Outsourcing 101 and the emergence of a new Bangalore

W here exactly does the power to change the universe rest? In the ideas and innovation that address problems and make life better? In funding and encouraging those ideas? In scaling them so that the world can benefit? In lowering their cost of manufacture, delivery and sustenance so that everyone can genuinely enjoy the fruits of human inventiveness? It does get a little confusing when you try to deconstruct and isolate bits and pieces of reason and logic from something that is essentially a whole.

When US president Obama and his planeload of advisors, analysts, Fortune 500 CEOs, political jockeys, economists and policy think tank sit down to discuss the issues around outsourcing, you, as a Bangalorean, must know why you are at the centre of the outsourcing storm.

It’s not really about jobs in the US being shipped to Bangalore. That is merely part of the issue. The bigger issue here is the US eroding its power to invent and innovate. It seems hardly likely that an army of fresh local graduates with thick Indian accents sitting in some Bellandur back office taking or making calls to settle insurance claims and complete mortgage papers are changing America’s power to innovate. It seems absurd. And it is. So who is stealing the jobs?

The truth is that the days of folks with headphones beavering away in the middle of the night at glowing terminals have changed. That is the image that typecasts the industry. But it no longer defines it.
Outsourcing has matured. Today, it is about cutting edge outfits that deliver design, engineering, manufacturing and analytical solutions that help improve the world and, maybe not make it a better place to live in, but certainly a cheaper one.

Often, they even make it a better place — thanks to the innovation they give birth to.

Increasingly, the work being outsourced to Bangalore is sophisticated and includes the design and development of systems that can track entire fleets of aircraft for a carrier; chartered accountants analysing investment portfolios based on changes in the securities markets; researchers developing complex proteins; medics providing doctors with diagnostic reports based on tests and patient examination reports; coaching high school kids for their exams; developing services for mobile consumers; and designing rugged devices used in armed combat for hostile regions like deserts and jungles.

The people who work on these projects don’t wear headphones and mumble in tones that draw the ire of John Doe. They are folks with a degree in industrial design, a Master’s in law or finance, or a PhD in radiology. Body shopping is what can best be described as the dubious past of Bangalore. Today, the business is the inspiration for a new television series called Outsourced (7.4 million viewers on premier).

So what is the future of the BPO business? How is it likely to shape Bangalore and its society over the next decade? And how much longer before the term BPO itself begins to sound like an anomaly? And what will replace it?

It is, of course, futile to gaze at a crystal ball — and thankfully, quite unnecessary as well. The answers are around us. The BPO business needs to start examining some of the biggest problems faced by — not just the US — the world. That’s where the business is. That’s the general direction the needle of our ‘Change the World Compass’ points towards.

Right on top of that list is cheap and accessible health care, especially maternal health care; waste management; dramatically improved food processing and storage; advanced lighting and display technologies that are gentler on the environment; access to clean water and access to good education. You can add to the list and make it just as long as you wish, but you get the general components that go into the ‘Change the World’ picture.

Any self-respecting head of a Bangalore BPO will display a visible aversion for, and a loathing towards, the term BPO. Today, they are not working only towards low-end data entry, tele-calling or the consolidation and standardisation of business processes to make them more cost efficient.

Today, they are using sophisticated methods to eavesdrop into society, capture the conversations of consumers and use analytics engines to throw up answers to problems we did not even suspect. They are using cheap but highly trained talent to seek out game changing solutions. Bangalore’s BPO business is headed towards becoming the heart of business not its back end.
Bangalore may not change the world. Not in the foreseeable future, anyway. But its BPO bosses know Bangalore will change dramatically as it gears up for the inevitable: the biggest upgrade and makeover in the history of the outsourcing business.