Makeover time for BPOs as business process management (BPM) gains currency

The Indian business process outsourcing (BPO) industry has come a long way from being a an employer of undergrads who can speak English to an end-to-end managed services provider.

This transformation from BPO to business process management (BPM) – going beyond plain vanilla voice services to deliver value beyond costs – has accelerated in the last two years.

This has included setting up of multi-delivery centres, niche vertical offerings and end-to-end solutions using cloud, big data and analytics, said K S Vishwanathan, vice-president – industry initiatives, Nasscom, the association of software services companies.

“As of today, 50 out of 300 Nasscom member BPOs have made the shift to BPM from BPO. Many third-party analysts have also started referring to this industry as BPM industry,” he said.

In line with the transformation, Nasscom rechristened its annual event this year as Nasscom BPM Summit. The industry body is looking for an image makeover and attract more talent to the sector.

Keshav Murugesh, co-chairman of the Nasscom BPO Forum and CEO of WNS, which is at the helm of Nasscom’s re-branding excercise, said the term ‘BPO’ was misleading, as it represented call centres of the past, with general perceptions of minimal educational qualifications requirements, highest attrition rates and an easy way for freshers to make a quick buck.

“BPM, on the other hand, represents a more respected, full-service industry, ensuring all-rounded growth of an individual after training him/her in specific skill-sets, and promising superior career opportunities in specialised, niche verticals – at par with the best of MNCs.”

WNS has prepared a booklet called ‘Beyond Perceptions & Myths’ to dispel the negative myths surrounding the industry.

It is also working on a coffee table book of case studies of BPM companies and their projects to be circulated among colleges and overseas trade associations.

On the other hand, Nasscom is working on multiple other initiatives to spread awareness about the BPM industry.

“Along with campus recruits that take place during April-May, Nasscom is launching a BPM campaign targeting 300 undergraduate colleges.

The campaign will include BPM industry FAQs to be uploaded on the Nasscom website, videos highlighting the shift from BPO and BPM and the main differences between both, results of Nasscom-sponsored AC Nielsen study of 40 companies on the reasons why people join and leave the BPO industry, and experiences of college alumni that have joined this industry.

The campaign will be available on college websites, social media, booths in colleges and of course the Nasscom website.

Besides, all these initiatives will be supplemented by individual Nasscom-member BPO
companies explaining new training requirements for the BPM industry to scale up requirements.

“About 58% of BPO revenues today come from non-voice services and rest from voice. However, we need to create awareness within the country and globally that India has what it takes to offer a holistic client-partner model and end-to-end services. We also need to attract the right talent pool to aid this transformation,” said Vishwanathan.

And who better than the IT majors themselves to drive this change.

“Infosys will be creating a curriculum on BPM for various colleges and third-party centres, TCS is doing a perception study on the BPM industry, and Genpact and IBM are working on a streamlined recruitment progamme for BPM, based on Nasscom Skills Registry. They will be aides by all the other Nasscom member companies to take this forward,” said Vishwanathan.

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