Business Process Outsourcing 

Process Outsourcing is not new to the business world. Companies have outsourced traditional services such as hardware maintenance or janitorial service. These outsourcing efforts are to curb the direct cost of doing these tasks within the organization itself. However, with the advent of internet and web, there is another form of process outsourcing termed as 'Business Process Outsourcing' which is essentially delegation of one or more business processes to an external provider who provide services based on certain measurable performance criteria. Typically, this involves an organization's non-core processes.

Knowledge Process Outsourcing

There is another high-value-added form of business process outsourcing called  Knowledge Process Outsourcing. The knowledge processes are domain-based processes and business expertise, rather than just operational tasks. Knowledge processes are very domain specific and are tied to the core processes in an organization.

Why Outsource ?

Process outsourcing initiatives are growing because organizations worldwide feel the need to concentrate on their core business competencies and
thereby free up their internal resources to stay focused on this. Process outsourcing, be it BPO or KPO, is a valuable strategic management tool
that can help organizations improve process level efficiency and effectiveness, as well as reduce costs.

Process Outsourcing in India

India is ideal for process outsourcing initiatives. As eloborated by Tom Friedman in his book 'The world is flat', India's technological advances in the past 10 years are noteworthy. However, the true strength of India is the highly educated, motivated, technologically skilled workforce. A study by a leading research organization shows that when processes are offshored to India, organizations not only get the advantage of low cost but also experience significant improvement in productivity and quality.

Specifically, the following describe how India's advantage as an organization Process Outsourcing destination:

- Two million graduates each year (Existing Pool: over 25 million)
- English speaking and IT savvy workforce suitable for an outsourced operations such as call center
- Indians view process outsourcing jobs as a good career option and take pride in doing them
- Availability of qualified personnel across various industries.
- Improving telecom and internet infrastructure to meet process outsourcing requirements
- Lower infrastructure costs
- Favorable time lag: 12 hours with US & 5 hours with Europe which makes overnight turnarounds possible
- Resources with experience of financial and legal systems similar to the west
- Strong domestic IT services industry to support the process outsourcing industry