Are the BPO providers in sync with trends?

Premise of existence of BPO companies can rest on 2 key factors

- companies want to focus on core competence and would outsource processes and activities which could be done by an external agency at better efficiency and save on capital investment and extended operations
- cut cost by relocating operations to lower cost locations, specifically manpower cost as the differential in wages compounded by the volume of people involved build a compelling business case

With changes in customer behaviour influenced primarily by technology and new concepts and dynamic demography and psychography it is very likely the traditional modes of availing of customer and vendor services will fall by the wayside

As more and more consumers use Internet and Internet on mobile devices, the propensity to call up a call center for support will fall dramatically. Moreover people find it easier to report a problem, order a product, make changes to an order online than they do it over phone (where you have to go through 10 hoops to reach to a relevant section and then wait in Q to be served)

3G and innovative mobile applications will cut down the need for people to rely on phone and direct audio conversations.

This transformation does not imply that BPO companies will go out of business, but it does underscore a compelling need to shift the operations and competencies in areas where business services will provide value to the customers. This include

- Investing in building competencies around specialized areas and domains
- Building up analytics practice, since cost of manpower will not be a driving factor as the volume of people needed to run back office will scale down significantly
- Making a sense of how web, 3G and new technologies and trends are impacting customer/consumer behavior and building service offerings around those

This will not happen in bottoms up approach but the management and leadership of the companies would have to have a sense of "market trajectory" and where it is headed and stay ahead of the curve.

Difference between a strategic and reactionary approach will be that of a leader to a laggard!