Beyond the I masthead
an online magazine from eyeway.org

issue 6 bullet september-october 2005
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sections in this issue: by george | focus | feature | perspectives | profile | headlines

What do B.P.O.s do?

Over the years, B.P.O.s in India have grown in number and quality and today offer a wide range of services. Their movement up the value chain to offer Knowledge Processing Services such as financial analysis, architecture and software design, and technical inputs have further established the growing importance of Information Technology enabled Services in India to the developed economies that outsource their work here.

The range of jobs that have been outsourced include technical support, customer support, medical transcription, data processing, animation, publishing services, legal and taxation services, insurance processing, content development, online education and training, design and GIS services. The range of services vary from basic customer query handling by customer service executives in call centres, to advanced research by extremely qualified domain experts.

Call centres, which are the most prevalent B.P.O.s, offer customer care services. Call centre executives answer customer queries related to products and services provided by the parent or client company. Another similar job profile is telemarketing, where call centre executives call potential customers to sell products and services.

Companies in USA and Europe have moved a significant number of jobs to back-offices in India as part of their strategy to stay competitive in a difficult economy, particularly after the U.S. software industry's recession in 2000.

This movement of white-collar jobs in the services sector became front-page news after it figured as an electoral issue in the American presidential elections in 2004 and gave rise to the term 'Bangalored' to describe a white-collar worker who had lost his or her job to a worker in India - possibly in Bangalore.

Related stories:
Bullet imageWorkspace adaptions
Bullet imageOpportunity calls

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