'Quality, the key differentiator in BPO'

NEW DELHI:

Meeting the stringent quality norms set by clients is a challenge faced by

ITES-BPO companies in India. According to panelists at the 3rd Voice&Data

BPO Summit 2005, organized by BpOrbit, quality standards, measurement of

quality, approaches to quality and differences in measure are some of the

key challenges faced by a BPO organisation.






Discussing the topic, “Strategies for enhancing value through quality
standards”, VP and head of Patni Computer Sanjiv Kapoor said that

quality is the differentiator — that companies should go beyond just

delivering the product and should exceed customer expectation. According

to him, the process of defining quality management systems (QMS) should

start right from the pre-contract stage and quality should be incorporated

into SLAs.






Felxtronics Software Systems BPO head, Deepak Malik said that variation in
customer satisfaction should be measured. He emphasized the need for

digital architecture to detect slip ups in performance, its root cause and

solutions thereof.






Speaking on the current trends in the BPO industry, QAI senior consultant
Vineet Sharma said that a lot of BPO companies are now using business

process management system (BPMS), ESCM, Six Sigma, etc. to standardize on

quality. Emphasizing that operations and quality should go together, he

opined, “Quality is not only for the quality team, but the operations

people should also understand it”.






Speaking at the panel discussion on “Strategies for enhancing value
through technology and infrastructure”,






Patni BPO technology head Praveen Uprety said that on the technology side
the BPO industry is facing the challenge of ever-changing technology

requirements due to the growth in this industry, how to make IT strategy,

how to optimize cost (capex and opex), etc.






He added that not many knowledge based management systems are available to
make use of all the domain knowledge available. Advocating automation, he

said that automation instead of manual work leads to a decrease in cost.

It is initially expensive, but in the long run the returns to the client

are very good.






Endorsing Uprety's view, Six Sigma Outsourcing Practices Pvt Ltd CEO
Sarvesh Goorha said that BPOs should use information and technology not as

a facilitator but as a business differentiator. “There is lots of

knowledge lying idle within the BPO space and we should collaborate to

take advantage of that,” he opined.






Discussing the changing regulatory landscape, ISP Association of India,
secretary Deepak Maheshwari said that in India, outgoing calls are not

allowed in the domestic call centers. He stressed that interconnectivity

between the domestic and international call centers of a company should be

permitted so that resource can be utilized optimally. He also raised the

question as to why the government does not allow servicing of clients from

home.

Citing security as another major issue being

faced by the BPO industry Chakravarty said, “Instances of fraud has led

to a decline in business. BPOs must ensure that all security systems are

in place. Communicating the flipside of malicious practices to the

employees should also be undertaken to raise awareness”.