Monthly Archives: June 2016

Using Twitter as a tool rather than an addiction

June 30, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Leave a comment

It is hard really. I quit Twitter for several months. It consumed me. I was always sharing, posting, and interacting. It just got to be a huge drain of my time. But, I had accumulated so many followers. My main Twitter account has more than 21,000 followers. That is impressive! I mastered the art of growing my Twitter.

My case was a rare case. Most people use social media as an addition. In my opinion, most people no longer know how to socialize or value it. It might be refreshing to visit a tribal society that has no electricity. They probably know how to socialize quite well. I use Twitter to promote my business. But, I realized that not all of the activities I did on Twitter were that effective. I would spend too much time reading other people’s posts.

To gain rank on Twitter you need to publish content that gets shared. Reading other people’s content may be interesting, but figuring out what will get shared is paramount. So, if I were focused purely on business, I would find 40 articles per day, write tweets for them, and send them out one by one at ten or twenty minute intervals. I could probably get double out of my Twitter time if I would be a little more disciplined! Oh well.

But, for the rest of you, try to think about how you can use Twitter for what it’s worth. You can:

1. Get clicks to your site from the URL on your Twitter home page from new people who found you on Twitter
2. Get new followers
3. Get clicks to your blog from tweets
4. Meet new business contacts
5. Interact with prospects using Twitter
6. Read what others are writing about
7. Publish other people’s articles on your feed if you think they might be popular
8. Share beautiful photos on your feed — a pretty feed gets more followers!

So, those are some realistic and helpful goals. I hope that benefits you!

You might also like:

18 ways to boost your social media in 10 minutes per day
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/05/18-ways-to-boost-your-social-media-marketing-in-10-minutes-day/

99 ways to die in social media — choose one!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/01/05/99-ways-to-die-in-social-media-choose-one/

Hitting the 10,000 mark on Twitter — halfway up mount Twitterest
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/19/hitting-the-10000-mark-on-twitter-twittering-away-my-time/

Pimp my tweet — a BPO company specializing in Twitter
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/09/16/pimp-my-tweet-a-bpo-company-specializing-in-twitter/

Optimizing your processes at your BPO

June 28, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Management | Leave a comment

If you run a BPO or other business, there are many processes that you are involved in. The key to success in business is to know where to allocate your resources. If you put too much effort into one thing, you will have less resources for other endeavors that might be more critical

Example 1:
I was making calls to all of our new service providers and helping them fill out their listing. I saw it was taking up too much of my schedule and I had no time to take walks. Now, I just ask two questions, take notes on how they communicate and go on to the next listing. I now have time to focus more on marketing.

Example 2:
I was spending time running six social media campaigns. After analyzing the stats several times, I realized that one of them was getting more traffic. So, I cut down my time working on the others and focused on the winner which was Facebook. I am now putting double the effort into Facebook and getting 20 times the results. I plan to put even more time into it.

Example 3:
I was tweeting dozens of posts on Twitter. Later on I decided to see which ones were getting shares, and which were getting clicks. I also experimented with alternative titles. The result was that the posts that had merit were shared much more, and the other posts were not shared at all. I saved time and got a lot more clicks.

Example 4:
My friend needed to hire people, but interviewing took too much time. So, he formulated a bunch of questions for his assistant to ask the applicants. My buddy would scan the results of the interview questions and then schedule a second interview with those he liked. He cut out 80% of the time he was spending before with interviews.

Example 5:
A friend in India had 20 employees. They all had lunch from 12 to 1. He thought about how much work could be done if he starved his employees, and he did. Several threatened to quit, although they were so weak from not eating that their threats were in a weak tone of voice. So, he decided to have lunch delivered to the office, and they ate all together, and then had twenty minutes to take a walk around the block. Their lunch went from 60 minutes to 40 minutes, so the boss got more work out of them without losing any employees to starvation.

Thats all for now, but if you take a closer look at the hundreds of processes your company does, there are better ways, and more efficient ways to do them all.

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What to look for when hiring a social media person?

June 26, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Leave a comment

What do you look for when hiring a social media person: intelligence, humor, experience, do they get published a lot? When I interviewed social media people, they had some sort of knowledge about web marketing. However, having some knowledge isn’t enough. They need to know how to get your blog to be more popular otherwise their knowledge is useless to you. Knowledge is good, but perhaps some other traits are even more important.

Intelligence
Someone who is intelligent, but not knowledgeable will be able to figure things out if they are paying attention. Someone with very solid intelligence might be your best long term person. I have a few people working for me who are just plain smart. Plus one is smart about people, but not numbers. But people smarts are a type of intelligence (which I don’t have.)

Creativity
Many people understand how to impress a client with talk about how their social media company or practice works. But, when you ask them to come up with creative ideas, they freeze up and won’t talk until after you sign the contract. Do you marry a girl before or after the first date? Marriage is a contract as well, right? I want to get a sense of your work, and most companies keep this a secret. In my experience, people who keep secrets do so because their work is mediocre and they know it. Most people cannot be creative, and you can’t hire someone to do social media unless you’re 200% sure they’re creative.

Experience
Experience is good, but doesn’t prove anything. People lie about their experience. It’s easy to come up with a bunch of companies you’ve worked for before. If you get to check references that is much better. What matters is how good their work for you will be.

Industry Knowledge
I’m tempted to hire Indians instead of Americans to write about BPO topics. It is just that India is all about BPOs and America doesn’t even know what the word means. Finding people with industry knowledge can make the job a lot easier. They know what the critical topics to write about are, and others will not no matter how creative, smart or funny they are.

Being Funny
Having a developed sense of humor can be good, but in the right context. If your audience responds to humor, you are in good shape. Other audiences like humor, but only as an add on to industry relevant helpful posts. Some people do not have a sense of humor at all in which case you are wasting your money to hire a comedian to help you blog. You need to know your audience intimately to figure out what to write about and who to hire.

In real life, you’ll have to go through many bloggers to find the right one. So, good luck!

123outsource.net — Outsourcing Directory

June 24, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsource Marketing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

123outsource.net is an outsourcing directory where you can find outsourcing companies all around the world including call centers, data entry companies, BPO, KPO, LPO, and a wide variety of software development companies with various specialties.

Our Outsourcing Directory
On our outsourcing directory, you can search from 28 categories of outsourcing professions and specialties so that you can companies specializing in what you need in seconds.

What is Special About Us?
On 123outsource.net, we are unlike the other outsourcing directories out there. There are many directories of web design companies, call centers and other outsourcing professions. Those directories do not check to see if websites are still functional or if companies are still in business. Companies, especially in Asia seem to come in and out of business in months, so you have to watch them regularly. Additionally, we check to see how professional and helpful people are on the phone, by email, and how good their click stats are. The listings near the top of the search results typically are the most professional and popular while the listings near the bottom of the list are mediocre at best — and probably soon to be removed from our directory of outsourcing companies.

Our Call Center Directory
Our list of call centers is our most popular search result, especially the inbound call centers. We have a list of call centers in India, and list of call centers in the Philippines (List of Filipino Call Centers) and more. Although, most of our call centers are in popular destinations like India and the Philippines, we have call centres in Costa Rica, Panama, Jamaica, Romania, Bulgaria, Africa, Canada and the USA as well for a well rounded search.

Our call centers have all types of specialties such as appointment setting, order taking, telemarketing, lead generation, technical support, email and chat support, help desk, data verification, customer service, and more.

Our BPO Directory
Our list of BPO companies includes a long list of BPO companies in India and other countries as well. The BPO search results typically include companies that have a wide variety of specialties that cannot be placed in one particular specialized search result such as Data Entry, Medical Billing or Blog Set Up. Some companies have more than three dozen outsourcing specialties and defy categorization.

Advertise on 123outsource.net!
If you have a BPO company, you can get free or paid advertising on 123outsource.net. Paid gets you at the top of the list which translates into a lot more inquiries from serious customers around the globe. But, if you are on a tight budget and want free advertising, try us out! Are are getting about 30,000 visits per month and the number is always growing.

All about the BPO Industry

June 22, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: BPO | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The BPO industry is an industry with many different types of BPO companies in different countries doing various types of tasks. There is no normal in business process outsourcing.

BPO Projects
Many BPO companies are in a constant state of desperately looking for projects. The companies looking for work are usually the ones you don’t want to hire as they often lack language and communication skills. In my experience, if you write broken English, your work will probably be broken too which is why nobody will hire you. But, there are literate BPO companies out there looking for BPO projects too. They advertise on the web, send customized emails, and are pleasant to talk to on the phone.

Genuine Processes
Indians like to use the word “genuine process.” I’m not sure why they use this term. Are people normally offering them non-genuine processes? BPO work or BPO jobs should be genuine by definition and the nature of the work needs to be researched. Without a contract, the vendor is not protected from customers who are playing games.

Indian BPO Company / India BPO Companies
Many people in India want to work for a multinational company. The smaller Indian BPO companies have trouble retaining workers once the workers have four or five years of experience under their belt. If you work for an Indian BPO company, if you stick around and are any good, you might be promoted to manager after a few years. Do you want to be a big fish in a small India BPO company, or a small fish in a big pond at Oracle or Infosys? The India BPO scene seems to never be boring as new companies are sprouting up like weeds. However, every company I call has horrible phone skills and sloppy work skills. If India BPO companies would just clean up their act, they could gain so much market share it would be unbelievable!

Medical Transcription
Medical transcription companies in the US often hire companies in the Philippines or in India to do their work during the night. When Americans return to work in the morning, the work is done (hopefully). Accuracy rates are well documented in this industry, so there is no room for shoddy workmanship otherwise your BPO will go under quickly.

Software Development
The software BPO industry is a much more disturbing one as there are no definitive standards for the quality or speed of work. Hopefully, someone will set the score straight and create a blue book for costs of particular programming tasks of which there are zillions of.

How to start a BPO company?
If you want to start a BPO company in India or elsewhere we recommend working in management for someone elses for many years so you become an expert. Owning a business from the business angle is hard, but without basic skills you would learn managing someone else’s BPO, you don’t have a chance. Create a solid foundation for yourself before attempting the impossible.

20 Seat BPO
Many people want to start their 20 seat BPO by renting an office. Without customers, or at least without steady customers, your business will not last. Start off with one seat, and then work your way up, getting to know your workers, customers, and processes well until you develop a very steady base to build on. A 20 seat BPO is 19 seats too many when you are just starting out. It is better to rent a seat or two in a big call center that has empty seats, or share an office with someone.

You might also like:

How to get more clients for your BPO or Call Center (compilation)
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/20/how-to-get-more-clients-for-your-bpo-or-call-center-compilation/

18 ways to boost your social media marketing in 10 minutes a day
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/05/18-ways-to-boost-your-social-media-marketing-in-10-minutes-day/

Developing your hiring intuition
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/06/14/developing-your-hiring-intuition/

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10 things outsourcing companies do wrong on social media

June 20, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Social Media | Tagged | Leave a comment

Outsourcing companies do not have a very good presence on social media. That is the first thing wrong. But, when they do, they publish a lot of the wrong type of content. Let’s go into detail.

1. Most outsourcing companies don’t use social media, or don’t use it enough.

2. Many outsourcing companies publish advertising content about themselves. This is counterproductive on social media.

3. Good social media involves publishing industry relevant articles that do NOT try to sell anything. You captivate your audience with quality content that informs and perhaps entertains.

4. About us type information is popular on social media. Photos of what your office did on Diwali or Christmas help. Or show a photo of you all having a communal meal or having a birthday party wearing funny hats.

5. Dry factual information about the industry might not be popular. It is common for outsourcing blogs to focus on which company merged with what other company or bought an office from some other company. The readership for this boring content is not that good. Read your stats to see what type of content is popular with your readers.

6. Not looking at your stats as I mentioned in the last point is suicide. If you don’t know what people enjoyed reading, how will you know what to write about next time?

7. Not interacting is a huge mistake. Social Media is all about interacting. If people ask a question on social media, get back to them right away — every time.

8. Outsource your social media. If you are an outsourcing company, you might think that people outsource to you. But, you might need to outsource to someone else as well. Social media requires skill and familiarity. If you can’t, hire someone who does.

9. Write more blog entries. If your blog doesn’t exist or has very few posts, you need to write blog entries regularly. I spent hours every month writing and writing. The result is that my blog gets excellent traffic every month.

10. Follow a lot on social media. You can’t grow your presence without following people. So, follow people who are relevant to your industry.

That’s all for now. I wish you luck with social media.

You might also like:

Pimp my Tweet — a BPO company that specializes in Twitter
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/09/16/pimp-my-tweet-a-bpo-company-specializing-in-twitter/

18 ways to boost your social media marketing in 10 minutes a day
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/05/18-ways-to-boost-your-social-media-marketing-in-10-minutes-day/

Complilation of best posts “of interest” in 2012-2014

June 18, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Compilations | Leave a comment

Having a Thai side of my personality helps keep me calm in business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/11/03/having-a-thai-side-of-your-personality-helps-keep-calm-in-business/

Can a top level executive really take a year off?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/06/01/can-a-top-level-executive-really-take-a-year-off/

A special economic zone for “insourcing” in Oklahoma
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/04/a-special-economic-zone-idea-for-insourcing-in-oklahoma/

Build it and they will return — an article about outsourcing
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/12/04/outsourcing-build-it-and-they-will-return/

Is bigger always better in business?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/02/11/is-bigger-always-better-in-business/

Is it fair that American jobs are outsourced to India?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/09/04/is-it-fair-that-american-jobs-are-outsourced-to-india/

What if classically trained musicians ran IT companies in India
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/01/01/what-if-classically-trained-musicians-ran-it-companies-in-india/

Overseas outsourcing in the 21st century: Different countries, diverse benefits
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/04/18/overseas-outsourcing-in-the-21st-century-different-countries-diverse-benefits/

Enjoying the four-hour work-week by outsourcing
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/10/02/enjoying-the-four-hour-work-week-by-outsourcing/

Half a million Filipino call center workers are on American time
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/29/half-a-million-filipino-call-center-workers-are-on-american-time/

The outsourcing equivalent of fast food
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/12/03/the-outsourcing-equivalent-of-fast-food/

Working in an office vs. home
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/02/08/working-in-an-office-vs-at-home/

What is your management style?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/02/02/what-is-your-management-style/

How different cultures handle time
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/08/18/how-different-cultures-handle-time/

The outsourcing boat
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2010/09/24/the-outsourcing-boat/

24 tech workers for each manager?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/08/15/24-tech-workers-for-each-manager/

Outsourcing makes the world go round
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/06/19/outsourcing-makes-the-world-go-round/

How to create a new corporate culture in 3 easy steps!
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/05/03/how-to-create-a-new-corporate-culture-in-3-easy-steps/

Why a great CEO is worth 6000 times more than the average worker
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/03/06/why-a-great-ceo-is-worth-6000-times-more-than-the-average-worker/

How do you expand your thinking in business?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/11/14/how-do-you-expand-your-thinking-in-business/

Why your sitar and tabla lessons are the most important training for business
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/06/09/why-your-sitar-tabla-lessons-are-the-most-important-training-for-business/

Hybrid bi-national companies, the way of the future?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2012/01/31/hybrid-binational-companies-the-way-of-the-future/

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KFC in India’s fiery tomato based masala tantalizes the taste buds of a visiting American

June 17, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: India | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Eight years ago, I pleasantly sampled KFC in India and my view of the universe was permanently altered. India has been in a rut for the last ten thousand years. In the old days you could go to the forest wearing a loincloth and meditate, hang out with monkey gods, and learn to levitate. Then, India became less spiritual, after a few more hundred years, the Muslims took over large portions of India, and the caste system persisted.

Local Deshis have a repetoire of 10 dishes
Most people in India have a repetoire of ten dishes that they eat from the day they are born until the day they die (unless they are fed on an IV.) The Northern Moghlai cuisine has more diversity of spices while Maharashtra specializes in brown sauces and Kerela has coconut and ayervedic spices in their food. The high point of Tamilian cuisine is sambar while the Andhra Pradeshis have a mentally obtuse dish called “dumb biryani.” With all those high tech parks I’m sure they could innovate a smarter version of that dish and call it “smart biryani.”

India’s culinary rut finally altered
In the last ten years, India has really opened up culinarily. The 10,000 year old rut they have been in has lifted — at least for now courtesy of the influence and money brought in by multi-national companies, high tech firms, call centers, etc. Now you can get Indianized Chinese food anywhere. Yes, India’s Chinese food has too much basmati rice, too much black pepper, is too heavy on overly liquidy sauces, etc. India needs to learn that Chinese food is not Indian food and doesn’t come with twelve ounces of curry sauce. Chinese food normally comes in a light sauce and should emphasize Chinese flavors of which there are many, and not reflect Indian tastes so much. But, surprisingly Chennai has the best and most authentic tasting Chinese and Malay food in the country if you go to the right places. Additionally, now you can get dosa in the North and Punjabi butter chicken in the South. You can get Kerela paratha in Tamil Nadu and kim-chee in Bangalore. India has turned over a new ayervedic leaf it seems.

KFC in India came up with their own masala
When I travel, it is always interesting to see how a culture will assimilate another culture’s cuisine. I tasted a croissant in Germany (terrible,) had Chinese food in Italy (not bad,) and had Italian food in Andorra (excellent.) As far as I’m concerned Indians have ruined Chinese food, but for some reason they did a great job altering Colonel Sander’s chicken. No more 11 herbs and spices in India. Kentucky Fried Chicken in India came up with their own masala using — get this — tomato sauce, sweetener, and a lighter version of the herbs and spices, undoubtedly a completely different mixture.

The irony is that Indian KFC isn’t spicy
The irony is that Indian food is known for being spicy — and so is KFC. However, KFC in India spices their chicken in a very similar way to a popular variety of potato chips in India that Lays and/or Ruffles and other local manufacturers make which is a sweet tomato flavor. Indian KFC is surprisingly and pleasantly mild, sweet and tasty. I enjoyed McDonald’s Maharaja burger, I enjoyed getting American ice cream in Bangalore, but KFC was my best experience short of dining in five star hotels.

Why can’t we have Indian KFC in Los Angeles?
My only regret, is that Kentucky Fried Chicken in India is so good, I wish we could get the same flavor in America. Unfortunately the demographics here don’t support the same culinary tastes. But, maybe one day love will find a way. While we’re at it, I sampled kung pao chicken around the world, and I want Italian, Austrian and Atlanta Georgia style kung pao available in Los Angeles. I think it won’t happen until I open my own kung pao restaurant — we do kung pao right.

In any case, I’m looking forward to my next visit to India. We’ll see what new recipes KFC cooks up in India by then!

You might also like:

Solutions to India’s transportation problems
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/12/31/solutions-to-indias-transportation-problems-2015/

18 ways to boost your socila media marketing in 10 minutes per day
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/05/18-ways-to-boost-your-social-media-marketing-in-10-minutes-day/

Is it safe for women to take cabs in India?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/08/22/is-it-safe-for-women-to-take-cabs-in-india/

India in 2140
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/05/29/india-in-2140/

Developing your hiring intuition

June 14, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Hiring & Firing | Leave a comment

Do you hire others? Does it never work out that well? Most employers feel the same way. It is hard to hire perfect people. In real life, we would be better off with employees who were more like partners — people who had our back at all times no matter what. If outsourcing companies would get it through their heads that they would get more business by being partners instead of demanding some legal partnership contract — the world of outsourcing would be completely transformed. People only care about themselves, and that is the problem with todays world — and with hiring.

I bet Warren Buffet has a very refined intuition when it comes to hiring. He has hired and fired so many people in his life and seen the results. I bet he can spot a winning horse from a mile away. I am beginning to spot winners and losers too. It has nothing to do with skills either. Motivation, integrity, and intelligence are what I look for. Most people have none of these traits. But, your star employee must have all of them otherwise you are screwed.

But, how do you know who has the winning traits, plus job related skills? Spotting intelligence is easy. Just talk to someone for a few minutes. Throw out some complicated thoughts, or make a few slightly intellectual jokes and listen for the silence. I can tell just by listening to someone’s tone of voice what their IQ is. Normally at an interview, after the first 30 seconds have passed, I know if the person is going to make it or not. I throw out some thought provoking questions to see if I get an intelligent answer or not.

Knowing someone’s level of motivation and integrity are a little harder. When people want a job, they tell you what you want to hear. This is a waste of time, especially if you can’t read between the lines. How much trouble are they willing to go through to work for you is the only thing you should be thinking. After all, after four months have passed when you are in a bind and need them to put in a little extra work, if they have the “why bother” attitude, you are screwed. So, think of that before you hire them. This is why large companies have four interviews — yes four! Someone not motivated or committed probably won’t show up for all four.

But, you can ask them about what happened at their last job. If they seem to have been motivated about how they handled business, that is a good sign. If they showed concern for all of the details of the job, rather than just how they felt, that might be a good sign. It’s certainly not a bad sign.

Figuring out if someone has integrity is much harder. You can think of some trick situations to see if they will cheat. Or, you can ask them about their relationships with their parents, boyfriends, etc. If they have poor relationships with them, they will also have a poor relationship with you for whatever reason — including possibly integrity.

Some people who cheat a lot are always watching others to catch them cheating. This is a form of projecting. On the other hand, karmically speaking, cheaters work with cheaters. You can ask how upset they get if someone lies to them too.

Figuring out how much the other person likes you is also very important. People who like you will do much more for you. How good is your intuition for figuring out who likes you?

There is a lot to think about when hiring someone. I hope you can figure it all out. My solution is to not hire people, because I already know what is going to happen!

Outsourcing

June 12, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Keyword, Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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DEFINITION OF OUTSOURCING
Outsourcing is a business practice where a particular company will hire someone who does not work for their company such as another company or a freelancer to do particular tasks for them. Typically, tasks outsourced will be highly repetitive or specialized tasks such as calling long lists of names with a particular call script, accounting, programming, data entry, technical support, payment processing, or some other specialized task.

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REASONS FOR OUTSOURCING
The reason companies outsource work to other companies are multi-fold. One reason could be to:

Save Time — so that employees and management can focus more on the core competencies of the company such as selling widgets while outsourcing bookeeping and reminder calls to companies who specialize in those particular tasks. Another reason could be:

Cost Cutting — Many outsource companies are located in India, The Philippines, or Eastern Europe where labor costs are lower than the United States, hence, creating an opportunity to capitalize on less expensive labor.

Skill Optimization — is yet another reason to outsource work as outsourced companies specialize in particular tasks such as blog set up, eCommerce site creation or XML conversion while your company specializes in widgets.

Eliminating Uneven Schedules — if you have a job to be done that will take only 10-15 hours a week on some weeks and more or less hours on other weeks, hiring a full-time or even part-time employee is a commitment that you will have trouble keeping. If that employee quits in the middle of a project, you’ll have another problem. It might be easier to outsource the project to a company who specializes in that task and has dozens of people who know exactly how to do it rather than hire your own staff.

Reducing Hiring — hiring and firing is expensive and is an art form that you might not have time to master. If you have a particular job that people are always quitting every two months, it might be easier to have the job outsourced to Manila where they have full-time HR managers to handle the hiring and firing for you! That way you can focus on widgets instead of dealing with people who quit on a whim leaving you high and dry. The outsourced company you hire will have plenty of backups all in the same specialty when the employee assigned to you quits.

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TYPES OF OUTSOURCING ARRANGEMENTS

Freelancers — Some companies hire freelancers which is a type of outsourcing.

Fixed Schedule — Others hire another company for a particular schedule with a contract which extends for a particular number of months or years such as 40 hours a week for two years.

Employee Leasing — Some companies hire a team of workers from an agency which is sometimes called “employee leasing.” Other companies pay for results in specialties like lead generation rather than paying for particular hours of work.

Assignment Based — Programming or software development outsourcing often has a company pay for a completed product or for a particular number of hours to do a particular job although there is very rarely a deadline.

On Call — Some outsourcing is on an on call basis. Programmers might be hire to fix code only when it breaks or to do programming work as needed. Call centers might have a small assignment from time to time only when needed.

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CATEGORIZATIONS OF OUTSOURCING JOBS
Outsourcing jobs are sometimes categorized using particular terms such as:

ITES — Information Technology Enabled Services which could include data entry using computers, web design, technical support, or other tasks which involve technology to facilitate the task in some type of a way.

KPO — Knowledge Process Outsourcing is also a bype of Business Process Outsourcing that includes tasks that require a higher level of education, knowledge or skills such as Accounting, Software Development, Research, etc.

LPO — Legal Process Outsourcing focuses primarily on legal research, patent research, contract drafting and legal support services, but rarely involves actually going to court.

RPO — Research Process Outsourcing or Recruitment Process Outsourcing. Research outsourcing is popular in Bangalore, India as there are many companies that offer market research, web research, and Pharmaceutical research. RPO could also be a form of human resources outsourcing where an outside company will help you find employees or leased agents. This is by far the least popular form of international outsourcing as there are few providers who offer overseas assistance with recruitment.

HRO — Human Resources Outsourcing as mentioned above is the least popular form of international outsourcing as there are very few overseas companies who offer competent service in this industry. However, there are a few companies in India and the Philippines that allow you to lease call center agents and programmers at low rates. However, the quality of such help is dubious and not guaranteed in any way by the provider company.

MBPO — Medical Business Process Outsourcing includes outsourcing of Medical Billing, coding and Medical Transcription. Quality standards and billing in these fields is a lot more uniform than in other BPO tasks as companies can charge a percentage in Medical Billing and can offer rates per number of characters or words (or lines) in Medical Transcriptions. Quality standards are also easy to measure as there are international standards for Medical Billing and Medical Transcription. You can measure errors as a percentage rate. If a company makes more than a particular fraction of a percent of errors, they generally go out of business or get fired.

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TYPES OF OUTSOURCING JOBS
Commonly outsourced jobs might include: Accounting, Bookkeeping, Call Center, Data Entry, ePublishing, Legal Research, Market Research, Medical Billing, Medical Transcriptions, Social Media, Software Development, and Web Design. However, there are many specialties in most of these types of outsourcing jobs.

Accounting Specialties — Bookkeeping, Tax Preparation, Payroll, Bank Reconcilliation

Call Center Specialties — Appointment Setting, Chat Support, Collections, Customer Help Desk, Data Verification, Email Support, Inbound Customer Care, Lead Generation, Order Taking, Outbound, Survey Taking, Technical Support, Telemarketing, Ticket Sales,

Data Entry Specialties — Data Capture, Data Cleansing, Data Conversion, Data Entry, Data Mining, Data Processing, Data Quality, Data Security, Data Transcription, eCommerce Data Entry, Forms Filling, Forms Processing, Image Processing, Product Data Entry, Scanning, etc. Data Conversion includes XML, SGML, HTML5 conversion, PDF or JPG conversion, and conversion from one language or format to another.

Social Media tasks might include article writing, proofreading, posting on Facebook, managing a Twitter account, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, or any of the other common social media platforms. Most companies specialize in several social media platforms, but cannot provide service for ones they are not familiar with or don’t have sufficient staff for.

Software Development Specialties — Blog Set up, eCommerce Set up, Software Testing, Web Design, Employee Leasing, etc.

Common software languages include: C, C#, C++, ERP, J2ME, Java, jQuery, LAMP, MySQL, .Net, OpenSource, PHP, Ruby on Rails, SAP, SQL, XML, and more.

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You might also like:

Wikepedia’s article on — outsourcing

Investopedia’s article on — outsourcing

Entrepreneur’s article on — outsourcing

See our informational page on the term — outsourced.

See 123outsource’s compilation on best articles about outsourcing.
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/04/02/compilation-of-best-outsourcing-articles/

What countries are best to outsource a particular task to?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2014/04/07/which-countries-are-the-best-to-outsource-particular-tasks-to/

Six problems that only individuals working in a BPO industry would understand.
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/06/15/six-problems-that-only-individuals-working-in-a-bpo-industry-would-understand/

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Outsourced

June 12, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Keyword, Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Definition of Outsourced / Outsourcing

Verb
Outsourced is the past tense of the verb to outsource.

(1) To obtain services from an outside or foreign supplier in place of an internal source.
(2) To contract work to an outside firm or abroad.
(3) To assign particular specialized and/or repetitive tasks that are not core competencies of the mother company
to an outside or foreign company.
(4) To procure back office services with an outside supplier or provider.

Explanation
BPO Outsourcing is becoming more and more popular as companies have to fight harder to survive in a world where margins are getting tighter by the day. If a company is doing a particular task even slightly less efficiently than the competition, they will lose profits and market share in the long run. One solution available which may or may not increase efficiency is to outsource particular tasks to a company that specializes in those particular tasks. For example, if your company focuses on widget production, but 10% of your labor resources are devoted to reminder calls, it might make sense to focus more on widgets, and outsource the reminder calls to Manila where there are companies who specialize in all aspects of the call center business. Knowledge intensive tasks are also more and more commonly outsourced to KPO and LPO companies who specialize in knowledge process outsourcing and legal process outsourcing.

Outsourced — the TV show
Outsourced is also an American television sitcom filmed in Los Angeles that was set in an Indian Workplace fictionally located in Mumbai, India. A catalog based company selling American novelty goods such as whoopee cushions, foam fingers, and wallets made of bacon hires Todd Dempsy from Kansas to relocated to Bombay. Every episode of this hillarious comedy focuses around Todd’s culture shock dealing with Indians and attempting to teach the local Mumbai staff all about American sensibilities and culture.

See NBC’s profile page for the show — Outsourced

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You might also like

See our feed of articles about — outsourced

See our comprehensive definition of — outsourcing — which goes over when and why outsourcing is done, types of outsourcing arrangements (freelance, contract, staff leasing), a detailed look at categorizations of outsourced tasks (BPO, KPO, LPO) as well as a detailed look at 55+ commonly outsourced specialties in the call center, data entry, software and other outsourcing industries.

Is it fair that American jobs are outsourced to India?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2015/12/25/is-it-fair-that-american-jobs-are-outsourced-to-india-2015/

What is the correct order of steps to screen an outsourced company?
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2013/08/16/what-is-the-correct-order-of-steps-to-screen-an-outsourced-company/

Compilation of best outsourcing articles:
The best tasks to outsource are not critical or time sensitive
If you invested in BPO employees, what types of tasks would you teach them?
The 2 minute contact rule
more…
http://bpo.123outsource.net/2016/04/02/compilation-of-best-outsourcing-articles/

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A new specialty for your call center — suicide hotline

June 12, 2016 by 123outsource
Categories: Humor | Leave a comment

Suicide hotline
Help people who are committing suicide to change their mind.

Is there too much competition for technical support and appointment setting? Want to do something a little more interesting? There are many companies and government agencies looking to outsource suicide hotline service. Just make sure you train your employees well, or the result might not be so good!

AGENT: Hello this is Sujata from suicide hotline, how may I help you?

FRANK: It’s not worth it anymore. I’m going to end it all now.

AGENT: Oh I see. On a scale of 1 to 10, how strong is your desire to commit suicide?

FRANK: Let me give you a hint, I’m standing at the edge of a 200 foot high bridge overlooking a large river.

AGENT: Hmm. Sorry, I’m new here, let me look this up. Rivers… Ummm. Let me ask someone. Hey Ramesh, what would rivers be on a scale of 1 to 10?

RAMESH: Um, just consult the manual. Here.

AGENT: It says nothing about rivers. I read the whole thing and know it by heart.

RAMESH: Just make up a number or ask Sanjay after he’s back from break.

AGENT: Can you just stay there on that bridge. We are waiting for our manager to come back from lunch.

FRANK: No trouble, I’m not in a huge hurry. It’s not like I have anything to do with my life anymore anyway — which is why I’m ending it.

(10 minutes later)

SANJAY: Oh, I didn’t realize you hadn’t been trained yet.

AGENT: Well, you see I was, but they did not cover rivers. If someone is going to jump into a river from a high elevation, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much would that be?

SANJAY: It depends on their intention. If they really mean to do it, that is probably a 10. But, if they are just bluffing, perhaps a 6.

AGENT: Oh, in that case I’ll transfer it to Ajay. He specializes in level 6 and 7 calls. Hello Frank? Am I pronouncing your name right?

FRANK: Yes, that’s right. While I’m still alive at least.

AGENT: I’m going ot transfer you to someone who specializes in level 7. Don’t go anywhere.

FRANK: You’re putting me on hold? That’s what my girlfriend did to me which got me into that whole…. (pause — on hold)

AJAY: Hello this is Ajay, may I help you? (pause) Hello? Are we having a bad connection? Hello? Let me transfer you back.

AGENT: Yes Frank, on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate our customer service. Hello? Oh, he must have jumped. Maybe they should teach me more about how to handle the 7’s.

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