Business Process Outsourcing : Growth & Country Experiences

Outsourcing is a concept which is fast gaining acceptance from all sectors of business. The outsourcing concept has existed for about 30 years but it came into prominence only around 25 years ago. The manufacturing industry in USA was the first to adopt outsourcing due to the strong dollar and competition from other countries. The next major development was the beginning of the call centre industry and the shifting of this industry to offshore destinations like Indian and Philippines. Around ten years after this, came the knowledge process outsourcing industry, including offshore destinations, which is growing at a very fast pace. The next important development was the outsourcing of business processes called "business process transformation outsourcing". The first major player in the offshore business process outsourcing industry was India. This was mainly due to the availability of English language skills and educated low cost manpower in the country. However, other countries followed suit and the next major player is Philippines whose English language skills are better than India. It also has a huge manpower with accountancy skills. China too is likely to become a major player especially for Asian language business process outsourcing. The Dalian region in China has people who know Chinese, Korean and Japanese and it is becoming a hub for BPO operations in China. Other countries like Sri Lanka, South Africa are also in the process of becoming BPO hubs. This book traces the evolution and growth of the outsourcing industry from manufacturing to service. It delves into the practice of outsourcing related to manufacturing, BPO, and KPO business process transformation. It also discusses the experiences of various countries in the outsourcing business.