BPO firms Expects 50% Workforce Expansion

Recovering from the economic slump of 2009, business process outsourcing firms in Philippines expect 50 percent workforce expansion this year. This was reported in an online survey conducted by Team Asia. This survey was commissioned by Outsource2Philippines and BPAP. The survey showed that business process outsourcing (BPO) industry has been recovering from the economic recession, bringing new hopes for the industry.

Oscar Sanez, the CEO of the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) citing the survey results said that the industry is on its way to experience better prospects and rapid growth in this current quarter. In fact, the increased need for non-voice and other complex services has led to the transformation and diversification of the business processes.

Issuing a statement, Sanez said that people issues still continue to be a major concern. He added that the upcoming election holds great significance in respect to improve the investor perception. Likewise, BPAP showed that 93 percent of the respondents viewed that upcoming general elections would be affecting the investor perception of the BPO sector in Philippines.

The survey results also showed that 34 percent of the total respondents pointed the tight labor market to be the main concern when it is about promoting the BPO services in Philippines. This particular figure was found to be up from 23 percent recorded in a similar survey last year.

They survey further indicated that the given number of the respondents who were in favor of increased training programs to deal with the problem of the tight market conditions increased to 48 percent from the given 26 percent. This group of respondents also indicated that education was found to be one given priority.

Considering the Best Call Center Furniture

A new call center evokes its managers to think about its decoration. When it is about décor then furniture will be given utmost importance. Now the use of call center furniture is driven by the given size of a bullpen first. Beyond it, the given design of the bullpen needs to be considered. This is to ensure which configuration works best for the set-up.

It’s the ‘bullpen’ that comes in mind when we talk about call center furniture. Managers at work select furniture in terms of bullpen cubicles. Yes, most agents sit in cubicles to attend calls. This makes bullpen arguably the critical and the largest component of the entire contact center “ecosystem”.

Not only cubicles, the design of training rooms, supervisor stations, reception areas, executive offices and break rooms is to be considered by call center managers. Companies usually coordinate design of these areas with the design of the main call center floor.

Leading call center furniture makers help companies to plan out the interior designing of the spaces in addition to bullpen. These days, the use of call center design software is common. The special designing software allows customers to check out how the chosen furniture designs will look from before.

Use of special call center furniture software provides a lot of suppleness in designing the bullpen. This allows furniture to be made of custom dimensions. More particularly, use of software maximizes floor space plans. When it is about gaining an advanced dimension in call center aesthetics then having the call center design software will be your choice. Do you have any better suggestions? We would be pleased to have your ideas shared here.

Centralized Monitoring System in BPO

The business process outsourcing (BPO) model is internationally acclaimed for offering high-quality assurance, catering to the needs of diverse industry verticals. The identification of best practices, high-ability domain expertise, strong delivery mechanism and centralized monitoring also helps businesses to reap high-yielding benefits out of outsourcing.

It is centralized monitoring system that helps BPO companies to manage essential data effectively. Without the centralized surveillance system, call center firms will not be able to maintain advanced data management system. This results in the lack of visibility on the productivity and progress of business operations.
Most modern day call centers include centralized monitoring system that creates a lot of room for better assessment of exercises. This helps in implementing the required corrective measures or actions for the benefit of the outsourcing firms.

Companies those do not include the centralized monitoring system include the high risk of uncontrolled corruption. This can create adverse effects toward the advantages of the programs. On the other hand, with the use of the effectual data management skills out of an advanced BPO model, companies will be able to experience an expanded view. Additionally, the central authorities of any business process outsourcing organization will also be able to monitor every aspect of the business rigorously and also ensure compliance and control. While operating in a competitive environment, BPO companies should include an advanced system, which is dedicated towards monitoring the quality of services on offer. Well, the centralized monitoring system will always be considered better for the proper functioning of the entire business processes.

Service Management Essentials in a BPO

Advanced service management holds the key to build relationships with the stakeholders and customers in the business process outsourcing firms. Better service management also ensures that services are delivered to meet the needs and requirements.

The highest level of service management, if exists in a BPO, will help to meet the customer objectives, review the past performance and also to set up potential for future activity. The team of service management will be continually checking out for betterment. The key activities that usually make up the service management are as follows:

Performance Measurement: This is to track the adherence and volumes to the service key performance indicators within the cost parameters.

Quality Control: This is to monitor the standard processes and the outputs on a daily basis.
Performance Reporting: The KPIs or the key performance indicators and the balanced score cards happens to be another essential activity to inform about the dialog between the customer and the service provider. Process improvement teams: This activity is to manage the change requests and also to act in times of service

non-cooperation in a sensible manner.
Service level agreement or SLA: This is a management plan that sets up suitable SLAs which help to define the responsibilities between the customer and the service provider.
Governance Boards- It meets on a half-yearly, quarterly basis. The main aim of the board is to review the overall performance scorecard and also to strategize the new services for the roll-out.

Davao Listed As New Big BPO Outsourcing Destination

The recently concluded survey- ‘2010 Top 10 Next Wave Cities’ announces Davao as the next potential city for carrying out business process outsourcing operations. Prepared by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Commission on ICT and Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P), the- top 10 annual list of ‘Next Wave Cities’ was announced on April 16.2010.

Davao listed as the Top 10 Next Wave Cities, 2010 scored high on the given availability of the infrastructure and qualified talent. All the given categories under which this Philippine city was rated include infrastructure, talent, business environment and cost. In all these given categories, Davao bagged talent- 99 percent, infrastructure- 95 percent, business environment-76 percent and cost-74 percent.

Davao’s suitability and readiness to host the BPO operations has been strongly assessed all throughout the IT-BPO scorecard. According to the survey, the other 9 cities to handle BPO operation are Rosa (Luguna), IIoilo city, Bacolod city, Cagayan de Oro city, Baguio city, Dumaguete city and Malolos city.

The report on the ‘Top 10 Next Wave Cities’ ranked the city of Davao to include the largest availability of workers and graduates out of the 30 locations that were assessed. This talent criterion hopefully carries a huge weight of about 40 percent in the total ranking.

On the whole, the top 10 Next Wave Cities had generated $1.2 billion in terms revenues in the year 2009 that later on totaled to $7.2 billion. The full report showed that the top 10 cities have also grown to about 148 percent in terms of generating new employment opportunities.

Still Using Call Center Scheduling Spreadsheets?

Using spreadsheets is still common in a small or a medium-sized call center. Now you may think that it would be better to manage and schedule your staff using the spreadsheets. The large upfront investment connected with workforce management software service providers often emerges as a major concern for the small and medium call centers.

It’s true that the investment linked with the conventional premised-based WFM software appear to be an important consideration. However, things are changing rapidly. The latest subscription-based and hosted software offerings can be a better choice to substitute the lowest cost choice of the traditional spreadsheets.

Before you choose any one, you require keeping in mind that inefficient schedules and forecasts will continue to cost your customer service much. The capability to handle personal preferences and exceptions as an important part of the schedules will be motivating the entire team. Hence, the need to have an improved system of scheduling arises.

With the use of the advanced WFM software system, you can take best advantage of the comprehensive call history. The use of the detailed data and the patterns will be able to help you add to the accuracy of the schedule and forecast. You can even build upon the skill-based routing into the schedule with the multi-skill system at place. So, it will be important to take a close look at your own call center operations. The staffing needs to make sure whether the low-cost scheduling spreadsheets will actually cost you less or more.

Outbound Call Center Outsourcing- Major Benefits

Apart from the wish to have an extended customer base and long-lasting customer relationship, most business clients also select to outsource outbound call center business activities for some other reasons.

Few of those reasons that are also considered as the benefits of outbound call center outsourcing are as follows:

Eliminating Backlogs:

Call centers often make use of the latest customer care software to improve efficiency at work and also to ensure desired results. They offer high-end, quality infrastructure to carry forward several tasks in the right direction.

Cost-effective:

Outbound call center outsourcing offers the most cost-effective ways to help a business to function. Working in this line, most business clients save up to 60% of the total operational costs of his company. Additionally, businesses also get a premium value on the given investment made.

Pre-screened staff:

Clients include a pass in pre-qualifying the customer service representatives. In many ways, it also ensures that the desired results and the company image of the clients are in right place.

Well-trained, professional offshore team:

Call centers are often found to put customer service employees into strict training program. Why is it so? The customer care representatives gain training on all the different aspects of the services and products to offer the results desired by the clients.

The world-wide demand for call center multi-tasking keeps growing at a record rate. With the continued growth in place, there also follows a more competitive global outsourcing industry like never before.

BPO Sector in Gauteng Marks Growth

The BPO sector in Gauteng is expected to reach Rs 7.4bn(Please give value in $) in terms of sales in the current year, according to the research consultancy firm, Frost & Sullivan. In the report, it has also been pointed out that this year the business process outsourcing sector will also record a growth of 9-14% growth between 2010 and 2014.

The latest research commissioned by the Business Process Enabling SA (BPeSA), Gauteng highlighted on other major areas as well. It has reported Gauteng to have dominated the entire SA market that presently employs about 71% of the total BPO work-force.

The business process outsourcing sector of Gauteng is commonly known for the call center outsourcing services. However, outsourcing call center services comprise just about 67% of this entire industry. The sector also covers other multifaceted outsourcing services like financial accounting, IT support, data analytics and a wide range of the legal services.

Keryn House, the BPeSA CEO, said that the BPO sector in Gauteng had struggled during the global economic downturn. However, the recent data shows that employment in the business process outsourcing sector has grown modestly enough during the crisis period.

The research also revealed the fact that most big players of the industry have well-positioned themselves to be internationally competitive. In offering diverse high-end services, the research focused on the point that Gauteng has shown growing skills bringing incredible offering on an international basis.

The BPeSA research has also identified that there are 9 large-scale projects, which will be rolling out in the next 4 years. These projects will address few key areas like industry support, infrastructure and the skills development. Find more