Offshore Business Process Outsourcing (BPO): New Doors to Value Creation

Offshore BPO is one of the most significant business trends of our time. According to a recent Gartner Group study, worldwide BPO services will grow at an annual rate of almost 10 percent, climbing to a $173 billion market by 2007. Many organizations know that for a fraction of the cost, their back office operations (from application or loan processing to account reconciliation or billing services) and contact-center based customer care programs can be implemented both domestically and in countries like India . However, while labor rates are dramatically lower in other countries, those who view offshore BPO from the perspective of purely wage arbitrage may be missing out on the real value.

Until recently, most CEOs acknowledged outsourcing as an effective way to control or eliminate costs, especially in IT software maintenance and development. But few saw it as a way to reposition, reenergize and revolutionize their business critical processes. Today, offshore BPO is evolving from being primarily a cost-savings initiative to a strategy for process transformation; throwing open entirely new doors to value creation.