Owner: BPO Diary URL:http://www.bpodiary.com Join Date: Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:35:44 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Bpo diary is a diary of a bpo employee.It has all information that an aspirant to the bpo industry in India is looking for, career prospects, growth opportunities, career guidance and much more Site statistics:Click here
What company to join? 2007-08-27 00:00:00 With the economy opening up and the kind of growth the BPO industry has seen, a lot of people wanted to enter the industry to reap the benefits of the growth and money that the industry had to offer. A few people started a few small companies in rooms, apartments and whatever space they could find, with whatever investment they had and could find. They started off with processes and campaigns that were absolutely unreliable, and that their friends and acquaintances in USA and UK could get them. What happened then was mushrooming of companies that were unstable. A few companies came into being which were unreliable because of the kind of processes they handled. These companies had only one motive, that of money making. They had their investments at stake and hence wanted to collect anything that they could. I had a few friends who were working with a few such companies, who once on a 29th of the month went to office only to find that the company
never existed. Unlike these companies the
Gearing up for the BPO job 2007-08-27 00:00:00 Preparing to join a BPO does not begin by browsing through the pages in a job supplement you get along with your daily newspaper. Rather it starts long before that when your mind starts to play with the idea of joining a BPO or, a callcenter. You need to first make yourself understand that the next few years are going to be tough because you are going to get into a high paying job which would in turn demand hard work from you. The next few years you would be working night shifts at times and would be sleeping during your days. You are going to encounter a total change of metabolism because of which your stomach will give up at times and at times you would not be able to sleep during nights, especially during your weekends. You would find less time to interact with your friends for the first few days because it would be difficult for you to adjust. Your social life would be confined to the weekends.
Does all this horrify you? It will, anyone for that matter. But it is easier than it sou
The Paradigm shift 2007-08-27 00:00:00 It is now more than 7 years that I have spent in the BPO industry. I come across various types of employees everyday, a few who are here only to earn some extra money so that they can pay off their mobile bills, yet others are here just because they have a dream bike that they want to buy, or probably a dream car. There are very less who are here to build a career, a rewarding career that no other industry can offer. This is probably the bane that this industry has. This is a reason for all the problems that this industry faces, including attrition.Also the industry has not done enough to promote the "calling job". The front line executives who are the main source of production in this industry is just another low profile job which no one would want to stick to for long. Anyone joining the industry would join in as a frontline executive, only to look for a promotion in the next 12 months. They would just want to get off the calling job and become a supervisor in less than a year. When Read more:Paradigm
First day at office 2007-08-05 00:00:00 It was 5 months without a job. To survive, especially in a city like that of Delhi, was a challenge. But I had to, just because I had no option. Interviews and rejections were now normal. So I now wanted the abnormal to happen-to get selected.A day came; there was nothing special about it. But the abnormal happened. I got a job. It was now preparing to go to office
for the first time. I started off with buying a few good trousers and shirts, a file to carry my stuff, a nice pair of shoes. But budget was again the deciding factor here. I was wondering how it would be to work in a multinational environment. I just couldn't wait longer. I wanted to work.I couldn't sleep the entire night. I waited for the first ray of sunlight to tell me that it was dawn. Finally it came and I jumped out of my bed and rushed to get ready. It was time to go. I ran down the stairs to the bus-stop to catch the first bus and as I did that, I made sure that I informed everyone who came my way that I was going Read more:First
The BPO English 2007-07-22 00:00:00 One of the most important qualifications that any BPO asks for in their advertisements is 'command over spoken and written English
'. Most of the candidates that come to any consultants that I go to for hiring are rejected because of their poor communication skills. When they are given a feedback, most of them go back home wondering as to what is it that they lack in. They have been speaking good English throughout the interview. These are certain questions in the minds of these interviewees that are never answered.What does "Command over spoken and written English" mean?If you are not good at English, does joining a 'Spoken English' course help?Spoken English does not mean that you can put together a few English words and create a sentence. English is a language based on sounds and not words. Most of us who speak English are good at joining words to create a sentence. We have a tendency of thinking in our mother-tongue and translating that into English. This is why at times we err
BPO-The myth 2007-07-08 00:00:00 I faced this couple of years ago and I am sure there would be lot of people who would have faced the same situation.
A friend of my father came with a marriage proposal for me uninvited. The proposal was for his daughter. He had got to know from somewhere that this son of this proud father was working in a multinational company, earning a handsome salary. He went after talking a lot about his daughter, not listening to what my father had to say only to come back the next day and inform my father that he would not be interested in considering a proposal with a guy working in a "CALL CENTER".
The job in a BPO has always been considered inferior. But the question is why is it being considered inferior?
Wouldn't I want to speak to a competent person when I call up a customer care? With phone based customer care and phone based sales offers gaining importance; that too just because I would prefer to sit at home or, office and avail of these facilities, a good customer care representative i
What do you get in a BPO? 2007-07-01 00:00:00 Working with a BPO has lots of attractions attached to it.No wonder the youth gets attracted towards it.But the real charm and advantage of a BPO is yet to be understood by these prospective employees.Probably this is one reason why people joining this industry tend to be skipping around looking for better options.In doing so what they never understand is the fact that what they are considering a "BETTER PROSPECT" is infact not a 'better prospect' but a 'lesser prospect'.BPO brings with the tag of 'working with an MNC'.Hence the culture you would find in most of the BPOs is an MNC culture.But where our youth at times falters and consequently brings about a bad name to the industry is in trying to imitate the lifestyle of the West.If only we had the ability to adopt everythings that is positive in the Western culture and inherit the rest of the things from our culture, we would probably have been the most sought after.But nevertheless, that is not what it is meant to be.The MNC wo
The Real Story-A BPO life 2007-07-01 00:00:00 My career in a BPO now spans more than 5 years and I have learnt a lot in these 5 years. Starting from the basics to the specialized in computers, leadership skills, management skills, oratory skills, public speaking skills, and the list could be never-ending. This would not be a great thing for someone, but it is indeed great to learn all this in a span of 5 years. Before I joined a BPO, my little experience and what my father taught me made me think that a career, if you are not a doctor, chartered accountant, advocate or, into any other profession, would be joining a company at a junior level and slowly progressing to reach a middle management level in the next 25 years and you retire as a manager at a middle management level. But then the time required to learn management skills and for people to recognize these skills in you was more than 20 years, unless you were exceptionally good. It also meant that, management skills were something that you learnt with experience and exposure,
What is a BPO? 2007-06-10 00:00:00 Most of the people I have interviewed come to join my organization from the same Industry. They have a very good knowledge of what a BPO looks like and what happens in a BPO.But I do come across a lot of people who do not know what a BPO is and has vague answers to questions like "What do you know about a BPO?"There are yet others who have worked in a BPO for some time and answer this question as "A BPO is a Call center". To an extent this is right. But not completely. If this is not right fully, then what is the difference between a call center and a BPO?The answers to these questions can be found here.A BPO as its expansion says is 'Business Process Outsourcing'. The meaning of the BPO lies in the term 'OUTSOURCING'. Outsourcing would in a sense mean asking somebody else to do a job I am supposed to do. In other words, certain organizations who believe that there are certain activities that can be done more efficiently and cost-effectively, by handing it over to specialized peopl
Introduction to BPOs in India 2007-06-06 00:00:00 The BPO wave is sweeping India
since the last 6 odd years. Things have changed, since the first BPO started its operation in India and the consequence is that today we have a whole new culture - nicknamed as the BPO culture.Youth is no more as they were before, their choices have changed, preferences and fashion trends have changed. Logics and decisions have also been influenced to a great extent because education is no more a barrier to getting a job, and when I say a "Job", I mean a handsomely paid job.I still remember the days when I was at school and I could see my seniors planning their career. The options they had was very limited and preferences went as follows:1. A government job which meant appearing for exams like UPSC, RRB and such other. Chances of getting selected were very grim because of the reservations and above all the selection procedures.2. Do an MBBS, BE, CA or, ICWA or such other professional degrees which again has a very low pass % level.That was it.Graduates we Read more:Introduction
Youngster opinion 2007-09-24 00:00:00 A leading daily wrote that "youngsters are turning away from BPO jobs because they have finally realised that the stress and abuse in a BPO is not worth the money they are paid". There were also a few excerpts from comments made by a couple of college going students.There was something similar about what all of them said. They had a comment to make about the "Pseudo names" being used, the "abuses" one faces from customers and the "24/7" environment.
A few questions that come to my mind is:
Is 24/7 environment something that is new to us? Our factories have always worked 24/7 which employees working shifts. So what is it that is new about it? Why is it that the youth is afraid of working 24/7.
Which "abuses" are we talking about?I have heard these very college going people abusing customer care executives at Indian call centers serving them for their mobile phone queries.Do we have the right to comment when we ourselves do not know how to behave.We have a tendency of even abusing each Read more:Youngster
, opinion
The Interview process - Part 1 2007-09-23 00:00:00 In the interview process series I would be discussing the various rounds of interviews that normally recruiters to BPOs follow. The rounds could vary according to company, but the purpose of each of these rounds would remain the same. Hence the discussion would be more generic than being specific.In the first of my multi part series on the interview process, I would be discussing on the first round interview that is more often than not the same in almost all companies. We call it the PI round or, the Personal Introduction round.What is this round and what is the purpose of this round? As the name itself suggests this round is about introducing yourself to the interviewer. One may wonder as to why is this round so important and necessary when everything about myself is mentioned in my CV. You might have mentioned everything about yourself in the CV, but there are much more to it that it appears in the CV. When the interviewer asks you about you and your family and your work experience a
The BPO Market 2007-09-13 00:00:00 Rapid transformation is taking place in the global BPO market. It is accompanied by increased spending in BPO services. Most of the leading business companies of the world are adopting BPO as a strategic business solution. The BPO industry is very diverse, with several sub-segments, each displaying its own unique characteristics.
According to Gartner, a market research firm, the size of the global BPO market by 2007 would be $173bn, of which $24.23bn would be outsourced to offshore contractors. Of this, India has the potential to generate $13.8bn in revenue. The projection includes revenues of pure play Indian BPO service providers, captives operations of MNCs operating in India, third party service providers and BPO subsidiaries of IT services firms.
North America will remain the dominant market for ITES-BPO services, accounting for nearly 60 percent of the total ITES-BPO market in 2006. The main verticals in the North American ITES-BPO market are telecommunications, financial servi Read more:Market
Who is hiring - 10th Sept 2007 2007-09-09 00:00:00 A list of companies who are hiring right now are as follows:
WNS - Gurgaon http://www.wnsgs.comWNS Global Services (P) Ltd 6th Floor, Infinity TowersDLF Cyber City, Phase -II,Gurgaon 122 002 Tel: +91 124 4330000 Fax: +91 124 4330001
Wipro - Delhi http://www.wipro.com/bpo/index.htmWipro BPO239 Okhla Industrial EstatePhase - IIINew Delhi - 110 0020Phone: +91 (11) 51613111Fax: +91 (11) 51613780
Convergys - Gurgaon http://www.convergys.comDLF-Atria, Jacaranda Marg, DLF City , Phase - II,Gurgaon -122 002. Haryana , India Phone: +91(0124) 2563500 Fax : +91(0124) 2813090
Genpact - Gurgaon http://www.genpact.comGenpactDLF City - Phase V,Sector 53,Gurgaon - 122002, Haryana, IndiaPhone: +91 124 402 2000Fax: +91 124 402 2205
Accenture - Bangalore http://careers.accenture.comAccenture Services Pvt Ltd71, Cunningham Road Bangalore: 560052 Tel: 080 4106 0000 Fax: 080 4129 5001
Bank of America - Gurgaon http://www.bankofamerica.com
Call center Vs BPO 2007-09-03 00:00:00 Call center is often used sysnonymously with a BPO. but there is a difference to it. What is it? Call center is generally referred to a refined voice operations setting that provides a full range of high-volume, inbound or outbound call-handling services, including customer support, operator services, directory assistance, multilingual customer support, credit services, card services, inbound and outbound telemarketing, interactive voice response and web-based services.
With business wanting to score over their competitors, the only edge they have is customer service. And with customer service being the ask of the day, Call centers are gaining importantce every single day. Call centers are generally large offices with representatives who either make or receive phone calls. Depending on the type of work, call centers may have a single office employing a few people or large office with thousands of employees. The main activity in some call centers is answering inbound calls, such as a b
NASSCOM reports-Contd 2007-10-01 00:00:00 Indian IT Software and Services Revenues to reach US $50bn mark in FY 07-08
Industry records a revenue of USD 39.6 billion in FY 2006-07; exceeds forecast of 27% to register a growth of 30.7%
Industry revenues projected to grow at 24-27% in FY 2007-08
TCS, Infosys and Wipro maintain their position as the Top 3 exporters in the NASSCOM Top 20 IT software and services exporters rankings
NASSCOM, the chamber of commerce and 'voice' of the IT software and services industry in India, today announced the findings of its annual survey on the performance of the Indian software and services sector (excluding hardware) and outlook for FY 2007-08. As a part of the survey, NASSCOM also released the annual ranking of Top 20 IT Software and Service exporters in India in FY 2006-07 (excluding ITES-BPO revenues). TCS maintained its position as the leading exporter followed by Infosys and Wipro respectively.
According to the annual NASSCOM survey, the Indian IT-ITES industry (including domestic ma
Growth in 2006-07 2007-09-30 00:00:00 NASSCOM's annual studies on the IT-BPO industry show growth and gains for the sector on all fronts.
NASSCOM's annual study on the performance of the IT services and BPO sector in 2006-07 has shown that it exceeded analyst expectations. The IT software and services segment alone notched up revenues of US$ 39.6 billion and a growth of 30.7 percent during the year. Based on these spiraling figures, NASSCOM is estimating 2007-08 growth statistics to touch anywhere between 24 and 27 percent.
Highlights of Indian software and services industry performance in FY 2006-07Employee numbers:
Sector wise break-up:
USD Billion
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
IT Software and Services Exports
17.3
22.9
28-29
ITES-BPO Exports
6.3
8.4
10.5-11
Domestic Market
6.7
8.2
~10
TOTAL (IT Services + ITES-BPO + ES, Product Exports + Domestic Market)
30.3
39.6
49-50
Note: Totals may not add up due to rounding off.
More of this report can be discussed in detail later in another post Read more:Growth
BPO in 2007 2007-09-29 00:00:00 Adding on to the statistics that I had presented earlier, a bit more statistics on the revenue that the BPO industry had grossed up for this financial year.
According to a recent survey released by the National Association of Software & Services Companies & (NASSCOM), the information technology enables services (ITES) - business process outsourcing (BPO) sector in India is growing steadily and could reach $8 billion in 2007.
"In 2005-06, the industry size and growth exceeded our forecasts, reflecting strong demand. The entire software and services industry is expected to record revenues of $36-38 billion in fiscal year 2007; we expect the ITES-BPO segment to continue its growth momentum and expect exports to cross $ 8 billion during 2007, " said Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM.
NASSCOM's annual studies on the IT-BPO industry show growth and gains for the sector on all fronts.
NASSCOM's annual study on the performance of the IT services and BPO sector in 2006-07 has shown that it exc
Whose responsibility? 2007-09-28 00:00:00 It seems newspapers are now realizing that BPO is a huge news generator for them. You would find some or, the other news in almost all of the leading dailies. Some of them are absolute crap and are baseless and stinky opinion of some individuals who are okay with sitting in the stadium and watching people play and who would then want to criticize them. But some of them are thoughts that one would ponder on. These prompt you to think.
One of these leading dailies came up with a news that the "Government is working on framing a health policy for BPO employees".There was a minister's comments which read, "It is sad to see BPO employees falling dead at the age of 30". What else could I do but laugh at this comment. Finally I felt there was some minister who wanted to show that he was concerned. But was it real concern, or was it the eagerness to get into something that is the most happening thing in town. I would say it was more of the 2nd aspect mentioned above.
There was a comment from
The NASSCOM rankings 2007-10-10 00:00:00 NASSCOM Top 20 software and services exporters in FY 2006-07
Methodology for rankingNASSCOM sends out a detailed Snap Survey questionnaire annually to all its member companies, accounting for 95 percent of the Indian IT software and BPO industry revenue. Information collated through the questionnaire includes: aggregate performance; service lines; verticals and geographies. The Snap Survey form also takes into account the contribution of the 100 percent owned overseas subsidiaries after deducting all the double accounting.
Key highlights of the NASSCOM survey
1). Industry employee base estimated at nearly 1.6mn in FY07
Employment in the exports segment estimated at over 12,00,000 which translates into a year-on-year increase of ~34%
IT software and services added over 177,000
ITES-BPO added ~138,000
Indirect employment attributed to IT-ITES estimated to be 4x, translating to ~6mn additional jobs
2). Industry performance
Exports grew by over 33% - was the main factor in the indus
What they had to say? 2007-10-05 00:00:00 Speaking on the industry's performance, Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan, Chairman, NASSCOM and Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, said, "The Indian software and services industry continued its outstanding performance in FY 07. Marked by double digit growth, FY 07 witnessed India's enhanced role in global trade with continued momentum in new contracts and renewals, increased traction in a broader range of services, expansion of geographic footprint, increased mergers and acquisition, both domestic and cross-border, and heightened interest among private equity investors to drive newer growth opportunities. The industry continued to be amongst the largest employers, directly employing more than 1.6 million and indirectly creating employment opportunities for an additional 6 million people in related industries. The industry also significantly impacted socio-economic development by contributing 5.2% to the national GDP"
Talking about the prospects of software and services industry in t
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, references
Who is hiring this month? 2007-10-02 00:00:00 Timesjobs.com has come up with a very good concept of the "job fair". These job fairs are a venue where you could find all or, most of the top employers in the industry at one place. You have an option of attending multiple interviews at the same place. With these job fairs becoming a bit too frequent, interviewees or, job seekers have quite a few options these days.
The latest Timesjobs.com job fair details are as follows:
Venue : Hall # 7, Pragati Maidan, New DelhiDates : 12th, 13th and 14th October 2007.Time : 10:00 AM till 06:00 PM
Major participants are as follows:
HCL services
Cleave global e-services pvt Ltd.
Elite media services
HSBC Global resourcing
Fiserv
Intelenet Global
V Customer
Triton Corp Ltd.
A few very good consultants are also participating in this job fair. A few of them are:
Smart Hire
IT Brain Shapers
Hero mindmine
Make the most of this opportunity and walk in to this venue with multiple copies of your resumes.
ITES-BPO rankings 2007-10-17 00:00:00 Genpact has earned the top slot in the top 15 third party ITES-BPO companies, as per the annual NASSCOM survey. The rankings are based on the revenues for 2006-07 reported as per the annual NASSCOM survey on IT industry performance. WNS Global Services is at the second spot and Transworks emerged at the third position, up from 15 last year.In FY 07, the Indian ITES-BPO segment grew by 33.5 per cent per cent contributing $8.4 billion to the total software and services exports of $31.4 billion. According to Kiran Karnik, president, NASSCOM, "The ITeS-BPO segment continued to grow at a scorching pace, to record export revenues of $8.4 billion in FY07. We expect segment revenues to grow at around 30 per cent next year, to clock exports of $10.5-11 billion in FY08."
While talking about the growth of the Indian BPOs, Karnik said, "The Indian BPO sector has witnessed significant transformation over the past decade. Starting with basic data entry tasks, it now includes increasingly complex pro
Online shopping cart software 2007-10-28 00:00:00 I was first introduced to the internet by a friend of mine who ran an online business.He had a very beautifully setup website and he ran a successful business.I was so impressed by this that I jumped into starting a business of my own.I had absolutely no HTML knowledge and relied on a web designer.I slowly found that things were not going the way I wanted it to go as this designer of mine was not able to understand what I wanted.The most difficult of all was to get this guy to design the online shopping cart for me.It is then that I got to know about these ecommerce software as I surfed through the internet and the situation changed.Today we are into an era of customizable things and customizable shopping cart software solutions are abundant in the market.Now designing and developing your own online store is not that difficult as it used to be.While I was browsing through various options of shopping cart available I stumbled upon this this amazing software offered by ashopcommerce.com.
Safety of the Woman Employee 2007-11-04 00:00:00 Another murder of an employee working in a BPO, another news for the media. Is it anything more than this?
Perhaps this is a question worth discussing. What are the initiatives that we took when the first such incident in Bangalore happened? Did we formulate enough measure to ensure that this doesn't happen in the future? Probably not.
It is easy for the organization to say that it was not our mistake. It is even easier for the employees in these organization to say that the Company is not taking adequate care of them. But actually the fault if from both ends.
Organizations formulate policies to esnure safety of Women employees like - No female employees to be picked up first or, dropped last and tracking of cabs etc. etc. But they fail to do a random check to ensure that these policies are being adhered to. BPOs fail to understand that the kind of population that they are dealing with are the most immature ones mostly aged 22-23 years who are fond of flouting rules and breaking polic Read more:Safety
, Employee
BPOs and its Cabbies 2007-11-11 00:00:00 As I was driving back to my home from work I saw a BPO cab fly past me, at a speed I could not even guess.I had to use the term "fly" because that is the only appropriate term for the way it was being driven.
After a couple of accidents over the past few days involving these call center cabs, there was a huge furore amongst the law-makers and they decided that they will tame this animal. There were new traffic rules formulated and call centers cabs and transport departments were advised to employ speed governors in these cabs and that cabs were to ply at not more than 40 KM/hr. But obviously none of these seem to be implemented, looking at the way things are as on date.
I would rather suggest that nothing of the above is required but a bit of initiative from the employees travelling in these cabs. I have often found that the employees sitting in these cabs encourage the drivers to drive fast. Only if they were concious about their own lives they would have ensured that the cabs were
Relieving Stress from the BPO job 2007-11-17 00:00:00 Working with a BPO is stressful? The pressure and work load in these call centers are indeed stressful and relieving it is necessary to maintain a work-life balance. I am a very serious beliver in this and have always been recommending holidays and outings to my team members so that they can relax and spend some time out with their families.
Deciding on what to do in order to relieve this stress is another important factor. We often tend to decide on a wrong outing, which later we regret have gone out for. This is also a loss of the much required holidays and only adds to the stress you already had. So my team members often walk up to me seeking advice on deciding on the best holiday and travel plan and sources available. That's when I decided I would write this article.
Booking holidays that are affordable and cheap is most important of all. A reliable and good travel agency that I stumbled upon is Holiday Hypermarket. They offer cheap flights, excellent travle packages to almost eve Read more:Relieving
Preparing for a BPO Interview 2008-03-04 18:00:00 Interviewing has come a long way. The entire process of an interview has changed drastically and it is not what it used to be a decade ago. With globalisation changing the face of India, the interviewing technique has become more of a friendly conversation in order to identify the competencies of a candidate rather than a grilling session.
When there are so many changes in the way interviews are conducted, it is normal for the interviewee also changing a bit in order to adapt to the interview. This is true. The way you would appear for an interview has also changed.
Your dress gives the first impression to the interviewer. This still holds good. But it does not mean that you have to be dressed in a formal suit with a tie. A normal and simple attire even if it is a jeans and T
BPO - Growth expectations 2008-02-10 18:00:00 The below excerpt is from a news published in the Times of India, dated 29th January 2008 and this speaks loads about the expected prospects of the BPO industry in India.
"The Indian BPO industry has the potential to grow five-fold in the next five years to become worth $50 billion. What’s more, the sector can add 2.5% to India’s GDP from exports and provide direct employment to nearly two million people. It will also boost growth in Tier-II and III cities to support the six-fold growth in the number of delivery centres.These are some of the latest findings of the Nasscom-Eversest Group study. The study, "Roadmap 2012 — capitalsing on the expanding BPO landscape", predicts a five-fold growth in the Indian BPO sector will bring about huge payoffs to India’s economy, employment and d Read more:Growth
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