Many of my young friends & my colleagues, even some of the readers of this Forum ask me to know why they should opt for a job in BPO. In this article I have tried to give a brief overview of the BPO Industry and various career options and pros-cons.
BPO: BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) is one of the rapidly growing industries in India. It is the fastest developing segment of Information Technology Enabled Services industry. The term BPO refers to outsourcing in all fields. BPO offers different kinds of services including customer support services, telemarketing services, technical support services, employee IT help-desk services, insurance services, data entry services, data conversion services, scanning OCR with editing & indexing services, online research and form processing services.
Scope of BPO career in India
- Starting a career in the BPO sector is easy as most of the BPOs provide in house training to the employees. Generally, a candidate with graduation in any discipline can join the BPO companies. They don’t require any academic specialization. There is no specific age bar. Most of the BPO companies offer good work environment. The employee can get good wages along with some excellent benefits. Jobs in the BPO sector attract youngsters as most BPO companies provide transport facilities. Most of the people are fascinated towards the attractive lifestyle and flexibility of time that they offer. Due to these advantages, numerous people strongly wish to develop a career in the BPO sector.
Negative points of BPO industry
- Along with many benefits associated with this industry, there are some negative points that make people rethink about the job. One should have a clear idea about the positive and negative points before selecting a career in the BPO sector. After doing the job for some time many people find many people find it difficult to continue as they find it tedious and monotonous. Some people leave the job when they need to spend sleepless nights. Some people also find it difficult to move up the career ladder fast in the BPO industry. Some people leave the BPO industry for higher education, higher salary better status.
Positive Points in the BPO Industry
According to a recent report by the information technology research and advisory firm Gartner, the economic downturn and protectionist measures of western countries notwithstanding, the market share of the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry will likely increase two-fold over the next couple of years.
The report said that Indian vendors in the BPO sector would experience growth, owing to factors like dependable service delivery, sustained acquisitions of Europe and North America-based shared service centers, as well as revenue growth from continental Europe by way of partnerships.
The 2008 revenue figures are expected to double by 2010 – last year, the foremost 20 India-centric BPO service providers managed $4 billion revenue, which was 5 percent of the $80-billion revenue figures of the leading 150 BPO companies of the world. As per Gartner study, the market share of India’s cost-effective BPO industry would rise to 10 percent by the end of 2010. Along with having the cost advantage, the Indian BPO industry also attracts corporate because of the fairly simple regulatory norms.
Arup Roy, senior research analyst at Gartner, said: “Indian BPO providers are swiftly evolving to balance exposure to vertical industries, currency and legislation issues. Their strategies include investing in onshore and nearshore delivery, and pioneering new area of analytics services or knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), where Indian BPO players are shining!”
Reputed BPOs in India
With increasing scope of BPO industry, many top-ranking software companies have established their BPO centers in India making a career in the BPO sector lucrative.
Some of the well-known BPO companies in India are WNS Group, Convergys, Zenta, Wipro Spectramind, EXL,ICICI Onesource, Daksh e-Service, Tracmail, HCL Technologies, MphasiS, GTL Ltd, Sutherland Technologies, vCustomer, HTMT and 24/7 Customer.
These companies are the top-rankers on providing career in BPO sector on the basis of criteria like employee size, overall satisfaction score, job content/growth, salary and compensation, training, company culture and appraisal system etc.
What are the advantages & disadvantages of working in a BPO industry?
The reason why they ask is simple may still are young; they still have the option to choose other career options. Let me sum up the answer at the beginning of the post that a career in BPO is rewarding, provided you have the urge to develop skills continually as required by the BPO industry where you would work. But if you are a person, who would love to work from Morning 9 -6, then a career in BPO sector is definitely not meant for you!
With above cautionary information, let us go to find what are the advantages & disadvantages of working in a BPO industry.
Advantages of working in a BPO industry
- Low skill set required at entry level: Yes, as you might already know you can start on a BPO career with as little required skill as communicating in English language. No other skills are sought for, especially in the call centre segment of BPO industries. Hence you can start off very early in your life may be as soon as you pass out of Class-XII, although most of the reputed BPO industry insists you to be a graduate(Ex. Engineering , Arts). After all which other industry says you that you do not need to have any prior job experience for the entry level?
- On the job training: Almost all the reputed BPO industries trains you when you are on the job that means you get paid, even when you learn!
- Very good career progression within the organization: As you know that as a fresher you can go grow in a BPO industry much faster when compared to other software industries where you have to spend at least 2 years before you get a growth or a hike.
ENTRY LEVEL: Technical Support Engineer or Customer support Representative
LEVEL 1 TO LEVEL 2: Some BPO industry gives an opportunity to go as a Escalation lead
TL: Become a Team Leader within one to two years. Become a Customer Service Supervisor within two or three years. Become a Shift Manager in about three to four years.
TM: Become a Manager in about four to five years. Source: Times Jobs
- Very good career progressions outside the organization: Yes, as soon as you have worked for a few years and have developed the required skills- gaining the experiences, your face value increases manifold. Than should you think so, you can join some other BPO industry, negotiating a higher pay package.
- Onsite Oppurtunity: A Reputed BPO industry, which has offshore offices, from time to time sends its employee to give an exposure to working conditions in the overseas office and also to meet manpower demand there. Thus you have a great chance to travel abroad as well as earn in dollars/Euros!
- Good Salary as you Grow: As compared to a Govt. job or a job in a ordinary public/private sector industry, BPO industries pays you well, as can be found from following data from Times Jobs:
- Rs. 8,000-12,000 per month at the entry level as Customer Care representatives.
- Rs. 12,000-16,000 per month (plus incentives) as a Team Leader.
- Rs. 20,000-25,000 per month as a Customer Service Supervisor.
- Rs. 25,000-30,000 per month as a Shift Manager.
- Rs. 40,000-50,000 per month as a Manager.
Source: Times Jobs
These salaries are apart from other pecuniary benefits like: Free transport from/to place of residence, free tea/snacks in the office hours PF/Medical insurance etc.
Disadvantages of working in a BPO industry:
- Odd working hours: This is the biggest disadvantage of working in a BPO industry you work in the time frame of a different geographical area as you cater to most of the clients abroad. You work when rest of the people around you sleeps! This odd life-style may affect your family life if you do not have understanding family members. But if you are single, this is not a cause to worry at all! It may also affect your health – sleep disorders, heart disease, eyesight problems etc. However once you get used to working in shifts, your biological cycles adapts to the working schedule. Therefore you have problem only in the initial period of 2/3 months. Also, working hours for a BPO employee is not many as 40 hours in a 5-day working week that means 8 hour per day.
- Abusive Clients: At times, you may come across clients who picks up from your accent that you are from a foreign country. Now if this person is extra-patriotic having certain prejudice that jobs are being taken out from his country due to outsourcing, he may abuse you thinking that you are one of the person stealing the job from his country. You have to deal with such a situation very tactfully. Have no doubt that the BPO industry you would work for would train you up for taking care of such things.
- Negative social perception about BPO industry: This is another grey area, because of which many potential BPO employee turns off from getting into a BPO sector. News are galore of sex & violence surrounding a BPO industry, because of which parents of conservative family prevents their children from entering a BPO industry. Many of the times, such news is hyped up, just to increase the news value. Therefore you need not be very concerned about the same. After all, it depends solely on you how you conduct yourselves! Most of the disadvantages stated above are only for call-centers, the major BPO segment.
Therefore, as you might have gone through above discussion, advantages of working in a BPO industry far outweigh its disadvantages. So if you have the requisite skills for joining a BPO industry, maybe you should consider joining it without any negative impressions
Career Choices: You may like to choose the type of Industry you would like to prefer,
A) If you are from commerce background you can opt for banking and financial related services,
B) If you are from arts and journalism background you can take up a job in bpo divisions of news making agencies , like Thomson Reuters etc,
C) If you are from law/legal background you can take up a job in a legal outsourcing company.
D) An IT engineer can take up a job in a Technical Support Engineer where in you can directly work in a live customer support/client managing assignment.
E) A marketing professional can get a bpo job in analytics, CRM and client management
F) A Branding professional can get a professional job in a bpo working on Marketing Campaigns, preparing collateral and Corporate Dossiers etc.
G) KPO – Knowledge Process outsourcing, KPO is one step extension of Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) because BPO Industry is shaping into Knowledge Process Outsourcing because of its favorable advantageous and future scope. But, let us not treat it only a ‘B’ replaced by a ‘K’. In fact, Knowledge process can be defined as high added value processes chain where the achievement of objectives is highly dependent on the skills, domain knowledge and experience of the people carrying out the activity. There is flux of IIT and IIM passed out students joining these organizations. In the Indian context, KPO salaries could be 25-50 per cent higher than those offered to the same domain experts such as Engineer, Doctor, CA, Lawyer, Architect, Biotechnologist, Economist, Statistician and MBAs , it is estimated.
Conclusion : In summary we can say both BPO, KPO are good career paths depending on the aspiration of the student provided he/she is able to cope up with the odd-hour working experience and change in lifestyle. Today there are lots of main stream senior professionals who are joining BPO/KPO organizations at Senior Management level at lucrative salary and leading a bright career. The reverse is also true; people with BPO experience and expertise in any BPO segment are joining good positions in non-BPO organizations as Process Designers and Consultants.
Do post your comments. Let us know questions/personal experiences you want to ask or share with us.
Compiled by
Gobind V
Business Development Manager,
GSG.
Tags: bpo companies, career choices in BPO, career guidance, career options, career path, customer support services, data entry services, lifestyle in BPO and KPO, pros and cons of BPO industry, Reputed BPOs in India, salary range in BPO and call centers, telemarketing services
though i am not working in bpo but want to join a bpo i think the compilation by mr gobind is the final answer who is having any queries regarding joining or want to know about the industry
different
@Shantveeresh
Thank you Welcome to GSG Keep Visiting
@urvashi
Thank you. Welcome to GSG Keep Visiting
Today, the companies have realized that, customer service outsourcing is an important tool to boost sales and gain maximum revenues. While there are still many who are reluctant to outsource their inbound customer services. The truth is that in today’s competitive business environment inbound customer service is smart choice. It allows companies to handle the important aspects of their business. Most of the reputed call centers have skilled work force. They are professional and are trained to handle calls proficiently which are needed to manage a business successfully.
how to grow techniclly in Call center filed.
Hi Raj,
In call centre/BPO for getting technical knowledge it depends upon the project/process you are working. If it’s a techical support rather than customer support you can definitly gain good technical knowledge. Networking Projects like ISP(Internet service provider), Routers, switches, VPN(Virtual Private Network), Telecommunications are some examples of technical support pojects.
It also depends on the corporate you are working. So choose wise and gain more technical knowledge.
Careers in bpo call centre seems to be very bright these days.
What is the difference between a BPO and a call center. Please specify….
Hi dhrubajyoti deka,
A BPO is a place performing a process or a part of a process of another business organization in the form of telephone calls emails, like medical transcriptions, technical support for their products
Call center will handle only telephone calls for getting/registering customers complaints, queries like bill payment. They will make outbound/outgoing calls for marketing too.
Hope I answered for your question.
Thank you