India is no longer the world’s favorite outsourcing destination only for BPO services or customer support. In the recent past, India has proved its mettle even in other services like Knowledge Process Outsourcing or KPO as it is popularly known.  In fact, today India is all set to lead the world’s KPO industry with its profuse talent and favorable outsourcing environment.  The following four factors have catapulted India into being the world’s top KPO outsourcing destination:

1. India has an abundance of KPO talent: India has a large abundance of rich technical talent in KPO-centric domains, who are readily available to take on KPO projects. India has more than 700 prestigious universities who annually produce over three million competent graduates.  The Indian nation is also the home of leading institutions such as, IIMs and IITs who create skilled indidividuals. Today, the KPO sector in India employees around 25,000 professionals. This number is only expected to double in the coming years. Experts predict that in the near future, more that 250,000 KPO professionals would be working out of India.

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Research has proven that 8 out of 10 companies say that regular high quality leads are one of their biggest challenges. With efficient lead generation services being the need of the hour, businesses have to make a decision between in-house lead generation and an outsourced service. But which is more profitable? Does outsourcing bring in higher results? Let’s look at both the options in detail.

In-house lead generation

To start with, most organizations don’t make a clear definition of who is in charge for lead generation. Usually when the term “in-house” is used, it means that everyone is involved and no one is really responsible for the end result. Since a business would always have to focus on core business activities, lead generation ends up as being a non standard process that is occasionally performed – usually when the sales team has no contracts or targets to achieve. In the long run, in-house lead generation becomes more of wasted effort rather than bringing in more sales to the company.

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Do you find yourself spending all your time on answering calls, developing presentations, sending business e-mails or scheduling appointments? Are such non-core, yet time-intensive business chores leaving you with no time to focus on the core activities of your company? If your answer is a “yes”, then what you need is a dedicated personal assistant.

Gone are the days when a personal assistant was expected to work from your office. Now, with outsourcing, you can easily hire a remote executive, who will work remotely for you from his/her location. With a committed remote executive always available to carry out your instructions, you will finally be able to reduce operational costs, free-up internal resources and proactively use your time.

A remote assistant from India will be able to efficiently handle any of the following business tasks at a low cost and within a quick turnaround time.

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It is a well established fact that outsourcing is the best, easiest and most affordable way to get more work done within a short time period and with guaranteed quality. But most businesses are not sure if they are ready for outsourcing. Is your business on the verge of deciding about outsourcing? Here are five signs that indicate your business should give outsourcing a serious thought.

1. Are your employees facing a time crunch?

Is the work environment at your office always hectic and rushed, leaving little room for creativity and innovation? With your staff always trying to meet deadlines, they may be unable to be productive or come up with new ideas. Have a look at all that your current employees are handling and see if some of the most time-consuming and repetitive tasks can be outsourced. This way, your in-house employees will be able to use their valuable time on higher-end operations like marketing or planning.

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Today’s business environment is constantly changing and these changes can have an impact on your organization’s decisions during the next 12 months of 2013. Keeping yourself informed about the upcoming business trends in 2013 can help you make wiser business decisions. Here are five expected trends that the outsourcing industry is likely to face in 2013:

1. Social media connections will be more relevant

Popular social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are fast becoming the preferred platform for customers to post feedback or raise complaints. Businesses now receive a large number of comments and requests from such sites. Though customers still use the phone and email to communicate, social media communication is on a steady rise. Apart from concentrating only on sales, companies now want to build large social communities of customers. 2013 will definitely see a rise in the outsourcing of social media interactions to offshore contact centers that have an ample supply of tech-savvy social media experts.

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The acclaimed consulting firm AT Kearney has recently released reports that confirm India’s position as the world’s favourite back-office.  India’s deep skill sets and low cost services have been the main cause for India’s success as an outsourcing destination.

India is closely followed by China and Malaysia in the top 3 slots of AT Kearney’s 2012 Global Services Location Index (GSLI). All of the top 3 countries have enjoyed high rankings since the GLSI started in 2003, mainly because these three nations have large talent pools and low cost advantages.

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Is outsourcing only for big businesses? Can only large corporations leverage the manifold benefits of outsourcing? Not at all. Today, even small businesses, SME or start-ups can make a success out of outsourcing. No matter the size or nature of your business, outsourcing can definitely help you to reduce costs, increase productivity and save on effort. Here are ten tips to help your company with the outsourcing process.

1. Clearly define the scope of your outsourcing project before accepting outsourcing proposals. A brief that is poorly defined can attract low quality proposals that can end up being more expensive than what you expected.
2. Resist the temptation of signing up with the very first outsourcing vendor. Wait until you have a couple of proposals and then evaluate each one of them, before finalizing on a vendor.
3. Don’t make the mistake of choosing a vendor only based on cost. Make sure that you also check on other factors like experience, skills sets and technology used.
4. Make up a list of all that you want out of the outsourcing relationship. Do not be afraid to negotiate with the vendor to get the best possible deal for your outsourced project.
5. Ask the vendor to provide you with references of people who have partnered with them earlier. Get in touch with these references and ask them about the quality of work provided by the vendor.
6. Misunderstanding in an outsourcing relationship can end up being costly and time consuming. To avoid this, ensure that all the agreement and payment terms are clearly set out in the outsourcing contract.
7. Remember to negotiate about ownership and copyright rights at the very beginning, so that the completed work becomes your property after payment. If you are outsourcing a web-based product, ensure that the source code and final files are transferred to your server, so that you can easily make changes in the future.
8. Hold a meeting with the vendor to decide about project management, communication, delivery and feedback. During the course of the project, make sure that the vendor adheres to what has been decided.
9. Make sure that you do not agree for late delivery of work or early payment frequently, so that the vendor does not make it a habit.
10. Do not restrain from providing the vendor with honest feedback about their work, even if it is negative. This will help the vendor understand how to meet your needs better.

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Did you start your business with the thought of being your own boss and having full control over your work? But off late, you have discovered that your work load is much more that what you expected and no matter how packed your schedule is, you still have unfinished work. Non-core, yet important tasks like accounting and administrative functions are becoming overwhelming and taking your focus from your business. The only way out of such a tight spot is to outsource a few of your work functions.

If you are new to the concept of outsourcing, you may be wondering about what is outsourcing and what can be outsourced. Outsourcing is nothing but the contracting of various business functions to another company or an independent freelancer who has specialized skills. Outsourcing can be cost-effective and help you get your work completed within a short timeline. The primary purpose of outsourcing is to focus on business growth and providing services, while someone else takes care of your mundane, repetitive tasks.

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As a business entrepreneur, you may have far more to do than you can possibly ever get done. Thankfully, with outsourcing, you can outsource specific projects or on-going work to any number of service providers. Outsourcing can be very effective, if you know how to communicate your requirements clearly.

With a lack of communication and coordination, outsourcing can get stressful, leaving you spending too much money and not getting what you needed, when you needed it. Here are ten practical tips that you can use to enjoy a smooth, easy, successful and stress-free outsourcing experience.

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