activity is fully completed, data collection in the field, whether by interviewing or other methods, can be carried out in a structured, systematic and scientific way.

A formal data collection process is necessary as it ensures that data gathered is both defined and accurate and that subsequent decisions based on arguments embodied in the findings are valid [5]. The process provides both a baseline from which to measure from and in certain cases a target on what to improve. Types of data collection 1-By mail questionnaires 2-By personal interview.

Other main types of collection include census, sample survey, and administrative by-product and each with their respective advantages and disadvantages. A census refers to data collection about everyone or everything in a group or population and has advantages, such as accuracy and detail and disadvantages, such as cost and time. A sample survey is a data collection method that includes only part of the total population and has advantages, such as cost and time and disadvantages, such as accuracy and detail. Administrative by-product data is collected as a byproduct of an organization’s day-to-day operations and has advantages, such as accuracy, time simplicity and disadvantages, such as no flexibility and lack of control [6].

Techniques Of Data CollectionBasic requirements for scientific data are that it should be reliable and impartial. In Sociology these conditions are hard to meet. Yet numerous methods are used to minimize errors in data. Some of the commonly used sources in collecting data are:

Existing materials including the official statistical record and historical and contemporary documents.

Social surveys through questionnaire and schedules

Interviewing

Observation- Participants and non-participant

Existing Material

Statistical Sources

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Government statistics particularly census or statistics produced by large industrial or commercial firms, trade unions or other organizations provide one important account of data which sociologist can use in their analysis. An outstanding example of the imaginative use of official statistics in the positivist tradition is the study of suicide made by the famous French sociologist Emile Durkheim in the 19th century. However official statistics are the kind of data that are not collected by sociologists themselves and so there problems while analyzing the data.

Historical documentsRecords and accounts of qualitative kind for example relating to belief, values, social relationship or social behavior may also be contemporary or may refer to earlier periods. There are several difficulties immediately present themselves in the use of records from the past. Few chroniclers of social relation and social action record observations in the systematic way in which the sociologists are interested. There are often intriguing and sympathetic records but the information that is vital to the sociologist is often missing.

Social Survey

The basic procedure in survey is that people are asked a number of questions on that aspect of behavior which the sociologist is interested in. A number of people carefully selected so that their representation of their population being studied are asked to answer exactly the same question so that the replies to different categories of respondents may be examined for differences. One type of survey relies on contacting the respondents by letter and asking them to complete the questionnaire themselves before returning it. These are called Mail questionnaires. Sometimes questionnaires are not completed by individuals separately but by people in a group under the direct supervision of the research worker. A variation of the procedure can be that a trained interviewer asks the questions and records the responses on a schedule from each respondent.

These alternate procedures have different advantages and disadvantages. Mail questionnaires are relatively cheap and can be used to contact respondents who are scattered over a wide area. But at the same time the proportion of people who return questionnaires sent through post is usually rather small. The questions asked in main questionnaires have also to be very carefully worded in order to avoid ambiguity since the respondents cannot ask to have questions clarified for them. Using groups to complete questionnaires means that the return rate is good and that information is assembled quickly and fairly. Administrating the interview schedules to the respondents individually is probably the most reliable method. Several trained interviewers may be employed to contact specific individuals. The questionnaires and schedules can consist of both close-ended and open-ended questions. Also a special attention needs to be paid to ensure that the questionnaires are filled in logical order.

Where aptitude questions are included great care must be exercised to ensure the proper words are used. In case of schedules emphasis and interactions may also be standardized between different individuals and from respondents to respondents. Finally proper sampling techniques must be used to ensure that the sample under study represents the universe of study. In order to

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enhance the reliability of data collected through questionnaires and schedules, these questionnaires and schedules must be pretested through pilot studies.

InterviewingSocial surveys may depend either on questionnaires that are self-administered or on schedules completed by trained research workers personally interviewing then is not a method of data collection distinct from social surveying but rather a technique which may vary from the brief formal contact as when the interviewer is working for the firms public opinion consultants or a market research organization and simply asks a housewife a few highly specific questions on limited range of topics to a long interview in which the research worker allows the respondents to develop points at leisure and take up others as he chooses.

The brief formal interview in which the working of the questions and the order in which they are asked is fixed is called structured interview while the freer discursive interview is called unstructured interview. The object of using structured interview is to standardize the interview as much as possible and thus to reduce the effect that the interviewer's personal approach or biases may have upon the result and even when structured interviews are used, proper training can do a lot to ensure further the reliability and validity of research. The personality of the interviewer and the social characteristics that the respondents attribute . to him can be having influence on the result. The effort of interviewer's bias can be estimated by comparing one interviewer's result with other. The problem of interviewer's bias in an unstructured interview is much greater. Here the interviewer is left to his common devices as far as the way he approaches a respondent is concerned. There is no fixed list of questions to work through. Instead the interviewer may work from a guide that will remind him of the topics he wishes to cover.

The training of the interviewer is crucial here not simply training in the social skills of keeping the conversation going on a topic that the respondent may not be very interested in but also in acquiring sensitivity to those things his respondents tells him which are specially relevant to the theoretical topics he is pursuing. This means that unstructured interviews can be carried out by people trained in sociological theory. They are then able to size upon stray comments made by the respondents which can be developed and lead on to important theoretical insight.

Observation: Participant and non participantThe rationale behind the use of observation in sociological research is that the sociologist should become party to a set of social actions sufficiently able to be able to assess directly the social relationship involved. The degree of involvement may vary considerable from being merely a watcher on the sidelines to be deeply involved in and being a part of what is going on. The former type of observation techniques are called non-participant while the latter is called participant observation. Sometimes one way observations screen have been used to watch groups in actions that they are unaware that they are being watched and the observer cannot affect their actions by his presence. The sociologist is visibly present and is a part of the situation either as a sociologist or in another guise. Where the sociologist is merely an observer it is usually assumed that he knows enough about what the actors are doing to be able to understand their behaviors.

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Any sociological observer has then to some extent be a participant observer he must at least share sufficient cultural background with the actors to be able to construe their behavior meaningfully but the degree of participation and of sharing of meaning may vary considerably. Examples of such studies are Nel Anderson's study of Hobo-Indians and William White study of Street Corner Society.

5.3 Sampling Plan

For practical and cost reasons, it is often impossible to collect information about the entire population of people or things in which social researchers are interested. In these cases, a sample of the total is selected for study. Most statistical studies are based on samples and not on complete enumerations of all the relevant data. The main criteria when sampling are to ensure that a sample provides a faithful representation of the totality from which it is selected, and to know as precisely as possible the probability that a sample is reliable in this way. Randomization meets these criteria, because it protects against bias in the selection process and also provides a basis on which to apply statistical distribution theory that allows an estimate to be made of the probability that conclusions drawn from the sample are correct. A statistical sample is a miniature picture or cross-section of the entire group or aggregate from which the sample is taken. The entire group from which a sample is chosen is known as the population, universe or supply.

Simple random sampling

The basic type of random sample is known as a simple random sample, one in which each person or item has an equal chance of being chosen. Often a population contains various distinct groups or strata that differ on the attribute that is being researched.

Stratified random sampling

Stratified random sampling involves sampling of each stratum separately. This increases precision, or reduces time, effort and cost of allowing smaller sample sizes for a given level of precision. For example, poverty is known to be most common among the elderly, the unemployed and single parent families, so research on the effect of poverty might will sample separately each of these three strata as part of a survey of poverty in the population as a whole which would permit the total sample size to be reduced because the investigator would know that the groups most affected by poverty were guaranteed inclusion.

Cluster sampling

Cluster sampling is sometimes used when the population naturally congregates into clusters. For example, managers are clustered in organizations, so a sample of managers could be obtained by taking a random sample of organizations and investigating the managers in each of these. Interviewing or observing managers on this basis would be cheaper and easier than using a

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simple random sample of managers scattered across all organizations in the country. This is usually less precise than a simple random sample of the same size, but in practice the reduction in cost per element more than compensated for the decrease in precision.

Multi-stage sampling

Sampling may be done as one process or in stages, known as multi-stage sampling .Multi-stage designs are common when populations are widely dispersed. Thus a survey of business managers might proceed by selecting a sample of corporations as first stage units, perhaps choosing these corporations with a probability proportionate to their size, and then selecting a sample of managers within these corporations at the second stage. Alternatively, a sample of individual factories or office buildings within each corporation could be chosen as the second stage units, followed by sample of managers in each of these as a third stage. Stratification can also be used in the design, if for example occupational sub-groups are known to differ from each other, by selecting state such as personnel, production, and finance management and sampling within each of these. For sampling to be representative, one needs a complete and accurate list of the first stage units that make up the relevant population, a basic requirement that is not always easily met. This forms the sampling frame. Selection from the frame is best done by numbering the items and using a table of random numbers to identify which items form the sample, though a quasi-random method of simply taking every item from the list is often appropriate. The reliability of a sample taken from a population can be assessed by the spread of the sampling distribution, measured by the standard deviation of this distribution, called the standard error. As a general rule, the larger is the size of the sample the smaller the standard error.

Area sampling

In sampling of this kind small areas are designated as sampling units and the households interviewed include all or a specified fraction of those found in a canvass of these designated small areas. The basic sampling units or segments chosen may be relatively large or relatively small depending on such factors as the type of area being studied, population distribution, the availability of suitable maps and other information and the nature and desired accuracy of the data being collected.

Measurement of AttitudeAttitudinal behavior is a certain set of observable behavior which is preparatory to and indicative of the subsequent actual behavior. For the purpose of measuring attitudes only the overt symbolic type of acts are taken into account because such acts alone can be observed. Examples of such acts are speaking; writing and gesturing etc.Attitude indicate a tendency which can be

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helpful in predicting the subsequent behaviour.Herein lies the importance of measuring attitudes. Measurement of attitudes is useful in various aspects of day to day life. For example it helps in predicting consumer behavior in making demand forecasts in providing an insight into the public response to various welfare measured indicated by the Government in maintaining peace and social order and in social research.

The sources of information regarding the attitude of a person are:

Life history documents including biographies, autobiographies, diaries, letters and memories.

Oral interviews: opinions of the respondent may be elicited by personally asking them various questions.

Questionnaires and polls: Sometimes in place of persons contact mailed questionnaire is also used for the purpose of getting opinions. Similarly public opinion polls are conducted to know peoples opinion on various issue.

In order to measure the degree of intensity of the attitude various kinds of scales have been devised.

These scales may be divided into the following categories:

Point scales Ranking scales

Rating of intensity scales etc

Other scales for the measurement of attitudes are social distance, scale of Bogardus Thurston Scale, Likert scale and socio-metric scale by Moreno. However standard scales with universal application are yet to be devised.

Analysis and Interpretation of DataThe purpose of assembling data is to present some theoretical analysis or interpretation of it. But the processes of observation and analysis are rarely independent of one another. The problems become redefined as the research proceeds and this means changing accounts of observations made. In the social survey the pilot stage is very important since the sociologist derives preliminary information from it which he then uses to test existing hypotheses in a crude way. He may then have to modify both the hypothesis and in consequence the techniques for example he may change the schedule that he is using. Unstructured interview techniques and observations are particularly suitable where the questions must be changed when an analysis begins to throw up new problems which demand new information in order to answer them. Analysis of data involves seeking through observations with object of determination in what circumstances they do not or to check that if sociologist can support one interpretation rather then another. At this

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stage it is necessary to point out two difficulties in the use of sociological information for analytical or interpretative purposes. The first of these is called the reliability of data. This refers to the extent to which investigation are repeatable that is if the same procedures of data collection the same object categories and the same rules for establishing the veracity are used on the same subject by different observers or by the same observers on different occasions, no relevant changes have taken place on the main attempt results comparable with earlier studies can be obtained. If different answer emerged from the enquiries which should yield the same response then the date may not be used to represent and establish underlying regularity. The measures that sociologist can take to overcome unreliability in response will depend upon what procedures are used to collect the information and what type of analysis is to be made.

The second difficulty is that of the validity of data. Validity refers to the extent to which sociologist interpretation of underlying characteristics he wishes to reflect is in fact the faithful representation of the characteristics. The sociologists working with a positivistic framework may wish to represent some abstract notion such as Alienation by a set of relatively easily identified indicators. He may attempt to combine these into a single indicator of characteristics he wants to represent. Having done this however how can he be sure that his indicator reflects the characteristics of alienation effectively. The usual way to ascertain the suitability of indicators is to test them empirically on samples of subjects which are known from other evidence to be alienated or not alienated. Given however that the sociologist is reasonable satisfied with both the reliability and validity of data how does the analysis or interpretation proceed? This depends upon the framework within which the sociologist is working. Within a positivistic framework the sociologist will be interested in some hypothesis which he has derived from theory by examining the connection in his data between some specified dependent variable which he suspects have some causal influence. This implies that the initial stages of analysis which may be going on while the data are being assembled must be concerned with identifying the variables and in deciding what criteria may be reasonably used to represent these variables. Only after the positivist sociologist has satisfactorily defined and operationalised the variables he wants to test the casual proposition he is postulating can be proceed to test this.

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Chapter 6: Data Analysis & Interpretation using various

Charts & Graphs

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Data Preparation, Interpretation and Analysis

Analyzing survey data is an important and exciting step in the survey process. It is the time that you may reveal important facts about your customers, uncover trends that you might not otherwise have known existed, or provide irrefutable facts to support your plans. By doing in-depth data comparisons, you can begin to identify relationships between various data that will help you understand more about your respondents, and guide you towards better decisions.

This article gives you a brief overview of how to analyze survey results. It does not discusses specific usage of eSurveysPro for conducting analysis as it is intended to provide a foundation upon which you can confidently conduct your own survey analysis no matter what tool you use.

Three Common Mistakes

Before you dive into analyzing your survey results, take a look back at the big picture. What objectives were you trying to accomplish when you created your survey? Did your survey instrument meet those objectives? Is the data you collected the right data? Do you have sufficient data to properly reach a conclusion?

Although data analysis is the wrong time to try and rewrite your survey instrument, it is important to remember the scope of your project and stick to it. Many first time surveyors attempt to read "between the lines" while analyzing data. They attempt to answer questions that were not asked by making inferences and assumptions from those that were asked. Doing so amounts to nothing more than guesswork. To avoid this temptation, remember this simple rule:

Rule 1: If you did not ask you do not know.

Another common mistake that many first time surveyors make is to attempt to change data to compensate for poor question design. For example, if a question asked a respondent to indicate his total household income using a scale of values, a mean and median cannot be calculated. Many people try to get around this by assigning each response a value representing the range. Even if the adjustment is made consistently across all responses, the resulting calculations will be wrong. Similarly, trying to analyze a multiple-choice question as if it was a single-select question will often provide erroneous information. In order to avoid this pitfall, remember this simple rule:

Rule 2: Do not alter data to compensate for bad survey design.

A second mistake inexperienced surveyors make is to project the findings to an audience that was not either part of the survey population or not adequately represented. For example, if an HR manager conducts a benefits survey and invites all employees to participate, most people would assume that the results represent all employees since everyone had an opportunity to participate. Provided that enough employees participate, the data might be statistically valid, but is it really representative of all employees? The answer is, it depends. If the survey collected data about employee demographics that could be compared to what is known about the company, then the results do reflect the company as a whole. However, if 80% of the respondents are married and

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50% of the total employee base is married, the results of the survey are skewed toward married people. If married people have different benefits needs than single people, using the survey results to make conclusions about the entire employee pool would be less accurate than those conclusions about the married employees or single employees independently. To avoid this temptation, remember this simple rule:

Rule 3: Do not project your data to people that did not respond.

The earlier you recognize flaws in your survey design and data collection, the more time you will save during analysis. If you questions do not provided the data you need to meet your survey objectives, you'll have to start over. If your questions are vague or ambiguous, you'll have to throw them out. If you do not have an adequate number of responses, you'll have to get more.

Survey Analysis

Analyzing any survey, web or traditional, consists of a number of interrelated processes that are intended to summarize, arrange, and transform data into information. If your survey objective was simply to collect data for your database or data warehouse, you do not have to do any analysis of the data. On the other hand, if your objective was to understand the characteristics of typical customers, then you must transform you raw results in to information that will enable you to paint a clear picture of your customers.

Assuming you need to analyze the data collected from your survey, the process begins with a quick review of the results, followed by editing, analysis, and reporting. To ensure you have accurate data before investing significant time in analysis, it is important that you do not begin analyzing results until you have completed the review and editing process.

Quick Review

Read all your results. Although, this seems like an obvious thing to do, many surveyors think that they can skip this step and dive right in to data analysis. A quick review can tell you lots about your project, including any flaws in questionnaire design or response population, before you spend hours of time in analyzing the data.

During the quick review, you should look at every question and see if the results "make sense". This "gut feel" check of the data will often uncover any issues with your survey project. Most surveyors already have an idea of how they expect their data to look. A quick review of the data can help you quickly understand that tell you if the people that respond are the right people. For example, if you were conducting a survey of all the employees in a company and you knew that 10% were in the marketing department, 20% in sales, 45% in manufacturing, 5% in management, and 5% finance, and 15% research and development, you could reasonable expect your responses to be similarly distributed. If your quick review disclosed 80% of your respondents were from the sales department, you know that your survey did not adequately capture a representative sample of all departments within the company.

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The quick review can also highlight any problems with the survey instrument. Are most respondents answering all questions? If not, your questionnaire could be flawed in such a way that a person cannot complete the survey. A low response rate could mean your survey invitation was not compelling enough to encourage participation, or your timing was off and a follow-up reminder is needed.

Lastly, the quick review of the survey can show you what areas to focus on for detailed analysis. As stated earlier, most surveyors already know what they expect to get, so your quick review can show you the unexpected.

Editing and Cleaning

Editing and cleaning data is an important step in the survey process. Special care must be taken when editing survey data so that you do not alter or throw out responses in such a way as to bias your results. Although you can begin editing and cleaning your data as soon as results are received, caution should be used since any edits can be lost if the database is rebuilt. To be safe, wait until all data is received before you begin the editing and cleaning process.

To start, find and delete incomplete and duplicate responses. A response should be discarded if the respondent did not complete enough of the survey to be meaningful. For example, if a your survey was intended to determine future buying intentions across various demographic groups and the respondent did not answer any of the demographic questions, you should delete the response. On the other hand, if the respondent answered all the demographic questions but omitted their name or email address, then you should keep the response.

Duplicate responses are a unique issue for electronic surveys. Many tools, such as eSurveysPro, provide built in features to help minimize the risk of duplicate responses. Others, like the popular "infotainment" polls featured on many websites do nothing to eliminate duplicates. Without removing duplicates, your data will be skewed in favor of the duplicate response. Both the count and percentage of the whole will be affected by duplicate responses, and computed means and medians will also be thrown off. To find duplicate responses, carefully examine the answers to any open-ended questions. When two open-ended questions have the exact same answer, a duplicate response is likely to exist. Make sure the response is indeed a duplicate by comparing the answers to all the other questions, and then delete one of the responses if a match is found.

Data cleaning of web surveys usually involves categorizing answers to open-ended questions and multiple-choice questions that include an "other, please specify" response. Because of their nature, open-ended text response questions can provide significant value but they are nearly impossible to process without some form of summarization or tabulation. One of the easiest ways to summarize these questions is to build a list of themes and select the themes that apply as you read each response. Tools such as eSurveysPro allow you to add questions after a survey is run to do just this sort of thing.

A common problem in any survey that needs attention during the editing and cleaning process is when a respondent answers an "other, please specify" question by selecting "other" and then writing in an answer that was one of the listed response options. Without cleaning these answers, the "other" response will be overstated and the correct response will be understated. For

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example, a demographics question that asks for the respondent's role within the organization may have a response like "faculty, teacher, or student" and a respondent selects "other" and types "professor," you would want to clean the response by switching the other choice to the one for "faculty, teacher, or student".

Once the data preparation is complete, it is time to start analyzing the data and turning it into actionable information.

Detailed Analysis

Analysis is the most important aspect of your survey research project. At this point, you have collected a set of data that must now be turned into actionable information. The process of analysis can lead to a variety of alternative courses of action. Mistakes during analysis can lead to costly decisions down the road, so extreme caution and careful review must be followed throughout the process. Carelessness during analysis can lead to disaster. What you do during analysis will ultimately determine if your survey project is a successful or not.

Depending on what type of information you are trying to know about your audience, you will have to decide what analysis makes sense. It can be as simple as reviewing the graphs that eSurveysPro automatically creates, or conducting in-depth comparisons between questions sets to identify trends or relationships. For most surveyors, a basic analysis using charts, cross tabulations, and filters is sufficient. On the other hand, more sophisticated users may wish to do a more complex statistical analysis using high powered analytical tools such as SPSS, Excel, or any number of number crunching applications. For our purposes in this article, we will focus on basic analysis techniques.

Graphical Analysis

Graphical analysis simply means displaying the data in a variety of visual formats that make it easy to see patterns and identify differences among the results set. There are many different graphing options available to display data, the most common are Bar, Pie, and Line charts.

Bar charts use solid bars on an X and Y-axis that extend to meet a specific data value indicated on the chart and can be shown either vertically or horizontally. These charts are flexible and are most commonly used to display data from multiple-select, rank order, single-select matrix and numerical questions. Each response option is shown as an independent bar on the chart, and the length of the bar represents the frequency the response was chosen relative to all choices.

Pie charts, or circle graphs, have colorful "slices" representing segments of your data. These charts measure values as compared to a "whole", and the total percentages of the segments always add up to 100%. Pie charts are most useful with single-select questions because the each response is represented visually as a portion of the entire pie. It is easy to interpret which answer received the most responses in a pie chart by selecting the largest potion of the pie. When comparing two sets of data using a pie chart, it is important to make sure the colors used for each response option remain consistent in each chart. If represent the same response options in each chart, this way, a side-by-side visual comparison can quickly be made. Pie charts are not

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appropriate for multiple-select questions because each respondent can answer choose more than one option, and the sum of the option percentages will exceed 100%.

Frequency Tables

Frequency tables are another form of basic analysis. These tables show the possible responses, the total number of respondents for each part, and the percentages of respondents who selected each answer. Frequency tables are useful when a large number of response options are available, or the differences between the percentages of each option are small. In most cases, pie or bar charts are easier to work with than frequency tables.

Cross Tabulation

Cross tabulations, or cross tabs, are a good way to compare two subgroups of information. Cross tabs allow you to compare data from two questions to determine if there is a relationship between them. Like frequency tables, cross tabs appear as a table of data showing answers to one question as a series of rows and answers to another question as a series of columns.

Cross tabs are used most frequently to look at answers to a question among various demographic groups. The intersections of the various columns and rows, commonly called cells, are the percentages of people who answered each of the responses. In the example above, females and males had relatively similar distribution among various job titles, with the exception of the tile of "Technical Product Manager", where 2.5 times as many males had the title as compared to females. For analysis purposes, cross tabs are a great way to do comparisons.

Filtering

Filtering is the most under-utilized tool used in analysis. Filters allow you select specific subsets of data to view. Unlike a cross tab, that compares two questions, a filter will allow you to examine all questions for a particular subset of the responses. By viewing only the data from the people who responded negatively, look at how they answered other questions. Find patterns or trends that help define why a person answered the way they did. You can even filter on multiple questions and criteria to do a more detailed search if necessary. For example, if you wanted to know the buying intentions of men, over the age of 40, with income of about $50,000, you would set a filter that would remove all those respondents that do not meet your criteria from the results set, thus enabling you to concentrate on the target population.

By applying filters to the date survey responses were received, you can see how the answers change from one time frame to the next. For instance, by continually running a customer satisfaction survey, you can assess changes in customer attitudes over time by filtering on the date the survey was received. You can also use a filter on date received to assess the impact of

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sales incentive programs or new product offerings by comparing survey responses before and after the change.

Filters do not permanently remove the responses of those people that do not match the specified criteria; they simply eliminate them from the current view of the data, making it much easier to perform analysis. By looking at the same question with different filters applied, differences between the various respondents represented by the filter can be quickly seen. Because filters remain in effect until cleared, don't forget to clear them before attempting to analyze your survey responses as a whole, otherwise your observations will be inaccurate, and your recommendations flawed.

Simple Regression Analysis

Determining what factors have lead to a particular outcome is called regression analysis. The regression means you're working backwards from the result to find out why a person answered the way that they did. This can be based on how they answered other questions as well.

For example, you might believe that website visitors who had trouble navigating within your website are likely not return again. If 30% of the respondents said they had trouble navigating through the website and 40% said they would not return, you could look at only those that would not return to determine if poor navigation might be the case. After filtering to only those who would not return, if 30% or less said they had trouble navigating, then this is clearly not the "reason" visitors will not return. By filtering out those that would return, we expect the percentage to increase dramatically. If it does, we still cannot conclude that navigation is "the" reason, only that it might contribute to the respondents not returning. In order to know if it is "the" reason, we would need to ask a direct question.

Reporting

After analyzing your survey data, it is time to create a report of your findings. The complexity and detail need to support you conclusions, along with your intended audience, will dictate the format of your report. CEO's require a different level of detail than line managers, so for maximum results consider who is going to receive your report and tailor it to meet their unique needs.

Visual reports, such as an HTML document or Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, are best suited for simple findings. These graphical reports are best when they are light on text and heavy on graphs and charts. They are reviewed quickly rather than studied at length, and most conclusions are obvious, so detailed explanations are seldom required. For more complex topics, a detailed report created in Microsoft Word or Adobe Acrobat is often required. Reports created using Word often include much more detailed information, report findings that require significant explanation, are extremely text heavy, and are often studied at great length and in significant detail.

No matter which type of report you use, always remember that information can be more powerfully displayed in a graphic format verses a text or tabular representation. Often, trends and

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patterns are more obvious and recommendations more effective when presented visually. Ideally, when making comparisons one or more groups of respondents, it is best to show a chart of each group's responses side-by-side. This side-by-side comparison allows your audience to quickly see the differences you are highlighting and will lead to more support for your conclusions.

At the beginning of your report, you should review your survey objective and sampling method. This will help your audience understand what the survey was about, and enable you to avoid many questions that are outside of your original objectives. Your report should have a description of your sampling method, including who was invited to participate, over what time frame results were collected, and any issues that might exist relative to your respondent pool. Next, you should include your analysis and conclusions in adequate detail to meet the needs of your audience. Include a table or graph for each area of interest and explain why it is noteworthy. After your analysis section, you should make recommendations that relate back to your survey objectives. Recommendations can be as simple as conduct further studies to a major shift in company direction. In either case, your recommendation must be within the scope of your survey objective and supported by the data collected. Finally, you can include a copy of your survey questions and a summary of all the data collected as an appendix to your report.

Conclusion

Survey analysis is not as easy as downloading results and printing a chart or report, yet it is not so complex that it requires a PhD. In this article we have learned that good analysis begins with good questions, representative participation, and careful interpretation of the data, in order to produce actionable results. Techniques such as charting, filtering, cross tabulation, and regression analysis all help you spot trends and patterns within your data while helping you meet your survey objective. You now have a solid foundation upon which you can confidently conduct your own survey analysis using a tool like eSurveysProcess.

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Chapter 7: Finding

World's Best BPO Vendors

Owing to the huge opportunity that lies in BPO, large corporations have ventured into the business and have set up BPO operations all over the world. There is a strong competition among these multinationals and many organizations such as the Outsourcing Management Institute, the Chief Resource Officer Institute, DataQuest and BPOrbit release BPO rankings each year. The Black Book of Outsourcing by Doug Brown and Scott Wilson provides a list of world's best BPO vendors for the year 2004-2005. The parameters used for ranking these vendors include

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customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, reviews of global consulting firms, performance with respect to other vendors and client performance ratings. The top 10 BPO vendors have been listed

World's Best BPO Vendors

No. Vendor

1 IBM Global / Daksh

2 Accenture

3 Hewlett Packard

4 MphasiS

5 Ernst & Young / Capgemini

6 Wipro Spectramind

7 ICICI One Source

8 eFunds Global Outsourcing

9 Convergys

10 Affiliated Computer Systems

BPO Trends:

The BPO industry is a developing sector and is being studied by analysts and researchers all over the world. Analysts tracking BPO have observed the following trends in the industry:

The BPO market worldwide is expanding with new services getting added to the list of business processes that are outsourced and new locations coming up as.

potential offshore destinations, India being the most preferred destination for offshore BPO.

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Cost savings is one of the most important drivers now. Information security, execution capability and financial stability are important considerations while selecting a vendor.

According to IDC, customer care and logistics are mature segments, while procurement and training are emerging markets and are expected to have a growth of more than 10 percent in the next five years.

Gartner has also observed the latest trend of offshore insourcing , in which firms establish their own offshore captive centers. These captive centers are generally shared service centers and allow the firms to retain control over the processes.

Chapter 8: Limitations

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Key To success

The key to success in ramping up talent in a BPO environment is a rapid training module. The training component has to be seen as an important sub-process, requiring constant re-engineering.

Business Process Outsourcing: The Top Rankers

WNS has emerged as the top BPO in India, pushing Wipro Spectramind to the second position, according to a survey done by NASSCOM. The basis of ranking is the revenues generated by the BPO companies in 2003-04, as per US GAAP. A list of top fifteen BPO companies in India is given below.

1. WNS Group 2. Wipro Spectramind

3. Daksh e-Services

4. Convergys

5. HCL Technologies

6. Zenta

7. ICICI Onesource

8. MphasiS

9. EXL

10. Tracmail

11. GTL Ltd.

12. vCustomer

13. HTMT

14. 24/7 Customer

15. Sutherland Technologies 51

The parameters for the survey was: Employee Size (Operation level executives), Percentage of last salary hike, Cost to company , Overall Satisfaction Score, Composite Satisfaction, Company Culture, Job Content / Growth, Training , Salary and Compensation , Appraisal System, People, Preferred Company: (Percentage of respondents of a company who named their own company as the preferred one), Dream Company: (Percentage of respondents in the total sample who preferred a particular company).

Threats

Risk is the major drawback with Business Process Outsourcing. Outsourcing of an Information System, for example, can cause security risks both from a communication and from a privacy perspective. For example, security of North American or European company data is more difficult to maintain when accessed or controlled in the Sub-Continent. From a knowledge perspective, a changing attitude in employees, underestimation of running costs and the major risk of losing independence, outsourcing leads to a different relationship between an organization and its contractor. Risks and threats of outsourcing must therefore be managed, to achieve any benefits. In order to manage outsourcing in a structured way, maximizing positive outcome, and minimizing risks and avoiding any threats, a Business Continuity Management (BCM) model is setup. BCM consists of a set of steps, to successfully identify, manage and control the business processes that are, or can be outsourced.

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Indian BPO Industry size

India has revenues of 10.9 billion USD from offshore BPO and 30 billion USD from IT and total BPO (expected in FY 2008). India thus has some 5-6% share of the total BPO Industry, but a commanding 63% share of the offshore component. This 63% is a drop from the 70% offshore share that India enjoyed last year, despite the industry growing 38% in India last year, other locations like Eastern Europe, Philippines, Morocco, Egypt and South Africa have emerged to take a share of the market .China is also trying to grow from a very small base in this industry. However, while the BPO industry is expected to continue to grow in India, its market share of the offshore piece is expected to decline. Important centers in India are Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Chennai and New Delhi.

The top five Indian BPO exporters for 2006-2007 according to NASSCOM are Genpact, WNS Global Services, Transworks Information Services, IBM Daksh, and TCS BPO.

According to McKinsey, the global "addressable" BPO market is worth $122 – $154 billion, of which: 35-40 retail banking, 25-35 insurance, 10-12 travel/hospitality, 10-12 auto, 8-10 telecoms, 8 pharma, 10-15 others and 20-25 is finance, accounting and HR. Moreover, they

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estimate that 8% of that capacity was utilized as of 2006.

BPO Industry in India- A Report

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a broad term referring to outsourcing in all fields. A BPO differentiates itself by either putting in new technology or applying existing technology in a new way to improve a process.

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is the delegation of one or more IT-intensive business processes to an external provider that in turn owns, administers and manages the selected process based on defined and measurable performance criteria.Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is one of the fastest growing segments of the Information Technology Enabled Services (ITES) industry.

Few of the motivation factors as to why BPO is gaining ground are:

Factor Cost Advantage Economy of Scale

Business Risk Mitigation

Superior Competency

Utilization Improvement

Generally outsourcing can be defined as - An organization entering into a contract with another organization to operate and manage one or more of its business processes.

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Indian BPO Industry: The Inside Story

India industry reports

India on the fast track

At the turn of the millennium, India has numerous reasons to smile about. The economy is no longer passive and redundant; on the contrary it is one that is being steered by the winds of social and economic changes. During the past few years, the country has seen phenomenal developments in its political, social and economic infrastructure, accelerated by the strong forces of globalization and Information Technology. A country with a resurgent, progressive economy; India can be rightly called the foster-child of globalization.

The booming Information Technology (IT) segment comprising ITES (IT-enabled services) / BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) are the core sectors that have driven the country into the epicenter of change. The liberalization of the Indian Telecom sector in 1994 gave an unexpected boost to the ITES/BPO industry. In no time, India has turned into a hot destination for global offshore outsourcing companies. The expansion in this sector can be attributed to the leading IT giants, captive players and third party service providers, who dominate the Indian ITES/BPO market. While the countries around the world are vying for a fair share of the cake, India has grabbed the pie as the preferred destination for offshore outsourcing. Indeed, India is shining!

BPO Industry: India clicks!

India became familiar with ‘Business Process Outsourcing’ only in the early and mid 1990’s, but now the entire country seems to be quivering with the ‘BPO fever'. The foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country owes a lot to this sector, which is progressing at a break-neck speed. The different kinds of services offered by BPO's include Customer Support, Technical Support, Telemarketing, Insurance Processing, Data Processing, Internet / Online / Web Research and so on. The cheap labour costs and the pool of skilled, English-speaking Indians have always been the two foremost factors contributing to the BPO boom in the country. As the National Association of Software Services and Companies (NASSCOM) points out, the other equally motivating factors include strong quality orientation among players, ability to offer round-the-clock services based on the country's unique geographic location, positive policy environment which encourages investments and a friendly tax structure, which places the ITES/BPO industry on almost equal footing with IT services companies.

The studies conducted by NASSCOM and the global consultants McKinsey & Co. brought to light certain amazing facts on the Indian BPO segment. According to a NASSCOM study, the country’s flourishing ITES - BPO sector is estimated to have achieved a 54 per cent growth in revenue in 2003-04. A key employment - generating sector in the country; the BPO segment created job opportunities for around 74,400 additional personnel in India in the same year. By the year 2008, the ITES- BPO sector is expected to employ over 1.1 million Indians, with its sales expected to touch an amazing 21$ to 24 $ dollars.

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Where call centres are a part of life

For today’s youngsters, the call centers are a welcome addiction. The industry has woven such magic around the entire nation that these days a city without a call centre would be hard to find. Call centers contribute a fair share to the revenue of the Indian BPO industry. About 70% of the BPO industry’s revenue comes from call-centers, 20% from high-volume, low-value data work and the remaining 10% from higher-value information work.

The average Indian’s attitude towards life has undergone a drastic change in the last few years. The motto of today’s young Indian generation is “Live life king size”. The changing lifestyles, demand for luxury and emergence of high-income spending groups coupled with a thoroughly cosmopolitan outlook of life are changing the modern Indian. Call centers are a major turn on for young graduates. In addition to providing employment, the call centres offer excellent benefits, good working environment and attractive remuneration packages. So who wouldn’t choose to be a call centre employee?

When things go wrong…

It is true that the Indian BPO sector is witnessing an unprecedented boom but the flip side of the industry cannot be ignored. For sometime, the Indian BPO industry has been battling certain complex problems such as labour attrition, poor infrastructure and lack of data protection laws.

The high attrition rate in the industry is primarily due to the restricted career options or growth opportunities for the youngsters. Fear of stagnation is a major factor that forces the employees to quit the industry. While some leave their career mid-way in pursuit of higher education, others are drawn in by the higher pay packages offered elsewhere. The new entrants into the BPO sector, who are consistently on the look out for trained youngsters, offer higher remuneration. With the employees moving to other jobs in less than a year, the industry has to confront the gnawing problem of attrition. Another key problem is the stressful work schedule, particularly night shifts, which may create both physical and mental disorders in the long run. Other reasons for the attrition problem include misguidance by the company, non-conducive policies and procedures, mental strain brought about by reclusive lifestyle and difficult relationships with peers or managers. According to analysts, labour attrition rates in the outsourcing industry vary between 20 and 40 per cent in certain companies while at top firms it’s around an average of 15 per cent. If the current attrition rate continues, the outsourcing industry is likely to face a shortage of 262,000 professionals by 2012.

Where lays the solution?

The multi-billion dollar BPO industry is racking its brains to solve the crisis, a complicated one that could prove to be disastrous in the long run. Brand building has come up as a good panacea for the attrition problem. The Indian BPO industry is focusing on the process of brand building with a view to create respect and awareness of the job among the people. The problem of talent attrition could be kept at bay by offering perquisites like the right opportunities for education such as degree courses for youngsters. While some BPO companies retain their employees by

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providing free food and accommodation, there are yet others who offer interest free home and car loans while some others even offer activities such as bungee jumping and salsa classes. Besides creating a challenging, competitive work environment, the stress is now on hiring the right employees. Today, most of the BPOs are on the look out for freshers and agents with more than one-and-a-half to two years of work experience, rather than graduates with no prior experience in the industry.

Lack of top-class infrastructure is also another key problem to be dealt with. As part of country’s infrastructure development, measures need to be taken to improve the quality of roads, power, transport and communication and connectivity. Further, the industry and the Government need to join hands so as to create an efficient legal machinery to enforce stringent laws. This will ensure a smooth, protected environment for the operation of businesses, particularly in connection with laws/policies governing data/cyber security and intellectual property rights.

The road ahead…

Although countries like Australia, China, Philippines and Ireland have emerged as the close competitors in the ITES/BPO sector, India is still the favored market for BPO companies. As for 2005, NASSCOM predicts that there would be a considerable expansion in the captive operations of global organizations and MNCs in the BPO sector. Another key development would be the rapid growth in offshore outsourcing, especially in the sectors of Automatic data management, Human Resources (HR), Finance and Accounting and Healthcare.

The rating agency ICRA reports that by 2006, India is expected to capture 56 per cent share of offshore business process outsourcing business, with the demand for BPO services increasing at an annual growth rate of 50 per cent during 2004-06. The size of the Indian BPO market is likely to be around $9-12 billion by 2006 and it will employ around 400,000 people.

While figures are a source of comfort for the BPO segment, there is much to be done to smooth the edges. We might have a multitude of issues to take care of, but at the end of it all India will be shining even brighter.

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9. Expected Outcome from this Project Analysis

SUMMRY OF THIS PROJECT

NASSCOM-EVEREST India BPO Study ‘Roadmap 2012 - capitalizing on the expanding BPO landscape’ released

NASSCOM, the premier trade body and ‘voice’ of the Indian IT-BPO industry, along with Everest Group, a global strategy consulting firm, today released the findings of the landmark study on India’s BPO industry, titled, NASSCOM-Everest India BPO Study - Roadmap 2012 - Capitalizing on the Expanding BPO Landscape. This study provides a comprehensive fact-based view of capabilities of sector, opportunities and growth imperatives for the Indian BPO industry and its key stakeholders. It sets the stage for the next wave of the industry’s growth.  

 Speaking at the launch, Som Mittal, President, NASSCOM said, “The Indian BPO sector has evolved tremendously since its inception, not only in its size but also in terms of maturity - service lines, service delivery capability and footprint. This US$ 11 billion industry today employs more that 700,000 people across 25 countries and accounts for approximately 40 percent of the global BPO offshore market thereby creating huge job opportunities and impacting the economy. The future potential is even larger. This study not only estimates the opportunity ahead but also lays down specific agenda for all stakeholders to help achieve this.”

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 Gaurav Gupta, Country Head, Everest Group added, “Though the initial focus was on moving activities regarded as non-core in order to cut costs, today an increasing number of buyers are showing the confidence to pursue complex global sourcing and transformational programmes with offshore providers, including third-parties and captives.  This confidence reflects in the Indian BPO industry’s rapidly evolving capabilities and an exciting future for its stakeholders.”

 The NASSCOM-Everest study presents a detailed, bottom-up analysis of the Indian BPO industry and perspectives from constituents including buyers, suppliers and captive BPO organizations. The effort covered over 60 percent of the Indian BPO market, with detailed findings and opportunity assessments in a variety if industries and functions.  Adds Gaurav Gupta, “the report indicates a possible target of US$50 billion by 2012 for the Indian BPO industry.  This reflects a 5-fold growth over the next five years and can create up over 2 million direct jobs in India.”

 Raman Roy, Chairman and Managing Director, Quatrro said “The right choices by stakeholders of the Indian BPO industry will decide and impact this potential five-fold growth. Less than 5 percent of the total opportunity has been tapped till now, which is indicative of the enormous growth potential available to the industry.  While the aspired target is aggressive – it is definitely achievable, and will bring huge payoffs to India’s economy, employment and development.”

 The report outlines the need for significant collaboration between the industry, government and other stakeholders on a range of initiatives including education, infrastructure, country-competitiveness, and domestic BPO. Nikhil Rajpal, Global Services Practice Head, Everest Group, said “capturing the true benefits of this opportunity will require significant change to how buyers

and suppliers operate in an increasingly competitive market for global services. The government will need to actively support and partner with the industry to ensure that India does not lose out on the opportunity to add up to 2.5% to its GDP by 2012.” 

From a talent perspective, while the number of people required to capture a five-fold growth are available, there may be a requirement of employable talent, of which approximately 50 percent of the additional talent requirements will have to be met from Tier 2 and 3 cities in India, necessitating the creation of physical and social infrastructure in these cities.

 Domestic market

 The domestic Business Process Outsourcing market with a growth rate of ~50 percent over the last five years has grown faster than the overall Indian BPO market to reach nearly US$1.6 billion by FY2008. Tapping significant opportunities for domestic businesses, such as, Banking, Retail, Insurance, Media, Telecom and Government provides an additional US$15-20 billion opportunity for the industry. 

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Action themes for stakeholders 

While India is best equipped to capitalize on the available opportunities, these opportunities are not lost to other offshore destinations. Stakeholders of Indian BPO industry need to act on eight action themes for the Indian BPO industry to realize its potential, and to maintain and accelerate the growth trajectory over the next 5-10 years.

Protect India’s cost advantage to ensure that buyer interest, adoption and growth are sustained

Create ‘BPO hubs’ with enabling physical and social ‘eco-system’ to drive BPO-led growth broader and deeper within India

Increase employability and access untapped talent pools by creating greater linkages between the current education system and the needs of the BPO industry, and facilitating the development of BPO-specific education models

Encourage the growth of domestic BPO to enhance the competitiveness of Indian industry, create additional employment and facilitate development

‘Up-shift’ the third-party and captive value proposition to effectively deliver against changing buyer expectations

Shape an ‘integrator’ role for the Indian BPO industry in the emerging global services supply chain

Communicate the true performance and potential of the industry to a broader set of stakeholders, including buyers, employees and Government

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QUESTIONNAIRE

1) Is BPO an Industry? a) Agree b) Disagree

2) BPO is a Service Industry or Manufacturing? a) Service b) Manufacturing

3) Main types of BPO is 2 or 3? a) 2 b) 3

4) Is Indian market is growing from growth of BPO? a) Yes b) No

5) Is there any threat to BPO industry? a) Yes b) No

6) How BPO is different from other industries? a) Yes b) No

7) Is BPO recognizes as Industry? a) Yes b) No

8) Is BPO employ friendly? a) Yes b) No

9) Is PBO Creates Jobs? a) Yes b) No

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Books:

1. James E Van Home Practice : Financial management and Policy.

2. Alan C Shapiro Management : Multinational Financial Management.

3. Ian H. Giddy : Global Financial Markets.

4. Bhaskar Majumdar : Concept and practices of Global Finance.

5. Sargay Lall : The New Multinationals.

Web sites:

1. www.google.com 2. www.spancobpo.com 3. www.nasscom.com 4. www.24x7bpo.com 5. www.go4 bpo .com

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