Category Archives: Outsourcing Articles

The Miracle of Blogging

April 5, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles, Social Media | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The miracle of blogging
 
Blogging is a relatively new phenominon in web business. It used to be something that eccentric loners did to connect to the world.  Now, its considered a standard part of promoting your websites and web business.  I’m not a writer, but the irony is that I spend 30% of my professional time writing (or “trying” to write).  
 
What does blogging do?
Blogging connects you to people who want to read.  Successful blogs will get amazing search engine presence, and people looking up keywords will be able to find you.  If your blogs are interesting, informative, or entertaining, then you can develop a following which is a fundamental part of your success. Additionally, blogging is sometimes fun, because its an outlet to express yourself.
 
How does blogging work?
Many people start a blog, and then don’t write much. They will write a dozen posts and give up because nobody is reading it.  Others will persevere longer and get some viewers.  But, its hard to develop a following.  Blogging alone is not the solution. Combining networks is how to become successful.  If you have a large site with email addresses in a database for a few thousand individuals, you can email them once a month to invite them to your blog.  If you keep them entertained, they will open your subsequent emails and become regular visitors for your blog.  If the blog is boring, you are dead in the water, but being interesting alone without a network leaves you in the cyber-doldrums.
 
Keeping it interesting
When you cater to a particular group of people, you have to find out what types of topics interest them.  Its not always easy, because people often don’t give feedback.  You can keep track using analytics tracking systems, or just see if anyone write a comment to your blog.  Once you find out what people like, try to find more ideas which relate in theme or spirit to the ideas that worked.  What I learned is that it is not so critical how good a writer you are, providing you find topics that people want to read about and make some interesting points.
 
Combining networks?
The trick of blogging is understanding that critical mass and links are what attracts search engine traffic.  If your blog has 100 or more posts, you will attract a lot of search engine traffic.  However all posts and no links is a very incomplete formula.  You also need links, but where can those come from.  You can link to your blog from your site, twitter campaign, facebook, and have other people you know link to your blog.  If people like a particular blog post, they might link on their own to that post.   If you do an email blast to people on your network, if they click on links in the email to your blog, that will boost your search engine traffic too.  Everything you do compounds on itsself.  I’m not sure how well a blog would do that had no supporting networks.  It would have to compensate by being very large and have a few hundred posts.
 
Twitter?
Twitter is a very interesting tool.  Twitter is a great way to link to pages on your site, new blogs, events, and other things going on.  Twitter is perfect for tweeting about whats going on in “real time” as opposed to tweeting about old things.  Although its hard to know how to please your audience and know what to tweet about, if you tweet about things your viewers like, your number of followers can go up within 24 hours.  Additionally, you might get retweets, and many clicks on good links.  There is a lot of competition on Twitter. People can go to thousands of established twitter networks, so why yours?  The only way to build a big network is to figure out how to tweet really popular material every single day.  Good luck!!! I’m just beginning to figure out how to please the Twitterers.

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How to find an outsourcing job!

March 11, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

How to find an outsourcing job
 
People in India ask me every day to hire them, and I have only two things to say.  I am in Los Angeles, and Maria and I do the only jobs that need to be done at least for now.  Additionally, we are in the directory business, and your experience is in? Oh, you didn’t mention what your skill set was, you just approached me begging for a job — any job — please I’m desperate.  Give me an outsourcing job or my family will starve!!!!!  Sorry, even if you were the best directory staff member in the world, you are in Ahmedabad, and I am here in Los Angeles and you can not get a visa to come here.  So, asking me for a job, is the wrong approach.
 
Go where the jobs are
Most people looking for outsourcing jobs are in India or Manila.  There are plenty of outsource process jobs there.  Different cities have a higher or lower concentration of certain types of jobs.  If you want to work at a KPO and are in Darjeeling, you need to move to Bangalore.  If you want to specialize in outsourcing cardamum, then you need to move from Mumbai to Sikkim or Kerela.  Certain regions lend themselves to certain professions.  Additionally, certain physical places have particular vibrations.  Some places are busy while others are sad, or slow.
 
Pound the pavement!
Pardon the American expression.  This means that you need to go around aggressively banging on everyone’s door, finding out where the jobs are and who to talk to.  There are local newspapers with endless information about outsourced jobs and training for call center and other types of jobs.  The internet has many sites that can help you find a job in India.  Click India is one of the best sites around, and there are others. 
 
Network!
Its hard to network if you don’t know anyone.  But, if you know someone who knows someone, then network with them.  Its hard to get a job through a cold contact (someone who doesn’t know you).  But, if they were introduced to you, then you have a huge edge over a complete stranger — assuming you know your skills well.
 
Contact everyone
Contact as many companies as you can that have jobs within your skillset.  Don’t waste people’s time contacting them if you are not going to be clear about what you do, and what you want to do for them.  Contact relevent companies only and talk to the manager and let them know you want to do Data Entry for them, or Flash Design.  Ask them if you can meet with them.  Even if a company doesn’t have an opening today, if they like you and you keep in touch, they might hire you later.  Enthusiasm and devotion is an important trait that employers look for.
 
Interview
Bring your professionally written resume with all of your professional experience and education listed clearly on it. Dress well, and be cool and confident.  Don’t be arrogant or overly aggressive — nobody likes that.  Don’t try to come across as being smarter or more aloof than you are.  Be calm, friendly, speak clearly, and appear knowledgeable.  Personality flaws account for more work problems than skill flaws.  So, behave in such a way where you show everyone what a pleasant and easy to work with person you are.  If you are applying for a sales job, you might want to show a little more gung ho attitude plus empathy — the qualities necessary for success in sales.  If you are going to do programming or data entry, try to convey how methodical and responsible you are through your body language if thats possible.  If you are going to be an incoming call center employee, show everyone how nice and patient you are.  Different jobs have different traits, and you need to show these without appearing fake. 
 
Being on the money!
Another American expression.  This means to be on top of things and to know what you are doing.  Many people looking for work come across as being clueless and lost, not knowing where to go or what to say.  Figure all of this out before you talk to a contact person, or you will make a terrible impression.  The worst problems I have had with people in the work world was not skills, and not personality, it was people who were not on top of things who flaked and didn’t double check their work or follow up on things.  If someone asks you a simple question and you give them a confused look or look afraid, that is clueless behavior.  Give a clear, friendly answer to their question.  If you don’t know the answer, just let them know that you haven’t thought about that yet. Politicians and salespeople are experts at giving smooth answers to questions they don’t have the foggiest idea about.  My advice is to study how politicians handle interaction and be like them.  Working in a corporate office place is very political.
 
A quick joke about politicians.
A guy named Joe was running for Senator in his state.  He had previously worked for a church group but quit.  When asked why he quit, he said that he didn’t enjoy working for the church group because it got too political!
 
Good luck!

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How to write a resume for an outsourcing job!

March 9, 2011 by 123outsource
Categories: Getting a Job, Outsourcing Articles, Popular Posts | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

To see the 2016 version of this article — click here

How to write a resume for an outsourcing job
 
We get many resumes emailed to us daily, and it is sad to see how poorly organized they always are.  I have not seen one good resume so far.  There is more than one way to write a good resume, but the most important thing is to keep it organized with no omitted information.  Information should be in inverse chronological order, contain information about your education, and even professional memberships.  Please keep in mind that I am sitting here in Los  Angeles, and the rules are different in Manila or Hyderabad, or wherever you may be.
 
Here are some general tips about resumes.

Use a high grade of paper
In America, it is customary for resumes to be treated like very valuable documents such as legal documents like wills, or trusts. Likewise, resumes traditionally are printed by a professional printer and drafted by a professional typist.  The paper used should be a very fancy grade of off-white or ivory colored paper. Some use light gray in the legal profession.  Different professions might have different standards.  The main thing is to ask around to see if a particular grade or shade of paper is preferred.  Your resume is one of your first impressions, and you want to appear fancy and well equipped. If this is not available wherever you are, try to find a very high-end print shop near the downtown of your metro, or do the best you can in your neighborhood.

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Inverse chronological order
Although there are various ways to craft a resume, the information should be in some sort of clear order.  Make sure that all of the years in your professional life are somehow accounted for, or you will be questioned.  I have seen more resumes in inverse chronological order meaning that the most recent job description is on top.
 
What to put on the resume?
You should state your job objective, and indicate any highlights in terms of your type and level of specialties. There should be a brief summary of each job you have held, education, and anything else that you think is really important.  Its generally preferred to keep it to one page, but two might be okay.  It might not be a bad idea to attach exhibits to the back of the resume: one exhibit for each job you want to elaborate on if there is a lot to say.  That way the interviewer can view that information only if they want to, but won’t be overloaded.
 
Job objective
It is recommended to put this at the top of the resume.  Indicate what type of job you are looking for and why.  
 
Highlighting special skills
You are encouragedd highlight particular areas of experience that would be highly needed by the potential employers you are contacting.
 
What do I say about each company I’ve worked for?
Include the dates you worked for these companies, the name and city of the company, and your job description.  You might quickly mention particular tasks that you were responsible for if you can keep it short.
 
How do I document my education?
State what schools you went to and when.  What degree did you get?  Were there any special areas of focus?  What did you major in?  Stick to Universities and High School, or whatever the highest two degrees you have earned are.  If you went to special trade or music schools, you can list that too to make an impression.
 
Professional memberships?
Everybody wants a job and claims to be good at what they do or want to do.  But, a professional membership can prove how passionate or serious you are about something.  If you claim to be a member of a professional organization, make sure you really attend meetings and know what is going on at that organization so you will appear to be serious.
 
Customized letters should accompany each resume
People looking for jobs fax, email, and mail resumes to everyone in sight.  This is not so smart.  Resumes get throw away quickly.  You should make personal contact with whomever you are sending the resume to so they will remember you when they get the resume. That way they will at least read it before they shred it.  Attach a nice customized letter with the resume. You can say how much you enjoyed talking to them on the phone and how eager you are to get started soon.
 
Don’t list reasons why you terminated employment
If the interviewer wants to ask, they can ask why you left a job.  But, the worst thing you can do is to jump from job to job.  Its expensive to train and hire new employees, so bosses want someone who is stable who will stick around and work hard.
 
Good luck!
Go on the internet and read the details about good resumes.  Have a few people in the business world check your resume and make pointers. Have them check again once you have fixed the pointers.  Its common to go through many drafts before arriving at a perfect finished product.
 
Remember
A resume makes one of the first impressions that you will make with an employer.  Get to know contact people at companies over the phone or in person before sending a resume.  In marketing, having met someone is worth a thousand pieces of paper.  Being on top of your skills is critical.  There are thousands of unqualified people looking for work.  If you feel you are not at the top of your game, please find a tutor, school, or way you can improve upon your weak points.  Make sure you know everything you need to know.  Nobody wants a semi-disfunctional worker. You will waste people’s time and end up unemployed if you don’t know your stuff.  Practice your communication skills to.  Everyone needs someone who can speak well, confidently, and clearly. Meeting someone is the first impression, the resume is the second, but good work skills will keep you employed in the long run with a high salary.

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Knowledge Process Outsourcing – Facts of Interest

December 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: KPO, Outsourcing Articles, Semi-Popular | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Knowledge Process Outsourcing – Facts of Interest
 
KPO
KPO means knowledge process outsourcing and is a more sophisticated type of BPO.  KPO generally refers to accounting, legal, software, and outsourcing that involves research and good analytical skills.
 
History of BPO & KPO
The history of the Business Process Outsourcing industry dates back to the 1980’s when a handful of European airlines started using Delhi as a location for their back office operations.   Later, American Express consolidated its Japan and Asia Pacific back office operations also to Delhi and the NCR region (which is near Delhi).  In the 1990’s, General Electric was next to follow suit and start back office operations in Gurgaon, which is a satellite city of Delhi.  These initial BPO operations were done using a business model that consisted of parent companies and “captives” which are companies that have an exclusive relationship with the parent company.  Independent BPO operations didn’t start until the 1990’s although the industry didn’t have much strength until after 2000.
 
IT outsourcing
In 2002, all major Indian software companies were involved in the BPO industry including Infosys, Inforlinx, HCL, Stayam, and Patni..  Spectramind was bought by Wipro, and the team that started Specramind, created Quatrro in 2006.  Daksh got bought by IBM, and MphasiS was acquired by EDS.  Accenture, IBM, Hewlett Parkard and Dell, Convergys and Sitel also created venues in India which created a lot of high paying jobs.  These new high paying jobs in India are the reason why the phenonimon of the reverse brain drain from America to India started accelerating from 2004-2009.
 
KPO Services
Investment research, Business research, Data Analytics, Market research, Valuation, Legal research are the main core of what are considered to be specialties in the KPO business.  IT, Software, and Web services can also be considered to be KPO services, although research oriented jobs better reflect how many think of KPOs. LPO means legal process outsourcing which includes a wide variety of legal back office services.  An LPO is a type of KPO as well.  The distinctions between the various outsourcing terms can get blurry, and terms can have definitions that overlap with other related terms as well.  Putting distinctions aside, KPO is a dream come true for India, where they can get a nice market share of higher paying skilled labor and have evolved past the stage of only getting grunt work and software labor.
 
Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Research
Indian companies are now engaged in more and more biotechnology, and pharmaceutical analytical work. This is one of India’s most rapidly growing industries in the KPO sector. Israel is also very prominent in KPO as they have many companies who are very advanced in medical research.
 
Where are KPO’s typically located?
To run successful KPO companies, you need a good skilled labor pool.  India dominates roughly 70% of the world KPO market, and each metro in India has a different focus. Delhi is more oriented towards legal, accounting, and call center work.  Bombay is more oriented towards business.  Hyderabad and  Chennai gravitate towards IT, Data, and Transcriptions, while Bangalore is India’s hub for any type of highly skilled technical or analytical work.  Bangalore has the highest amount of highly skilled workers of any Indian metro and the majority of higher paying KPO jobs are in Bangalore.  Visit our Bangalore KPO page to see search results for KPO companies in Bangalore.

Tweets:
(1) KPO means knowledge process outsourcing and is a more sophisticated type of BPO.
(2) KPO generally refers to accounting, legal, software & outsourcing that involves research and good analytical skills.
(3) The HISTORY of KPO, BPO, and LPO
(4) Looking at a long list of KPO services, what defines them as KPO vs. BPO services?
(5) How do you distinguish what would be classified as a KPO vs. a BPO service?
(6) India dominates roughly 70% of the world KPO market, and each metro in India has a different focus.

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Labor Costs & Overall Pricing

November 27, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Labor costs within a pricing formula

The way large companies choose which companies to outsource work to is based on a very complicated algorithmic formula that takes into consideration many aspects. We’re all aware that labor cost is one of the major considerations that effect the price of outsourced labor. But, there is a lot more involved, and since prices are always changing, long term cost considerations need to be included in a calculation.

Per capita income and prices
Statistically, India is a very poor country with per capita income around $700 per year (rough figure) while American income is around $40,000 per year. Therefore, the price of labor in India must be 57 times as cheap, right? Wrong. American income doesn’t vary so dramatically from place to place and from city to countryside. Although extreme cases exist including NYC which has wages that might be double what wages are for similar jobs in Mississippi, the rest of the country doesn’t vary so significantly. There are parts of India such as Bangalore or Chennai where a highly skilled Indian software worker makes $20,000 to $100,000 per year while a peasant in the Bihari countryside might only make 50 cents per day and might only eat once per day (on a good day).

The BPO jobs that happen in India are generally located in high cost urban areas where the price of labor and everything else is sky high. This is why the price of outsourced labor in India is only four times as cheap as in the U.S., and not fifty-seven times as cheap.

Job conditions in India
The next problem is that inflated and rising land prices in India make companies conserve on space. India has less land than the U.S., yet has four times the population, and the population shows no sign of declining either. Indians are typically squeezed in offices with their small desks crammed together like sardines. The American “dream” of having your own 6×6 cubical simply doesn’t exist for most Indian Software or call center workers. The price of land continues to rise in Indian metros making outsouring costs higher and higer. A 2 bedroom condo in the outskirts of Pune costs even more than it would in Portland, OR on a square foot by square foot basis.

High turnover is another cost in India
A few decades ago, it was only the lucky in India who could get a decent job, and the rest had to take menial jobs just to survive working for pennies per day.  Nowadays, there are too many good BPO and Indian software jobs. Its common for young techno-saavy Indians to skip from job to job chasing better working conditions, more likeable bosses, higher salaries, and nicer looking female work counterparts. Every time an employee jumps boat, that costs the boss a bundle to try to find someone new and train them. This cost gets transfered to the customer in the long run.

Management costs can vary
This is a very difficult issue to pinpoint, but there is always a management cost for the company who hires and outsourcing company. If your company is nearby or on a similar time zone, communication is easier and travel to see your outsourcing company is quick. If the company is working while you are sleeping, unless you sleep late, you will have trouble interacting with that company, not to mention the 30 hour plane flight to Mumbai! If you need to visit a company frequently, then outsourcing to India will carry a hefty management tab, but what if you only need to visit for initiating new complicated projects?

Transportation costs can add up
A business that involves shipping would choose a new location primarily on access to good transportation arteries with low warehousing costs. Reno and Memphis are famous shipping hubs in the U.S. as they are centrally located for their respective East and West halves of the nation. A call center doesn’t need to ship anything, but there are still costs for moving workers around. Cab fare in Hyderabad is not cheap. If a Hyderabad software company pays worker’s transportation, it can add up, even if workers cab-pool. Transport is yet another factor in the pricing formula.

Labor costs are only about 20-30% of the total cost of outsourced work. The rest go to infrastructure, management, and other costs.

Please visit our Indian Software page.

India & China Compete for Outsourcing Revenues

September 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles, Philippines | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

China and India compete for outsourcing work.
 
Amoung the top several outsourcing nations, India ranks #1 with China and the Philippines next in line.  India’s outsourcing revenue from April 2010 to March 31st 2011 is expected to be US$60-62 billion and was roughly 50 billion the previous year. China’s outsourcing revenue was roughly 36 Billion last year, but is expanding faster than India’s outsourcing revenue.  The future is showing that in addition to China, many other nations are going to be catching up to India in the outsourcing industry.
 
Indian Outsourcing
Although India is currently the world leader in outsourcing revenue, there are many factors that are governing its growth rate.  Factors leading to a slowdown in the expansion of Indian outsourcing lie in high attrition rates, poor infrastructure, lack of cultural affinity wiht the West, and rising wages.  However, factors in India’s favor include: a reputation of being great at outsourcing, an emphasis on enforcing patent laws, and a diversity of outsourcing services that goes well beyond call centers and IT.  Indian companies provide dozens of outsourced services including data entry outsourcing, legal process outsourcing, market research, payment processing, accounting, web design, SEO,  and pharmaceutical research which is one of India’s newest outsourcing growth industries.
 
Pharmaceutical analytical services performed in India are less expensive, better quality, have shorter delivery times, and less downtime than if done in other countries. Additionally, intellectual property protection is excellent in India while China has a questionable reputation in this regard.  Pharmaceutical outsourcing is one of India’s new growth industries which is expected to become a multi-billion dollar industry in India in only a few years.
 
Although the Chinese can compete with India for IT services, and Filipino call centers are gaining market share from India, India has a safe position in the outsorucing industry because they offer dozens of other outsourcing services which are not threatened by foreign competition.
 
Chinese Outsourcing
China has paved the road for a bright future in quickly growing its outsourcing industry. China has incentives for industries providing outsourcing services which helps to stimulates growth in this sector.  Incentives include removing taxes on outsourcing businesses.
 
China can easily compete with India for IT work, however China lacks workers with good English language skills which is a huge deficit for many types of outsourcing work. 
 
One of the main reasons China has such a promising future in outsourcing is that China is investing in new infrastructure in ecomonic zones faster than any other country.  New roads, dams, buildings, and other infrastructure are being built really quickly in China.  China’s capacity for getting projects completed quickly is one factor that works to their advantage.  China has also worked on building good internet connections and developing workers technical skills.
 
Putting skills, prices, and infrastructure behind, China’s outsourcing industry is growing at 30% while India’s is growing at 14%.  China’s overall economic growth has been a few percent faster than India’s over the last few years, and their growth in outsourcing is also surpassing India’s.
 
Filipino Outsourcing
The Philippines is a distant third in the global outsourcing market.  Their services are mostly confined to call center and medical transcription work due to their good command of English.  The Filipino call center industry is neck and neck with India, both commanding slightly less than 6 billion per year, but the Philippines looks like it will be taking the lead, once again to their excellent language skills and cultural closeness to the United States.
 
Overview
Its hard to see where the outsourcing industry will be in 2020, but my guess is that China will dominate with India in second place.  Filipino, Indonesian and African companies will also probably gain a higher overall percentage of market share leaving India with a relatively stagnant revenue in the long run.  The overall outsourcing industry will most likely grow tremendously in the next ten years, but Indias percentage of the total looks like it will be shrinking slowly over the next decade.

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BPO Definition and Information

September 30, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

BPO Definition and Information
 
BPO means business process outsourcing.  It also means broker price option, but in the context of outsourcing, the first definition is the one we will concern ourselves with. There are various types of BPO outsourcing as well as specialties and it is important to understand the distinctions between them.
 
Some BPO companies stick to a particular type of specialty such as Data Entry and it’s associated specialties such as Data Mining, Data Conversion, Data Processing, etc.  Some stick to Call Center (call centre) work and it’s various specialties such as technical support, customer care, customer retention, telemarketing, etc. It is common in India for BPO companies to engage in a wide variety of functions.  I have seen many companies that will do Data Entry, Call Center, Medical Billing, SEO, Software Development, and Web Design, if not even more diverse specialties. BPO companies mostly stick to repetative back office functions like payment processing, information transcription, answering calls, etc.  However, there are other types of outsourcing operations that have very highly trained and highly educated employees.
 
There are various other types of outsourcing that include: KPO, LPO, RPO, and ITO.  There might be more acronyms or terms out there, but these ones are very common. 
 
KPO = Knowledge Process Outsourcing
LPO = Legal Process Outsourcing
RPO = Recruitment Process Outsourcing (HR work)
ITO = Information Technology Outsourcing (Software Development)
 
LPO, RPO, and ITO are easy to understand.  However, the term KPO, which is normally associated with research and analysis,  is often inclusive of legal and software work as well when used in a general way. Most KPO companies engage primarily in various types of research including market research, medical research, pharmaceutical research (a new trend in India), and other types of research.  Business analysis, data analysis, and various types of sophisticated number crunching fit neatly into the category of KPO.
 
The interesting point that one should understand is that it is common for BPO companies to engage in activities which blur the distinctions between BPO and KPO.  It is common for call centers to do surveys and data tabulation.  Taking and inputting the information (which involves call center and data entry work) fall into the general category of BPO. However, many call centers will also analyze the data for you to tell you which market segments you need to spend more time targetting.  Data entry firms will often do data analysis as part of their work.  The grunt work of entering data from forms, online, or databases into another form is low paying work.  However, the analytical work done once the data is in an appropriate format is much more intricate work.
 
Please keep in mind, that if you are browsing BPO websites on the internet, they might refer to themselves as a BPO when they are doing work that falls partly in the BPO category, and partly in KPO or even LPO categories.  You really need to read the “services” page of any website to get a clear idea of what they do.  The next question is what do they do best? Are they wonderful at legal research, but sloppy about data entry?  That question is not so easy to answer.  Good luck!

Please visit our KPO definition blog entry as well

The art of the blog

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Blogging is a new form of communication.  One that has not been mastered yet.  Most blogs are amateurish, and pathetically boring.  I am not a good writer by any standard, but try to be interesting and unique in each post.  But, not everyone can be a blog writer.  Being a blog writer involves a particular type of lifestyle and temperment.

Most writers get an assignment, they do some research, or write based on their knowledge. They do not have to figure out what to write about.  If you run a blog, you need a minimum of 12 posts per month, or you will lose your regular readers. But, how do you come up with 12 ideas per month of issues to write about?

You more or less have to live your work.  If you write about sailing, you need to be sailing all the time and talking to other sailors. Then and only then will you be confronted by the hundreds of issues effecting sailors.  If you simply sit at home and think about what to write — nothing will come to you other than some boring and technical aspects of sailing and good places to go for a sail.

 

I had a happy experience watching cable television yesterday night. I saw a Canadian guy move to Taiwan (I have lived there before and speak the language).  This gentleman struggled with the language differences, and had a lot of trouble finding a place to live that could accomodate his surfboard which was 10 feet long and wouldn’t fit into most elevators.  He had moved to Taiwan to write blogs about surfing and he lived his job.  He is thinking like I am.  By living next to the beach in Southern Taiwan he will have the opportunity to experience a particular environment surfing, and swap stories with other surfers.  I could imagine that after one good (long) day surfing and socializing with many others, he might have ammunition enough to write ten fascinating articles.

Well, I am planning a trip to Dubai, Manila and India where I hope to meet with many different call center managers so I will have lots of things to write about in my blog entries about call centers!  Wish me luck — and don’t hang up on me please!

Confidence Verses Skills

September 29, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged | Leave a comment

Confidence verses Skills

India is a country that emphasizes hard skills in schools.  Most school systems worldwide do the same thing. But, in business, hard skills, such as technical skills of various sorts are only half the equation.  You need soft skills too, and this means interaction skills.

Communication
When I call India, I notice that people speak very quietly, and mumble.  The phone lines are not good to begin with, and then people’s unclear communication skills makes it much worse.  Good communication skills are paramount in business.  The bosses of companies always have the best communication skills of anyone at their company. But, workers need to communicate too, but generally lack the skills.  Communication needs to be TAUGHT somehow, but someone, somewhere in India.  Having good clerical or technical skills will not win over the desireable clients as much as combining your skills with good communications and customer service.

 
Be confident?
Americans are great with confidence.  We think we can do anything, when in reality we don’t know what we are talking about half the time. This works great in business — at least in the beginning.  In business, it is suicide to overpromise, or underdeliver (which are the same thing in essence). However, it is also suicide to appear shy, squeemish, or lacking in confidence. If you do business with the West, you MUST adopt a “Can Do” attitude, a friendly disposition on the phone, clear English, etc.  It is common in India even with PhD’s to think that they can not do something.  This type of thinking is a psychological damper and has been passed along from generation to generation in India.  Mothers only tell their children “don’t do this, don’t do that”.  It is stifling.  There needs to be a more proactive way of thinking that identifies what is beneficial to do, and then find out how you can do that beneficial thing.

 
In person it is opposite
Indians are a nationality that are amazing in person, and terrible on the phone.  I wonder how such a nationality can survive in the call center issue being so bad on the phone!  I think Indians should do “Meet you in person center” outsourcing instead of call center outsourcing.  They could fly clients to Hyderabad, and meet clients in person, have samosa chat (a common food in Bombay) while people talk to each other and sip on masala chai.  Indians are the most personable nationality when samosas and chai are involved.  The trick is pressing you internal psychological buttons here.  While you are on the phone with a stranger, pretend that they are Lakshmi Aunty and that you are talking about how the family is doing — in person — with no phone — except there will be a phone!  Your whole tone will be much friendlier and people will like you immediately!  Just trick yourself into forgetting that the person is a stranger, and trick yourself into forgetting that there is a phone.  Maybe use a speakerphone and pretend the person is right in front of you!

 
Doing more of it is the key
I have learned a lot in my own personal development.  As a child I was very shy and had all of the bad charactersistics I complain about in my blog.  I had to grow out of my shyness, my mistrust of strangers, and adapt a positive attitude so that I could attract clients — lots of clients — and desireable ones too. What I learned is that you need to do a lot of phone work to get good at it.  Developing a positive tone, asking the right questions, being polite, and wording your questions and answers in a way that leaves a positive feeling in the other person’s mind are all critical skills.

Office Prices and Outsourcing

September 28, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Office Prices and the Outsourcing Industry

India’s main problem with outsourcing is that the rents are getting so high, that Indian outsourcing companies must raise their rate for outsourced work to be able to cover their costs. Looking at a list of global office occupancy costs worldwide from scribd.com, I can share some of this information with you.

PSF – costs in dollars per square foot for office space in 2010.
Numbers have been rounded to the nearest dollar

Hong Kong 161
London 130 (West End)
Tokyo 101
London 62 (Docklands)
Mumbai 60
Delhi 59
Singapore 59
New York 42 (Midtown)
Los Angeles 39
Madrid 37

The irony is that in places like New York where incomes are roughly five times what they are in Mumbai for similar work, the price is 43% higher in Mumbai for office space. In the long run, America has many advantages that lead to national economic stability. We have endless land, and fast roads and airports that connect every single corner of the country conveniently to each other part of the country. There very few strikes effecting transportation, and political stability is something we take for granted. India has none of these advantages. It will take India 40 years of hard work to catch up to Western countries in terms of infrastructure.

One aspect that doesn’t show up in the above quoted statistics is that the data is for certain neighborhoods where offices are generally located. There are other parts of the above metros further away from the downtown that have less expensive prices. For example, in Delhi, it is $59 psp in the business district, but I’m looking at an ad in Noida where 1500 sf of office / factory space are being offered for rps35,000 / month which translates into less than one dollar per square foot per month. So, prices can vary tremendously within the same metro area depending on conditions.

High office prices have run many call center outsourcing businesses out of Bangalore, Mumbai, and Chennai, leading them to outskirts of Delhi, Assam and other areas where land is plentiful. Mumbai is on a peninsula, making land a scarce commodity, especially with the lack of skyscrapers which help to conserve land. Bangalore is surrounded by hills and mountains making growth difficult. Chennai is bordered by an ocean on one side making expansion possible only to the West. But Delhi has land around it and remote parts of India still have cheap land to expand to. So the future of Indian outsourcing work seems to keep migrating further and further away to where the cheap land and labor is. In another few decades, much of the outsourcing work will be redirected out of India entirely, perhaps to Africa, Bangladesh, and other areas.

Are you running out of workspace? Outsource a few tasks

September 28, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: Outsourcing Articles | Tagged , , | Leave a comment
Are you running out of workspace?
Maybe you can afford new employees but have nowhere to put them until you move into that new office space that costs 5x as much. So, what do you do?  You can outsource a few tasks to companies overseas in the meantime.  A wide variety of tasks can be outsourced including web design, personal assistants, accounting, legal support, programming, call center, data entry, e-publishing, medical billing, medical transcriptions and more.  Back office tasks are typically done at outsourcing companies — miscellaneous tasks.
The irony, is that when you think you are running out of workspace, you have not seen the workspace of the outsourcing companies.  They typically have workers crammed together like sardines or ants in an ant hill.  If you don’t want to outsource, you can consider smaller cubicles, or cramming small desks together. Just because you need your elbow room, doesn’t mean you can’t find some employees who don’t mind being squeezed.
Another idea is overflow workspace.  There are places that sell office space by the cubicle.  You can negotiate a nice price by the day, month, or whatever time period you like.  Have that extra worker be a mile away in a shared work environment. It is a great idea and those shared office spaces tend to be lively fun places to be as well!

In 1880 Arizona you’d get scalped; But, in 2015 India, you’ll get Skyped.

September 27, 2010 by 123outsource
Categories: India, Outsourcing Articles | Leave a comment

Skype with Outsourcing

Getting Scalped in the Old West
People in foreign countries may not be aware of how dangerous America used to be, particularly in the Old West. Many folks would come from back East (America’s East Coast) to make a new life out West. Many knew what the perils consisted of. There were outlaws, bank robbers, gunfighters, pick pockets, swindlers, and worse. During the 1800’s there were Native American tribes that would scalp you if they thought you were an enemy, or in some cases if they didn’t like the way you looked. Scalping is a practice where you take the skin off someone’s head as a punishment or act of revenge. That person will never be able to grow hair on the top of their head again. Getting scalped is a cruel and horrifying practice which no longer exists in America. But, now there is an equally horrifying practice going on in India. Getting Skyped.

Getting Skyped in India
I made a sales inquiry to one of those smaller companies in India using an Indian number. The prior call I made was to a larger company in Noida who had a dedicated U.S. phone number. So, I called the smaller company and got the manager. He was very accommodating and offered to call me back to save me a little money on my phone bill. I thought that was very generous of him. The next words to come out of his mouth were, “Do you have a Skype number?” I then realized what had just happened to me. I had gotten skyped.

Skyping your clients may seem more cost effective and convenient in the short run, but how effective is it on your bottom line in the long run? Skype connections are not as clear as phone connections. They also require a specific account which needs to be kept current if it is a paid account. To me, being on an unclear phoneline undermines the quality of the call. My main issue with Indian companies is that I can’t communicate with them clearly, and if you further complicate this with a bad phoneline, I won’t be able to understand them at all which could lead to costly mistakes being made on critical projects. What is even more costly is that customers will have significantly less faith in them and not hire them in the first place if they are not satisfied with the quality of their phone line and phone communication. So, as it seems that you are saving money with Skype, you might be losing 20% of your customers. How much will your net savings be then, bhai-sabh (brother)? And if that happens, your boss will have your scalp!

BPO BOSS: Yes, is this India International Phone Service?

IIPS: Yes, how can we help you.

BPO BOSS: I want to invest in a professional phone system that accommodates international calls at a reasonable cost. Do you provide that service?

IIPS: Yes, that is our specialty. I can tell you the details now. The first month includes…

BPO BOSS: Yes, I’d like to know all of the details. Can you Skype me?