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BPO: The Gold Standard

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DQI Bureau
New Update

To say that India has come a vast way and has fixated world attention by its

success in securing a dominant global hold on the international offshoring

market, says nothing new.

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To spend time analysing how this has been done would simply be to retread old

tracks.

To cogitate on the future path and the evolution of higher value chain

capabilities within the Indian proposition might be of curiosity, but would

hardly add new material.

However, to continue to dwell on the manner in which India's worldwide

clients and those clients' customers, view the Indian value proposition and

the extent to which it provides them assurance or otherwise, must never be

allowed to become old ground.

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Richard Stockdale is

CEO of Lloyds TSB Global Services

Focused, responsive and sensible action in that area is a future stock in

trade of India's continuing offshoring value proposition.

If the global market can already see evidence of the dominant growth and

commoditized capability of India's voice/data/ITeS value proposition, to what

hitching post exactly are global competitors going to tie their future sales

pitch?

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Certainly, they may be tempted to look at recently stated shortages in

emerging India workforce skill sets and certainly, they may seek to cast doubt

on India's capability to introduce infrastructure in a timely fashion.

But in my view India can continue to confound them in those areas, into the

indefinable future.

But, however well India executes there will obviously always be areas of

focus to dwell on. No one proposition is perfect.   

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So, what else?



The India offshoring industry is already and undoubtedly focussed on both

quality service delivery and cost arbitrage issues of attrition and also on the

reputationally limiting issue of data protection, and in these disciplines, on

most occasions, it already competes globally as well as the competition.

But in my view these circling competitors will see continuing worthwhile

mileage in constantly seeking to focus global client attention on these areas of

Indian cost arbitrage, service delivery quality and intellectual property

protection, seeking to promote to their own advantage the negative “perception

is reality” culture, so prevalent in the international media attention on

India of 2005.

The reason why these areas have to remain in such sustained tight Indian

focus is increasingly coherent in an intensively competitive world:

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  • No one is now asleep to India's capabilities. India's visibility,

    coupled with the inherent flexibility of newer entrants, means that success can

    be copied by competitor countries and mistakes avoided.
  • To sustain its dominant voice and lower end data proposition, India cannot

    allow its attrition issues to damage the cost arbitrage, or its ability to

    deliver consistent quality service, both regular victims of high attrition

    levels.
  • As India progressively climbs the value chain the IP content of the contracts

    awarded will exponentially increase. Consequently, although higher up the value

    chain attrition per se will be less of an issue, DP controls and remedies will

    become ever more important.
  • The Indian Industry must recognize the need to waste no time and to pull out

    every stop to robustly strive to reverse any negative perception message. Only

    when it has reversed this to “Reality is Perception” can it afford the

    luxury of self congratulation.

There could possibly be a way to move toward that happy state, as follows:

The Concept



The India offshoring/outsourcing industry, using NASSCOM as a centralized

forum creates an internationally competitive Indian industry standard for

attrition and  DP control.

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The certification only to be awarded to Indian-based providers who meet the

independently assessed and stringent criteria required. It should expire say

every two years renewable only after fresh independent review.

Suggested Mechanics

  • NASSCOM to arrange for a recognized and respected independent outsourcing/offshoring

    consultancy firm to identify and select the top five Indian voice/data/ITeS

    third party provider firms in the disciplines of attrition and DP.
  • These selected five top companies in each category to then be analysed by the

    independent consultant to extract common features contributing to their success.
  • The common features to then be merged and welded into an Indian Industry Data

    Protection Standard and an Indian Industry Attrition Control Standard.
  • Meeting this standard and thus gaining certification, to be evidenced by

    independent certification, which can only be awarded to providers following a

    satisfactory audit by an independent consultancy or auditor approved, appointed

    and paid through NASSCOM and counter financed

    by an industry contributors fund.
  • NASSCOM to then make it clear to the global market that it encourages

    prospective clients to focus their vendor search only on firms carrying the

    standards certification.
  • There should be a reaudit every two years for renewal of the standards

    certification and providers failing to achieve the standard will lose their

    certification, thus disadvantaging them in the tender market.
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Will it Work?



Those companies who feel comfortable that they will pass and can see the

value of their certification in a prospective client's eyes, may be amenable

to the suggestion. Other lesser providers, fearing inability to certify, may

react more negatively.

Put simply it should have the effective impact of either squeezing out or up

(hopefully the latter), lower quality providers, to the enhancement of the

overall Indian industry value proposition. 

The added cost and resource focus to certify, in an already competitive

market may not be particularly welcome, but then, what cost investment for

tomorrow?

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