BPO

If you are a graduate and looking at a career in Customer Relationship Management, then the IT Enabled service industry is where you should be.You could be a ‘Jane’ or a ‘Mark’ calling up a credit card holder in the US and following up on his credit card payments. The credit card holder would not know that the call is from a remote location in India where you are located. You would be trained on the accent, given sufficient inputs and have access to a huge reservoir of information to handle all customer related queries

*What is an IT Enabled Service?IT Enabled Services are functions and services provided from a country different from the one where the end products are delivered. These services are delivered over telecommunication or data network lines.
Spectrum of IT Enabled Services
Call centers
Medical Transcription
Back Office Transactions, Revenue accounting,
Insurance claims processing
Legal databases
Content Development/Animation
Payroll
Logistics Management


*How does a Call Center Function?A typical call center functions as follows - A caller uses a toll free number that is connected to a customer support center. When the call reaches the call center, a trained consultant with access to a wide database of information, answers the call. The dedicated telecommunication links connect a remote call center to the parent organisation through voice links and online database access. Therefor a caller maybe calling a local number in USA, but the call maybe answered in India without any time delay and the caller is oblivious of where the call is being answered. These services are very popular in countries such as USA, Europe, Japan and Australia.

*Types of a Call Centers.
There are two types of a Call Center, an Outbound Call Center and an Inbound Call center.
Key Responsibilities of an Outbound Call Center Personnel
Make outgoing calls to follow up on overdue account holders worldwide, offer solutions
Update the relevant information in the database
Adhere to highest standard of quality and compliance
Be customer friendly and extremely courteous
Key Responsibilities of an Inbound Call Center Personnel
Handle inbound calls relating to customer queries on a product or service
Update databases
Adhere to highest standard of quality and compliance
Be customer friendly and extremely courteous

*Application Areas of a Call Center.Sales Support
Complaint Handling
Technical queriesRelationship and Accounts Management
Lead generation and follow up
Telemarketing
Credit and Billing problems
Market Research
Database Development
Call centers are operated by large airlines, banks, mutual funds, telecom services, IT product companies among others.

*Data Processing and Back Office Operations
What is data processing?
Data Processing is a category of IT Enabled Services that pertains to collecting, digitising and processing data that come from various sources. Most organisations like banks, financial institutions , airlines need large scale data entry and accounting work. The raw data is sent to remote locations where the data is processed and reconciliations are done. The data processing services comprise of data entry from various forms or publications, documents, images, sound and video, preparing databases and integrating them.
The range of services would include the following:
Document Preparation
Data Entry
Image capturing
Image keying
OCR and ICR Processing
Image store and retrieval
Data entry front end edits
Statistical Analysis
Which industries would require data processing and back office operation?
Insurance
Banking
Public utilities
Telecom
Legal
Transportation
Manufacturing
Publishing
Insurance Claims Processing
Large insurance companies get a number of claims every day. These claims need to be processed based on set rules and regulations and can be done remotely. To save costs a large number of insurance companies are outsourcing the work. This is another service that is provided by the IT Enabled Sector
Legal databases
Lawyers need a steady flow of information on rulings, relevant laws and precedents to build up their case. A lot of legal firms have started outsourcing the work of creating a ready database/source of well managed and intelligent information.
The job comprises of:
Create database of existing records
Keeping track of new documents
Creating an index of the records
Incorporate the changes in the database as per established parameters
Lawyers can then use their computers to gather any information they need.

*Employment Opportunities.According to a survey there are more than 100,000 call centers worldwide and is expected to grow to 300,000 by 2002, employing around 18 million people. As per a survey, Customer Interaction Services including call centers in India employed about 8,600 people as on July 30, 2000. This segment will create employment for 2,70,000 people by year 2008.Estimated Manpower figure by year 2005
The estimated manpower figures in the IT Enabled Services Industry by 2005 are as follows:Back office operations-accounting, data entry, data conversion 150,000Medical Transcriptions and Insurance Claims Processing 100,000Call Centers 125,000Database services 50,000Web Based Help Desks 200,000The above estimates are based on industry surveys conducted by leading Consultants.

*The positives and negatives of working for the IT Enabled Service Industry.The positives of working for the IT Enabled Service Industry
Working for a reputed Multinational company
Young energetic and enthusiastic colleagues
Fun filled environment
Top-of the line communication equipment
Good performance rewards
The negatives of working for the IT Enabled Service Industry
Night shifts
Monotonous
Short Career span


*What are the Generic skill sets required.
Fluency in written and spoken English
PC Skills
Ability to work in teams
Listening skills
Analytical skills
Customer focus
Be a graduate